According to the Wet Wet Wet song of old and re-instated by the film Love Actually “love is all around”. Looking around is appears this is true.  There seem to be lots of naturally occurring love hearts around us.

• Spiders web – so intricate its amazing

• Super spikey cactus

• Rocks under a waterfall

• How cute – a puppy with a heart on its back

• Heart shaped leaves – cute

• This must be the ultimate natural love heart – an island!

There are also quite a few manmade hearts that we think deserve a mention;

• This street is just beautiful

• Heart shaped egg – kind of funny

• Sunglasses

• This is the sweetest love heart picture of them all – aw

There’s been a lot of talk lately of brands using Facebook as THE platform for decision-making about their products. This week we read that Bobbi Brown are to use the social network to let its fans determine which discontinued shades of lip colour the company will put back into production later in the year.  The cosmetics brand clearly sees this campaign as a way to engage with its customer base and allow them to purchase an exclusive item which, ultimately, they will have been instrumental in resurrecting.

This is not the first (or last) time that Facebook has been used in this way. Recently Kellogg’s Krave asked their fans to vote as to which new flavour of the breakfast cereal they should develop and produce. The entire vote was ran from the Facebook page, which now has a whopping 181,463 fans.  It was complemented by website and Twitter activity and generated a huge buzz. (If you were wondering, Chocolate Caramel won!)

This kind of thing seems to be taking off massively. Kit Kat are currently doing something similar with their Chunky Champion campaign, namely allowing the new flavour to be determined by Facebook users. Marmite used a combination of Twitter, an army of bloggers and a secret Facebook group to help launch their Marmite XO (Extra Strong) product.  Those involved not only helped with taste tests and packaging, but were also recruited to generate a massive buzz around the launch. Obviously the ultimate aim in all of this is to gain new “fans”, while having a bit of fun and interaction at the same time.

So it got us thinking here at Admast Towers, what would we let Facebook decide? Here are a few of our silly suggestions:

a) What to have for tea tonight

b) Who should be Prime Minister

c) Who should be “Top of the Pops”

d) Whether to drink or to drive

e) Whether to accept a marriage proposal

f) Whether to take that new job

g) Whether to tell the boss what you really think of him/her

h) Whether to spend that windfall on a new handbag or be sensible and save it

i) Whether to have water and a salad or coffee and a big wedge of cake for lunch

j) Whether to shave all your hair off and start again

What would you let Facebook decide?

Today, the 3rd January, is the first day back to work for the majority of us. The thought of dragging yourself out of your warm cosy bed when it is still dark outside is hard enough at the best of times but after a week or so of lie ins and general lounging around it is an almost impossible task.

Here at Admast we have been wondering just how many “sickie” phone calls have been made this morning?!! And what excuses have been used? Here are our top “Week After Christmas” Sickie Excuses:

1. Food poisoning
Despite having had a week of over-indulgence; turkey, cheese, mince pies, party bites, beer, cocktails, wine etc, somehow last night you ate something that has now resulted in a dodgy tummy and violent throwing up.
You have never felt this bad!

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2. Migraine 
As above, despite pushing your liver to the limits (and possibly waking up every morning with a throbbing head) this morning you have the migraine from hell. You can’t even bear to open your eyes and want it to be dark all day long.

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3. Someone has died
Your dear Aunt Edith who you were so so close to has passed away and you are simply inconsolable. You didn’t even have the joy of spending Christmas with her and need a day off to grieve.

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4. The boiler has broken
You only found out this morning when you got into a cold shower. You have called the “boiler people” and they have said they will be at your house between 9-5.30 which is just so annoying!

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5. Your dog is dying and needs to go to the vets
Your poor mutt has been wining and barking all night and you simply must take him to the vets as you fear for his life. Unfortunately, the vets don’t operate an appointment system so you must get there asap and will probably not be seen until at least 4.30pm.

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6. You have lost your voice
You had to text in obviously! It’s all very strange and you have no idea how you have lost your voice but you can’t possibly do your job without it.

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7. You have flu
You are on your death-bed! This is NOT cold, this is flu. You may not make it out the other side. You will be in touch.

