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Nikolaus descending from heaven? I thought that was Santa. Well, what is the difference anyway?!

Whereas the Krampus and the Nikolaus are supposed to hit off their job in distributingdisciplinaryactions and candy filled Sackerl (bags) this weekend, the UPS man* seems to be the American equivalent for the Austrian traditional pre-christmas happy clappy cheery time that usually is dominated by Glühwein sessions and “feasty” meals.

I guess that sums up the pre-christmas happy clappy cheery time here in Austria telling from the amounts of Glühweins consumed and Weihnachtsgänse (X-mas geese) slaughtered in our fair Alpenrepublik (republic of the alps).

*Why the UPS man? Well, an American friend put the following thing in his/her status (in order to maintain anonymity). Cracked me up.

“Seien Sie nicht überrascht, wenn Sie in der Praxis andere Kontenklassen vorfinden.” Just did the following thing…” http://is.gd/abv5.

(Do not be surprised if you find different classes of accounts in practice.) - my tweet on it.

Rules

• Grab the book closest to you. Now.
• Go to page 56.
• Find the 5th sentence.
• Write that sentence as your status.
• Copy these instructions as a comment to your status. Or link to this entry providing the rules: http://is.gd/abv5.
• Don’t go looking for your favourite book, or the coolest one you have - just grab the closest one (I even grabbed a German book, so really no being picky about the closest book).
• Also feel free to post the results here as a comment.

Over at Laughing Squid they posted this great video of a Virgin Atlantic Boing 747 approaching and landing at San Francisco International Airport (SFO). In case you wondered how to master that, well I guess all it takes is to watch the video and the rest, well, that’s basically done best with the motto “try as you go.” If you want to land this tiny birdie, please let me know, so I can make sure my loved ones and I are not the happy passengers.

Love the communications in it. So when I read the Laughing Squid post saying “you’re just a fan of air traffic control communications and NASA-style checklists” I knew this video simply was for me!

The best part of this nearly 10 min (I watched them all and was excited all the time!)? The Captain-Passenger announcement in the end of course. But you know that I’m into airplane stuff like security videos, especially the part of “Please fold up the tray in front of you, and fasten your seat belts!”

Guess what? This video reminded me of how badly I want to go back, to the US of A…

Today in AMC (Accounting Management Control) the following dialogue happened:

Professor: Auswirkung auf den Gewinn? Kollegin mit dem Brot?! (Impact on profit? Colleage with the bread?)

Studentin: Plus 4850?

Professor: Frau Kollegin mit dem Brot, Mahlzeit. Es stimmt. (Colleage with the bread, good appetite. That’s right!)

Very funny at the time, and a quote to remember! :)

I’m more than happy to present a blog posts that will hopefully result in a series dealing with the Austrian advertising Landschaft (scenery). Here is a short introduction to why I like commercials whereas others might think they are pure annoyances and a mere byproduct of mass-production.

Buy From Us. Big Time.

One of the major things I’ve always been interested in was advertising - especially TV ads - ever since I was zapping through TV channels. Driving down the highway, walking around in the city, waiting to get on the U-Bahn (Vienna Subway), it’s everywhere. Companies engaging in getting across one single message. Buy from our products. Big time.

Generally, advertisement - especially when done wrong - is a real pain seen from the buyer’s perspective. However, there is a certain beauty in really good advertisements. They can be moving, entertaining, saddening, election-deciding (O!) - but let’s keep in mind - also annoying.

Fifty People, One Question: New York from Crush & Lovely on Vimeo.

Logo designers must have been willing to give up pretty much everything for this job. To do Obama’s logo design for the 2008 campaign. Obama signs, buttons (Julia - an American friend who recently visited - got really cool comments on it running around with it in Vienna) and his homepage were a huge attraction in this year’s campaign. Generally you can say that his campaign did a good job in encouraging people to get involved.

O’s success was build on a firmly structured design and was his basement whenever he appeared. He burned the O into all our retinas successfully. The O will be remembered. For sure.

Here a good read: The New York Times interview withSol Sender, the graphic designer behind Obama’s campaign.

Update (Dec 13th): If with that great interview you’d like some more visuals served. Check out this walk-thru of logo ideas that were offered in the final stage of finding the perfect brand for a moving candidate.

Note to myself: I turned into this huge Obama blog. This was one of the last posts. Hold your fingers crossed.