Ad Breakdown's pick of 2008
| AD BREAKDOWN The Magazine's review of advertising |
We've become familiar, as viewers of adverts, to the years of plenty - lavish, epic adverts with lovingly constructed conceits and beautiful soundtracks. So how will the coming years - not, one hopes, of famine but perhaps of tightened belts - be felt? What will we see between the programmes (on some channels), between the pages and on the hoardings between the buildings?
 Woolies 1970s style |
It's at least clear that it will be a future without some familiar advertisers. Woolworths, for instance, whose Leslie Crowther-fronted 1970s adverts have graced many a TV news report about the company's demise, will be a distant memory.
That's in spite of a now incongruous advert earlier this year in which Jackie Chan appeared with the Woolworths sheep (Woolie) and sheepdog (Worth). But that was in April, well before the banking crisis of the summer which led into the downturn and ultimately the closure of Woolies, back in a time when it must have seemed like a good idea to pay a celebrity appearance fee to a Hollywood star in order to launch a UK-only children's clothing range. It seems almost quaint now.
And no more will we be bombarded with Boxing Day adverts for MFI sale kitchens after it also went the way of Courts. Or ads from luxury airline Silverjet, which last year painstakingly reconstructed British Airways' iconic "face" advert. So much creative effort for nought.
New lives
With the banking world's woes, it's noticeable that the adverts for financial services which once were everywhere are now not so much. And what will happen to dozens of familiar advertising identities? The Bradford and Bingley bowler hats, for instance, or Howard Brown from the Halifax, or any number of other associated brands. With the expected creation of a new superbank with Lloyds TSB in the driving seat, will even the famous Black Horse survive, or be sent out to pasture to be replaced by a new icon?
 |  Maybe tight budgets will leave the door open for some low-cost but highly creative campaigns  Rob Mortimer |
So how will the recession affect advertising? Blogger Rob Mortimer, a planner at CheethamBellJWT, says there will undoubtedly be an effect. "Many companies will have tighter budgets which means advertising agencies have to fight harder to win their share of it," he says, adding that the end result for the audience may not be much different.
Production budgets will be cut back, and there might be a move towards more "hard-sell" adverts. But at the same time there will be "forward-thinking" brands who will use the opportunity to "stand out with more creative work that can give them a more powerful position once things improve"."If we are lucky, maybe tight budgets will leave the door open for some low-cost but highly creative campaigns over the next year or two; as agencies strive to get the most impact for the brands' money."
 Closing sign |
Fellow blogger Peter Kenny agrees. "Marketing folks will spend smarter, and make fewer TV ads. There will be more activity online - expect to see more viral films on the internet, where people can gain lots of coverage for little spend. There will also be a back-to-basics focus on junk mail and door drops. Clients will demand agencies prove their spend on TV ads to be worth it. So we'll see more prominent phone numbers and website addresses being touted - because responses to these can be measured, allowing the agencies to justify their costs."
If this latter point is true, we might also see more examples of how Orange trailed its website - instead of putting its web address on its adverts it instead wrote "Search online for 'I am'" and bought "I am" as Google keywords. A cunning way to get noticed and of avoiding the URL blindness which results from web addresses being in so many places that nobody notices them.
Price cutting
The extent to which the recession will mean an end to conspicuous consumption and even branding will be worth watching in the coming year. Supermarkets, whose adverts always wax and wane between price and quality, are definitely in a price phase at the moment. Most High Street institutions will surely follow suit.
Yet this has not been the only theme of the year. Concerns about binge drinking and obesity have flared several times, and resultant toughened limits on food and drink advertising could be seen in practice. So alcohol adverts must not now appeal strongly to the under 18s - though of course every advertiser will want to make sure they do appeal strongly to the over 18s. That's a creative challenge.
Adverts must also not make even subtle links between sex and drinking. And they must now show alcohol being handled responsibly.
 Chopping bubbles for Kronenbourg |
The result? A series of pretty abstract drink adverts this year. Kronenbourg has a kitchenful of chefs chopping and grating and slicing bubbles to make them as small as possible, on the basis that more bubbles meant a smoother taste. This advert attracted complaints for allegedly encouraging violence, though the Advertising Standards Authority gave it the all-clear on that count.
Stella Artois, who for years have brought "reassuringly expensive" ad satisfaction and cheap lager in equal measures, went out in several new directions - the least impressive taking us back to times pre-Stella, in 1366, when people apparently believed the earth was flat. Odd how breweries make such a big deal of their foundation date. But Guinness cleverly used theirs to square the don't appeal to under-18s circle - by focusing on 1759 as being one minute before the end of the working day. Start pouring a pint then, and it should be ready for when you are, is the message, seamlessly referring to the previous "worth waiting for" campaign.
Drinks adverts will, however, be included soon in Google searches, along with gambling adverts. Worth watching if any advertisers do anything interesting or creative with this new opportunity.
