Mad Men to Running Man
UPDATED: The advertising and media industry’s Mad Men days are well and truly over as Blood, Sweat and Peers is launched, a Nike+ based virtual running club where pain-thirsty industry folk gulp tap water instead of whisky.
The industry is well known for its competitive streak and Oz Dean, a renowned freelance digital art director, has taken this to the streets so everyone can challenge, join, compare, encourage or discourage other runners.
This virtual running community uses Nike+ so everyone can still enjoythe privacy of their own run and already boasts runners from agencieslike Host, Deepend, Pusher, The Furnace and Clemenger BBDO.
“Creatives vs. Suits, Guys n Girls and Sydney vs. Melbourne are allupcoming events,” says Dean, who conceived the concept whilefreelancing at Sydney’s best agencies like Host, Happy Soldiers, Droga5and Three Drunk Monkeys. With the help of the site’s technical directorMark Davies, the guys are making virtual running history sure tobalance the lives of many desk-ridden workers.
So, who can run the furthest in a month? Who can run the fastest 5k ina month? That’s all up to bloodsweatpeers.com. Here you won’t bereceiving a fancy gold statue for this industry win, just the title ofRunning King, a much harder crown to keep.
Sign up here. It’s freeto join. All you need is the Nike+ kit, a username, and to be in theadvertising, digital, media or film industry and above all to be in thebusiness of blood, sweat and peers.
UPDATE FROM OZ DEAN: You asked me to get back to you recently on the membership drive for Blood, Sweat & Peers. The numbers went from our regular 12 runners to 33, which isn’t bad considering the challenges are restricted to our industry and you need a Nike+ kit/account to take part.
It’s only the 7th March and so far Simon Elliot (a creative from The Globe) is winning the distance challenge at 85.53kms. He’s also up top in the speed challenge, running 5kms in 21mins 09 secs
Individuals currently running are a mix of creatives & suits from the following agencies:
Happy Soldiers
Clemenger BBDO
Droga5
Pusher
The Furnace
Eskimo
Make
Moon
FinDesign & Effects
JR Interactive
Hub Creative
Kaleidoscope
BMF
Deepend
303
M&C Saatchi
Hello Future
The Globe
isotype
Maxus
Host
& a load of Freelancers
9 Comments
I see Brett Walsh has the fastest 5k of the month.
What sort of time are we talking about here?
The fastest 5KM runners hit anything between 20-23mins depending on the month and the runners taking part.
Brett ran the speed challenge in 21:59 last month (january).
Cool.
I’m good for about 17 mins. Just need to hook myself up with some Nike + gear.
uummm so when is blood, sweat and beers coming out? That’s the results I want to see.
Nice work Oz, don’t forget Blood, Sweat and Gears for us two wheelers
Brett Walsh has got a dicky Nike+ app. Oh and he’s like 21 or whatever. Strewth!
21 turn it up! Oz was doing 18 mins before he pulled a heartlige! ha
A heartlige ? WTF?
It was a spinal injury after some ogre tanked me in Futsal. Also, I highly doubt I’m going to get back to the 18 minute mark for the 5KMs. I shall be returning in March along with the newcomers and am very much looking forward to getting active again.
Unless Mark Watkin from Patts Y&R Mel is in it, it ain’t worth following.