Hanging From A Tree

The brilliantly named Hanger Network supply EcoHangersâ„¢ which are dry-cleaner hangers made from 100% recycled paper. They in turn are fully recyclable.

Apparently 3.5 billion wire hangers are thrown away every year, which is a hell of a lot. They’re not just environmentally friendly though, they carry advertising.

This means they can be supplied free to dry cleaners, whilst apparently wire ones cost about $0.08 each, so they make sense business wise as well.

Originally found via Springwise.

Customer Service at it’s Finest

Whilst I’m sure everyone has a fantastic story to tell (and please do) about customer service, this happened to me last week. For many a long year I have received my internet connection from Orange. Of course they were originally called Freeserve and didn’t have offshore call centres and the same name as a fruit and a colour.

Soon after paying per minute for dial-up, they offered a fixed rate (Anytime) package. Then Wanadoo came along bought them up and brought me broadband. Then they rebranded to their parent company Orange, and despite this I continued happily paying my coppers for an excellent service.

Recently I bought Sky+ and with the launch of their broadband offer I thought I’d switch. Orange were very helpful, and informed me they don’t give refunds for cancellation part way through a month. Eh? I have to pay for a service I don’t want, despite giving my required 30 days notice? Apparently so, it’s may fault for not cancelling on my billing date. Anyway, too tired to argue I carried on. A couple of days before my contract expired, I received the expected “retention” phone call from Orange.

Firstly I was amazed to be speaking to someone based in the UK. I have no issue at all with offshore call centres except a) I always think a company selling a product in a country should be brave enough to employ some of it’s workforce, and b) when going off script, an offshore operator, who’s first language is not English, has immense trouble understanding what an emmersion heater or flange is, for example. To that matter, so do I….

Anyway, the conversation then proceeded along these lines:

Orange: Which package are you currently on?
Me: Er, you called me, so don’t you know?
Orange: Is it the £19.99 package?
Me: No, it’s £17.99 a month, 8Mbps, 20GB limit package.
Orange: Can I ask who you are switching to?
Me: Sky.
Orange: And what have they offered you?
Me: I think I’ll be switching to the £5 per month, 8Mbps, 40GB limit package.
Orange: OK, well we have a special retention package that is not available to regular customers, but as you’ve been a valuable customer then we wish to keep you.
Me: Sounds good.
Orange: Would you be interested in our £12.99 a month, 2Mbps package?
Me: Pardon?
Orange: Would you be interested in our £12.99 a month, 2Mbps package?
Me: Why would I be? It’s over twice the price for a worse service.
Orange: Well if you ever want to come back to us then then please let us know.
Me: Is that it? Hello? Hello….?

Bizarre. They could have kept my business, and whilst not make a huge profit on me, a small profit is better than no profit at all. If you owned a business and someone who worked for you did that, I’d be very annoyed, wouldn’t you?

Who is Rainham Steel?

Every time I watch a Premiership football match, I see adverts for Rainham Steel. It’s become an obsession of mine. Why would a steel company advertise there? Do they think a lot of people watching are interested in buying some steel. “When I think of steel, I think of Rainham Steel”, or something.

The advertising boards are predominantly behind the goal in a position so the camera’s pick them up. All of a sudden they’re everywhere and in my brain - help! Advertising works!

So I looked them up and:

Welcome to Rainham Steel Online, the website of the UK’s leading stockist of structural sections, hollow sections, reinforcement and piling products.

Rainham Steel currently supply to a diverse range of industries including, steel stockholders, structural engineers, steel fabricators, construction companies, civil engineers, house builders, groundwork contractors and aggregate suppliers.

So that’s that really. Mystery solved. They do steel, stadiums are made out of steel and err they advertise at those stadiums.

I feel slightly let down.

An explosion of colour

A recent Sony advert for it’s Bravia TV sets saw the Toryglen housing estate in Glasgow get covered in paint. Quite a lot of paint to be fair. Brilliant.

You can see the video in high resolution here, or watch it on YouTube below.

You can read more about it from the BBC here. Watch a bystander clip below too.

The video was directed by Jonathan Glazer (who also directed the awesome Virtual Insanity video for Jamiroquai), and it took 250 people 10 days to film. It also took 60 people 5 days to clean up the mess afterwards.

Source: http://www.googlesightseeing.com/

p-p-p pick up a picture

The man who designed the style of Penguin books died in September, and the Design Museum in London is holding an exhibition of his work. Alan Fletcher: fifty years of graphic work (and play) is being held between 11 November and 18 February.Â

Alan Fletcher is one of the most influential figures in post-war British graphic design. The fusion of the cerebral European tradition with North America’s emerging pop culture in the formulation of his distinct approach made him a pioneer of independent graphic design in Britain during the late 1950s and 1960s. As a founding partner of Pentagram in the 1970s, Fletcher helped to establish a model of combining commercial partnership with creative independence. He also developed some of the most memorable graphic schemes of the era, notably the identities of Reuters and the Victoria & Albert Museum, and made his mark on book design as creative director of Phaidon.Â

Check out his designs for Pirelli and the V&A here or better still, go along.

Lied to by inanimate objects

Yesterday I was lied to by an inaminate object. In fact, it’s being lying to me for weeks. Shower Shine could be seen (nay, heard) mocking me as I scrubbed the mould off the bathroom tiles.

“Never scrub again!” the bottle exclaims in larger than necessary letters (although those with conjunctivitis would be grateful). Well I beg to differ. I’ve even tried adjusting the distance I spray the liquid from (like it would make a difference), although 18cm is pretty hard to judge without a tape measure.

And this may shock you, but it’s not the first time I’ve been lied to by a non-living entity.

Marketing people are, by their very nature, relaxed with the truth. From fake movie critics to the shaving foam that will banish razor burn forever, and the websites that will organise your life, we are constantly bombarded with claims of how wonderful/better/more efficient our life would be with this wonderful product. It’s has been a trademark of the shoddy and dishonest for many a long year, however with the advent of high-speed internet, e-mail spam and websites to flog a product, the snake-oil salesmen are having a field day. I include Shower Shine in that category, though if someone from the company wishes to come round and demonstrate that it actually does work they’re more than welcome. They can demonstrate the carpet stain remover whilst they’re at it (80cm spray distance that results in covering an area 6 times larger than you wish).

This poses a problem for some traditional marketeers - how to compete. Hence “Never scrub again!” sounds a lot more sexy than “Don’t scrub quite as often”. Recommendations welcome….