I turned a blind eye to the your “Scheiße” job spec’ thing where JvM talk about what a shit day you guys have with your jet-set, coke taking, star dazzled life style. I ignored the mails I was getting from people asking me “why on earth” I would want to walk hundreds of kilometres to go and work for a place that pumps out “that kind of rubbish”.

Then there was that Vodafone thing. You know, where JvM did the advert that looked a little bit like the Telekom ad. OK, that can happen. I mean if you’ve got young creatives working on an account, it’s easy for them to miss a campaign that came out whilst they were in Kindergarten. I mean, the Telekom ad is at least 5 years old.

It’s the “guerrilla” thing for SIXT, however, that has really made me wonder why I ever wanted to walk to you. I’m not sure what disappoints me most; the fact that the agency you are in charge of has completely missed the current political mood of this country (you do know that SIXT is a Munich based company and that the CSU are loosing ground to Green Party exactly because of their stance on Nuclear Energy don’t you?) or the fact that in your desperate attempt to create “momentum”, JvM have managed to trivialise the concerns of millions of people. Frankly, I’m struggling to remember seeing anything as cynical as getting a team of people to infiltrate a political demo as important as the Castor protest; with banners and flyers encouraging people to rent vans and trucks for heaven’s sake.

You may find me a bit old fashioned Peter, but I think the advertising industry disrupts the lives of ordinary people enough as it is. In fact I think the advertising industry not only takes liberties but also takes the piss. The SIXT “Der Castor-Coup” doesn’t only take the piss, it’s insulting and demonstrates a complete lack of empathy.

I had the great pleasure to spend three days in London last week, working at a place that I now consider the absolute benchmark. I didn’t even need to walk there and they asked me to come. One of the founding members of the agency once said that “advertising is a weapon; be careful where you point it” and I think that is something that JvM should take heed of.

Take heed, Peter. Take heed.

Regards etc.

Marcus.

Best regards from Munich,
Marcus Brown – aka The Kaiser

So my mind starts to wonder and I start thinking about this old idea and how, surprisingly, no one has done it yet. In fact it amazes me that, with all of the technology around today that the idea hasn’t already been done and been built upon.

You see Peter, I’m a huge fan of stories. Always have been and back in 2001 I went along this television station and presented a really simple story that turned out to be rather difficult to do. Maybe the idea was too grand, the scale to big, not to mention the cost of making it work but sitting on my sofa watching dreadful television I realised that the time now might be right to do this sort of thing.

The idea bubbled up again at the beginning of this year when I was working on a case study for someone; albeit on a smaller scale, but the idea, in essence, was the same and in a way my walk to Hamburg is a low budget version of an idea I had nearly ten years ago:

Combining real life and fiction.

Let me ask you a question Peter; do you like “whodunits?” I’m a huge fan of Edgar Wallace myself. Do you like trying to work out who the murderer is? I know I and most of my friends do. Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be in the story and not enjoy the privilege of being able to watch the story as it is served by a director and camera crew but to be really in it? What would be like to go into the story and talk to the characters and try and work it all out for yourself? What would it be like to watch a film, read a book, subscribe to a newspaper, watch the characters on the Internet and then physically go to the place where they live and work; check into the Hotel and have a drink in the pub with the man you think is the villain? What would it like to actually be there when “something happened”. I have. It’s something I think would be fun; something people would be interested in and something that would be difficult to ignore.

I think I had the television station up for it but lost them when I said that we would have to build a village.

Anyway, my leg is feeling good, there is snow in Oberstaufen and I’ve lost Jack who seems to be making his own way to Hamburg.

Hope Hamburg is treating you well and that GREY haven’t stolen too many of your creative staff.

Warm regards,
Marcus Brown – aka The Kaiser.

The weather was dreadful yesterday so I stayed in bed and read about half of the book while the rain poured down on Munich. I’m quite a quick reader and I don’t think that I’ll manage to stretch out the reading over four weeks.

St. Pauli won too, so all in all it was a splendid weekend.

Many thanks and warm regards,

Marcus Brown – aka The Kaiser.

I can honestly say that I’ve missed the walking; the solitude of the road, the concentration required to put one foot in front of the other, the scenery and the autumnal smells of forests. I’ve missed the small encounters with real people.

I’ve not been able to bring myself to unpack the rucksack and it sits waiting like a sulking child, waiting to get back out onto the road.

The weather is turning now, have you noticed? We’ve had frost here in Munich and it is really rather foggy. Have you had frost in Hamburg yet? I’m a little concerned that by the time I’m allowed to walk again that the weather will be rather unpleasant and the nights spent in the tent will probably be quite chilly. I have a good sleeping bag though, which should keep me warm even if the temperature does drop below freezing.

