Quater away in Moscow

Do you drees to the left or to the right, Sir?

2008-06-13T02:25:00.000-07:00

I am right now at the airport in Moscow (cool they have the same WIFI network like in our flat) and I have just been through the safety check. Here in Moscow they have even X-ray scanners for the people... You have to put out your belt and your shoes - so I almost felt naked, but as I saw what the controlling guy saw I felt even more naked...

so now I try to kill some time, still 2h20 till my flight....

Last day in Moscow

2008-06-12T05:06:00.000-07:00

Bye bye Moscow

67 days are over now, tomorrow I m flying back to germany. We had a great time over here and got produced some stuff. Now it's time to wait for some other ideas if atleast one of 3 ambient Ideas and a TVC really gets produced, that would be pretty awesome :D Let's see.
Of course here are some new pics from Moscow:

Russian buses on the leash

Saatchi sports

The Yum Yum club where Chris a german guy does invite a lot of famous DJ's

Monster garage Limo for a wedding

When the oven is striking we are frying the fries in the pan

exactly...

I guess some kids get nightmares from this

International evening

2008-05-31T14:11:00.000-07:00

This evening was pretty international. At first we saw the first half of the soccer game germany vs. serbia in moscow via internet on a mexican internet stream and after that we met Holger a former Miami ad school student in a german "Biergarten" with a Chinese - New York Photographer and another russian photographer and art buyer....

Mexican sport moderators are really into - it i just say "gggggooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaalllllllllllllllllll"

Left: Holger who is now working for 2 years at BBDO Moscow

Right: My team partner Ratko original form Croatia (fits to the international evening)

Ratko and me ate the first time in our life's "Weisswurst"and that in Moscow... Even more strange was for us that it was very tasty

The two photographers, very funny guys.

Left: Paul Eng www.pauleng.com

Right: Dima Gushchin www.dimagushchin.com

Some impressions

2008-05-29T11:08:00.000-07:00

So nothing really new to report from Moscow...ah yeah the sun is shining again :)

I just post some pictures from Romans party - well lets say pics of his flat and just a few other interesting pics.

No I am not taking pictures of old ladies taking a crap...thats the cashier lady. In Moscow there is normally one toilet cabin the cashiers place.....

Art Buyers home what more to say

Switch off the door please

Inspired by Amsterdam I guess

Nails n Cheese

In this tent I ate the first time tongue salad

Honey next to the plane is one free!!!

Looks like a mobile-phone store in germany

Next to Romans flat

Thats how Romans grandfather learned german...

Something with something

2008-05-20T09:29:00.000-07:00

Well I recognized that I started almost every headline with some(thing) so why not this time too? Maybe cauz it sux but anyways...

I have some interesting pictures for you about outdoor advertising in moscow.

Viva la communism

Hey lets place a huge display at the river

Vodka Advertising is just allowed in metro station because its "indoor"

But I heard the russian vodka brands are pretty clever and are launching pseudo water subbrands that look exactly the same like the Vodka bottles to advertise it outdoor. I have never seen it maybe its just a rumor

which of these 300 billboards a meter you wanna rent? from a4 to super size

behind the red square

before the red square... I heard the rent cost are ca $ 1 000 000 a month

So Rolex has to sell at least to watches a month :D

unfortunately I cant tell you how much you have to pay to hang up 4 real BMW M3 on a giant billboard... see more pics of it even at night here :

http://www.brainstorm9.com.br/2008/04/02/o-gigantesco-outdoor-da-bmw-em-moscou/

Something that has nothing to do with advertising

2008-05-17T15:05:00.000-07:00

Today we have been to the first concert of "Die Ärzte" in Russia. It was pretty cool the club was quite small, I think round about 500-600 people have been there! Closer you cant get anymore. Not like Rock am Ring :-D . My pictures are almost all blurry but I also uploaded a video on youtube.

Something that has to do with advertising

2008-05-17T03:25:00.000-07:00

Marcus, Felix and me won a golden student ADDY Award for our Smart campaign. You can see the complete list of all winners on this website: http://www.aaf.org/default.asp?id=782#student

Some pics from the red square

2008-05-15T23:01:00.000-07:00

Today I am again lazy in writing but finally I uploaded now some of the red square pics i shot 3 weeks ago. So its more the ad part...

