Thank you for visiting our 4D blog. Here you’ll find thoughts and comments from our global colleagues about the digital world. From a campaign that inspires us to how we see the digital world changing to a new gadget we just love, you’ll find it here!

Archive for August, 2007

Guinness spins a good yarn

There are lots of corporate blogs out there that are just too, well…corporate. Guinness’ blog is a great example of how to do it well: don’t just give us boring product news, don’t just tell us about the latest promotion you’re trying to pimp. It’s (relatively) frequently updated with interesting tidbits and information that would be otherwise impossible to come by. We like.

Posted August 7, 2007 5:30 pm by Alex Horner 0 Comments

Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: ,,

Paranoid Boy sets the internet on fire

Allow us if you will to blow our own trumpet. Our latest work for the Department for Communities and Local Government is up and away on YouTube. Every 3 days someone is killed by a fire caused by smoking materials. It’s a regrettable fact, but most of these deaths are preventable. Smokers can take simple steps to stop fires happening in the first place. Our objective for this video was to raise awareness of the dangers of not putting cigarettes right out and the potential risk of causing fires in the home.

Posted August 6, 2007 4:43 pm by Alex Horner 0 Comments

Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags:

Debunking third-world myths with the best stats you’ve ever seen

You’ve never seen data presented like this. With the drama and urgency of a sportscaster, Hans Rosling debunks myths about the so-called “developing world” using extraordinary animation software developed by his Gapminder Foundation. View the TED TALK video.

Posted August 3, 2007 8:23 am by David Brown 0 Comments

Filed under: Trends | Tags:

Forget Nike, Puma + did it way back

These Puma running shoes were affixed with pedometer computers that could be reset and would count up time and distance that could be then downloaded to the game port on

Posted August 3, 2007 8:21 am by David Brown 0 Comments

Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: ,

Darlie toothpaste teaches us an interesting lesson

These days, barely a week passes without a tabloid declaring a political decision an example of ‘political correctness gone mad’. Rewind a few years though and some shocking examples of racism in marketing emerge. The toothpaste brand Darkie from Hong Kong is a case in point. Playing on the blackface stereotype popular until somtime in the 1950s, the truly shocking element of this product was that the packaging wasn’t altered (see right hand pack shot) until 1985 when Colgate purchased the manafacturers. Apparently, in Chinese the name translates to ‘Black man toothpaste’ but the phrasing is such that it is considered inoffensive. An interesting, if slightly disturbing example of the appreciation we need to garner for the nuances inherent in overseas markets.

Posted August 1, 2007 5:02 pm by Alex Horner 1 Comment

Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: