Jeremy HildrethMonthly Archives: July, 2009
Why to bother keeping up appearances
I know Ignalina nuclear power plant is scheduled to close at the end of this year. And rationally I know that managing two atomic reactors — even if they are almost identical to the vintage Soviet RBMK-1000s at the heart of the Chernobyl hiccup — and keeping an aquarium have nothing to do with each [...]
Dispatch from Kaliningrad 1: The bridge to Tilsit
Stuck at the Russian border for 6 hours.
Tourist Friendliness 101
One hundred and fifty euros for a Russian visa. Nearly six hours waiting to cross the border at Sovetsk/Tilsit. And 134km from there to the city of Kaliningrad/Königsberg. Königsberg Cathedral is the jewel of what precious little is left here of German architecture — the site the official tourist brochure says to visit first and [...]
True is not the same as credible (or edible)
I’ve been noticing some ads on CNN this week, the thrust of which is “visit Poland for the amazing food here.” These ads strike me as odd — and of limited effectiveness — because even if true, they’re not credible. I have worked with Poland, I have been to Poland, and I live in London [...]
Video games and branding
Let me put my cards on the table: when it comes to video games, I’m an Atari 2600 guy. That’s about the last time I played with the things, and I know that makes me a troglodyte. Which is why I was glad when my friend Ajaz Ahmed, chairman of AKQA, one of the great [...]
Where the place branding unicorns live
Something fell onto my desk today that reminded me again of one of the clichés of place branding that just never goes away: the self-described LAND OF CONTRASTS. I guess it sounds like it would be an appealing marketing claim. But it’s not. Period. In fact, I’ll buy dinner for anybody who convinces me that [...]
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