Disneyland Moscow

The mausoleum of Lenin

Some things are different

2008-05-13T11:23:00.000-07:00

Marcus told me that my blog has way to less copy for a copywriter so I gonna add here my list with things that are different in Moscow compared to germany !

1) The streets and walkways are very dusty you should wear sunglasses when its windy, but there is almost no rubbish on the street.

2) Cap drivers drive like hell

3) You can drive by unofficial caps, just stop a car and give the guy some money (don’t do it without native speakers)

4) There are more German S-Classes than in Germany – there are in general more luxury and hot cars than in any other city that I have been.

5) The same is true for chicks - but not for guys (sorry girls)

6) Without the Cyrillic alphabet you can read almost nothing – almost nobody speaks English outside the agency.

7) Food especially cheese and meat is very expensive. Bread is very cheap. Mc Donald’s menus are cheaper and a bit bigger J

8) Mc Donald’s is as huge as the airport in Paderborn

9) Living in Moscow is expensive in general

10) Cars don’t break at crosswalks – you should do it like the green man on the traffic lights... run

11) Some streets have 5 lanes in one direction but the Russians use it like 8 lanes sometimes. When on the highway is traffic jam they drive next to the street.

12) Advertising and billboards are everywhere and sometimes really huge

13) Escalators are much faster than in Germany and better stand the hell right

14) Russian TV is kind of strange they play a lot of American movies often with just one speaker who synchronizes everything. You can still hear the American actors a bit but unfortunately not enough. Commercials are mainly “normal” and not that creative, and/or adopted European commercials. They do strip on MTV at night…

15) Vodka is cheap (except of imported vodka) - Bacardi 0,7l is about 33€

16) Your apartment got two doors and 5 locks

17) The heaters don’t have a thermostat so you can’t stop it and even worth you cant turn it on if it’s cold.

18) There is a kind of chute in the stairways – smells often great

19) Supermarkets are opened 24/7 – very nice

20) Cancer is cheap a pack cigarettes costs 50 Cent

21) Steps are half as high as in Germany – curbs double as high

22) Even the oldest Lada got a car alarm with shock sensors that’s why you hear car alarm systems 24/7

23) Almost every car got black windows

24) Sometimes you see horses on the walkway

25) Using an elevator is always an adventure

26) Problems with cops can be solved by a few rubels

to be continued...

The Sunday trip

2008-05-11T12:12:00.000-07:00

Today we met with Roman and Michael to go to the flea market. It is pretty far away from our flat but it was worth it. You see a lot of old stuff and feel a little bit traveled back in time. You can get there also a lot of souvenirs like "matroschkas" and we have seen tones of old war medals, uniforms and even weapons like AK47s. After we discovered this russian flea market we drove to some beautiful metro stations which are also called the palaces of the people. Last but not least we decided to drive to the university. The first policeman didn't let us in but the second one on another gate accepted our "student id's".

Some pictures from the flea market

If you arrive there it looks more like a theme park than a flea market...

Dancing bears still exist, I wonder what PETA says to that...

Here are some nice Metro stations from Moscow

One of Moscow's universities

Strange you just need one Student ID for 4 people

Trying out the cafeteria first. Tea 3,5 rubel + Slice of Citron 3,4 rubel = 19 Cent

The view from the 8th floor. The building got more than 30.

"Victory Day" or you don't need to be James Bond to stand 10m away from nuclear rockets...

2008-05-09T04:18:00.000-07:00

Today the russians celebrate their victory over germany and the end of the war. The parade was the first with tanks since the end of the war. The day is public holiday and the most russian already started to celebrate yesterday. Parties will be till Sunday. Here are some pictures that I shot:

GUM

2008-05-03T14:28:00.000-07:00

Today we have been to the red square again, but this time we visited russians biggest mall called "GUM". It was built 1893 and its huge 75000 m² . It got 3 walks and 3 floors, in the middle is a big fountain and the roof is made of glass. A lot of high class shops are in there like Hugo Boss, La Coste, Jil Sander... So better bring a few rubbles with you when you want to shop their. Checkout the official website for more information http://www.gum.ru/en/

The red square to the left GUM, in the middle Saint Basil's Cathedral, right the Kreml and Lenin's Mausoleum

GUM

Some flowers for the Father's Day

2008-05-01T05:49:00.000-07:00

Today is Father's Day, well at least in germany.

