Sunday, May 31, 2009

Idea: A solution to Indian garbage problem.



There are two main problems in India: Poverty and street garbage. Here's a suggestion how one might tackle them:

The Indian government should involve street roaming beggars to help clean the country.



Why not to organize this army of free roaming shudras and pay them few rupees for collecting empty plastic bottles, bags and all sorts of discarded wrappings? It would be much cheaper than hiring special cleaning services and help millions of shudras (untouchables) to earn a small regular income. Say 1 kilo of rubbish for 10 rupees. (So that the next time a beggar approaches me with a stretched out hand, I could point to that rubbish he’s treading on!)

Here’s another point why street begging should be dealt with: begging is a profession in India and is controlled by slum mafia. Often young children are being deliberately mutilated to set them up "professionally".
I was often told by my Indian friends not to encourage this horrible industry by just handing out them money, but rather buy them some food. (Many of them refuse food and demand only money!)

Airports Customs Control + new counter idea

I am finally back to Berlin from my 6 months stay India and Thailand. Herzlich Wilkommen. German customs officers at Berlin Airport are very diligent in following their orders to stop "smugglers" of duty-free goods ... so my persona apparently raised their professional suspicion (not unjustified!) and i was duly stopped.
They quickly uncovered that i had 10 packs of "illegal" cigarettes hidden in my rucksack.

Anyway, the reason I am writing all that is that those charming custom officers (in Tegel Airport they wear rubber gloves all the time even if they don't perform their anal searches!! oh yes, that makes them look even so scary!) inspired a new idea how to bring more duty-free goods through airport customs.... and legally:

Why not to set up a website where "smokers" for a fee can hire "non-smokers" (passengers of the same flight) to carry their "excess" of duty-free cigarettes safely through the customs?



For example, I know that I am going to fly on a certain date from A to B and I want to buy say 60 packs of duty-free cigarettes, I go to a special website, lets say called dutyfreeagentcentral.com, and find 5 passengers on this flight who might be willing to carry 10 packs (the legal amount) of my duty-free load through the airport customs.
Once we pass through the customs control I collect my duty-free ciggs from them and pay say 10€ each "agent" for the service. And everybody is happy (incl. the customs I hope!)

Let's say I know that I am not going to buy any duty-free alcohol, so I can volunteer to be someone's "duty-free agent" as well, carry their excess bottles through and get paid 10€ or smth afterward.
Or, if he/she is not a smoker and carries my ciggs and I carry his/her brandy - then it will be just an exchange of favours with no money involved.

Say there are 200 passengers on the plane with 50/50 ratio of smokers and non-smokers. Here's an opportunity for each non-smoker to earn extra 10€. I think that travelers can volunteer to be "duty-free agents" for any sort of goods sold at duty-free shops (make-up, perfumes, electronics, whatever.)

I also believe that "duty-free agents" website should be a free public service, perhaps sponsored by an alcohol or a tobacco brand?

Saturday, May 30, 2009

Idea for catfood brand

Video: We see an overweight cat being hypnotized and professionally counseled by a pet psychiatrist. The aim of the shrink is to program the cat’s subconscious to eat less food while in a hypnotic trance.

Packshot: smaller tins of catfood (or less fat line)


here's a BBC docu on pet hypnosis as a reference:




Other visual examples:
a really fat cat springs on a ledge of a sofa and it catapults a slim woman who was sitting on the other end of the sofa in the air…or mice pissing on a fat lazy cat, etc.

Idea: The greediest consumers of the world experiment

or Pay-As-Much-As-You-Want International.



It would be interesting to conduct a social experiment that will illustrate levels of higher consumer consciousness in different countries: Who is most greedy and who’s most generous.

In order to do that we shall open a chain of special mini shops in major capitals of the world that will offer popular consumer goods not at fixed prices as usual, but letting the consumer decide how much they should pay for each product.



Each of these “free-pay shops” are given a one-time limited start-up capital, say 50.000€ for renting space and buying the first merchandise. A city with the most commercially successful shop (as a sustainable business) will have the highest percentage of “enlightened” consumers. And visa versa, a city where the shop gets immediately bankrupt – will be hailed as the greediest!



I see this project being transparent, interactive and educational.

Working hours of the shops will be publicly viewed online as daily video episodes, i.e. live footage from the hidden cameras installed in the shops. Online interactive tools will help visitors to discuss, form groups and interact with the shop’s stuff and among each other, i.e. for donations, sponsorship, access to the shop’s balance books, etc.



LONDON vs ATHENS vs MOSCOW vs NEW YORK vs PARIS vs BERLIN vs LIMA vs etc.



The experiment can last a week, a month or a year.

It would be also good to make an educational TV documentary out of it.


The experiment can last a week, a month or a year.


It would be also good to make an educational TV documentary out of it.

Friday, May 29, 2009

Idea: A message from The Economist

Copy: Lose money. Or lose fear.

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Idea: Crowdsourced movie trailers

MyBestMovieBits.com is a place to watch free movies and to mark-in and out your favorite scenes from the movie while watching it. The total length of the clip with the best movie bits is limited to 3 min max, or a length of normal movie trailer.


We can also share our custom made “movie trailers” with friends on Facebook, etc using a special notification widget.

And we can upload our own (off site created) movie clips as well (guideline: only footage from one same film per one clip to be used!)

Note: Users can only proceed to watching the next movie online (for free!) when they published their “personal trailer” for the previously watched movie!

Alternatively , Cinemaxx could be a sponsor and use this idea as a platform to promote its own movies

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Idea to promote a car brand

A reality TV/Web road adventure series which might be called “Lost in a city”. The idea is to drop members of the public in a random city of the world (part of the adventure is to find out where exactly you are!) with just a credit card, mobile phone, video camera and a car… for a limited period of time, say a couple of days or a couple of weeks. The participants would be instructed to arrive at a certain time to a special “pick up” place (which they would have to find out!) from where they would be taken back to their homes. A series of clues are given how to find out the time and place for the pick up, as well as an emergency contact number. Each participant is expected to keep a daily video diary which will be later used in the series.


Alternatively, the idea would work well for an international car rental company!


Here’s an example:


Frank and Lola wake up (after hypnosis or sedatives!?) in a car somewhere in a city of Cairo. There is an envelope with further instructions, mobile phone, credit card and a small video camera. They have 48 hours to find out where they are, a hotel where they would be given further instructions (several clues are to be found which would lead to information regarding the pick up place).

Alternatively, we can elaborate that and introduce more “drama” (for the next 48 hours) where the adventures would be more “scripted”, i.e. embedding actors and “problems” to overcome. Maybe later on participants will be able to choose a different “flavour” for their adventure, i.e. scary, romantic, lots of car chasing and action, mystery solving…etc.

Wednesday, May 06, 2009

Harekrishna's new record

Pool Skipping from xgeronimo on Vimeo.



previous videos with Harekrishna:

Cycle skipping with fire rope from xgeronimo on Vimeo.



Wave cycling from xgeronimo on Vimeo.

Saturday, May 02, 2009

Advertising, Arts and Magick (Triad Sigil)

This is a sigil I have created recently to unite creative advertising, arts and magick in one harmonious triad. The symbol contains ancient mystic elements and numbers corresponding to the task.