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As the festive season is almost upon us and the annual onslaught of Christmas parties is around the corner, we thought we’d be really nice and suggest a few measures to avoid or eradicate hellish hangovers! There’s nothing worse than a mid-week Christmas bash which leaves you battling to get through the rest of the week in a slightly fragile state. As we like a tipple here at Admast, between us we could think of quite a few remedies to help with such over-indulgences, and have researched a few more for good measure.

1) The obvious starting point would be good old PAINKILLERS! And a great tip from the top – taking these before you go to bed works even better than taking them the next day. NB this obviously is dependent on being in a sober enough state to remember to do this before you stagger into your pit.

2) Milk thistle is another lifesaver – despite being around for over 2,000 years and used in the treatment of liver disease and toxins, it can still help the occasional boozer in their quest to avoid a hangover. It tastes pretty vile but, if taken before and after a good sesh on the drink, it seems to perform miracles.

3) If these preventative measures don’t work then reactive measures should then be applied! The first suggestion is a massive and concerted intake of carbohydrate and protein in the form of either a) a fry up b) a bacon sarnie c) a pie d) a Macdonalds (even early in the day) or e) anything from Greggs. All should be washed down with full fat coke.

4) Hair of the dog is always a winner – after a couple more drinks the pain of a hangover seems to ease and is a long distant memory after drink no 5 or 6. Bloody Mary’s are meant to be particularly adept at blowing the cobwebs away.

5) A more healthy approach would be to eat a banana as they contain lots of potassium but this is not remotely as much fun as points (3) or (4) above! Our Designer suggested having this with honey on toast to boost sugar levels too.

6) A good/long sleep is also a winner, but after office parties this is often not an option unless you can find a cosy sofa tucked away from the boss’s office.

7) Our IT Manager’s top tip is a good old can of Irn Bru!

8)One of personal favourites is a good old spicy curry to sweat out the toxins and generally just make you feel better for the 20 minutes it takes to eat it.

9) A radical suggestion from our Designer here at Admast was to take part in quite vigorous exercise but I personally can’t think of anything worse!

10) One final suggestion which is pretty obvious (but NO fun!) is, of course, to simply not drink in the first place. DULL DULL DULL!

Happy partying everyone!

In an age where we have a sensory overload of things to do in our precious spare time, you have to wonder how the good old book has stood the test of time. Its very apparent that everyone here at Admast likes to read as we all found it difficult to pick our “favourite book of all time”.

Amongst our favourites were:
1. To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee

2. Making History – Stephen Fry

3. Caves of Steel – Isaac Asimor

4.  Marching Powder – Rusty Lee

5. The Jack Reacher Series – Lee Child

Interestingly amongst our least favourites were:

1. The Time Traveller’s Wife – Audrey Niffenegger
2. The Lord of the Rings – JRR Tolkien
3. War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy
4. Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte

Yet these books are on the Top 100 list of best books! It was interesting to look at the Top 100 list and see just how many of these books we had read. Looking at the list it seems that a large percentage of these books have been adapted into either a TV series or a film. Here are the percentages from the list that we at Admast have read and watched.

From this graph it seems that despite everything the “good old book” is standing the test of time!

Yesterday we read that the latest Prada ad featuring the True Grit star Hailee Steinfeld has been banned by the ASA.  The ad features the model sitting on train tracks and has been deemed to show a child in an unsafe location.

Prada ad

It got us thinking here at Admast Towers as to other campaigns which have been controversial in nature or even banned in the past. Here are a selection of the most sensational below:

1 – Very recently the internet ad campaign for Lynx deodorant, featuring model and reality TV star Lucy Pinder in a series of provocative poses, has been banned for a range of offences including objectifying women. Unilever claimed that the online ads showing Pinder doing various things like getting dressed and eating whipped cream off her finger wearing cleavage revealing outfits, featuring the strapline “What will she do to make you lose control” was not degrading to women as she was shown as “confident and in control.” However, the Advertising Standards Authority concluded that the five internet adverts and a poster “were likely to cause serious or widespread offence”.

