FunkThat!Think.Inspire.Create.


Maintenance…we all need to do it

Well woman have to be the best at maintaining themselves, but I have to say sometimes people scare me when they don’t maintain themselves or their surroundings. It would be great if everyone just stopped littering and started recycling – yah dream on….

I had to laugh the other day when I received a certificate from Mondi recycling saying that I’ve become a mutual partner with them and thanking me for taking this step forward – when I have been trying to get in touch with these people for the last 2 months. They just don’t return calls / answer mails. I’ve wanted a recycling bin from them since September and now I am wrestling through these papers daily to get to my desk. My make shift recycling bin is pretty nifty even though no-one comes to collect any of it so the pile gets higher and higher but I’m deteremined to keep on doing it until maybe one day someone from a recycling company rocks up – maybe in my dreams in South Africa. I’ve actually emailed a few recycling companies, and to my surprise haven’t heard a word…..it’s like they really don’t want new clients they really don’t want us to be GREEN???
All I want to do is recycle so can someone hook me up with a company that is wanting my recyclable goods….

Desperatley seeking South African Recycler….



The danger of Brand Terrorists!
December 6, 2007, 1:15 pm
Filed under: Blogging, Branding, Business, Customers, Technology, Trends | Tags: , , , ,

Sadly, a company I know recently experienced a small taste of negative Citizen journalism in the Web 2.0 world. I have always been pretty outspoken about being a Consumer Activist, but I think there is a big difference between activism [for a positive outcome] and Brand terrorism.

The definition of a terrorist is widely documented in our time. Brand terrorists are people that will go as far as stretching the truth [they often have hidden intentions] and want to hurt…. its more like sabotage. In the case of this company, blatantly untruthful inclusions were made in this terrorists ‘case’ to his minions. This is unlawful BUT fear drives company responses in cases like this, as anything you say could be taken entirely out of context and make the brand appear as if they are guilty, not to mention how many more potential terrorists could then mushroom up that would spiral more out of control. Most companies are unfortunately still not seeing how dangerous these people can be. They spend their time building a portfolio of negativity for your brand with the intention of ensuring they plant the correct seeds in the minds of their followers. Its about taking the corporates down…its about winning and its cheap to do. The only tools these people need are: a large network, a computer, a sharp tongue and a gripe.

So this begs the question is this right? I am ALL FOR freedom of speech, but this is a form of online ‘gossip’ based in most cases on shallow facts. Even if there is an element of truth to some of it, lying is something I cannot stand. Recounting your own personal experience is one thing, adding all the extra colourful ‘add-ons’ to keep your audience at any cost is quite another. Advertising on a site also does not help the situation, I believe some people use ‘gossip’ stories to make their site sticky and increase traffic, so this kind of thing can pay….

In the end these terrorists are bullies that end up ruining things for those using the web platform/tools and are legitimately communicating to people/customers and clients. You can unfortunately not discount them and they are dangerous but we need once again to find the balance. This behaviour chips away at the web’s credibility…..eish it always takes just one…

Posted by: Candice