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Happy Canada Day!

You are cordially invited to our Annual Canada Day BBQ and Sports Day! This year it’s going to be extra great because Canada Day falls on a Wednesday. That means that everyone who usually goes away for the long weekend is actually going to be in town. It’s a BYO everything, including friends, BBQ’s, Food, Sports Equipment and Booze (plastic cups). It’s always crazy busy so riding your bike is the call. 

Last parking lot at Spanish Banks. – July 1 2009 from 1pm onward.

Best Summer Ever!

Summer has arrived, the sun is shinning and it’s almost Canada Day!

Now if only I could avoid getting a farmers tan from being outside on lunch breaks.

Newly launched Semperviva Yoga College website has now been followed up with it’s own facebook page. Become a fan today and don’t forget to check out their main facebook page too.

Cowie and Fox has been hard at work producing great creative since 1990, but we can proudly say that our current team has taken it to new levels. We are by far the best we have ever been. Just have a look at some of our recent work!

Twitter eat your heart out. Here’s an up to the minute status update from the legends @ Cowie and Fox:

• David Manzl, our Creative Director, is acclimatizing to normality after a year of touring and being a rock star.
• Lance Cummings, our Interactive Creative Director, and his lovely wife Rachel are celebrating the birth of their new baby girl, Sienna.
• Jon Tang, our Sr. Account Manager, is basking in glory that comes with owning the fastest dog in the world.
• Melanie Holtz, our other Sr. Account Manager, is relishing the 17 extra minutes of sleep she gets now that she lives within walking distance to work.
• Mel and Tay-Lann, our Account Admins, are new and hungry to prove themselves. They are also incessantly smiling which is nice.
• Alex Rakic, our Interactive Developer, is continuing to torment Noel by refusing to lose a single tennis match.
• Nicole Phillips, our Graphic Designer, is relaxing in her newly bought apartment
• Velko Vechev, our Interactive Programer, is maintaining his status as the coolest and most socially normal programmer ever
• Arlin McNeil, our new Office Manager, is considering the revised office title “God Send”.
• Rufina Chang is still fattening everyone up with tasty and exotic treats

More than gratuitous flattery, these individuals do such a great job we think they’re verging on the status of demigods. We were going to spill the blood of virgin chickens in their honour, but there’s a by-law against animal sacrifices within six meters of an office premise. So we’ve opted for the less controversial “Award of Awesomeness” and a few simple acts of obeisance. Bow to the awesomeness that is: Alex Rakic, Lance Cummings, Rodney Castro, Tay-Lann Mark, Melanie Holtz, Jon Tang, Arlin McNeil, and Melanie Roy.

In the early 1950s, a public service campaign featuring a monkey and tortoise introduced the slightly bizarre ‘duck and cover’ – quite literally, bending down and covering your head with your arms – as the standard method of protecting yourself against a nuclear attack. It seems laughable now, but the US government was pretty serious about it at the time. Of course, they never actually believed in anything that was being said in the ads, but they knew that people needed to feel like they were prepared, so that should the worst case scenario occur, they had a way of protecting themselves. It meant that people could sleep a little easier and not worry about the Russians and their nuclear arsenal. Ignorance is bliss, right?

We can all have a good laugh at the expense of our previous generations, but perhaps we should think a little bit before we assume that we are beyond this kind of thinking. With the global financial crisis upon us, everyone is scared. Unshakeable pillars of our financial world have crumbled into dust, and others are being propped up by a makeshift pieces of two-by-fours and good will. Uncertainty is everywhere. And nobody likes uncertainty. Terrified companies are cutting themselves down to the bare bones, putting up the storm shutters and praying that the typhoon passes quickly. Spending money at this time seems counterintuitive. But just like ducking and covering, refusing to spend only provides a false sense of security. (more…)

http://www.chipsnotdeadyet.com

Update: lululemon founder Chip Wilson and Cowie and Fox heated up the pavement once again with the fun and engaging Chip’s Not Dead Yet Memorial Mile. The event last weekend showcased C&F’s playful creative amongst numerous superheros, rockstars, scantly clad runners, street performers and a bustling beer garden. Approximately $100,000 was raised for BC Children’s Hospital Foundation and Chip is going to match that. It was a great success and one heck of a party!

Not that there is anything wrong with statues, monuments, buildings or roads that are built to commemorate somebody’s life, but the one unfortunate feature of this kind of commemoration is that they almost always depend on that somebody being dead. It’s nice to be remembered, but certainly nicer while you’re still alive. That’s why Lululemon founder, Chip Wilson, decided to forge his own legacy instead of waiting to die and have someone name a cul-de-sac in his memory.

Chip decided that part of this legacy would be a yearly charity run. Unlike most charity runs, Chip’s run is pretty short, just one mile to be exact. The brevity of the run was specifically set so that anyone could join in. The soul purpose of the event is to get as many people together to do something good, and to have fun while doing it. In order to find a way of capturing and sharing this spirit, Chip enlisted his long time agency, Cowie and Fox, to see what it could do about making this the largest and ‘funnest’ one mile race in the world. (more…)

there’s an anonymous curly haired guy who seems to have stolen nicole’s desk. he calls himself a writer and unplugged nicole’s adorably irritating, usb owl that blinks and stares unnervingly into your soul.

he has some kind of accent. word on the street is it’s fake. he likes to think he’s english, but i’m pretty sure he’s australian. it’s hard to tell because he mumbles and avoids direct eye contact.

there’s something i don’t like about him. maybe it’s his sketchy typing. i’m pretty sure i saw him hit the ‘r’ key with his middle finger.

If you stop by our office on Fridays after 4pm, you will very quickly discover a very furious game (fight) happening right at the doorstep. It’s Alex and Velko going at it! But don’t be alarmed the loser (usually me) gets the whole weekend to forget about it.

Come on by and join the fun!

http://www.bootlegger.com

When you hear Bootlegger, you probably think ‘jeans’ – if you’re thinking ‘hillbilly moonshine in a darkened Chicago alley’ that’s a different bootlegger all together. Seriously though, with 98 stores across the country, Bootlegger has placed itself as Canada’s jean expert. Finding the right pair of jeans isn’t as easy as it sounds. Different brands fit differently, different denim hugs differently, different cuts will make you look different. One size doesn’t fit all. That’s why at Bootlegger, they offer a lot more than just a good jean selection. Sure they carry the brands that you want, but more importantly they can help guide you into the right pair of jeans. They won’t just sell you the brand because it sounds cool because that’s not nice, and the people are at Bootlegger are very nice, knowledgeable people. That’s why they’re called Jean-e-ologists – they’re experts that care, basically loveable scientists of denim.

So if you’re a company that prides itself on being Jean-e-ologists, your website had better live up to expectations. Cowie and Fox has designed and built the Bootlegger brand website for years, and has made sure that the experience was always a reflection of the ideals that the brand lives by. (more…)