Spin cycle: when pricing tricks don’t wash
Currys’ TV ads talk about savings in full pounds but fragment prices into digits. Does this verbal pricing breach UK broadcast advertising rules?
When communication fails the tennis-ball test
Throw someone a tennis ball and they’ll hit it. But throw someone ten and they’ll miss them all. The same applies with communication – and that can be a fatal problem.
Breaking the mould: when chocolate design defeats self-control
What happens when a company shatters the convention of grid-based chocolate bars by introducing irregular chunks?!
Have you seen the danger signs?
Here’s a question for drivers and Highway Code buffs: when does a national speed limit sign tell you that you are NOT allowed to drive at the national speed limit?
Toilet habits: three ways of telling people what to do in the loo
Blocked toilets are a nuisance. But if you're responsible for lots of loos, figuring out how to ensure people treat your toilets with care could drive you around the u-bend.
The Plan for Drivers: Pay and dismay?
‘One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them.’ Afficionados of The Lord of the Rings will recognise this, but swap ‘Ring’ for ‘Parking App’ and it sums up the car-parking ideas outlined by the goverment in their recent Plan for Drivers.
Are dog-poo signs barking up the wrong tree?
Signs prodding dog owners to do the decent thing and pick up their pooches’ poo typically takes one of two forms: the official approach threating fines and the social approach with polite requests from the community. But perhaps both are barking up the wrong tree.
The Plan for Drivers: Does this drive you mad?
The government’s new Plan for Drivers has been driving me mad. For starters, while trying to send a message of “We love motorists”, it fails to realise the statistics it uses show that even most motorists hate motorists!
Empathy trumps accuracy
When we answer a question or solve a problem, what answer are we seeking to provide? Is it better to give the answer we feel is right or the answer we know is right?
Not possible is not impossible
‘Not possible’ can feel like it means exactly the same thing as ‘impossible’. However, there’s often a big difference. And I’ve recently encountered businesses using ‘not possible’ to suggest ‘impossible’ and avoid the truth which is simply ‘We don’t want to’.