It’s not easy: big brands need to balance niche credentials with a mainstream tone and accessible level of information; small brands can either end up too niche, appealing only to extreme obsessives, or in the same independent-retro-packaged camp as their contemporaries. Innocent was innovative in its time but it’s old news, now, and the market feels starved of brands that manage to balance a clear communication of functional benefits with as punchy an attitude and personality as their less healthy competitors.

But stop right there… let me introduce you to ‘Thug Kitchen,’ a hit tumblr food blog that combines a gangster’s tone with super healthy recipes for everything from vegan tacos to antioxidant smoothies. As Dr. Thug puts it:

“We’re tired of healthier eating being portrayed like it’s an expensive hobby. The way we talk on the site is how we are with friends, and writing about food that way felt less intimidating. Everybody needs to eat their fucking vegetables. We can all eat better and we want people to feel less overwhelmed by that.”

I love it. It’s taking the cashmere and luxury hybrid car out of the necessary attributes of a healthy food fan. Admittedly the blog’s controversial tone (read: blue language) might struggle to meet the guidelines for mass packaging or advertising but for now I’m satisfied that, finally, someone is bringing genuine irony and humour to healthy food writing.

As the thug tells us – ‘there ain’t nothin’ zesty about a drive-thru’ diet.’ Couldn’t agree more; how much more engaging is that than Gillian McKeith’s pontifications?

www.thugkitchen.com

I see two options: 1) position yourself as a ‘gifting’ brand, uniquely understanding the role of your products in special moments in consumers’ lives – which tends to be a premium proposition, e.g. Tiffany… or 2) allow your own brand to be personalised by your consumers, literally making your brand ‘for them’… but risking less ownership of your brand experience in the process.

Cadbury’s has gone for the second option with its new ‘Say It With Cadbury’s’ campaign – allowing consumers to enter ‘Joyville’ and personalise their very own Dairy Milk bar with a special message.

Of course, they’re not the first brand to do this; Heinz  have created their own ‘MyHeinz’ platform which allows consumers to personalise everything from a tomato ketchup bottle to Dijon mustard and countless fashion and social brands have done similar things.

It’s an interesting initiative that, managed carefully, allows consumers to personally invest in a brand, strengthening their relationship with them and allowing the brand’s strengths to be literally passed on from consumer to consumer. Mis-managed, however, it’s risky: brands have to be careful that they don’t relinquish too much control of their own voice and that their hero products stay carefully planned and positioned.

So… how will you say your next special something – via text? On a card? On a chocolate? Cadbury’s would like you to say it with them.

Every day we make hundreds of self-portraits, some thoughtfully composed, some whimsical. They are all abandoned. All the images in this project have been found on demonstration mobile phone handsets in retails stores across London.

The project attempts to understand some of the behaviour and find answers to the following questions – why do we make these images, why do we leave them behind, who do we leave them for?  Ultimately I hope that with time this will build a very unique and candid self portrait of modern Britain.

Follow the project or better still take part here or here.

www.tomdfoto.500px.com

The process of photography doesn’t just consist of point, focus, capture and this has never been more true than in Mishka Henner’s exhibition, No Man’s Land, which is nominated for the prize. His work is a prime example of how photography is developing and how we are open to new ways of exploring the art of the lens.

No Man’s Land highlights the issue of sex workers through images captured in hidden corners of the globe shot entirely with Google Street View. Despite feeling slightly unsettled with the concept behind the series, the images are a perfect reflection of the unspoken problems across the world. The isolated women with blurred faces that decorate the landscapes, appear detached from the world, quite a realistic depiction of societies’ views on subjects like prostitution and sex trafficking.

Cristina De Middel is also nominated for her work on The Afronauts and is my personal favourite of the bunch for many reasons, one for her unique way of combining drawings, documents and photographs together to create an array of mesmorising and colourful mixed media, and another simply because really, who wouldn’t want to be an astronaut? Well, the ‘NASA nerd’ hidden somewhere inside of me certainly would and was touched by the story behind Middel’s work. The concept of the series is based on the outcome of Zambia’s independence in 1964 and the space program they began which they had hoped would put the first African on the moon. Unfortunately this was an impossible dream for them and they received no funding but for Middel, this gave her the perfect platform to freeze this positive and hopeful moment in African history and tell the story in her own way and how she would have liked the turn of events to have really played out. She has produced some beautiful photographs of her idea of an Afronaut and has manipulated official documents that provide much amusement suggesting part of the Afronaut training was to roll down a hill to resemble the feeling of orbiting into space.

