One day later, the world is still in shock and mourning over Wednesday's introduction of Wenlock and Mandeville, the official mascots of the London 2012 Olympics.

AP

2012 Olympics mascots Wenlock and Mandeville

--> Graphic designers continue to weep openly in the streets. Schools have brought in crisis counselors to comfort frightened youngsters.

I should warn my clients that I may have to take the week off sick.

I just got my first glimpse of the new Olympic mascots.

What is it about city-level Olympic Committees that prompts them to commission the most horribly-designed, awkward, ugly, bulbous-and-or-spindly, ridiculous, meaningless, frightening and/or nauseating mascot characters they possibly can? It's as if each new Olympic city is in a competition with all the previous to see how much bad publicity they can generate, because they know quickly horrendous designs will go viral with a V – as in "venom". As long as they spell your name right? Is that the theory?

Take, for example – or just take them away, please – Wenlock and Mandeville, the official mascots of the London 2012 Olympics.

To begin to describe how terrible these mindlessly-concocted soulless, disturbing, one-eyed alien cartoon creatures would be to tackle a week-long writing project. And thank goodness, I don't have the time.

Just one look at the photo is worth ten thousand words from a poison pen.

I'm looking forward to a time when character designers and ad agencies will link arms and sit down in the face of the pepper spray of Olympic Committee insanity, and just refuse to create mascots at all. Better none than Deadlock and Bennyhill.

The only bright spots in this kind of crime against good design and the eyeballs, minds and stomachs it seeks to inform and protect, are the act's unifying nature – like the world reacting to a terrorist attack – and some really funny opinion articles like the one by Simon Dumenco at Ad Age. What's sad is that with all his seeming hyperbole, his description of the reaction to this attack on branding sense isn't all that exaggerated.

And the tweets are almost as funny.

The twitter reaction slideshow:
http://adage.com/article/the-media-guy/twitter-reacts-horror-2012-olympic-mas...

Ad Age's original story on yesterday's announcement:
http://adage.com/article/adages/olympics-set-ridiculous-mascots/143973/#

Ever wonder how many social media apps you've given access to your personal info? Facebook and other services allow you to change your settings, and delete apps... But figuring out how to do that can be bewildering, taking 4 or more clicks to finally get to the settings page.

Here's a great little service that provides a shortcut to the permissions settings page for your account on popular services— Facebook, twitter, Google, Yahoo, LinkedIn, Dropbox, Instagr.am, and Flickr.

Just make sure you're logged into the service first, then click on one of the icons on this page to be beamed straight into controlsville.

Start your new year off clean!

Site: http://mypermissions.org/

Here, ladies and gents, is the classic dumbing-down of a marketing campaign, after the classic Borging of a smaller company by a larger one.

Obviously, the gray-haired actuarial-worshiping suits at Allstate just cannot grasp the value of the unique identity that had been created for esurance. Instead, they've chosen the "safe" route, assuring that esurance will now be lost in the ever-increasing background noise of ads we're all bombarded with every day.

I suppose the creatives at Leo Burnett -- the new esurance agency of record -- felt they just had to put their own fingerprints all over any new campaign... just to mark their territory.

The guys at ad/design agency Duncan/Channon, San Francisco, and the crew at W!LDBRAIN, Inc. (and later at Special Agent Productions - with W!ILDBRAIN alums), and the animation shop Ghostbot, created one of the stickiest campaigns ever, and made esurance the third most shopped insurance company online.

But hey, who cares about success?

To be fair, esurance itself decided in 2010 to start "maturing" the brand, and Erin Esurance would be demoted to a lesser role, as a more real-world feel for the mass-market campaign took over.

But watching this drivel from Leo Burnett is like watching Ripley scampering about the Nostromo, amid red lights and strobes, steam and dripping water, and Mother's voice droning on relentlessly about how much time the last human has to reach minimum safe distance.

In terms of imminent self-destruction. Not in terms of excitement.

I suppose both Duncan/Channon and Leo Burnett had some focus group comments or survey numbers that told them their audience was maturing. But maybe they forgot that people don't ASK to be bored by advertisers as they get older.

But, good luck to esurance. Right now, they're said to be operating independently from the parent company, but if they keep de-marketing like this, they may very well end up getting Miscrosofted... Bought, watered-down, decapitated when the purchased execs object, and then totally absorbed and/or sold off in itty bitty pieces.

In other words, I'm betting the esurance brand will probably be euthanized by Allstate at some point in time. The guys in the boardroom have let all that Grecian Formula marinate their brains, and the concepts of "cool" and "interesting" have become purely frightening to them.

But if they don't maintain those new customers' esurance-era satisfaction ratings, the acquisition might not mean much down the line.

Regardless, R.I.P Erin and the smart, inventive, fun approach to talking to consumers she wielded like a lightsaber.

And now for the epic Thought Nozzle holiday greeting card for 2011-2012... The 12 Days of Christmas, in Record Time. Without all that repetitive singing. And with a cast of thousands. Well, okay, a cast of 76, plus a couple of rosy-cheeked cherubs. And as an homage (and with apologies) to Terry Gilliam.

Here's hoping your holidays are festive, and your new year is happy and prosperous (with or without leaping lords).

