**entry censored by Chinese Government. Thankyou for your cooperation**

After a heady bout of research at the British Library, a spare half an hour found me at the Taking Liberties exhibition. If documents outlining the intricacies of curtailments of feudal nobility give you a hard-on (on whatever happens to you if you happen to be female), this is for you. It was at times a little difficult for me to invest the old parchments with the sense of awe they deserved, but the copy of Magna Carta and the materials on female suffrage were quite arresting, as they obviously were to everyone else.

Moreover, kudos to whoever curated this and wrote the accompanying copy for making all the exhibits relentlessly relevant to today. It worked - I saw a couple studying the Laws of The Forest as they pertained to 42-day detention (or something), with the following exchange:
-Terrible, isn't it. So unconstitutional.
-...actually... I don't agree with you.
-What?
-...I just don't. I'm...sorry!

They rounded the corner at that point, but I like to think that the debate didn't end there, as it so often does in the real world.
Like the best adverts, the entire setup was designed to seize you and force you take a stance on what you saw. Everyone gets a wristband which they scan at various terminals, at which point they have the opportunity to 'vote' on various issues. This had the beautiful Huxleyan side-effect of reducing the individual to a number:

Best of all, these responses were aggregated in real-time, and available to view at a final, big-screen terminal at the end of the exhibition. The results were presented in a visually pleasing, almost artistic way, and almost made me go back in to vote for what I missed, which has to be a first for an exhibition. And, apparently you can continue your barcoded interaction online afterwards. The voting system was elegant in its simplicity, and makes me wonder why this hasn't been fully realised in the experiential world yet. Not the the seeds aren't there: voting at the co-op tills always makes me smile, and mine was one of the families that went mad for supermarket self-scan then promptly ditched it once the novelty wore off. When the synthesis is realised in the marketing sphere (and make no mistake, all the technology is there and affordable), we could see some really exciting developments. I can't wait to shout "I am not a number!" and mean it for a change.
A couple of final observations before I go enjoy the sun:
-In almost all cases, I voted for the wet-blanket wishy-washy middle option on the terminals. Is this a product of middle-class handwringing? Because it kinda pissed me off. Or is it a result of the proliferation of media meaning that we overdebate the issues, and can't take a side? Tough to say. Aww, I just did it again, huh.
-This child (?) has it right:

-Apt, Neil :)
Happy weekend, everyone! Go picket something...

The Top 5's Top 5: An End-of-year Opinions Bonanza!

It's the end of the year. A time for reflection, perhaps.

No. Reflection is for the weak. The strong must rank and compare for sumpremacy. That's why programmes such as "The 90s Was Nice, Wasn't It?" were culled and replaced with "HUNDRED GREATEST ADVERTS SHOWDOWN SLAPFIGHT" where you stay up past your bedtime only to find out that yes it was that one with the surfers and Leftfield all along, what product was that again oh right Guinness I don't really like that.

In that spirit, and to ponder a bit about what we're doing here anyway, I asked my five favourite blog(gers) what their five favourite blog(gers) are. The 'why' was optional. In no particular order, let the subjectifest begin!

Ben writes a blog called If this is a blog then what's Christmas?. It has whimsical polls, and large chunks of very well thought-out opinion.
I don't really read five other blogs.
I read Scamp's because the subject matter interests me and he's a mate.
I read Dave Trott's for similar reasons.
But mainly I read The Superficial because the writing's excellent, the tone is rude and there are ladies in bikinis.
I'd love to write more but I have to go for a drink now.

Simon Veksner, author of Scamp, is dangerously close to being more famous than BBH itself and should probably watch out, 'cos they'll waste him if he does.
http://strangemaps.wordpress.com/ I've always been fascinated by maps. If you like maps, you'll love this site.
http://curiouslypersistent.wordpress.com/ There are lots of people finding interesting stuff on the web and linking to it. But this guy Simon's is the best.
http://postsecret.blogspot.com/ A website that has moved me to tears, on more than one occasion
http://ifthisisablogthenwhatschristmas.blogspot.com/ Ben is my friend and he's a wonderful writer
http://cstadvertising.com/blog/ I love a good argument, and Dave Trott's blog is a good place to have one

Neil Perkin is a thoroughly clever chap who maintains Only Dead Fish, a mixture of near-NY Times investigative journalism and amusing clips from XKCD.
-Seth Godin's blog http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/
Brilliant thinker, consistent quality of posts and truly challenging and inspiring
-Brand DNA http://branddna.blogspot.com/
By Stan Lee Johnson, an Ad Creative in Melbourne Australia. Charming, witty, fun, creative
-And Another Thing http://whatsheonaboutnow.blogspot.com/
By David Hepworth, founder of WORD Magazine (one of my favourite magazines). Always entertaining
-Confused of Calcutta http://confusedofcalcutta.com/
By JP Rangaswami. Another brilliant thinker and writer
-Talent Imitates, Genius Steals http://farisyakob.typepad.com/
By Faris Yakob. He has an amazing mind and his writing is always full of fresh ideas and great thinking on the world of digital and communications

Have you guys heard of Dave Trott? He writes in very short sentences on The CST Blog which hit you all at once like a machine-gun full of knowledge bullets.
I don’t actually read a lot of blogs.
Mainly due to my ignorance of which ones would be relevant to me.
There are 4 blogs I check in on regularly.
Because I’ve found they’re often stimulating.
These are (not in order)
Scamp,
If This Is a Blog Then What’s Christmas,
Rory Sutherland’s blog on Brand Republic.
Vinny Warren’s blog on Escapology.

Everyone loves Anca and her reply would merit an article if she let me reproduce it in full.
-the opportunity to learn - this is where Dave Trott's blog comes in handy.
-the opportunity to compare different professional views -- here we have Simon's blog and W+K's blog.
-the opportunity to understand a market I'm not very familiar with -- that's why I read Alan Wolk's blog, The Toad Stool
-the opportunity to analyse how personal life can influence professional development and the other way round -- that's where Russell Davies' blog fits best.
-
Phew! As you can see, I've inadvertantly asked a bit of a small-world so a few names recurr - not to say that these wonderful writers don't desereve such kudos. Let's review our results:

-"He's a mate" - 3 mentions. It's not what you know, eh?
-Only two people felt like mentioning blogs that weren't about their own industry. Did they read too much into my question, or do people only use blogs for 'work' stuff? Let's hope it's the former.
-It seems as though the division between 'insight' and 'entertainment' was fairly even... though certain people (nice one Dave) managed to sidestep this issue with the word 'stimulating'
-Having followed up on the links I don't recognise I'd have to say that most of them are spectacularly well-written. It only goes to show what's out there when you step to an extra degree of seperation. Moreover, it seems to show that far from handling the online glut of info by refining it, the blog culture (bulture) seems to multiply it. For good or ill...

Thanks to all the esteemed figures who took time to take part. We couldn't have done it without you. I'll be doing another one of these, with new criteria, in the new year. As they say, It Could Be You.