2 – Benetton is renowned for creating controversial ads which have certainly generated lots of buzz of the years (some of which were then banned).  Here are our favourites:

3 – French Connection caused a real stir in 1997 when the FCUK campaign launched – here is a pretty tame example of how this controversial acronym was used in their marketing:

4 – Last year’s John Lewis TV ad  attracted complaints about irresponsible pet ownership. The advert showed a boy hanging up a Christmas stocking on an outdoor kennel, but then leaving his dog in the wind and snow.  The ASA disagreed, and felt the ad did not endorse or encourage animal cruelty or neglect.

5 – Kylie Minogue’s advertisement for lingerie firm Agent Provocateur, in which she rides a mechanical bull, was created specifically for cinema and banned from being shown on television. It is particularly raunchy!

6 – An NHS anti-smoking campaign which featured a man being dragged to a shop by a fish hook piercing his cheek was also particularly disturbing and was later banned by the ASA. It’s certainly not for the faint-hearted!

7 – Tom Ford certainly pushed the boundaries with this ad for his men’s fragrance -

8 – And who can forget this YSL advertisement which shows a nude Sophie Dahl sprawled in quite a suggestive pose.  It was subsequently banned from U.K. billboards.

As winter approaches many men around us are taking part in Movember. For those of you not fully aware of Movember, it started in Australia in 2003. Essentially men begin the month of  November clean shaven with the intention of growing a big fat moustache for the rest of the month. The growing of a moustache is to help raise awareness and funds for research into men’s health, in particular prostate cancer and other cancers that affect men.

According to the Movember website, about 450,000 men officially signed up worldwide for Movember last year and raised approximately £50.4 million. In total, since its inception, Movember efforts have brought in roughly £108 million which is pretty amazing stuff.

2010 United Kingdom Campaign
The UK campaign raised £10.3 million in 2010. The funds raised went directly to The Prostate Cancer Charity (TPCC) who funded the campaign costs and managed the monetary investment in to prostate cancer programs. The chart below shows how these funds are applied:

Source: Movember.com

Our own team member Richie is taking part in Movember. He did it last year so we can expect great things from him again this year.

Day 1 – clean shaven

Day 7 – a hint of a tache there

Day 9 – baby moustache

Day 10 – starting to take “shape”

Movember has got us thinking about men with AMAZING moustaches. Here are just a few…

There is also loads of really cool Movember memorabilia about at the moment, so even if you can’t grow a moustache you can have some moustache merchandise!

If you would like to support Movember, just click on this link

http://uk.movember.com/get-involved/

Admast have also teamed up with fragrance specialists Penhaligon’s who are promoting Movember with their “Pop up Barbershop”.

Penhaligon’s is an English perfume house, founded in the late 1860s by William Henry Penhaligon and is firmly established as a purveyor of fine fragrances and luxury gifts.

For the second year running, Penhaligon’s is joining forces with Movember to raise awareness and funds for men’s health charities in the UK.

It’s been over 140 years since the doors of Penhaligon’s first barbershop opened on Jermyn Street and now exclusively for Movember they are bringing back their gentleman’s shaving service. For one month only Mo Bros will be able to experience a complimentary Mo Trim at their flagship boutique in London’s Covent Garden.

So if you are in the London area and taking part in Movember pop into Penhaligon’s at 41 Wellington Street, London, WC2E 7BN.

To book online visit: www.penhaligons.com/shop/movember or call 0203 040 6120

Throughout November, Penhaligon’s will also be donating 20% of sales of their shaving products, both online and in their UK boutiques, directly to Movember.

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Since its launch (to much speculation) in 2010, the Apple iPad has become the latest ‘must have’ gadget. Based on the very same operating system that powers the iPhone and iPod touch devices, the iPad is a touch-screen tablet computer that lets users do all sorts of things – from writing articles to doing their weekly shopping. It really has become the gadget all-rounder, giving people their choice of thousands of apps. Many of the apps are made for iPhone are also compatible with iPad, so there’s a huge crossover of utilities, tools, and games. And of course there are plenty of iPad-specific apps too. So whether you need to order some moving boxes for an upcoming house move, or you want to read the latest bestseller, the iPad is a great choice.