Stop by www.thoughtnozzle.com when you get a chance. We might even have some cookies left.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'd better get started on next year's card...

The HD version -- viewed full-screen -- is highly recommended for all the ridiculously intricate details. And crank up those goose-honkin' speakers!

HD Version: http://youtu.be/Oy6mEiGwouI?hd=1
Econo Version: http://youtu.be/Oy6mEiGwouI

Facebook continues to look for new, more inventive ways to alienate and p**s off its users.

Privacy debacles and constant design confusion apparently aren't doing the job.

So, they've decided to insert advertising right there into your news feed. That oughta make friends and influence people.

Taking a cue from twitter, Facebook will begin inserting Sponsored Stories in amongst the posts and comments you actually want to see, from actual friends.

Mashable's story on the news says Facebook claims most users will see a max of approximately one ad per day.

When twitter started the practice, I started my own: blocking each and every twitter account associated with a sponsored tweet. I'm pretty sure it won't have any effect, but it certainly feels good.

It remain to be seen of users still have enough will to rally against something like Sponsored Stories; they've managed to get some changes reversed in the past. But more recent controversial changes seem to have met with less tangible action than those in the salad days of bad privacy. Maybe Facebook has finally beaten all sense self-worth out of its constituency, and gained a China-like hegemony over their users' brains.

In any case, the once-bright line between content and advertising continues to blur and dim... and that can't be good for those of us who consume this stuff.

Facebook has become infamous for pushing out major privacy and interface changes, seemingly without ever talking to their users about what they want and need.

Now, FB is launching the previously-announced Timeline version of the interface; users can opt to convert their profiles as of today.

I have yet to make the change, but from what I can see in online coverage, the format might actually be an improvement. And while there will always be some users who are angry about any change, any improvement in our ability to access our posts over time will be a welcome change.

And any improvement in Facebook's like-to-backlash ratio will be an improvement for their rep.

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Coverage at CNET:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13506_3-57343500-17/facebook-timeline-goes-live-out...

Here's a solid piece of form-follows-function design: the "el BagPed" from workiture. (And no, "the el" isn't redundant. "el" is the product name.)

Maybe I'm a bit out of it when it comes to workplace furniture trends, but when I first saw this item's name, I had to stop and think, "what's a BagPed?" A creature with floppy feet? A foot-pumped bagpipe? And even the first photo didn't fully explain its function. I guess it's the "Ped" that threw me.

Turns out, it's short for "bag pedestal"... apparently, since the phrase "bag caddy" would be too ped-estrian.

The term "paradigm shift" is massively overused, and it would be overkill in this case, but that's sort of what happens when a new product category is created. If the inventor is lucky, we change our mindset about what we need... or at least what might make our lives a little easier or more organized. I work out of my loft now, so I don't need to haul my laptop bag around every day, but I can definitely see how those who do would go for this no-nonsense bit of craftsmanship.

There are several models of the el (a train platform for your bag?), including super-simple wood versions, which have a more Scandinavian feel. The el is made in Michigan, so there's a good chance the builders are passing on some of that same genetic code to these products.

Model shown:
http://workiture.com/store/el-bagped

Workiture's Flickr photostream with more models, and in-environs shots:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/workiture

Your business might not have a gajillion customers like Facebook, but all business owners and managers can learn from this; privacy issues can affect not only the consumers you serve, but your bottom line as well.

Facebook has settled a Federal Trade Commission complaint regarding their unilateral, unannounced changes in the way they handle and share their users' personal information. As part of the settlement, they've agreed to ask users' permission before making changes.

This may seem like common sense to you and me, but Facebook, Google, and other companies have been known to assume that their interests come before consumers' privacy.

Bad assumption.

Your customers often entrust you with a certain amount of personal information. Not only is it good PR to honor that trust and safeguard their info, it's also vital to your business as a whole. In this case, Facebook's initial (Guiness-book) IPO could have been held up without the agreement, and/or the social media giant could have been fined.

Even with the agreement to ask first, the FTC will be performing periodic audits of FB's privacy practices for the next 20 years.

Yup. Two decades.

This is anything but overkill; if you've seen your personal information sold to or shared with third parties by a website, you may know how much of a mess it can make. And if you have children whose information has been circulated, you know how scary that can be.

You may not be Facebook, but it's just a matter of degree. A small data breach or breach of trust can lead to some very big problems for a small business.

Let's be careful out there.

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Washington Post article: http://wapo.st/sarVhS

For anyone who claims that shooters have no effect on players because, "It's just a game, bruh" -- common sense, and now science, say otherwise.

fMRI studies show that regions of the brain associated with emotional responses and cognition have less activity in gamers.

The good news is that it looks like the condition can be at least partially corrected by laying off the controller for a while.

Every bit of input affects the way we think. It's analogous to "you are what you eat". My question would be, with what we now know about the human epigenome and the way it passes on the effects of behaviors and intake to offspring, will doctors at some point recommend that those who are trying to conceive not only quit smoking and drinking, but also playing violent video games?

Check out the research on the epigenome, and think it through. It may not be a bad idea.

http://mashable.com/2011/11/28/violent-video-games-brain-study/