Impressive Paintings by a Six-Year-Old Boy

Six-year-old Kieron went on holiday to Devon and Cornwall with his family. Not a particularly remarkable story, you may think. But while he was there, he picked up a paintbrush and produced this:

Damn impressive.

Google Analytics - Hours and Hours of Fun

Well, minutes and minutes. Topping the list of search terms directing people to my blogs recently:

The Daily Blast - 'international cup of tea day', 'cheese grater app', 'golden pencil', 'signing off an email', 'taxi lewis hamilton kovaleinen', 'the real hair boutique'

This one - 'international cup of tea day', 'cars faster than the mclaren f1', 'hurricane tree photo', and my personal favourite: 'what small furry animals live in the woods'

Studdying - 'tattoo fail', unsurprisingly enough

Beyond Human Nature - 'story of man who use spider to make web in tree for daughter's wedding' - very specific!

Ever Wondered How Motorbikes Are Made?

In response to my earlier post about businessmen pissing, a friend and equal petrolhead posted this video; not that it has much to do with my post, but it was amusing and I thought I'd share it:

In Today's News, Some Businessmen Go To The Toilet

In one of the strangest advertising campaigns I have ever seen (and that's saying something!), Weebiz.com is promoting the launch of its business networking website by showing us all how not to do it:

Have you seen weirder? Where?

International Cup of Tea Day

The last Sunday in July is now International Cup of Tea Day. Whilst coffee is of course my beverage of choice, tea comes a close second; nothing quite beats a nice cup of tea and a sit-down. So go on, celebrate the most passive of holidays! And, if you're feeling sociable, let me know how you take yours. I'm a fairly-strong-with-milk-and-sugar person. Et tu?

Barclaycard Launch Extreme Waterslide iPhone Application

Following the viral success of the now infamous Barclaycard Waterslide ad, which has featured widely on Facebook, Youtube, various blogs and countless other places on the interweb, Barclaycard decided they'd couple it with another hugely popular medium: the iPhone. Now you can have a Barclaycard Waterslide all of your own, and slide all the way home instead of your boring commute (or pretend to, anyway). Just don't blame me if you get strange looks from your fellow commuters.

Various Examples of Marketing Fails

As a freelance translator, these examples are nightmare-fodder for my brain; but so far I don't think I've made any terrible errors (touch wood). Here are some of the best marketing failures:

In an American campaign for Electrolux, people were surprised to see the slogan: 'Nothing sucks like an Electrolux'.

When Coors' slogan 'turn it loose' was translated into Spanish, it suddenly became 'Suffer from diarrhoea'.

Clairol released the 'Mist Stick' curling iron in Germany, only to discover afterwards that 'Mist' is German slang for manure.

Pepsi's campaign slogan 'Come alive with the Pepsi Generation' ended up as 'Pepsi brings your ancestors back from the grave' in Chinese.

Coca-Cola's name in Chinese was first read as 'Ke-kou-ke-la', meaning one of two things, depending on inflection: either 'Bite the wax tadpole', or 'Female horse stuffed with wax'. Coca-Cola then decided to research more thoroughly; and eventually settled on 'Ko-kou-ko-le', which translates as 'Happiness in the mouth.'

Pen company Parkers advertised a ballpoint pen in Mexico, using a slogan that was supposed to read 'It won't leak in your pocket and embarrass you'. Unfortunately, Parkers believed that the word 'embarazar' means embarrass. It doesn't. It means impregnate. Final slogan? 'It won't leak in your pocket and make you pregnant'.

A slogan for Frank Perdue's chicken - 'It takes a strong man to make a tender chicken' - when translated into Spanish, became 'It takes an aroused man to make a chicken affectionate'.

Cake or Death?

I have a friend staying with me at the moment, which is fantastic fun, and she has just introduced me to Eddie Izzard's 'Cake or Death?', and various other hilarious things are now popping up on the screen in front of me, courtesy of Friend. It shall be a good evening, I can tell.

Webtel.mobi Competition Winners

Webtel.mobi has recently run a competition in conjunction with Zooppa, in which people were asked to create a viral video for Webtel. It went pretty well, and here are the winners, some of which are absolutely hilarious. I'll leave it up to you to decide which you prefer

"PC Gone Wrong?"

The other day, on the train home from work, I found a newspaper with the heading 'Police to get eight extra days off for Witchcraft'. Intrigued, I took a look, and discovered that Pagan police are now allowed eight days off for their major festivals: Yule, Imbolc, Ostara, Beltane, Litha, Lughnasadh, Mabon and Samhain. The tone of the article was, sadly, quite negative. Besides implying that all Pagans are Witches, it implied that Paganism is not a 'real' religion and should not have the same rights as others.

A letter to the paper the following day stated that this is 'PC gone wrong'. Assuming they mean 'political correctness' rather than 'police constable' (though they probably mean both), one has to ask why. Why is it PC gone wrong? Because it's not your religion? You don't want Christmas? I know many Pagans who would be happy to work Christmas Day if they have the 21st off. Surely that's a good thing, even for the small-minded idiots who don't want to allow them their holidays?

Just as there are Pagan Witches, there are many who profess to be Christian Witches. This works because, contrary to unbelievably popular belief, witches do not fly around on broomsticks, turn people into toads and curse people. They live in harmony with nature and are often healers or practitioners of herbcraft. If, however, Muslims had just been allowed to take time of for Eid, or Jews for Hanukah, or any religion other than Paganism for any holiday, the paper's headline would have been villified everywhere as an example of discrimination, as would the tone of the article.

Think before you speak, people: just because you don't happen to believe in something, it doesn't mean others don't.