You know that Hyundai i30 ad with the cop out of the first season Underbelly? He introduces us to the barista who drives a Hyundai because it suits her lifestyle? In the the 30 seconds it goes to air we’re introduced to her, learn a bit about her and meant to trust her.

“Ooh she looks friendly. I like friendly people. Oooh she’s a barista. I know lots of nice baristas. Ooooh she drives a Hyundai. I want to drive a Hyundai.”

Sadly, it doesn’t work like that. She’s an actress…

As a facilitator of modern communication and a gauge of popular issues, you’d assume the Facebook team would be open to dialogue with their users. Yet, finding out how to contact Facebook on the Facebook site is near impossible. When all else fails, try searching for ‘contact facebook’. This is what you will get…
Yep, listings for groups on Facebook petitioning to let them contact Facebook. It’s all a bit silly isn’t it?

Earlier this week the UN released a report with the results of the Human Development Index. In short, it is the best place to live. Australia came in behind Norway as having the second highest quality of life in the world. It was a world wide news story and reported in countries including USA, UK, Korea, Canada, Ireland and India.

If you look at Origin Energy’s homepage you would be pretty convinced they are doing their best to help the environment. Yet, if you ask Origin Energy to send your bills via email rather than post as I did, it is not possible. There is no paperless option. Surely this should have been a priority for a corporation focused on ’sustainability’?

At the risk of turning this blog into a bloopers reel, today’s Essential Booby… I mean Essential Baby site might be worth a peak:

Ahh… who would have thought a light beer could put hairs on your chest?

It doesn’t matter how much you try to control the conversation. If there is enough passion, rogue voices will find a way to be heard. What does matter is how you act everyday and how you respond.

Many of you would be aware of the collaborative post between Matt Granfield and myself questioning the allocation of $14.7m to Starlight’s Livewire project and my subsequent letter to Senator Conroy asking for a breakdown in costs.
Last week, to my surprise, I received a response. But the surprise was not in the content but in how I received it. Remember, this was a response from the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy. He sent it via the postal system (postage paid and all) and from his assistant secretary …

It’s not a fun week to be in the fast food business. Have a look at three social media disasters which have been served over the past week:  
1. Domino’s add boogers and farts to their topping options Result: Over 440,000 views. Almost 4,000 predominantly negative comments. Major press including the BBC, Sky, The Sun and News Limited run the story. Employees fired and threatened to be arrested.   
2. McDonald’s boost kids entertainment with temporary trash adventure grounds

Result: Over 26,000 views. Over 100 predominantly negative comments. News Limited run the …

When loading, the Commonwealth Bank iPhone layout looks like this…

One of their competitors, Suncorp, has a logo which looks like this…

Notice anything unusual?