Online defamation

The issue of the ‘offensive’ picture of Michelle Obama appearing in Google search results poses an interesting dilemma: who decides what is right and wrong on the internet? Libel laws are notoriously difficult to apply across borders and the source of any defamatory material cannot often be difficult to ascertain. Nevertheless, as the old joke goes ‘where there’s a will…… there’s usually a greedy lawyer trying to get in on the act’!

Having defamatory material posted onto your web presence can lead to very significant liabilities being incurred by your brand. Our websites constitute ‘publishing’ just as much as publications or marketing material – but on a global scale.  So called Web Governance is becoming  a hot topic as unwary brands permit content generators to post all manner of ill-advised, incorrect or just plain illegal content with only manual editorial control to save them.  The automation of content governance is clearly going to be an important compliance issue for all website owners and I think we, as marketing professionals, need to get a grip on the compliance of our web content using tools like Vamosa Check & Fix, before we get our backsides tanned by the lawyers.

 

Posted by Geraint

Through the eyes of a child

The other day I was watching my three year old son playing with some Lego, it was fascinating to watch him play with total creative freedom. Instead of recreating what was displayed on the box, he was using his imagination and making something completely different. It was the way he studied and assembled the pieces in a unique and interesting way that fascinated me – there were no pre-set ideas of what should be created, no thoughts of ‘what if this is not right’ or ‘what will people think?’ Everyday is a new adventure for him, there are new things to learn and
new discoveries to be made.

It is this that we, as creatives try to re-capture in our own work, it is the way in which we look at things differently to gain an alternative perspective and the need to find that ‘something special’ within a product or service to set it apart from the others. It helps us to solve many of the problems that face us when we are presented with that first creative brief and that blank sheet of paper.

This way of thinking can also be applied to the rest of the creative agency, or to any business for that matter. Just by stepping back and ridding ourselves of any preconceived ideas, we can gain a different angle to many of the problems we may face everyday.

Sometimes we could all learn a lot by becoming that small wide-eyed, adventurous child we once were, without fear or prejudice.