Who knows, it may even snow.

Warm regards,

Marcus Brown – aka The Kaiser.

You know what it’s like when you’ve got a serious decision to make? Or when you’ve got to let go of something that you so dearly wanted? Well, I sat on that bench for two hours weighing up the pros and the cons of carrying on. I sat there thinking about the shame of having to stop, what people would say and what you would think of me. You know, when the walk was hard (and I did walk between eight to ten hours a day), I would push myself on by imagining what it would be like when I finally arrived in Hamburg to see you; I would imagine what it would be like to meet you and discover if you would be interested in the things I had to say.

For two hours I argued with myself. I put my shoes and socks back on. I put the 10kg rucksack back on and tried to walk about a bit but it was clear that this simply wasn’t going to go away.  I needed to get to safety and I needed to see a doctor so I put the call in and three hours later Eva picked me up.

It’s difficult to describe what went through my head during those three hours. I thought about the walk; the hours and hours of walking for you, a man  I’ve never met and the people that I encountered along the way. I thought about the elderly couple in Petersbruch who had given me food and the catholic priest in Jebertshausen who actually gave me his blessing. I considered with disappointment the encounters that I would miss and all of the things that I would now not be able to share with you. I thought about all the people supporting me, willing me on and what it meant to let them down. I cried.

I’ve been to see the doctor today and I’ve basically buggered the ligaments in my left ankle and there’s a chance I have something called compression syndrome (update: this is, thankfully, not the case). According to the doctor, I have some “impressive blisters” too. I’ve been told that I’m not allowed to walk for at least four weeks and he’s insisted that he checks me over again before I go back to Thalmässig and set off, once more, to see you.

It was an honour, Dr. Figge, to walk the hundred odd kilometers for you but as you can see, we shall both have to wait before I walk the rest.

Warm regards,

Marcus Brown – aka The kaiser

Until tomorrow then.

Warm regards,
Marcus Brown – aka The Kaiser.

I’ve been really rather busy. Probably not as busy as you, but I’ve been busy setting up everything that I’ll need for the walk. If you have a moment, I’d like to show you.

On the morning of my walk I hit a little button and the story begins. All the cogs of the Internet are set in motion and you can follow my (our, I’m taking Sacrum and Jack with me) every move. It all takes place on Facebook and you will be able to access live video streams, video archives, Sacrum’s audio diary and see 800 km of Germany in pictures.

But you also probably want to follow my progress as well don’t you? I know my fiancé does. Well hitting the button that activates those Internet cogs also activates a little map, and that map shows you where I am, where I’ve been, what I’ve seen and what Jack and Sacrum have been up to too.

I will of course be writing you the odd letter as well.

So, as you can see, you need not worry about missing a thing because once those cogs start turning you can follow my every move.

I’ll let you get on. Have you turned your central heating on too?

Warm regards from Munich,

Marcus Brown – aka The Kaiser

People have been very kind to me; they’ve helped me train, offered places to sleep and have been giving me excellent tips and ticks for walking. A shoe company have even sent me shoes so that my feet stay warm and dry. Some people have invited me to come and visit them and others have even offered to walk with me for a while so, as you can see, I’m being looked after. I don’t really know most of these people and yet they’re helping as best they can and in ways I would have never imagined. Isn’t that splendid?

So, in 8 days, I start walking and, in a strange online-kind-of-way, I’ll be bringing hundreds of people with me.

Warm regards from Munich,

Marcus Brown – aka The Kaiser.

I’d like to work for you. There I’ve said it. So I’d thought I’d come and see you if that’s OK with you?

Times are hard mind, yes, times are truly hard; don’t you be misled by all this chatter about “aufschwung” because, trust me, times are hard, so I won’t be able to take a plane, or catch a train or drive to you in a car.

I’ll be walking.

That’s quite a long way, well over 800 Kilometes and according to google maps it’s going to take me 7 days.

I’m hoping to meet some interesting people along the way. Maybe they’ll follow my progress on twitter, or become friends on Facebook.

Maybe they would even do a little interview which would be splendid. I was thinking about bringing some of my characters with me; I think Sacrum is game, as is Jack The Twitter and maybe, along the way I might to a little live show or two.

By the time I get to Hamburg I would have, hopefully, found out a few interesting things about the people I meet along the way; you know the people of Germany.

It should take me a couple of days to get my things in order and sort some other things out; I need a tent, for example, but I should be on my way within the next couple of days.

I’ll let you know when I’ve started walking.

Best regards from Munich,

Marcus Brown – aka The Kaiser.