Blog of Interestingness

I’m sure you’ve all come across the story of the Balloon Boy – where a young boy allegedly floated away in a home-made helium balloon only to be found safe in an attic a few hours later. The unexpected denouement was that it was all a hoax.

In the video below, the delightful Rocketboomers show how the story escalated into a media sensation and earned its place in internet folklore (all in the space of a few hours).

Sit back and enjoy a few minutes of internet culture.

I recently attended a workshop at the IPA about their Behavioural Economics plans. Very interesting it was too, mulling over the potential benefits, drawbacks and impact on structure and nature of agencies etc.

The other day Dave Trott wrote a thought-provoking post which included some fine example of smart promotions carried about by Absolut FM. And this got me thinking…

One of the potential benefits of implementing Behavioural Economics thinking is to improve the nature of the offers and incentives we use to change behaviour. If we’re better at understanding what drives behaviour then we can “nudge” people in the required direction more effectively.

Here’s something I spotted outside the Gym Box on St. Martin’s Lane.

The text at the bottom reads:
“Thrashing the Competition. For this month only, if you are a member of another gym, you can use and abuse us for FREE. Enquire within.”

Now this is pretty smart. Everyone knows there’s masses of guilt on our high streets through under-usage or non-usage of gym memberships, so this provides an extra opportunity to assuage the guilt. Simple, yet I’m willing to bet it’s effective. Odd that the offer is not mentioned on their website though.

Another spot from my trip to NY… on a wall between the sublime Spice Market and the très chic Pastis in the achingly hip Meatpacking District I found a few Banksy-esque bits of graffiti.

They’re basically pasted up images with a touch of paint dabbed on after. A spot of googling has identified the artist as a certain Mr Brainwash. Lots more images here at Satori’s photostream on Flickr.

Interesting, but highly derivative?

I spotted this charming way to announce the arrival of a new restaurant on a recent trip to New York. (It was somewhere around the bottom end of Hudson Street).

Turns out to be for an organic pizza experience, Slice Perfect.