I have updated my Facebook status with my bra colour

Yesterday, I logged in to Facebook, and found a bit strange that some of my female friends had a colour on their statuses. Just a single colour, like white, red or black. Polka dots was also an increasingly popular status to add to my confusion. Even a male friend dared a proud green, that was much commented throughout the day.

Was it all just another Facebook throw a snowball moment? (or was it an hamburguer?). Was it meme? Did anyone really know what was going on? Bloggers were just as confused as the users and the virtual discussions begun. At some point, the rumor that it was the colour of your first bike start to spread, but the pink with white flowers should have given an hint that this might not be entirely correct. The poor male who said green was apparently referring to its bike, though a latter post on wooly items didn't help him to restaure his pride. At some point, there were as many users asking why the colors as those updating their statuses.

The answer could not be more simple - women have been posting their bra colours. And this was all nothing but an extremely well suceeded vira campaign of uncertain origin, to raise awareness on breast cancer and early detection. Apparently, on Tuesday or Wednesday, a few women received a chain e-mail that sounded like this:

Some fun is going on . . . just write the color of your bra in your status. Just the color, nothing else. It will be neat to see if this will spread the wings of breast cancer awareness. It will be fun to see how long it takes before people wonder why all the girls have a color in their status Haha.

Whit in a few hours, the message start to spread around and thousands of women changed their statuses to their bra colours. Until now, nobody has claimed ownership of this mail and to this moment is still uncertain whom or when started this viral campaign. Or indeed why. In fact most Breast Cancer Associations were cautiously denying ownership of this campain. They are happy with the outcome, but they were still figuring out happened. Even the breast cancer awareness ♥ I updated my Status with my Bra colour ♥ Facebook group was surrpised to have an excess of 20 000 new fans by late Friday afternoon.

So, what colour is your bra?

Takashi Murakami - Superflat First Love

First, Takashi Murakami and Louis Vuitton united efforts to revamp the old Monogram Canvas pattern. Six years after, they resume their collaboration to create Superflat First Love. This animation was released earlier this year as a download available for Japanese mobile phones only (you could take a look at the trailer, though). The full blown video is now on YouTube:

Louis Vuitton and Takashi Murakami - when high street shopping meets manga

Louis Vuitton is one of the oldest fashion houses in the world, having been founded 1854. You can find what seems like LV purses everywhere you go these days, but chances are, only a small percentage of them are authentic. Ironically, one of their most popular patterns, the signature Monogram Canvas, was created to prevent counterfeiting. The Monogram Canvas was introduced in the market in 1896, and the design was based on the late Victorian era trend of using Japanese and Oriental motifs.

 

More than one century after, it is still trendy to use Japanese motifs in design. In 2003, the Maison hired Takashi Murakami, a Japanese artist known for his colorful creations and manga influenced work, to re-invent the serious looking Monogram Canvas. Murakami created then the Cherry Blossom pattern, in which smiling cartoon faces in the middle of pink and yellow flowers are strategically placed atop the Monogram Canvas. The limited edition products made with the Cherry Blossom pattern were an hit, and are, still to this date, very popular.

One of the things that Murakami does best manga animation. As a part of the marketing campaign, he created a short film around the LV and the new Cherry Blossom pattern. A girl named Aya is swollen by a panda and guided into a manga world decorated with LV’s patterns and multicolor monograms:

 

Six years after the original release, Louis Vuitton is now getting ready to launch a new project with Takashi Murakami. The new collection is called Multicolor Spring Pallete and its release earlier this month in Tokyo was built around another short film created by Murakami. The sequel is called Superflat First Love and is only available as a mobile download in Japan. But, we can take a look at the trailer:  

Never Without a Friend - Fisherman's friends

An evil and persistent cough made me run to the Kiosk and buy some Fisherman's Friends to clear my throat and get some momentary relief. For some obscure reason, I was under the impression this was a typical Swiss thing (Swiss fishermen? Seriously?). But, an English friend soon would make clear that this strong minted lozenges had been invented in Fleetwood in the Lancashire on the North West Coast of England.

This coastal village was once know for its flourishing fishing industry and their fishermen were used to depart for long fishing expeditions in the North Sea and the Article Circle. They would often suffer from cough, cold and bronchial problems from the prolonged exposition to freezing cold and weather conditions.

 

One of the first residents of Fleetwood, was an young talented pharmacist by the name of James Lofthouse. Amongst others, he created in 1865 a medicine containing menthol and eucalyptus oil that proved to effective to relieve the fisherman from the cold symptoms.  Lofthouse latter transformed this strong liquid into small lozenges, easier to transport and to administer. As the legend says, the fishermen soon began to refer to the lozenges as their friends.

 

The lozenges exist in their current form relatively unchanged since their creation, though new flavors and varieties were added to the product line. They also still come in paper packets with a retro look and feel.

Fisherman's Friends, anyone?