Putting the 'happy' back into content
Bobby McFerrin is best remembered in the UK for his No.2 single in the 80s, Don’t Worry, Be Happy.
However, he’s no novelty act and is widely regarded as an extraordinary performer whose work truly crosses genres.
Came across this cracking video of him performing at a US music college, McNally Smith. Just fantastic!
Rewind 30 years and an urban fox was a bit of rarity. When I was a kid, foxes were still almost mythical – a reddy-orange beast with a tail called a brush, known more for their appearance in Roald Dahl’s Fantastic Mr Fox or on TV with Mr Roy than in our back gardens.
Fast forward to the early 21st century and if you don’t see a fox at least once a month, you’re obviously walking around with your eyes closed. They’re everywhere.
None more so than late at night when they indulge in a spot of recreational behaviour – mating. If you type ‘mating foxes‘ into Google, there are more than 500 different results, including videos (hmm!) and the mating call.
Ahh, the mating call – now that’s something we’re far too well-acquainted with since moving to the coast. At least once a week, we’re woken at around 1.30am with the call of the wild.
It’s a sort of screech, a high-pitched yowl that lasts upwards of 10 minutes. The windows get shut, but can’t completely drown out the yelping that must wake up the entire neighbourhood and not just our bedroom.
I’ve a good mind to dig out my 12-bore like Boggis and Bunce in the aforementioned FMF, but that would wake me up even more.
As it is, I’ll have to make do with pulling the pillow over my head and hoping I can drift off and ignore the local vulpine nocturnal activities.
There’s been much talk in newspapers recently about the new Firefly mobile phone that’s being aimed at 4-year-olds!
Naturally the middle market is outraged that such young children are being targeted with such propaganda, but the Firefly phone has been on sale in the US for a number of years.
I spoke at a Marketing Conference 4 years ago alongside the US marketing manager for Firefly phones. He explained how they had promoted the phones and the efforts they’d gone to to ensure healthy sales and a good brand image.
Now this all sounds very dull, until you discover that the age range that Firefly targeted in the US was around 4 years older.
You see, the mobile phone market in the US has always lagged behind that of the UK and consequently, Firefly’s market in America was somewhere around 8-11-year-olds, rather than the 4-7-year-olds it seems to be targeting in the UK.
Yup, American kids aren’t anywhere near as cell-savvy as UK children, apparently, so they don’t need one until they’re much older.
If the marketing tactics they employed in the US are anywhere near as effective in the UK, I expect to see a whole raft of Firefly phones sold – can’t say I’ll be getting one for my girls, though!