I was mid-way through a crumpet this morning when Ross picked up the BMF phone… “weird”, I thought – “the phone didn’t even ring”… “perhaps I just didn’t hear it – after all, this delicious crumpet is quite distracting”:

 

Ross: Hello

Ed: *whispered* Who is it?

Ross: Barrister Ross

Ed: Huh?

Ross: From the Buy My Face Law Division

Ed: But there is no B…

Ross: Hang on – he sounds serious… Yes… I understand.

Ed: Ross, seriously – there is no B…

 

[Ross puts the phone down]

 

Ross: It was hard to hear what Barrister Ross was saying – I think he was in the BMF jacuzzi with the BMF babes – there was loud giggling and splashing in the background.

Ed: Ross, there is no Barrister Ross, there is no BMF Law Division, there is no BMF jacuzzi, and there are no BMF babes!

 

Ross continued as if he hadn’t heard me.

 

Ross: From what I gather, the copycats are here!

 

We checked our emails, and sure enough there was an email from .  Unfortunately the desired effect was lost on me, because I saw Ross create said email account and send said email moments before.  Nevertheless, there were some rogue face-painters copying BuyMyFace.com.  The hilarious part is that “Frank and Isaac” seemed pretty familiar:

 

 

Perhaps we need a BMF law division… or at the very least, perhaps we need to release a parody version of Eminem’s Real Slim Shady.  Anyway, the Real Face-Advert would have to wait, because we had to go get ready for Marketing Week Live.

 

We arrived at Europe’s biggest marketing event to film with national Chinese TV for a documentary being aired in October to 600 MILLION VIEWERS!  Within minutes, people were greeting us by name/taking photos of us/pointing and waving… I guess we were on familiar soil, but even so, I was impressed with how many people knew about Buy My Face – I guess that’s what front page of the Sunday Times does!

 

After about 20 minutes of filming/gorging on marketing freebies, I’d lost Ross.  Still, a man with his face painted is easy to spot in a crowd, so I headed over to him:

 

 

… but it wasn’t Ross.  It was more copycats!  Ross showed up too, and naturally we started asking questions.  It turns out the copycats had only started selling ad space on their faces that morning.  I felt kind of sorry for them – on their very first day of painting their faces, they have an embarrassing encounter with the guys they’d copied and a Chinese film crew.

 

Ross: Barrister Ross is going to flip a switch!