I’m moved to include a lovely old Dilbert cartoon given to me by Dan Holder a senior art director here.

It raises a good point about “best practice.” If we’re honest with ourselves best practice is the last refuge of the unimaginative. It says we’ve stopped thinking about a problem and have settled upon a “lore”. Best practice is a sacred cow which we do well to sacrifice. More than ever, brands need brave ideas which cut through in what is undoubtedly a time of crisis. It’s time to dream to innovate, create and have fun. If you find a best practice document here’s a handy way of dealing with it.

Words and the internet. They’ve had a chequered history together, what with most agencies seeing “copy” as an asset to be uploaded as an afterthought and many a user claiming they don’t read it. Poppycock I say. There’s lots of great writing on the web, not least this from Nick Asbury. Corpoetics is an inspired and subversive exploration of corporate mission statements using poetry. Let this be a challenge to all brands, mean what you say when you say it. And even better, be believable. So do what you say too.

If you’re looking for inspiration of the word kind, the web contains all the greatest poetry ever written. We should look to poetry more than we do. What other art form is so instantly easily communicable? To appreciate a great painting you have to stand in front of it, novels take days to read, films and plays have to be viewed in the right circumstances. Poetry delivers a lot in a small space without costly embellishments. Is it the ultimate recessionary art form? Try Louis Macneice

The room was suddenly rich and the great bay-window was
Spawning snow and pink roses against it
Soundlessly collateral and incompatible:
World is suddener than we fancy it.

World is crazier and more of it than we think,
Incorrigibly plural. I peel and portion
A tangerine and spit the pips and feel
The drunkenness of things being various.

And the fire flames with a bubbling sound for world
Is more spiteful and gay than one supposes -
On the tongue on the eyes on the ears in the palms of one's hands -
There is more than glass between the snow and the huge roses.