Now we have 4 days free, so we going to explore moscow in the next few days. I gonna upload more pictures and hopefully some interesting stories than ;)

4 Vodka and an Ukrainian lunch

2008-04-24T21:41:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we went in the break with Sergey and some oth

er guys from the agency to an Ukrainian restaurant. The food was great! We drank 4 Ukrainian Vodka and after that we went back and had a review at our CD - it went pretty good ;)

Russian just drink with a toast. If you don't toast before drinking you are an alcoholic - if you toast every time you can drink as much as you can. After a Vodka they are used to eat something like gherkins or bread - or they just take a smell at a bread.

That's not a menu, now THIS is a menu!

From left to right: Roman, Sascha, Sergey

Our flat

2008-04-22T11:52:00.000-07:00

Some of you ask me how our flat looks like, so here it is,

thats what you get for 1500$ a month in Moscow ;)

Safety first 4 locks and 2 doors

Livingroom/ Ratkos room

Our "loggia"

Our bathroom (on the right side is a shower)

The kitchen, the stove switches of every 20-200 seconds...

The view out of the kitchen window

My room, I have no door, but we organized a curtain now

Awesome-strange-russian-gay-party

2008-04-21T12:55:00.000-07:00

From left to right: Roman and Andre

Last friday we went out... After we finished our weekly drinking ritual in the agency we went to a birthdayparty of Andre a former designer of Saatchi . About 10 people from the agency drove to the party. We took some unofficial caps, which basically works like tramping with paying a little amount of money. We can suggest to not do that without any russian speaking guys on your site. Our cab driver didn't really now where to go but fortunately Roman knew it so we had no problems. The party was somewhere far away from the agency in an industrial area in a private club. As we where in the club we got to know the motto of the birthdayparty it was "kitten party" and from this it follows that a lot of basically gay people wore cat masks. They played house music and we got all drinks like wodka redbull for free - nice :) . Later some queer guys in higheels sang a song with a lot of "gays" in the lyrics for the birthday boy and around 4 o clock we "tramped" with Roman back home. Here are some nice pics which a Saatchi guy shot:

http://cocha-bepeck.com/kittens-pussies/

and some of mine which i just shot with my mobile phone, sorry for the poor quality ;)

Before we left i took a look behind a curtain and this is what I saw O.o made that place even more strange...

getting a new "cab" home

Writing for another Blog first

2008-04-18T00:36:00.000-07:00

Ok, I haven't written much here but today I wrote a small text about our internship at Saatchi and Saatchi for another Blog: http://aweekincreativity.blogspot.com it's the blog of Robin Stam a former MASE Student who works now at Duval Guillaume in Belgium

Ratko & Thomas in Moscow

>Interning at Saatchi & Saatchi

Almost two weeks are already gone, time is running and life is fast here. Sometimes you think death is even faster especially when you arrive at the airport and jump in a cab to drive to the flat. 120 km/h in the city is not unusual and when there is a traffic jam an 8 lane street suddenly turns into a 12 lane street. Everyone is driving like crazy maybe that’s because you can buy your drivers license here on the black market. We never have seen that much expensive cars like Maybach’s, S-classes, Hummer’s and Porsche on one place. They are parking everywhere especially on crosswalks or sidewalks in front of restaurants. Moscow is a pretty expensive city which has its own charm.. Our flat is about 35 square meters and costs about $1500 a month. The good thing is Saatchi pays for it. Food in general is expensive too, fortunately Mc Donald’s is cheaper than in Germany! The people here on the street aren’t smiling much and look cold for us, but if you get to know some you will see that the Russians are normally friendly and cooperative. That is what we experienced from the people here at Saatchi. Everyone here speaks English so we have not that language problem like on the streets or in shops. As for now we are working on four different Briefs and have enough to do. Yesterday everyone sang, “Enjoy the Silence” from Depeche Mode for an online video and we got a task to run zigzag over the red square with a camera. Well now start wondering if that is creative or a typical job for interns? We don’t know either.. The agency is pretty small it just has 68 employees overall 3-4 creative teams and space for 60 people. Every Friday evening there are free drinks and snacks at Saatchi so we have to leave now and catch a drink!

p.s. When you see horses riding Friday night on the walkways in Moscow it doesn’t necessary has to mean that you drank or smoke too much.

Yeah... now me too...

2008-04-13T06:45:00.000-07:00

Never thought that I would create an own blog, but the quateraway in Moscow finally gave me a reason to publish another blog in the endless internet!