The remaining nominees, Chris Killip and Broomberg and Chanarin are also definitely worth a trip to the gallery for their controversial work which together with Henner and Middel make for a great exhibition.

Things to take away from the talk;

1. 5 year olds ask unnervingly insightful questions.

2. If you have a tendency to drift off a bit at work, learn this phrase:

‘It was a scheduled deactivation of my sensory inputs, designed exclusively and I might add, selflessly, for the purpose of maximising my creativity and productive capacity. Need I mention the reduction of heart related deceases?’

3. ’‘If you are lying down with your eyes closed and someone lifts up your arm and it falls back down, you are asleep’’

Once the hour was up, the talk titled ‘Part of Wonder’, had left me wondering in part as to why we bother studying sleep at all?

If 96% of determinants are genetically predetermined, and optimum sleep behaviourisms vary from person to person, what functional benefit can one gain from learning about how we sleep? Will we ever be encouraged to rock up to work whenever our body clocks deem most appropriate? It’s doubtful.

Well, one can dream…or not. It depends on how enlightened your boss is about the productive benefits of naps.

In America it is common knowledge the Cubs have gone longer than any other sports team between championships; their last was in 1908. A lot of excuses have been thrown at this incredible lack of success.

One excuse is that of a curse inflicted by a local pub owner who paid for tickets for himself and his pet goat during the 1945 World Series. They were both refused entry because the goat smelled. Whilst I was there one of the top stories on local television was of how a goats head was left addressed to the owners outside the park.

Another excuse is during a playoff game in 2003 a now infamous incident occurred when fan Steve Bartman reached out and interfered with a ball which was about to be caught. If the ball hadn’t been interfered with, the Cubs player chasing the ball “may” have caught it and they “may” have gone on to win the game and would have progressed to the World Series. Needless to say, they didn’t and now Steve Bartman lives as a recluse as he can’t show his face in public without suffering abuse.

Then there’s the 99-year-old dated ballpark itself – Wrigley Field. The ballpark is idolised in America as one of only two ballparks built before 1960. The other is in Boston. Unlike recently renovated Fenway Park of Boston (built 1912), Wrigley Field still feels like you’re in the 1900s. With little in the way of modernisation and the amenities you are used to at other American sporting venues. And, with no video screens or large scale advertising at the park, the club’s opportunities to make money are far less than average. Another problem is due to its age, the park costs around $20m a year in repairs. Then there are the Wrigley rooftops. The ballpark is in a small neighbourhood called Wrigleyville. Across the road behind the outfield bleachers sits multiple flats that overlook the park. The owners of these houses have built full-scale grandstands on top of their buildings. When doing this they signed a 30 year deal with the club. The rooftop businesses only pay 17% of their profits to the team. That’s not the big problem, the big problem is it’s the owners of the rooftops who are stopping the club from performing the upgrades needed to the park, upgrades such as placing screens and even having a higher percentage of night games.  They are concerned the screens will obscure their view of the park and having more night games will interfere with local businesses such as pubs and restaurants. All of these problems add up to one thing: a lack of money – and lack of money means not being able to pay for top talent. Not having top talent means no chance of winning the World Series.

The ballpark is beautiful with ivy hanging from the outfield fences onto the playing field, it has a great sense of history and tradition and it has even become a national monument, but, surely success is far richer? I personally feel the cubs fans will be much happier at a new, modern ballpark where they can enjoy success. More people will turn up to the game and spend more money, meaning the  Cubs would have a far greater chance of long-term success.

It’s a powerful take on self-perception, and one that has leaves you thinking about the way we judge ourselves when we look in the mirror.

Take a look, it’s really powerful – Click here