Fast Lane – Fun Theory (Ads that are fun to watch)

Here are some fun and effective ads. [HT Bud]

Fast Lane – The Slide

Fast Lane – The Shopping Carts

Fast Lane – The Elevator

By the way, the tiny cameras used in the videos are Go Pro’s cameras. Check out my video interview with Nicholas Woodman, Founder and CEO of Go Pro, at 2010 NAB Show.

Attend 2010 Banff World Television Festival

Since I first attended Banff World Television Festival (bwtvf) as a CTV Fellow in 2006, I have reported on Banff and NextMEDIA conferences every year since. I was thrilled to attend Banff and report on CTV Flashpoint, ran into Brett Wilson & Sarah McLachlan and interviewed Brett, interviewed Ron Moore (Battlestar Galactica), watched Doug Ellin (Entourage), and interviewed David Hoselton (House).

Every year, I eagerly await announcements of exciting events or speakers that will lead me to block off my time and decide I will attend bwtvf and NextMEDIA conferences. OK, I know it is a short drive from Calgary to Banff, but I don’t want to report simply because I have to. I want to attend and report because I LOVE to!

Well, for 2010, because of one man, I am again going to attend and report from Banff World Television Festival with the most excitement and eagerness because I just LOVE Ricky Gervais and consider Ricky one of the most talented comic mind and producer/creator of shows in our time.

If you are remotely connected in the entertainment business, find time to attend 2010 Banff World Television Festival and you will learn a lot, plus you get to meet Ricky. Here is the press release from Banff about Ricky.

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Ricky Gervais to be Awarded Sir Peter Ustinov Comedy Award at BANFF / nextMEDIA 2010 – British comedian and recent Golden Globe host to participate in tell-all interview about his career and success

February 8, 2010, 9:10 pm

Banff, AB – The Banff World Television Festival and nextMEDIA are delighted to announce that Ricky Gervais will be presented with the Sir Peter Ustinov Comedy Award, at this year’s event taking place June 13-16 at the Banff Springs Hotel in Banff, Alberta. The award acknowledges outstanding comedic performances – prominent comedic actors who have received this prestigious award include John Cleese, Bob Newhart and Kelsey Grammer.

In addition to being recognized for comedic excellence, Gervais will also chart his career and success to date, in an interview, which delegates can attend.

Over a 10-year period Ricky Gervais has become the most influential British comedian since Charlie Chaplin. He is an award-winning stand up and his tour ‘FAME’ became the fastest selling UK stand up show in history, selling an untouchable 100,000 tickets in 9 minutes.

Named one of the 100 Most Influential People In The World by Time Magazine, one place behind Nelson Mandela, Ricky has also won two Emmys and three Golden Globes. ‘The Office’ is the most successful British comedy of all time being shown in over 90 countries with seven remakes.

“This is probably the greatest honour of my career. Only the Nobel Peace Prize can top this, but I will only accept that in person if the ceremony is held somewhere as beautiful as Banff. I think they Fedex, luckily,” says Ricky.

“You might be an economist if you refuse to sell your children because …”

I found the following WSJ article and forwarded it to my economist friends as I found it pretty funny. I highlighted a few interesting bits and added some comments. Enjoy.

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Secrets of the Economist’s Trade: First, Purchase a Piggy Bank

By Justin Lahart (WSJ)

Academic economists gather in Atlanta this weekend for their annual meetings, always held the first weekend after New Year’s Day. That’s not only because it coincides with holidays at most universities. A post-holiday lull in business travel also puts hotel rates near the lowest point of the year.

Economists are often cheapskates.

The economists make cities bid against each other to hold their convention, and don’t care so much about beaches, golf courses or other frills. It’s like buying a car, explains the American Economic Association’s secretary-treasurer, John Siegfried, an economist at Vanderbilt University.

“When my wife buys a car, she seems to care what color it is,” he says. “I always tell her, don’t care about the color.” He initially wanted a gray 2007 Mercury Grand Marquis, but a black one cost about $100 less. He got black.

Some of the world’s most famous economists were famously frugal. After a dinner thrown by the British economic giant John Maynard Keynes, writer Virginia Woolf complained that the guests had to pick “the bones of Maynard’s grouse of which there were three to eleven people.” Milton Friedman, the late Nobel laureate, routinely returned reporters’ calls collect.

Children of economists recall how tightfisted their parents were. Lauren Weber, author of a recent book titled, “In Cheap We Trust,” says her economist father kept the thermostat so low that her mother threatened at one point to take the family to a motel. “My father gave in because it would have been more expensive,” she says.