Very much liking the current LG campaign in the US which is built around those text messages we ought to think twice before sending. I was discussing it this week in London with students from Maryland's Towson University and making the point that it's beautifully integrated across a number of different media. Traditional TV commercials and posters are linked to the web, Flickr and Twitter. I've even befriended the Ponder Beard on Facebook and he's been kind enough to stop by for a chat.

Campaign site: www.giveitaponder.com

A great deal has been written about the way in which charities, campaigns and political movements have borrowed the techniques of commercial marketers and advertisers. Very often, however, the marketing profession would do well to look at the ideas that evolve spontaneously as part of political protests. Many are simple, but ingenious.

Mass movements - particularly those which are denied the right to free speech through conventional channels such as television, radio and the press - have increasingly been using the internet and mobile technology to promote their messages. These newer media are, of course, by their very nature more democratic and difficult to censor effectively. Sometimes, however, activists are forced to think more laterally.

Iran has seen a great deal of turmoil in recent months, with a protest against the bogus election results turning, over time, into a challenge to the theocratic regime itself. Low-resolution video footage on sites such as YouTube has given us a glimpse of the brutality of the government forces, while Twitter has played an important part in the dissemination of news. There are two other developments that have particularly caught my eye though.

The first has been the use of rooftop chanting at night to show the strength of anti-government feeling - a form of protest that was used successfully against the former Shah in the 1970s, prior to the Islamic revolution. The second, reported more recently, is the campaign to deface the Iranian currency with protest slogans. As Iran is a largely cash-based economy, this has even greater impact than it would on the streets of, say, London or Paris.

Perhaps this is the ultimate viral campaign? The medium is ubiquitous, as the currency is in constant use and people can't ignore it. The message spreads quickly via retail outlets and market transactions and the notes can find their way into the hands of absolutely anyone. What's more, there's a constant circulation - at least until such time as the authorities can remove the offending cash.

The government's solution currently is to say that 'defaced' notes will no longer be legal tender from January. I suspect this tactic is doomed to failure by the sheer number in the hands of the public and confusion over the status of individual notes. When exactly does a scribble or a smudge of green ink become a subversive political statement? When does a messy note become an illegal one? Generally, if people receive a 'dodgy' note or coin, they always like to kid themselves that it's ok, don't they? And hope that they'll be able to pass it on. After all, if they accepted it as genuine, maybe someone else will?

Next time you encounter a celebrated viral campaign for a big brand, spread via email or social networks, it's worth remembering that messages are probably travelling more quickly and effectively in Tehran on the back of 1,000 rial note.

In the past, we'd distinguish between traditional forms of advertising aimed at mass audiences and direct marketing techniques which targeted groups or individuals directly. One of the interesting things about the brave new world of Web 2.0 is that these distinctions are becoming blurred. It's no longer TV campaigns, billboards and press advertising versus direct mail, e-shots and targeted web content. We can take an olde-worlde discipline such as radio advertising and adapt it to the brave new world.

Take Spotify, for instance. I was discussing the brand at a recent CIM course on marketing communications and making the point that the music is interrupted by pretty bog-standard commercials. One minute, we're enjoying virtually unlimited 21st-century tunes streamed over the web. The next, we're being treated to one of those cheesy ads that I grew up listening to in the 1970s on LBC or Capital in London. Unconvincing characters spouting stilted dialogue, dreamed up by the agency B-team.

While it may not be easy to drag the creative work kicking and screaming into late 2009, it is becoming possible to make the advertising more relevant to the listener. In an intriguing twist on the personalised communications we see on social networks, Spotify's Daniel Ek recently announced that his business would target ads based on customers' musical tastes.

Apparently it's possible to tell from my choice of tracks whether I'm more inclined towards BMW or Audi. This sounds intriguing, but as someone who's in the market for neither car, I'm wondering if the potential of the personalisation is likely to be rather limited. There's no doubt we're getting another glimpse of the future. How quickly it will arrive, however, is anyone's guess. In the meantime, my listening pleasure will still be disrupted by British Gas and some company which checks the memory of my computer in a free online test.

A number of my clients and delegates on training courses often wonder whether Twitter can truly be used as an effective marketing platform. Too often, we think of it as a vehicle for conveying a message, whereas actually it's an instantaneous method of anyone conveying a message on our behalf.

US space agency NASA recently invited 100 of its followers to Cape Canaveral for the launch of the Space Shuttle. The enthusiasts were only too glad to act as PR ambassadors for the American space program.

Yet another example of marketing communications passing out of the hands of the 'professionals' and into the hands of the general public. And just one of the many ways in which NASA has attempted to exploit the new technologies.

Watch this space.

A fine example of German-style 'buzz' marketing. I wonder what viral messages these flies could carry in the future?

Everything's 4-star, except the hotel...

Earlier this year, budget hotel chain Premier Inn claimed in its UK newspaper advertisements that it offered "everything you'd expect from a 4* hotel".

Having worked in the ad industry, I know there's inevitably a certain amount of poetic licence in the promotion of products and services. Sometimes, however, boundaries get crossed. I protested to the Advertising Standards Authority about the misleading nature of the claim and was pleased to see this week that the watchdog ruled against the Whitbread-owned business, saying that the ads breached three sections of the relevant codes of practice.

As I frequently tell my students, however, the British regulatory system tends to be rather toothless. The ads won't appear again with the same form of words. But the campaign is now over and some months have elapsed since the original insertions. Is there any way we could create a system that works faster and carries more clout?

Driving Fatigue advert from Driving Fatigue on Vimeo.

This film has been put together by two recent graduates of Kingston University. Works very well, I think, at a conceptual level. Also has high production values for a portfolio piece. Hope these guys get some agency work.