All together, now?

When Mr Gates decreed that there was now a Global Village and that no matter where we thought we lived we were all fully paid up citizens, no one really understood the consequences. In the ensuing melee Globalisation has become many things, from the White Knight of the finance markets to the devil incarnate of conservation groups.

In adland it has caused its own brand of chaos as clients stumble about trying to create global messages that are as relevant in Reykjavik as they are in Mombasa. The majority have taken the easy way out, dismantling their core Brand ethos to a simplistic series of words and images that are hopefully recognisable wherever the consumer is viewing them. It’s hit and miss stuff, to put it nicely.

Global world is as brim full of smiley happy people as a crap REM song. They jump and sing and bounce around like a land full of Irish red setters, all playfully bouncing into the furniture and being improbably giddy. Ford World in 2006, for instance was bumper to bumper waving families and fawning lovers woven together with an irritating Charlotte Church ditty, it’s all most too much to watch especially when you reflect upon where it was all headed. Still if you like them big and bouncy park your brain at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9J_SuVrt6PM&feature=PlayList&p=9BB5845199A52F17&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=34#

Global is now a bad word in many parts of the planet, especially the parts that are feeling the heat. Warming and warnings thereof are quite the rage at the moment, which naturally makes them perfect for adland to get up and shout about. Even the Ad Council has a crisis ad of their own floating in the stratosphere, and it’s ok, I mean, not earth shattering or anything, but fine. Have a look at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOi5FclEh_Q

Combating melting ice-bergs and the like has become the responsibility of every one of us, including, rather improbably, the makers of Vogorsol Gum who employed several penguins and that well-known arctic squirrel to help solve the problem. It’s a tad odd, no it’s weird, but thank god there’s still a place in the world for this type of ad. Look on in amazement at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKYZtOqTBlE

More annoyingly the backlash to Bill’s Global Village has lead to a resurgence of the lunacy of jingoism that parades around the world in the emperor’s clothes of patriotism and national pride.
Indignation at being preached to by foreigners about how we should behave at home often seems to reach xenophobic proportions since those rather gentile days of the Polish sci-fi writer Stanislaw Lem. Enveloped in her red, silk wrap-around sarong dress and waving her Soviet leather handbag in my direction, my own ex-art director often throws a handy quote from him in my direction.
“You will always find, some Eskimo willing to instruct, the Congolese on how to cope, with heat waves,”
Twee, but to the point, as she so often is.
Then again maybe a little international criticism might save us from stuff like the Castle love-in where everyone is best mates and brothers, take a sip at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXfc-0-Y8eIStill, it has a nice pack shot at the end of a bouncing bottle cap.

In the future things will be different, for a start we won’t have a planet to mess up and we’ll live in a very bright post-nuclear Winter. Maybe. Either way at least we won’t have to hear sing-a-long predictions of the ilk produced by Pat and Barbara MacDonald, aka: Timbuk3, back in the crazy days of 1986 in their classic, ”The future’s so bright I’ve gotta wear shades.” Listen, hopefully for the last time at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lputIMecalw

When we fail, the earth, of course, according to all good sci-fi geeks the world will be run by robots who will take turns persecuting the remains of mankind with devilish tin-brained schemes. As with a lot of sci-fi, yesterday’s nightmare futures have already begun to form before our eyes, in this case with the ASIMO humanoid robot. First introduced to humans in 2000AD the ASIMO has since grown in its abilities and can now walk and run after unsuspecting people-kind, albeit only our Japanese cousins for the moment. If you’re the type of person who likes to watch their fellow man tormented by non-organic life-forms then the Honda commercial starring ASIMO won’t seem alien to you, see it at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNW51s_tQOE

Laugh all you want, it may seem like an improbable and unlikely future, then just a few years ago a desktop was somewhere you sat your typewriter and glass of Jamesons.

"Who knows where the time goes..."

