NevilleHobson.com

I watched a fascinating documentary on the Virgin1 TV channel last night - the story of the Tylenol poisoning crisis in 1982.
Seven people died in the Chicago area after ingesting Tylenol Extra Strength capsules that had been deliberately laced with potassium cyanide poison.
The murder mystery remains unresolved to this day and the killer has [...]

Well, perhaps not a typo exactly, although the Wikipedia definition says common usage of the word ‘typo’ extends to mean errors in grammar and word form.
That’s what we have here.
Take a look at the words on the labels of this (rather tasty) hot Belgian chocolate drink, made by Mars Drinks in the UK.
The photo [...]

If you create videos for online use and would like to include context-relevant links in those videos to content elsewhere on the internet, today’s launch of Overlay.TV could be of interest to you.
You’ll also likely be interested if the same possibility applies to almost any existing video you can find on the net in [...]

If there’s one food product guaranteed to provoke strong reactions from people, it’s Marmite.
This quintessentially British product first began manufacture in 1902 in Stoke on Trent. Today, it’s sold all over the world. The brand is owned by Unilever.
There’s a good history on Wikipedia.
Marmite is made from yeast extract and is a dark, almost [...]

My post yesterday about Qtrax drew some comments disagreeing that it is the PR disaster I’d characterized it as.
Whether it is or not (and I think it is), let’s try this one on for size.
Today, budget Irish airline Ryanair is in the public dock accused of crossing the boundary of taste with a provocative [...]

As the chairs in this photo might indicate, the hip Soho Hotel in London has quite an eye-popping venue for a meeting.
This was the scene early yesterday morning in the hotel’s screening room  just before people arrived for the start of "Influencing the online influencers," a meeting organized by Mantra PR in which I [...]

The latest edition of The Economist asks whether Facebook, MySpace and other social-networking sites can transform advertising.
There’s already plenty of activity on social networks such as these by companies large and small, using their brands as personalities in endeavours to engage with real people.
You only have to look at YouTube to see many examples of [...]

In 2005, the European Union published a Directive on Unfair Commercial Practices that, among other things, outlines “sharp practices” which will be prohibited throughout the EU, such as pressure selling, misleading marketing and unfair advertising.
The Directive is due to become part of EU members’ national laws in early 2008. Social media channels such as blogs [...]

BrandRepublic reports on a new survey from Jupiter Research that looks at social marketing in Europe.
The survey found that more than 50% of online advertisers in Europe have run advertising campaigns that encourage user interaction and two thirds will do so in the next 12 months.
Viral marketing campaigns are the most common form of engaging [...]

An almost organic shape, a skin that provides some unique functionality and a curious name are three characteristics that mark the Cocoon, a new clamshell 3G mobile phone from O2 launched in the UK in August.
I’ve had one to play with since last week, courtesy of VCCP, O2’s ad agency. (Disclosure details here.)
In my first [...]