And the changed environment for alcohol is also felt by food too. It's a sign of the times that a very memorable line used to promote Jaffa Cakes - that they had only one gram of fat per cake - is not now allowed to be used in advertising, because it implies that Jaffa Cakes are a low fat food. These things are not measured by the size of the cake, they are measured per 100g, and for a solid food to be low fat it must have no more than 3g of fat per 100g. Jaffa Cakes have 8g.
 Is that you home, love? |
But some things don't change - at least that's what Hovis's mammoth advertising epic tries to persuade you, in what many will feel was the most memorable advert of the year. In a 122-second-long ad, one second for each year of the company's history, a boy runs across town as the years advance in front of him. It is joyous and upbeat and beautifully crafted, even if it does feel like a cross between a Victorian Dr Who and Life on Mars.
A selection of adverts worth using your remote control to skip and some worth rewinding to watch again will be published next week.
Ad Breakdown is compiled by Giles Wilson
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Tuesday, December 30, 2008
The plastic odyssey
The plastic odyssey
| By Christine Jeavans BBC News |
Earlier this year I spent the month of August living without plastic.
The aim was to try to avoid buying anything new made from plastic or wrapped in plastic, including food, bin bags, disposable nappies for my toddler son, takeaway coffee (the lids are plastic and so is the lining of those "waxed" cups), bottles of shampoo... every part of life, it seemed, involved plastic.
| AN AUGUST CHALLENGE  Christine's challenge was to live a month without buying or accepting plastic She detailed the highs and lows in her blog... ...and received 1,800 comments  |
Even getting a new toothbrush was off-limits until I found a wood and pig bristle one for sale.
I was able to keep and use the plastic I already owned but if anything ran out I would have to buy a plastic-free replacement.
My husband complained about the smelly kitchen bin and our diet was governed by what food was packaged in rather than what we wanted to eat.
It certainly wasn't a case of "biodegradable good, plastic bad".
Loose fruit in supermarkets can involve more waste and packaging in the supply chain than the wrapped version; paper and glass take more energy to transport than lightweight plastic; and biodegradable material in landfill can break down to create the powerful greenhouse gas methane.
And yet the idea that every disposable nappy ever made is still sitting in the ground is distasteful as is the evidence of plastic pollution everywhere in the environment from the duck pond in our local park to the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
However, such was the difficulty of trying to live without plastic that when 1 September rolled around I ran back to most of my old ways albeit with a pledge to try to keep up some of the non-plastic habits.
So, four months on, has anything changed?
Yes and no. Firstly we have moved to a new area in which (coincidentally) the local council collects almost all forms of plastic for recycling.
This is just as well, seeing as I was in no way brave enough to contemplate a house move without a mile of bubble-wrap.
Actually none of that has got as far as the recycling bin yet because it has found other uses including a fantastic toy for an almost-two-year-old and protection for some delicate plants in the garden to stop them getting frost-bite.
But this development in our home circumstances cannot mask the fact that I have backslid on virtually every one of the new habits I said I would continue:
Faces of the year - the men
Faces of the year - the men
Some of the men who have made the headlines in 2008, clockwise from top left: Radovan Karadzic, John Sergeant, Josef Fritzl, Usain Bolt, John Coward, Rafa Nadal, Damian Green, Jay-Z, Max Mosely, Nathaniel Rothschild, David Axelrod and Henry Conway. Click herefor the women of the year.
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RADOVAN KARADZICThe former Bosnian Serb leader, Radovan Karadzic, was finally apprehended after 12 years on the run. He faces 11 charges at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague. They include genocide relating to his orchestrating the mass murder of tens of thousands of Bosnians, mainly Muslims, during the civil war in Bosnia, which ended 1995. Karadzic initially evaded capture by surrounding himself with sympathisers and flitting between farmsteads, monasteries and caves. He never used a mobile phone for fear of being detected by the US intelligence services. Later, he adopted the disguise of a new-age faith healer called Dragan Dabic, with long white flowing locks. He was arrested on a Belgrade bus.
JOHN SERGEANTJohn Sergeant is "normal" in that he is a bloke who can't dance. This ought to have been a huge disadvantage since he took part in the BBC's highly popular TV show, Strictly Come Dancing. Week after week, the judges poured scorn on his pedestrian, uncoordinated routines. Yet, week after week, the public voted for him to remain in the show at the expense of more talented contestants. Arguments broke out as to whether this was a dance show or simply an entertainment spectacle. Then, halfway through the series, Sergeant pulled out saying that "there was a real chance I could win and that would be a joke too far". His partner, Kristina Rihanoff claimed the judges had driven him out. One judge, Craig Revel Horwood, dismissed this and accused Sergeant of being "cowardly".
