Saturday ( carefull - I get political in this one )

I was going out later - but as Old Town Hastings is in the grip of a stomach bug epidemic, I've canceled ( or 'been' canceled - whichever works best ) - so I'm having a slow start to the day and not walking the dogs until I've had my coffee.

Worked at home yesterday, and it was pretty good - did quite a lot and cleared up the house a big. I'm having a big clear out starting today - jumpers that shrank in the wash, broken crockery, bits of strange stuff I never get out of boxes etc. As much as I loathe the phrase 'de-clutter' I really need some space.

Had a laugh yesterday talking to someone about 'cosmic ordering'  - Noel Edmunds is a big fan - personally I think it's bollocks - just another feel-good, positive thinking, quasi evangelical cult, we tried cosmic ordering some trivial stuff to see if we could get in first - she waned a 'Henry Hoover' - I suggested her 'cosmic' angel might be dyslexic and she get Henry Cooper instead. I gave up any pretentions of modesty and went straight for this instead. It's very similar to my old house in Brighton, in exactly the right part of Hastings and I REALLY WANT IT... but that's not going to happen, apart from asking the cosmos for the extra 60K I would need, I bought a ticket for the Friday night lottery - the winners notification email must be late coming.

I'm also going to cull a lot of stuff in the garden that isn't coping well with the weather, no point being sentimental about dead plants - and to my amazement - my blackcurrants are now ready to eat, which I shall do later. I also have a few strawberries ready and another harvest of Rhubarb is due.

I've been working this week on a branding exercise - coming up for a new name for a retail division that has to work on multiple levels and be very accessible. We have already put forward about 100 suggestions - with about a dozen that are pretty strong - one in particular that I'm really keen on. If it gets accepted, it will be quite familiar on the UK retail food scene ( but nothing flash... ). I've done this quite a few times now with some success and I really enjoy it.

I was thinking about the way that 'creatives' approach this kind of project and how we work - when I read that Kraft have apologised to Naomi Campbell for using the phrase 'Move over Naomi, there's a new Diva in town'. I can tell you now from the 'inside' that there was never any intention to be racist - in fact I'm 100% certain that the creatives, design managers, production people and executives are probably still scratching their heads trying to understand what Ms Campbell is seeing. It's blatantly obvious the meaning that is suggested and why the phrase was used.

Confectionary Chocolate is a very strange product, personally I'm enraged that it's generally advertised as some kind of narcotic that young women are addicted to and can't live without - locking themselves away in boudoirs, wearing silk underwear and fellating chocolate bars to a dreamy, candle lit voice over. Perhaps Ms Campbell would prefer the concept that women are moronic, phemerone led chocolate addicts?

The famously deranged, drug addicted, anger managed, meglomanic hypocrit ( no - I've not forgiven her for getting on the PETA bandwaggon, then falling off for money ) has made a huge fortune selling herself - and whilst she can claim credit for being the first European black supermodel, she has exploited her colour to some considerable and profitable effect too. Of course - I understand why someone who was abused as a child in school with the phrase 'chocolate' might be more than sensitive to it - it's an unforgivable thing, but chocolate isn't racist - neither was the advert, rather than throwing a hissy fit she could have joined in a more adult debate - finding racism where there is none is not a good thing. She made herself even more absurd by telling us that 'now, black people can't even eat chocolate'. She also seems to have no problem being called a Diva - the real subtext of the add... after all, she's never win that argument in court.

I do a lecture occasionally that includes a number of icons and graphics that have been developed by religious organisations that are totally inopropriate outside the context of the religious community - a graphic of a priest consoling a small child for a fostering charity quickly takes on pedophile overtones when viewed with fresh eyes. It happens because the designers and clients worked within a specific cultural environment and would be aghast that anyone sees such things - or because they are so wrapped up in the visual they forget to 'read' the work ( there is a children's fashion store in NY called Kid's Exchange - the neon says KIDSEXCHANGE ). That's all that happened in the Kraft case - nothing more - but now a group of creative professionals have been branded racist and probably unemployable - going down in industry history for making the famously bullish Kraft grovel an apology to a woman who owes her fortune to being offensive and litigious.

In truth - at some stage in the production process, someone who saw this add must themselves have been black and raised a concern if they had one - or at least was trained to weedle out these things - that's where a huge organisation like Kraft failed, not spending enough time looking for things that people 'might' find a problem... shame, it's going to make the industry duller and less creative - and actually make it much harder for black people to be visible in advertising. I've spent 20 years working in this industry and I've never, ever come across an instance of race being an issue in advertising, not once. Traditionally, one of the main reasons you see so few black faces in print and advertising is because it's so incredibly hard to get black skin tones to photograph and reproduce well whilst retaining enough detail and features to 'work' the shot. Next Directory were the first to regularly use black models with success, simply because they had the resources and production values to get the print quality right. Any imbalance in the print run ( which always happens in long runs ) and the skin can take on a really unatractive hue - pushing towards the blue or green caste that is more manageable the less ink is on the page, issues with the paper and you can get 'dot gain' where the skin becomes darker and visually eaches away from the eyes and teeth creating really unatractive images. Print is so much better now than it used to be and we see really good quality photographic images - so skin colour of all hues can be reproduced with confidence, accuracy and quality, that's a good thing. Retouchers have often lightened dark skin to enhance the features and make them 'read' on print for practical reasons. I've only worked on images with black models a couple of times and I was rubbish at it - it's really hard to get right. You need an expert and a good photographer who understands how to light and compliment the model - there are more and more of them now and digital photography makes it far easier to capture accurate images and colour ranges, even in newsprint and cheap print runs - there is very little excuse to get it wrong.

Anyway - that's getting away from my point, I don't think the add was racist, and I think Campbell was very wrong to make her point the way she did. I'm sure that other people will disagree and call my nieve - but that the way I see it. Personally, I'm more offended by the way chocolate is advertised that I find demeaning and patronising to women... of all colours.