The Evolution of Apple Products

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Due to Apple’s ever-increasing development cycle, new devices are being released every single year, which is why there have now been two versions of the iPad (the latest incarnation having being released in early 2011). As expected, it was faster and thinner than its predecessor, and (of course) sold like hot cakes. So, by extension, we should be able to expect the iPad 3 within the first few months of 2012 – but what will it offer users that they haven’t already got? And, perhaps more importantly, will the device have the same success now that Steve Jobs has stepped down as CEO of Apple?

Better, faster, stronger

This is a concept design of what the iPad 3 could look like:

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As a rule of thumb, we can rely on Apple to follow a similar formula for each of their product launches. That means that the iPad 3 will likely be thinner and faster than the iPad 2. The device already has dual cameras, so the next one will likely retain this future. So how can Apple better the second version, and what innovations can they include that will make people want to line up outside the Apple Store at midnight to get their hands on it?

A screen with twice the resolution of the current iPad 2 device?

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Well, according to rumours, the iPad 3 will include ‘contactless’ payment technology. It may sound completely bizarre, but industry insiders have it on good authority that Apple will include this contactless tech in the iPad 3 (though in saying that, it was also supposed to feature in the iPhone 5, but this didn’t surface in the recent 4s). In a nutshell, it will allow users to tie their device to an online ‘wallet’, and let them use contactless payment simply by swiping their device rather than a card. Yes, it sounds crazy – but knowing Apple, they’ll probably pull it off. The iPad 3 will also most likely have a higher resolution screen to give even sharper graphics. Some people have even suggested that the new iPad will change its form-factor and become more ‘widescreen’ with a 9.7 inch display. Time will tell!

iOS 5.0

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Every year Apple also releases a new version of their iOS operating system, and 2011 is no exception. iOS 5 has only been out for about a week at the time of writing, and so far the reception has been positive.

We can safely assume, then, that the iPad 3 will also use this OS. Probably the key benefit here is its slicker performance – a barely noticeable improvement when applied to the iPhone, but something developers and hardcore gamers/designers may relish in its bigger brother.

Apple Without Steve?

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Even Apple’s most staunch critics paid their dues to Steve Jobs following his untimely demise. The question not far from people’s minds is, however, whether Apple will continue to dominate the market without Jobs at the helm? By extension, is another iPad release likely to be as successful as previous incarnations?

The answer to this is, very likely, yes.

Apple has now become a leviathan that almost no other company can touch. Steve Jobs had an invaluable role in achieving this status, but now the business almost takes care of itself. The next in line, Paul Cook, will now announce all of the latest devices, and there’s no doubt that he will do a good job of getting people excited and enthusiastic about the next generation of the Apple iPad.

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So can anyone stop Apple’s apparent world domination? Well, at this stage it seems that they’re just getting started – and the iPad 3 is the next step now that the iPhone 4s has surfaced. But is that really such a bad thing? Their products bring joy to millions of people across the world, let us have face-to-face conversations with our nearest and dearest, and have given us access to our favourite music for years. Perhaps one day someone will challenge the crown, but for now we can all keep holding our breath to find out what their next ‘big thing’ is going to be.

- Guest Author, Dee.

On Wednesday 7th October 2011, the world lost a true visionary. An extraordinary inventor who truly made significant changes in the world of technology and communication as we know it. Sadly, Steve Jobs lost his long running battle with pancreatic cancer and much of the world reacted with instant outpourings of love and appreciation. It’s far to say that it becomes official that a man has made a big difference during his time on earth when the American President pays homage to him. The day he passed, Barrack Obama said that, “Steve was among the greatest of American innovators – brave enough to think differently, bold enough to believe he could change the world, and talented enough to do it”. I think it’s fair to say that not too many people often receive public acknowledgement from the president himself, in life or death.

If you are one of the few people today who aren’t sure who the hell Steve Jobs is, you will certainly be unknowingly aware of his work. You may not personally own an iPhone, iPod or an iPad but you will know someone close to you who does. Yes, Steve Jobs was the co-founder, chairman and CEO of Apple Inc.