1546 AD Somewhere in Rome, Italy.

Pope Paul III, “Look lads, what we need is a really big church, something that says “we’re here to stay” maybe with some kind of freestanding dome, but like, the biggest in all Christendom.”
Cardinal 1, “Good idea your holiness, but who can we get to design such a glory?”
Pope Paul III, “Well, there’s only one man for the job really, let’s get Michelangelo he did a nice job on that chapel ceiling.”
Cardinal 2. “You mean Michelangelo Buonnaroti sire? But he’s 70… “
Pope Paul III, “A mere whipper-snapper around here then, he’s still the best around when it comes to new ideas, to say nothing of being a dab hand at a bit of painting and decorating, go drag his Zimmer frame over here.”

Age and experience have long been venerated across civilisations. Shamans, medicine men and oracles, our spiritual and political leaders have come from those who have lived long enough to garner wisdom and experience. Even in an age when 40 is the new 20 we still turn to our elders for their received wisdoms. As Barrack Obama lowers his much-heralded backside into the Oval office chair he’s being lauded as a youngster but in reality he’s closer to 50 than 40.
There are, of course, exceptions that prove the rule. Adland for instance has its own take on the idea.


“Top creative agency with Blue Chip clients is looking for a Senior
Team. Four years + experience.

Requirements: Professional, very strong conceptual skills,
producing outstanding award-winning creative work. Must have
Diploma Art Directing/Graphic Design and great track record.
Details: Remuneration: R25k CTC
Please submit CV and portfolio.”

Notice anything unusual? No? That, unfortunately, is because there isn’t anything. For several years now local adland has laboured under the ridiculous belief that someone who has been in the business for “four years +” can be classed as “Senior”. Which effectively means that someone who leaves college at 20 is a “Senior” at 24+. Senior is, of course, Latin for elder


The underlying problem here is that advertising is projected as a “young person’s game”. This has been a fallacy perpetuated by managements who seek to control their staff and believe that “keeping them hungry,” sometimes quite literally, is the way to make them push harder and throw themselves into every new project.
There are agencies out there that resemble kindergartens. Specially geared to the young, with beanbags, bean bags I ask you?
Obviously It's deliberately difficult, if not downright dangerous, for anyone over 30 to try to get up from these things.


They use the out dated argument that young people know how to talk to young people. A great idea when your core consumer base is young, but as we all know we have an ever-aging population that is continuing to spend as it grows. Yet still agencies cling to this facile concept that young brains think up fresher ideas. Something that would have surprised Goethe and Simone de Beauvoir until their last scribble and I dare say Mr De Bono will still be thinking laterally until he’s finally horizontal.

Luckily there may be light in the middle of the tunnel. In the U.K. leading creative agency Bartle Bogle & Hegarty, (BBH), have joined forces with the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising, (IPA), to launch a campaign highlighting ageism in adland.
Based upon an extensive qualitative and quantative report instituted by the IPA and carried out across the UK business the campaign was created to react to the feeling amongst many advertising employees that the current age bias is strongly detrimental to the industry.
The report highlights the view that "older people are not always as technologically astute as younger people, nor are they so willing to put in the extra hours in the evenings and at weekends".
However this is easily counteracted by “the breadth of experience and emotional intelligence of older staff.”
The results show that 72% of respondents to the survey agree that agencies risk becoming out of touch to what appeals to older consumers.


Hamish Pringle, IPA director general, said: "Adland is way out of line in terms of age. For a range of reasons; burnout, work and life balance, and increasingly commonly, pressure on agency payrolls, agencies shed the over 40s relentlessly. This results in a massive loss of valuable experience and is a real cost to clients."

The IPA's Agency Census 2005, published in January, found that 48.1% of employees were aged 30 or under, with another 33.4% in the 31-40 age bracket -- meaning more than four out of every five agency staff are aged 40 or under. The average age for agency employees is 33; only 13.6% are 41 to 50, with a mere 5% over 50.

