Saturday, October 15, 2005

Leeds 0, Hong Kong 3 (Chan, hat trick)

Predictably, the dynamic folks at Marketing Leeds maintained a dignified silence in response to my e-mail, and after all, who could blame them? How were they to know that Hong Kong had been running a major marketing campaign for two years using the very slogan they had come up with? It's not as if Jackie Chan, the star of the promotion, was a well-known figure, was it? And when you've only got £150,000 to play with, you can't expect every tiny problem to be sorted out, can you? The business editor of the Yorkshire Evening Post, Nigel Scott, was, in contrast, admirably swift in his reply to me on the copyright issue. Apparently, they haven't copyrighted "Leeds" but the slogan "Leeds Live it Love it". I wonder what the Hong Kong equivalent of m'learned friends will think about that?
Incidentally, when I were a lad, the slogan for the Evening Post was "there's nowt like it at night!" You can imagine the Marketing Leeds suits spluttering into their canapes at that....

Friday, October 14, 2005

Pinter's surprise

Guardian Unlimited | Arts news | 'They said you've a call from the Nobel committee. I said, why?': Pinter, it seems, is pretty surprised to be awarded the Nobel. And, as might have been expected, he too feels it may be as much to do with his politics as with his plays. He says: "But I suspected that they must have taken my political activities into consideration since my political engagement is very much part of my work. It's interwoven into many of my plays. But I will find out more when I go to Stockholm in December. I'm told I am required to make a 45-minute speech which is the longest speech I will ever have made. Of course, I intend to say whatever it is I think. I may well address the state of the world. I'll be interested myself to find out how I'm going to articulate the whole thing."

Thursday, October 13, 2005

False Leeds

I notice that the Marketing Leeds people are shamelessly sticking with their Live It Love It slogan, and have even managed to copyright the word Leeds - how did that happen? Surely that can't be right? I'll ask them and report back. In the meantime, I think I'll copyright, oooh, "Tunbridge Wells"... And has there ever been a more pathetic invitation than "We will soon be launching our consumer-focused websites, where everyone will be able to live and love Leeds all day every day"
Yuk!

Pinter wins Nobel literary prize

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Arts | Pinter wins Nobel literary prize
I suppose this is not entirely unexpected, though it will cause much harrumphing in certain quarters. I can't help feeling that this is not so much an award for his literary output - what has he done in the last few years, really? - but for his political views, which, I dare say, are in tune with those of the Nobel committee. And of course, given that he has a very serious medical condition, it's maybe a question of if not now, when? Should be an interesting acceptance speech!