JOSEF FRITZLRetired electrical engineer Josef Fritzl was arrested for a crime that shocked the world. He confessed to holding his daughter Elisabeth captive in an underground bunker for 24 years in the provincial Austrian town of Amstetten. What's more, he repeatedly raped her and fathered seven children by her. The case only came to light when Mr Fritzl allowed one of his children to seek hospital treatment. Mr Fritzl was formally charged in November with murder, rape, slavery, incest, mental torture and false imprisonment. The murder charge relates to one of the incest children who died as a child. Mr Fritzl told police he destroyed the corpse by throwing it into his heating furnace. Three of his offspring were allowed to live with Mr Fritzl and his wife as "normal" children in their home upstairs, while the others stayed with their mother.
USAIN BOLTThe 6ft 5in Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt left Beijing flying high after becoming the first man to win the 100m, 200m and 4x100m relay at a single Olympics since Carl Lewis in 1984. He was also the first man in history to set world records in all three at a single Olympic Games. His 9.62 seconds 100m record would have been even better had he not begun celebrating before he crossed the finish line. Bolt then smashed Michael Johnson's 200m world record that had stood for 12 years, in a time of 19.3 seconds. Finally, he and his three Jamaican teammates took the Olympic gold in the relay in a time of 37.10 seconds. Not surprisingly, he earned the nickname Lightning Bolt.
JOHN COWARDDespite his name, John Coward is anything but cowardly. He was at the controls of a Boeing 777 when it was coming in to land at Heathrow airport on a British Airways flight from Beijing. Without warning, the plane stalled. He said later: "I thought this is going to be a catastrophic crash. This is it." However, Mr Coward managed to keep the plane's nose up, clear the fence and maintain the aircraft in a straight line until it shuddered to a halt. Investigators believe the engine failure was probably caused by ice restricting the flow of fuel. One airport worker said of Mr Coward: "The man deserves a medal as big as a frying pan."
RAFA NADALRafa Nadal's victory over Roger Federer at this year's Wimbledon men's final is regarded as a classic. The Spanish player had been threatening the Swiss's status as world number one for many months. But the manner in which it was achieved left every tennis fan breathless. The gruelling five-setter ended in near darkness prompting one leading sports columnist to declare it as "the greatest sporting event I've ever seen". Even John McEnroe agreed that it had eclipsed his epic 1980 final against Bjorn Borg. With his rippling biceps, his rocket forehands and his never-say-die attitude, Nadal had defeated arguably the most complete tennis player ever in Federer. Nadal went on to take the Olympic gold in Beijing, though knee problems hampered his progress in later tournaments.
HENRY CONWAYThe son of the now-disgraced Tory MP Derek Conway first came to the public's attention when it was revealed he was receiving
Can a man really write a Mills & Boon?
Can a man really write a Mills & Boon?
| Peter Jackson BBC News |
When it comes to blushing heroines and dashing heroes, Roger Sanderson is well versed in the art of seductive prose.
The Mills & Boon author has had 48 books published over 12 years and seen his work sold in 26 countries around the world.
 Roger aka Gill Sanderson churns out four Mills & Boon books a year |
But unlike the subjects of his fiction, Roger the romantic writer does not conform to the stereotype.
The broad-shouldered Yorkshireman goes weight training three times a week, mountain climbing at the weekends and enjoys a drink with friends at his rugby club in Waterloo, Merseyside.
Now an active member of the Romantic Novelists' Association, he believes he would probably be a soldier if he was not a writer. His father was in the Royal Air Force for 35 years, his grandfather won a gallantry medal in World War I and one of his four sons is a Royal Navy captain.
But life chose a very different path for Mr Sanderson, the path of breathy romantic fiction.
"I'm happily married and I have been in love, therefore I have the basic qualification," he suggests. "I know what it feels like and from there everything will develop."
 Sex sells: A modern-day cover page |
But there was plenty to learn along the way.
"Women's feelings are just a little different from men's. I have to try to put myself in a woman's frame of mind," he says.
"They're far more interested in relationships and talking about them.
"Talking to women helps give me inspiration. Sometimes I'm told that no woman would say or do a certain thing, it's not always obvious.
"Over the last 12 years I think I've improved my understanding of women. For example, on the subject of abortion, you have to deal with that very carefully indeed and reactions to it.
"I used to have the male attitude that in certain circumstances it was the reasonable, proper thing to do - the other side of that is what does it feel like?
"The emotion is all. Women tend to be more emotional probably."
| A CULTURAL PHENOMENON... 100 years old on 28 November UK book sale every three seconds 130 million global annual sales Published in 26 languages 1,300 authors worldwide Source: Mills & Boon |
Mills & Boon is quick to dispel any suggestion it is a relic of a bygone age. It says it sells a book every three seconds in the UK and 130 million a year worldwide.
The economic downturn has even triggered a rise in sales as people look for escapism and a happy ending.
Editorial director Karin Stoecker believes healthy sales will continue.
