Burn Films

We just came across this new work from Publicis Mojo in Sydney for Burn, Coca cola's new energy drink. Unlike the hyped, high-octane approach taken by most energy drinks, Coke has chosen communities where "energy" plays a real role. There are three films, all shot documentary style to preserve the realism of these communities. The skate one in particular is very reminiscent of Spike Jonze's Lakai Intro. They can all be found on the Mojo website (in much better quality), and are pretty awesome. It is a big shift for Coca-Cola, in the way they approach communications.
"The crux of our approach was to involve pre-existing communities in the creation and distribution of the key campaign assets, rather than the brand launching it on its own," said Micah Walker, ECD Mojo Sydney.

Who Are You Having For Lunch?

Mastercard, in partnership with the Eden Project, are attempting to bring back community spirit into the UK with their latest campaign "the big lunch". From their website:

"Basically, it's a party in your street, in everyone's street. On 19th July we're asking the people of Britain to stop what they're doing and sit down to lunch together. Why? Well for lots of reasons really but mainly to put a smile back on Britain."



For anyone who needs convincing about the importance of community they give some pretty compelling stats:

• According to research conducted by the BBC last year, 97% of UK communities have become more fragmented in the last 30 years.
• "Even the weakest communities in 1971 were stronger than any community now." -Professor Daniel Dorling
  
• In April of last year, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation conducted a survey of 3,500 people. Their biggest single concern, across the social spectrum, was that communities are weak and people are increasingly isolated from their neighbours.
• Numerous studies around the world show that there is almost a mathematical correlation between people's sense of security and happiness and the number of neighbours they actively know.

Think You're Targeting an Independent 20-something? Think again.

More people are living alone, more children are being raised by single parents and more grown-up children are living with their parents than ever before, according to the latest Social Trends report from the Office for National Statistics. The theme of this year’s report is the changing aspects of households, families and children.

What surprised me:

• Almost a third of men and a fifth of women aged between 20 and 34 live at home with their parents.
• The number of people living alone doubled from 6% of the population in 1971 to 12% in 2008.
• Single-parent households nearly tripled from 4 per cent of the total to 11 per cent between 1971 and 2008.
• In 2007 the lowest number of marriages were recorded since 1895.
• Women are more likely to give birth before they turn 25 than get married.