Apple tribute. Source.

When I logged on to my computer at work last Wednesday, I immediately saw this touching tribute to him from the company he had progressed so much, especially over the last few years. So simple and so elegant, I think it says thank you to him brilliantly. I also experienced the majority of people on my networks updating their statuses via Twitter, Facebook and Google+ about how they were saddened by the loss of a great man and may he rest in peace. There was no denying the fact that Steve Jobs was loved. Bill Gates seemed to sum everything up perfectly when he said, “There may be no greater tribute to Steve’s success than the fact that much of the world learned of his passing on a device he invented”.

As I kept up to date with the story that day via Twitter, it was not too long until I noticed things like “The Worst Steve Jobs Tributes” and “Who the hell is Steve Jobs” filling up my screen. Ok, clearly some people weren’t to instantly know who he was but it annoyed me slightly. I think my annoyance stemmed from the fact that over the next few days the tributes didn’t slow, in fact, more seemed to appear. But this time they weren’t just status updates. They were pieces of work which people had spent time over and some of them were truly beautiful. Yet, they were getting disguised somewhat in the shade of “10 stupid tweets that were made the day Steve Died”. So here I am bringing you the five most beautiful Steve Jobs’ tributes. Let’s celebrate a revolutionary man whose fans adored him.

Charis Tsevis

Charis Tsevis is an award winning graphic designer from Athens, Greece. He has accumulated many awards, written many papers and articles and published two books. Yet, he recently grabbed a lot of attention for his interesting tribute art to Steve Jobs. His depictions of Steve have featured everywhere from Forbes Magazine articles to the Huffington Post. The intricate mosaic designs are all constructed using Apple gadgets as materials. Here are some of his designs;

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And a younger Steve…

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Apple Store Post Its & Apples

Companies such as Apple have made it so that our every waking moment seems to evolve around our technologies in this fast digital age. Hence, the rawness and simplicity of this tribute is what makes it so special. Fans could have drawn some amazing iPad designs or come up with some clever technological display but instead, they left their prayers for Steve on Post It notes which were then stuck to the window of an Apple store in Stanford, America. Fans all over the world also scraped and wrote their messages on real apples and laid them outside stores. Students remind us that the simplest form of communication we have is sometimes the most heartfelt.

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Jonathon Mak

Of all the thousands of designs and things sculpted and made across the world in tribute to an extraordinary man, it was 19 year old Jonathon Mak from Hong Kong who was among a small few that really shone and grabbed the spotlight. The simple image had a huge thumbs up from Apple fans who believed the image to really personify Steve. It depicts the infamous Apple logo with his silhouette at the side and has received amazing reviews.

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Google

Google and Apple have had a competitive relationship over the years due to them both operating in the mobile OS space with iOS and Android devices. Hence, one always wants to up the other and ultimately outsell them. However, it was nice to see that Google could instantly put any differences to one side and join in on the tributes. They immediately added the tagline “Steve Jobs, 1955-2011” which could be clicked through to the Apple website where of course they were also honouring him. Page (Google CEO) added, “I am very, very sad to hear the news about Steve. He was a great man with incredible achievements and amazing brilliance.” It seems that even the competitors who rivalled Steve Jobs and his products appreciated what he had achieved. The fact that they were one of the first ones to publicly acknowledge Steve’s passing is what makes it quite beautiful. They could have simply released a statement but they decided to respect him and place it where the world could see.

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How the pair used to be jokingly depicted.

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Macbook Pro Art

Who would have thought that if you were to take a Macbook Pro, disassemble it in to all the individual pieces and put it back together again in another way that you could actually create something quite beautiful. I mean the terms ‘computer’ and ‘pretty’ don’t exactly go together very well. However, the foundry team at Mint Digital managed to achieve just this. By taking a product which is iconic in the Apple timeline and completely accredited to Steve Jobs and turning in to a touching self portrait, many agree that it is the most fitting tribute for such a man. They added the message, “rest in peace Mr. Steve and thank you very very much.”

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