"Generally speaking, we have been quite successful in gloomier economic times... it's a value-priced entertaining escape from otherwise harsh realities."
So, how did it all begin for the man of Mills & Boon?
 Cover story: This Bond-esque title page from 1966 reflects the times |
He used to write scripts for Commando war comics until one day he picked up his daughter's Mills & Boon on the sofa and promptly read another four.
At first he co-wrote with his wife Gill, but was soon sufficiently interested to take her name and go solo.
Today, he specialises in medical romances, setting many of his stories in the Lake District around chisel-jawed doctors, with hearts either beating or melting.
His latest book has the working title A Nurse At Christmas Time and is about a doctor who returns to the Lakes from London and bumps into a girl he met 15 years ago.
It is not likely to shy away from the odd sex scene or two.
"We're much more open now about the physical aspect of love making, we're through the bedroom door now," Mr Sanderson explains.
"It must be, above all, emotionally driven. The physical must be subservient to feelings."
Ms Stoecker agrees that emotions are key and describes what she looks for in a Mills & Boon author.
| MEN WHO WROTE AS WOMEN Wizard of Oz author L Frank Baum penned girls' stories as Edith Van Dyne Voltaire occasionally wrote as "Une belle dame" or "Catherine Vade" Comic strip writer Peter O'Donnell was romantic novelist Madeleine Brent SAS hardman Chris Ryan became romantic writer Molly Jackson Scottish poet William Sharp wrote as Fiona MacLeod from 1893 |
"The first quality to have is an empathy with the genre and an understanding. You really need to be able to write emotion.
"It doesn't necessarily help to be a woman, but if you were telling a story from a female's point of view, it will help to have some insight into that point of view."
Academic and author Jay Dixon, who wrote an analytical study of the publisher in her book The Romantic Fiction of Mills & Boon, has read around 3,000 titles.
Some of the unsolicited manuscripts written by men stood out from those written by women for the way their female characters viewed themselves.
"The heroine, at some point in the story, always looked in a mirror and admired herself, something a woman would never do as she would only see her flaws," she suggests.
| He drew her towards him so that not just their lips but their bodies were touching - just touching Gill SandersonA Mother For His Son (Sep 2008) |
She also believes male authors tend to go into more details about how something works than women.
But would she be able to find clues in Roger's text that his books were written by a man?
"I can find nothing in Roger's romances that would alert even an experienced reader to the fact that he is a man... Roger is one of the few men who does have the knack."
Perhaps it helps to be, as Roger admits, an old romantic himself.
"Every now and again you look at a woman and for a moment there's that little flare of remembrance of what it was like those years ago when you weren't married - and I think that's rather nice."
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Monday, December 29, 2008
Faces of the year - the women
Faces of the year - the women
Some of the women who have made the headlines in 2008, clockwise from top left: Duffy, Simone Wallmeyer, Fiona Shackleton, Shannon Matthews, Ingrid Betancourt, Fern Britton, Cheryl Cole, Christine Ohuruogu, Georgina Baillie, Sarah Palin, Carla Bruni and Yang Peiyi.
| |
SIMONE WALLMEYERIf the credit crunch, which started in 2007, grew to become the story of the year, one face represents the turmoil of the financial meltdown better than any other - Simone Wallmeyer. The Frankfurt Stock Exchange broker's emotion-wracked face became a fixture on the front pages of many newspapers around the world. Behind her designer spectacles, Ms Wallmeyer's animated features seemed to reflect every bad twist and turn in the world economy. The 47-year-old broker with Germany's ICF securities bank thinks her fame may be partly to do with the fact that she sits in front of the share price index board. But she admits the adrenaline high caused by the markets crashing has caused her to "run the full gamut of emotions".
DUFFYPresenting a far more beatific face to the world was the British singer Duffy. The 24-year-old diminutive blonde chanteuse from Bangor in north Wales headed a charge of female British soul talent with a retro feel. Duffy's album Rockferry was the biggest selling album of the year, outperforming Coldplay and Take That. It included her hit, Mercy, which was voted Song of the Year at the MOJO awards. Duffy, real name Aimee Duffy but never referred to as such except by friends, has also received three Grammy nominations. She has been compared to Dusty Springfield in both looks and voice and, like Dusty, has found fame in America. She has made 15 trips to New York and has sung at the legendary Harlem Apollo.
FIONA SHACKLETONEmotions were in plentiful supply in court 34 of the Royal Courts of Justice earlier this year when Heather Mills poured a jug of water over the head of Fiona Shackleton. Ms Shackleton was the lawyer representing her husband Sir Paul McCartney in their divorce proceedings. But the 51-year-old legal eagle had the last laugh, convincing the judge that her client, the former Beatle, was worth only half of the
Collect life lessons as you pass go
Collect life lessons as you pass go
| By Finlo Rohrer BBC News Magazine |
In the era of the high-def DVD and the ubiquitous game console, the board games unwrapped around the world on Christmas Day are a refreshing throwback. But is it all just a bit of fun or can we learn any valuable lessons from the roll of a dice?
