The Weekly Round-Up: 17.03.06

When you think 'Polo', what do you think?

The mint with the hole? A type of Volkswagen car? Or perhaps a product line from Ralph Lauren?

The reason the Round-Up asks is this triumvirate of Polo brands have been involved in something of a tug of love for the Polo.eu domain name.

All three made perfectly valid attempts to register the name but - as The Highlander will attest - there can be only one.

And the lucky company to secure the Polo.eu domain name was... wait for it... Volkswagen.

Of course.

The Round-Up isn't going to get drawn into cheap gag-cracking about towels on sun beds but the German company beat its rivals to the domain name, pipping Ralph Lauren, which owns Polo.com, by just over three minutes in submitting the application. Little more than a minute later, third-placed Nestle registered its interest in Polo.eu. All three had submitted their claim within one five minute period.

The reason for this rush is due to a sunrise period which was declared open in December during which trademark-owners can register their interest in the new top level domain name.

The whole process will shortly be thrown open to the general public... and then the clamour will really begin.

The win for Volkswagen supports claims that German businesses have so far been way more proactive in registering their dot-eu domains... so get involved.

Moving on, one established online brand, lastminute.com, found itself thrust into the spotlight this week following a ruling by the Advertising Standards Agency relating to some of the company's promotional material.

Everybody's favourite travel and entertainment website recently ran an advertising campaign publicising special offers on children's tickets for shows in London's West End.

The problem was they chose the slogan: "Like Gary Glitter in a sweet shop, you too can have your pick of kiddy treats in London's theatre world."

No really, they did.

Since launching the ad in one of its popular HTML emails, and enjoying some subsequent conversations with the ASA, lastminute.com has admitted there is a line in the sand and the company has accepted that on that occasion it crossed it.

Mentioning the name of a registered sex offender in order to advertise children's theatre tickets, lastminute.com conceded, was a bit much.

You don't say.

A statement from the ASA said: "The ASA noted the ad played on contemporary, tasteless humour... We considered the reference to a registered sex offender in conjunction with images of children in an ad for children's theatre was likely to cause serious or widespread offence."

The Round-Up raises an eyebrow at the slightly nonchalant tone of: "The ASA noted...". As though they were perhaps sat around, sipping coffee, shooting the breeze when one of them said: "Hang on a minute... that lastminute.com email with Gary Glitter... does anybody else think that's a touch close to the bone?"

The ASA said lastminute.com had expressed regret that the email had caused offence and added: "They said their aim was to create advertising which stood out."

And they certainly did that.

Anybody taking up any kind of offer on theatre tickets may well be familiar with the annoyance of poor mobile phone etiquette.

It seems there is a total disconnect which happens in some people upon being asked to ensure all mobile phones are switched off.

Apparently it leaves some punters wondering: "Does that mean me as well?... probably not. I'll just leave my phone on. In fact, I'll put it in one of the pockets of my bag or jacket that I rarely use... thus ensuring it's unlikely I'll find it before it's rung loudly for at least seven seconds."

'Well enough is enough' say some US film companies who are reportedly lobbying 'the powers that be' to get permission to jam mobile phone signals in cinemas, blaming the annoyance of poor mobile phone etiquette for falling attendance.

The Round-Up personally thinks they have a very good point, having avoided cinemas for this very reason for some years now (and also because you wouldn't invite these grazing masses around your house to watch a DVD, so why actually go out of your way and, what's more, pay for the privilege of watching a film with them).

But of course, the concerned citizens all respond...

"What if somebody has a heart attack and we need to ring an ambulance?"

While somebody having a heart attack three rows in front is indeed likely to be just as distracting as somebody talking on a mobile phone - but far more concerning - the frequency with which the two things occur really are at opposite ends of the spectrum.

But never mind, let's just suppose it did happen. Whatever could you do?

What about going outside and calling an ambulance on a mobile phone? Or, how's about running out into the lobby waving your arms and shouting 'quick somebody call an ambulance, there's somebody having a heart attack'.

Call the Round-Up old fashioned but it might just work.

It's pretty simple. In fact the Round-Up genuinely believes the people who ask this question should actually hang their heads in shame, because what they're really saying is 'I can't believe you'd expect me to get out of my seat in order to save somebody's life'.

Let's get this right. They would call if they could do so from their cinema seat but not if they had to get up off their arse and go to any trouble?

What a friendly bunch we are.

Many of you will of course be aware that today is St Patrick's Day, so it's likely theatres and cinemas will be surrendering more customers than ever to the pubs and bars this evening as we all become parched Guinness drinkers for the evening.

However, one party invite for a St Patrick's Day bash thrown by technology PR agency 'Prodigy PR' last night for journalists and their client Creative caused a few raised eyebrows on the silicon.com editorial desk this week.

Getting into the spirit of things the company decided, as is customary, to go to town on the St Patrick's theme - including a drinks list of Irish-sounding cocktails. But there was none of the usual shamrocks and shenanigans for these folk.

Clearly these drinks were the result of a flawed brainstorming session.

Cutting to the chase, the brains behind the event decided it was appropriate to name a cocktail 'The Irish Car Bomb'.

It appears the thing they thought of when conjuring with the concept of Irishness was the brutal terror campaign of the IRA during the 1970s, 80s and 90s.

Nice. Pats on the back all round for everybody involved in that one.

Of course, today of all days, many Irish families tire of the usual, all-too-easily-wheeled-out stereotypes.

But the Round-Up isn't convinced that offering to replace these with the imagery of terrorist atrocities is really any more of a positive step forward.

And finally, also in need of a little more thorough approval are our good friends over at The Guardian whose front page on Monday boasted a wonderful typo (which is a polite way of saying somebody may have simply just hit the wrong key by mistake but in truth this one is a little too contrived to be a simple accident).

'Vodaphone'... began a front-page headline.

All these confusing technology names are clearly stumping them up in Farringdon.

It does raise an interesting question though - because of course that's how it probably should be written. No arguments there. But we're not really sure it's really The Guardian's place to set out correcting such things... especially not if it spells it 'Vodafone' throughout the rest of the article.

The Round-Up would have liked to witness the tutting sub-editor who changed it from an 'f' to a 'ph' with a roll of the eyes and a slightly superior 'tsk' aimed in the general direction of the degradation of modern standards of smelling and grammer.

• Murdoch: Newspapers must learn to love the iPod

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• School bullies taunt victims over the net

• Are you a normal broadband user?

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