The Lynx Effect

I work in Marketing. I get that male orientated health and beauty products need to be aspirational. Hence Gillette have the Mach3 and the Stealth and the Turbo.

Lynx are normally good at coming up with these names. Phoenix. Dark Temptation. Impulse. They're names with numerous connotations.

And then there's "Music Star".

I get that being a famous musician is aspirational to a lot of young men, in the same way that being a film star or a footballer might be. But is that the something you want to associate with a body spray?

I know musicians. When they've been on stage performing, they're hot, sweaty and sticky. There's nothing wrong with this, and God knows I'd be drenched in sweat if I'd've been performing on a hot stage for an hour. But does that have the right implications for a deoderant?

Maybe it's just me, but when I put on deoderant after I shower I want to associate it with:
- Not sweating
- Smelling nice

Maybe I'm wrong, but "Music Star" just sounds like the byproduct of a lazy marketing meeting.

"OK, guys, we need a new name. Something like Spartan or Warrior but not as obvious. What do kids want to be these days?"
"Err...music stars?"
"Screw it, that'll do."

Seriously, bad, bad name.

Just saying.

Yo get some of this, Knuckle up, Uppercut

I watched "Knucklehead" the other night, part through boredom and partly because I was interested to see if WWE films would be able to produce a film that wasn't primarily action. This was a comedy featuring Paul "Big Show" Wight, and the answer is, yes they can make a film that isn't action, but not very well.

The main problem was that it was too disjointed - the comedy cut away too quickly rather than revelling in the comedic moments. The Big Show was likeable as a gentle giant, but is so big it's difficult to think of him being intimidated by anyone. The real highlight was the ever likeable Wendie Malick as the Mother Superior running the orphanage that Big Show accidentally burns down. 

It's a shame really, as I wanted it to be good.

I was trying to think of a clever pun on "Knucklehead" for the title, but it brought me back to the ill-fated nineties chart attempt by then boxer Prince Naseem Hamed. 

Yeah, that happened, don't try and pretend it didn't.   

It's the end of the world as we know it

Forget the riots in London, forget the fact that mother nature is turning on us, and forget the fact that the world economy is in turmoil. The true sign that we're facing the end of days came yesterday when Cher Lloyd got to number one.


I'm not going to run through all my problems with her song again, but it's here if you're interested. All I'll say that it's a sad day for British music and I'm sure that it's one of the portents of the apocalypse. Call Sam and Dean Winchester, call Buffy, hell I'd settle for someone calling Torchwood if it's stop this madness.


Yeats once asked: "And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?" 

Evidently the answer is Cher Lloyd.  

These kids and their music

I heard some people arguing on the train the other day that the music that "kids" listen to these days sucks. I assumed that they didn't watch South Park so the statement was funny only to me. 


What annoyed me, perhaps more than it should have, is that they were my age. I admit I'm set in my ways somewhat musically, and I don't really understand what a Tinchy Stryder is, but I do try to at least follow some of what's going on in the charts.


Now I'm not saying that every song that gets played on Capital is a hit, and that certainly doesn't apply to Kiss100 (London reference), but I don't think you can pigeon-hole an entire generation of music as "crap".


What's worse is hearing this broad generalisation from people in the 23 - 33 bracket. Some of the songs I listened to when I was a teenager were awful. Anyone remember Oxide and Neutrino? As a generation, we put a garage version of the Casualty theme at the top of the charts.


The next time I hear someone my age whining about music nowadays, I'm going to play them Billie Piper's "Cos we want to"  and effectively end their argument right there.