Games are not good. Or at least that's what many people would have you believe. In English idiom, the exhortation to "stop playing games" implies manipulation, prevarication, even procrastination.
| LEADERS AND THEIR GAMES Tamerlane - Bloodthirsty 14th Century Turko-Mongol conqueror, loved chess Claudius - 1st Century Roman Emperor, loved dice Churchill - 20th Century British prime minister, loved Bezique WOPR - fictional 20th Century military computer, disliked noughts and crosses |
But this is a time of year when games are ascendant. Many will have played a board game over the festive period.
Monopoly is perhaps the quintessential family board game. There can't be too many people in the Western world who are completely unaware of the existence of the game.
It will have been yanked out of millions of dark cupboards over Christmas, dusted off and played. And played. And played. And played some more.
The most obvious life lesson in Monopoly is about patience. Games can last hours. Interminable circuits of the board go on as each player looks for the right roll of the dice to finally buy Bond Street and start getting some houses. It ebbs and flows as fines are paid and then recovered.
Gruelling marathons
For the parent playing Monopoly, the appeal might lie in the ability of Monopoly to swallow a whole day, to neutralise a usually fractious but now ultra competitive child.
In fact this whole vision of Monopoly as the recreational equivalent of spending the night on a mountain looking for enlightenment is a fallacy. Monopoly should really only take about an hour and a half, says retired fireman and tournament player Alan Farrell.
 'You'll give me Bow Street for The Strand? OK' |
"The main rule that tends to get ignored is the auction. If you land on a property and don't want it, it goes to auction. That's what tends to slow things down and put a lot of people off. If you don't get houses built it will go on forever."
Of course, developing steely patience in children (and adults) is a quality with useful application in both academe and the workplace, whether it's for trawls through textbooks, three hour exams or tackling voluminous reports.
But patience is a side effect of Monopoly, and indeed of any board game. The real raison d'etre is bringing the family together. Where conversation may stutter and fail, the game marches on triumphantly forcing social interaction.
It might be bickering over whether dad's all-conquering laying down of the word "muzhiks" is allowed in Scrabble or fighting for the right to ask all the questions in Trivial Pursuits, but it all still counts as quality family time.
Carrot and stick
It is the same with Pictionary, Ludo, Cluedo, Risk, or anything else.
The carrot is a chance for the competitive children and teenagers to crush the older opposition. The stick is that some form of conversation is necessary for the game to progress.
| When you are at the office you are not manning the Maginot Line - you are not worried about Germany invading Belgium by surprise Allan B CalhamerDiplomacy inventor |
Many games, like Monopoly, take this social interaction to new heights by placing a premium on negotiation. In Monopoly, deals to waive interest, exchange property and form strategic alliances are common in multiplayer games.
Even at tournament level, Mr Farrell says, these skills are important. "It requires a little bit of negotiating the right deal, unless you are very lucky."
But the king of negotiating games might well be Diplomacy. Perhaps not as well known as its less intense rival Risk, Diplomacy pits seven players against each as nation states fighting over a map of Europe as it was prior to World War I.
While the military element of the game is simple enough, its central attraction lies in the negotiations, alliances, betrayals, poker faces and backstabbing that follow. No player can win - or even hope to survive - without engaging with others and learning to smell false promises.
 Learn to be economical with the truth |
"The moves side of the game is more or less like checkers or chess," says inventor Allan B Calhamer. "What's different is the negotiation. Nobody is required to tell the truth. It should make you more careful and more alert."
Unlike many games, where the key is simply to play the best moves, without the need to second guess the opponent, Diplomacy requires the playing of the opponent as much as the game. As a result it has found favour outside the home as an educational tool.
"There is a saying in chess 'respond to his capabilities, not his intentions' but in Diplomacy his intentions may make a lot of difference," says Mr Calhamer.
"I've been told that it has been played in the Pentagon and the State Department."
Of course, it's possible to over-egg the idea that life's battles are mirrored in board games, says Mr Calhamer. You might compare your office politics to Monopoly or Diplomacy, but a lid should be kept on that comparison.
 Games teach us to win and lose with grace |
"When you are at the office you are not manning the Maginot Line. You are not worried about Germany invading Belgium by surprise," he says.
And away from hard-to-quantify skills like negotiation and patience, concrete improvements have been claimed by some games.
There is a long history of studies claiming a link between playing chess and improved memory, analytical skills and other academic abilities in children.
But perhaps we should prefer to laud the "soft" skills that games teach us. How to win and lose with grace, how to play nicely with our families, and how to dissemble, cajole, and gull our way to victory.
Below is a selection of your comments.
