Last Word: The Drum's diary

To say it was warmly received would not quite reflect the real picture, in fact it would be an enormous lie. The identity has divided opinion across the land, due to its resemblance to a previous logo created by Marque.

The media pounced on this story and those cheeky so and so’s at the Scottish Sun invited their readers to design their own logo for the Games (main picture). Sun readers sent in their logos but the chosen winner was Mr Derek Reid, 32, of Falkirk.

Derek said: “My logo is in-your-face, puffy and bold, which is what Scotland’s all about. I thought the original design was pretty bland. We want people to glance at our Commonwealth logo and immediately recognise what it represents.”

Perhaps Derek should now be appointed to the COI or Scottish Government’s design roster too?

Telegraph’s Frielick launches a new sideline as chat show host

It’s certainly been a tough year or two for media owners, but last week the Telegraph Media Group looked to put a few smiles back onto the faces of the media community by hosting a lunch time event at the up market Marriott Worsley Park Hotel.

The forthcoming General Election and the World Cup were at the top of the agenda and the Telegraph’s Manchester sales director Gary Frielick was on top form as he hosted interviews with the Telegraph’s political editor Andrew Porter and former Arsenal footballer turned pundit Alan Smith.

Frielick had the audience in stitches with some of his wisecracks as he discussed subjects such as bullying prime ministers, philandering footballers, Austrian fine wines and the latest gadgets and gizmos. Frielick took the stage like a natural and it must be reassuring for him to know that if this advertising thing doesn’t work out then he could be a shoe-in when the BBC looks to replace Jonathan Ross.

Roses judging proves an education and a re-branding opportunity

It’s quite surprising what you can learn at a creative judging session. Take last week’s Roses Advertising Awards judging for instance. There we all were getting stuck into the latest creative offerings when one piece of work came to the table which was based around the concept of a teabag.

Dave Waters piped up: “You do know what tea bagging is don’t you?”

As it turned out 50% of the panel didn’t so Dave, in his eloquent tones, went on to describe what would constitute a session of tea bagging.

“You’ll tell me you don’t know what munting is next,” went on Dave.

Again, half the panel were unfamiliar with this particular sexual practice (and once Dave enlightened us as to what munting involved we wished we had remained unfamiliar).

The judging day eventually moved on to a very successful conclusion.

However, the morning after one Drum reporter spotted what could well be an incredible re-branding new business opportunity when they spotted a van crawling along the M80... (See gallery)

Welcome to the Muppet show...

But who’s really the muppet?

The Drum had an interesting email exchange with the MD of an advertising agency recently, after he had contacted us to express concern about our online system which allows people to anonymously comment on stories.

Our first reaction was surprise because not only was this individual an enthusiastic user of the anonymous button, but frequently used it to criticise The Drum itself. So we could not resist emailing him and asking if he had nothing better to do than criticise our business all day. His reply was unequivocal: “What the fuck are you talking about muppet?”

To which we responded by sending him a few examples of his recent posts.

He replied: “I am very sorry to tell you that you’ve been stung. A few people in a bar last Friday were wondering, after a chat with Julian Kynaston, whether The Drum had the integrity to keep anonymous, anonymous. As a publisher of marketing news we hoped (for your editor and journalistic staff’s last shred of integrity’s sake) that you did. It was agreed we need to smoke you out. Surprise, surprise, you rise to the bait and now we know.

“Thanks for that, I’ll tell the troops”.

To which we replied: “The anonymous button means we cannot release the identity of the commentator to a third party without their permission under the terms of the Data Protection Act. It does not mean we do not know who is saying what.

“Obviously your bid to smoke us out has been going on for a significant period of time; we actually have all the comments you have posted since we began accepting them. We do not understand why you attack our business at every opportunity on one level, whilst being quite happy to take advantage of the platform it affords you on the other.

“Perhaps in future if you have something to say at least you might have the balls to by-pass that anonymous button and put your name to it. Then the market can decide who the muppet really is.”

Needless to say this particular agency is not in the business of offering PR. Their excuse however, was one of the most creative things they have done in years.