Board games are brilliant. Never 'allow' children to win - you only set them up for a fall later on in life! There is no free lunch and never has been.Noliz, Salisbury/UK
I've always loved board games starting from an early age. Now in my forties I just love to watch my kids play, even though their attention span is certainly less than mine. My all time favourite games are Diplomacy, The Game of Nations, The Business Game and of course Monopoly. It certainly brings the family together and inspires family interaction, rather than the PS2 of onlining gaming which is mainly a solitary pastime. Long live Board Games!!Glen Perry, Crickhowell, Mid Wales
Board games are great - played Monopoly, Cluedo, et al as a child and now again as a parent. However, there are plenty of computer games that allow a similar family/group interaction. Not just the board game-like games (Mario Party, lots of the Wii games) but others using turn-taking and utilising the particular skills of individuals to get the group further in a particular game.And I'm sitting here watching my husband and younger son playing some 'fad' game. Basically, it allows them to come together, as equals, and spend a little time together.Dipsey's Hat, UK
It's really unfortunate that so many people think of Monopoly when you mention 'board games'. This is because Monopoly compares unbelievably poorly when compared with a whole host of stunningly good, well conceived board games , frequently called 'euro games. Monopoly is tedious in the extreme and of course almost completely based on luck. Euro games are far more interactive, socially engaging, challenging and far less defendant on the luck factor. Please do a search on 'Euro board games' to find a board gaming future you didn't think was possible.Alexander Storch, Pontyberem, Llanelli
I used to love risk, but could never get anyone else to play it with me, as all my friends found it too boring!Squill, Leeds
I agree board games are a hugely enjoyable past time, especially around the festive period (I do enjoy a bit of Trivial Pursuit or Scrabble myself). But I must say that video games are not all about individual play, in fact online gaming is far less enjoyable than having friends and family around sitting next to you, joining in. I, for one, rarely play online and can safely say that having a few mates around playing Pro Evo is an absolute blast!Ravi Bal, Essex, United Kingdom
Diplomacy is the ultimate game I agree: seven players all negotiating with each other, waiting with nervousness to see if that deal was kept by their ally, and if their stab will work or not. Not a hint of luck anyway, just down to your skills in moving the pieces and knowing when to make and break deals with your fellow players!Millis Miller, Wiltshire, UK
Growing up in a diplomatic household moving from place to place every few years made for an unconventional childhood for me and my brother. Still, no matter where we lived, the one constant was our family's love for a nice long evening of Monopoly on Saturdays. It's really quite heartwarming to read that boardgames are still popular and selling well this festive season. The times may change and new technology can be very exciting, but it's nice to think that some traditions will be able to last for a few more generations to come.Vishnu Venkatesh, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
How about Majong? We used to have Majong parties. Trouble is if you don't play often enough you forget the rulesRichard Sabin, Hua Hin
My favourite is definitely Scrabble and my best single score was with BEZIQUES (the second E was put down by my opponent). The B and the S were on triple words and the Q on double letter. This must have been 30 or 40 years ago - never getting anywhere close since!D, Cyprus
We always played Parker Brothers' Yacht Race with my father back in the 60s. I recently found it in mint condition on an auction site and now my new wife and child thinks its the best board game ever. Wind, luck, skill and true sailing rules make this game remarkable.Mark, Seattle, US
Friday, December 26, 2008
Murder in the library
Murder in the library
Why don't librarians make good detectives? It's all to do with melting in with a crowd, says Laurie Taylor in his weekly column for the Magazine.
Once upon a time I was a child librarian. Not, as I once had to explain over the phone, a very young librarian, but a proper grown-up of 22 years old who was in charge of the children's section of a library in a rather rough, run-down area of Liverpool.
Most of my duties were fairly routine: receiving and issuing books, cataloguing new arrivals, tidying up the tables after closing time, and ensuring that all the books on the shelves - apart from the great big ones which had a special section - were in strict alphabetical order.
| FIND OUT MORE  Hear Laurie Taylor's Thinking Allowed on Radio 4 at 1600 on Wednesdaysor 0030 on Mondays |
But there was also a moral dimension to my work. My boss - the senior branch librarian - told me that I should do my best to direct children towards more challenging books. Instead of simply conceding to their strident demands for the latest Famous Five adventure I should endeavour to steer them towards Swallows and Amazons or Anne of Green Gables or Treasure Island.
It was a pretty frustrating task. Children who were intent on getting their latest fix of Blyton appeared bemused by the suggestion that they try something completely different. Why, when they had come in for hamburger and fries was someone trying to persuade them of the merits of b
Season of ill will?
Season of ill will?
Festive fallouts are as much a part of Christmas as turkey and tinsel, so we're led to believe, making it a busy time of year for divorce lawyers. But is this really the case, asks Chris Bowlby.
If you feel in danger of becoming too misty eyed over all those Christmas messages of peace and goodwill, you can always revive more Scrooge-like feelings with a dose of seasonal statistics put out by the divorce industry.
Every year brings new surveys and stories suggesting Christmas is a time when many couples decide they can't stand each other and head in their thousands to divorce lawyers come the new year.
| FIND OUT MORE... More or Less is on BBC Radio 4 on Friday 26 December at 1330 GMT Or catch up later on BBC iPlayer |
But do these claims actually stand up, or are they more to do with the divorce and marriage guidance industry trying to drum up business.
Last year some of the most striking claims were made in two widely reported surveys. These were carried out by a marketing company and commissioned by Insidedivorce.com and the government-funded Family Mediation Helpline.
"More than 1.8 million couples will have contemplated divorcing their partner during the Christmas period," said the Family Mediation Helpline press release. The Times suggested one of the surveys had concluded that "up to one in five couples inquire about divorce after the strains of Christmas".
As official statistics suggest there are more than 14 million couples in the UK, this would translate to some very long queues outside the offices of divorce lawyers in January. And it is also an intriguingly high figure given the annual divorce rate is heading downwards currently towards 140,000 a year.
Some divorce lawyers and mediation experts undoubtedly do experience increase in demand after Christmas, though for its survey Insidedivorce.com only used lawyers on its books. And some other lawyers don't recognise this pattern at all.
'Dangerous time'
"I've been in practice for going on 30 years," says Marilyn Stowe, a leading family lawyer based in Yorkshire but with a national and international practice.
 Ok, family strife at Christmas can be guaranteed for some, at least |
"It's certainly not my experience that straight after the Christmas holidays people rush to get divorced, it just doesn't happen."
In Ms Stowe's experience, there are seasonal variations in divorce - but the blips tend to come in the spring and early summer - when school exams are over and term is coming to an end. It allows for a good run up before school term starts again.
Christmas in the credit crunch may add to family tensions, and another survey, published on Wednesday, found relationship counselling had risen as the downturn has started to bite. But these same hard times make the cost of divorce much higher. If the value of the family home has decreased there is less to share out, for example. So even if couples consider divorce, they may go no further once they realise the consequences.
For some families and couples Christmas can, by contrast, be a bonding experience. This, however, is not something PR companies and the media find very compelling as they search for eye-catching stories when genuine news is thin.
So why had Insidedivorce.com issued statements suggesting that "the statistics make grim reading for anyone believing Christmas is a period of harmony and goodwill"?
"I think that's possibly overstating the case" concedes Derek Bedlow, editor of the website. "But for those whose relationships are in trouble it is a dangerous time."
So is there any measurable relationship between Christmas and divorce? The UK Statistics Authority - the official statistics gatherer - doesn't record seasonally when divorce happens. So the idea that the festive season does more harm to marriage than good does not seem proven.
Perhaps there should be new categories for these Christmas survey statistics. Scroogeistics for those who can't stand all the harmony and goodwill stuff. And optimistics for the romantics who believe Christmas solves everything.
Add your comments on this story, using the form below.
A lawyer acquaintance of mine said that if he got a divorce petition early in January, whereas when he first qualified he would start work on them straight away, he now sits on them because in a significant number of cases the woman who filed for divorce (as it usually was the woman that filed) phoned him up during the third week in January and asked for the petition to be cancelled. He attributed this to the fact that "he" was now back at work and out from under her feet. However, this does not bode well for when he retires!Adrian Cross, Brentwood, Essex
That is somewhat assuming that all the couples who fall out are married though. Surely one of the factors contributing to the falling divorce numbers is that fewer people are getting married in the first place? I take the point that there are some lawyers there saying they've seen no seasonal variation for years, but the season for arguments doesn't just centre on married couples. It would probably be more telling to question the police on the number of domestic incidents they're called out to. That said, Merry Christmas everyone!Alex, London, UK
I run the Divorce-Online website and unlike the ONS we can measure interest in the subject very accurately and it is true that in January traffic for divorce related keywords surges. However the same can be said for September when the kids return from the long summer break.Mark Keenan, Swindon
I think that this oversimplifies things. In actual fact couples contemplating separation either consciously decide together to wait until Xmas is out of the way, or take that decision subconsciously themselves. Perhaps they wish to give the kids one last family xmas together? This then leads to a spike after Xmas which is nothing to do with the holiday period.Johnno, Birmingham
I feel sure that SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) must have something to do with the statistics, and probably has done for millennia before it had a name. It is a pretty gloomy time of year all round (Hence the need for a winter festival, regardless of your religious beliefs).Chris, O!
I think most people will suffer the strains of a bad marriage even MORE during the holidays, especially if you have children. Can you really let everyone down? You "keep up with appearances" so work, friends and families, who are all also busy trying to get through the holiday, don't have to deal with the unpleasantness of your divorce. When the holidays are over, and you deal with the issues that are in the marriage, the divorce decision may become a reality. The timing in summer only means you don't have to vacation with them(even better). Christmas is the season of good will(and martyrs).Maureen, Florida,USA
The BBC may edit your comments and not all emails will be published. Your comments may be published on any BBC media worldwide.
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Murder in the library
Murder in the library
Why don't libraries make good detectives? It's all to do with melting in with a crowd, says Laurie Taylor in his weekly column for the Magazine.
Once upon a time I was a child librarian. Not, as I once had to explain over the phone, a very young librarian, but a proper grown-up of 22 years old who was in charge of the children's section of a library in a rather rough, run-down area of Liverpool.
Most of my duties were fairly routine: receiving and issuing books, cataloguing new arrivals, tidying up the tables after closing time, and ensuring that all the books on the shelves - apart from the great big ones which had a special section - were in strict alphabetical order.
| FIND OUT MORE Hear Laurie Taylor's Thinking Allowed on Radio 4 at 1600 on Wednesdaysor 0030 on Mondays |
But there was also a moral dimension to my work. My boss - the senior branch librarian - told me that I should do my best to direct children towards more challenging books. Instead of simply conceding to their strident demands for the latest Famous Five adventure I should endeavour to steer them towards Swallows and Amazons or Anne of Green Gables or Treasure Island.
It was a pretty frustrating task. Children who were intent on getting their latest fix of Blyton appeared bemused by the suggestion that they try something completely different. Why, when they had come in for hamburger and fries was someone trying to persuade them of the merits of b
Season of ill will?
Season of ill will?
Festive fallouts are as much a part of Christmas as turkey and tinsel, so we're led to believe, making it a busy time of year for divorce lawyers. But is this really the case, asks Chris Bowlby.
If you feel in danger of becoming too misty eyed over all those Christmas messages of peace and goodwill, you can always revive more Scrooge-like feelings with a dose of seasonal statistics put out by the divorce industry.
Every year brings new surveys and stories suggesting Christmas is a time when many couples decide they can't stand each other and head in their thousands to divorce lawyers come the new year.
| FIND OUT MORE... More or Less is on BBC Radio 4 on Friday 26 December at 1330 GMT Or catch up later on BBC iPlayer |
But do these claims actually stand up, or are they more to do with the divorce and marriage guidance industry trying to drum up business.
Last year some of the most striking claims were made in two widely reported surveys. These were carried out by a marketing company and commissioned by Insidedivorce.com and the government-funded Family Mediation Helpline.
"More than 1.8 million couples will have contemplated divorcing their partner during the Christmas period," said the Family Mediation Helpline press release. The Times suggested one of the surveys had concluded that "up to one in five couples inquire about divorce after the strains of Christmas".
As official statistics suggest there are more than 14 million couples in the UK, this would translate to some very long queues outside the offices of divorce lawyers in January. And it is also an intriguingly high figure given the annual divorce rate is heading downwards currently towards 140,000 a year.
Some divorce lawyers and mediation experts undoubtedly do experience increase in demand after Christmas, though for its survey Insidedivorce.com only used lawyers on its books. And some other lawyers don't recognise this pattern at all.
'Dangerous time'
"I've been in practice for going on 30 years," says Marilyn Stowe, a leading family lawyer based in Yorkshire but with a national and international practice.
| Ok, family strife at Christmas can be guaranteed for some, at least |
"It's certainly not my experience that straight after the Christmas holidays people rush to get divorced, it just doesn't happen."
In Ms Stowe's experience, there are seasonal variations in divorce - but the blips tend to come in the spring and early summer - when school exams are over and term is coming to an end. It allows for a good run up before school term starts again.
Christmas in the credit crunch may add to family tensions, and another survey, published on Wednesday, found relationship counselling had risen as the downturn has started to bite. But these same hard times make the cost of divorce much higher. If the value of the family home has decreased there is less to share out, for example. So even if couples consider divorce, they may go no further once they realise the consequences.
For some families and couples Christmas can, by contrast, be a bonding experience. This, however, is not something PR companies and the media find very compelling as they search for eye-catching stories when genuine news is thin.
So why had Insidedivorce.com issued statements suggesting that "the statistics make grim reading for anyone believing Christmas is a period of harmony and goodwill"?
"I think that's possibly overstating the case" concedes Derek Bedlow, editor of the website. "But for those whose relationships are in trouble it is a dangerous time."
So is there any measurable relationship between Christmas and divorce? The UK Statistics Authority - the official statistics gatherer - doesn't record seasonally when divorce happens. So the idea that the festive season does more harm to marriage than good does not seem proven.
Perhaps there should be new categories for these Christmas survey statistics. Scroogeistics for those who can't stand all the harmony and goodwill stuff. And optimistics for the romantics who believe Christmas solves everything.
Add your comments on this story, using the form below.
The BBC may edit your comments and not all emails will be published. Your comments may be published on any BBC media worldwide.