There are very few places in which age is so obviously used against us in society as in adland, although the actor Rupert Everett believes he has a similar problem with ageism. Now he’s 47 the gay actor is worried he may never find a long-term boyfriend because he thinks nobody would want to date a man his age and no longer wants to meet potential partners in bars.
He says, "Unfortunately, I am single. But I'm too exhausted for anything else and being gay is a young man's game. Now no one wants me. Being gay and being a woman has one big thing in common, which is that we both become invisible after the age of 42.

"Who wants a gay 50-year-old? No one, let me tell you. I could set myself on fire in a gay bar, and people would just light their cigarettes from me. I don't want to be carried out of a club wearing a tie-dye T-shirt and a cap on the wrong way round when I'm 70, but I would like to settle down a bit. Maybe with a partner."


I should say I mentioned this to a few of my gay acquaintances down the Red Room last week and they were collectively of the opinion that if I could get hold of the address where Mr Everett sups then they’d be right along to help dissuade him of beliefs.

Personally, although I’ve been loitering in the corridors of adland for a fair while now, and I’m looking forward another couple of laps around the block yet, as George Bernard Shaw once put it “I want to be thoroughly used up when I die.”
Ian franks; CV ~ age 19 ¼

Don't I know You?

Napoleon once said "no man is a hero to his valet". And he should know, because it was his valet who sold his penis to a museum after he died.

To put it another way, “Familiarity”, as someone else once said rather pithily, “breeds contempt,” and nowhere are these sentiments more apparent than in adland relationships.

Year after year the bias of these relationships has swung from the agency to the client, gone are the days when clients would ply us with drinks and beg us to make their Brands famous, now it’s our knees in the dust scratching at percentages. And truthfully it’s our own fault. Too many agencies have effectively sold out, and cheaply at that, too often we say “maybe”, or “of course we can”, when we should be saying “no”, or at least “why?”

We used to have faith in our own abilities, but we gave it away for focus groups, brainstorms and the belief that an idea had en masse was somehow stronger than something that flowed from the brains of a couple of guys who spent too much time in the pub or from an inspired corridor chat. We lost the spine-tingling, head turning magic we were creating, forgetting it was the only true currency no red-blooded client could pass by.
There’s no wonder we lost their respect and no wonder that ultimately it’s lead to clients believing they can do our jobs better than us.

Take the inimitable, and now according to the Christian lobby, festering in hell, Mr. Lolly Jackson owner and purveyor of the rumpy-pumpy, flesh-pots of Rivonia and other local suburbs. His latest poster on Rivonia Road stars a young buxom lass grabbing her assets and smiling winsomely into camera, a headline covers a few parts of her shiny body and reads, “No need for gender testing.”
The ad has caused a minor storm in the media because of the heavy-handed allusion to the Semenya affair, something that the usually candid client denied vehemently. In a quote which made my post-binge bleary art director spit out her coffee tequila, he claimed, “the ad is self-explanatory” and, “I do not want anyone coming here with the idea that we don’t have women, we have 100% women here, I did a test on them, I’m a professional and they are 100% wo-men.” This, you see, is what happens when we let clients write their own stuff.
More examples of the rot in adland were on show at The Loeries in Cape Town last year, but there was also some pretty good stuff, some pretty pictures and lots of pretty crap stuff dressed up as advertising. In other words it was a typical year. With no elegant Allen Gray commercial to light up the juries TV was a tad bland, but there was some cool illustration in the magazine stuff.

Mr Lolly Jackson’s titillating poster probably will never be attractive to birds especially of the Loerie variety, but at least it was topical, but it was also crap, unlike the rather good, if locally biased, poster for the anti-gun initiative, from an original concept by one, Richard van Zyl.

Taking our Presidents favourite fireside sing-along tune and changing the words ever so slightly he produced a powerful poster for the anti-gun lobby reading “Awu Leth’ Umishini Wakho” it further encourages the people to “Nikela isibhamu sakho esingekho emthethweni ku polisteshi eseduze nawe.” A case for once of familiarity breeding content, maybe.

and so that was christmas...

Friends from the YooK arrived with schooners of Christmas cheer to prop up the bar down Molly Malone’s. As always there was much to catch up on including the wonderment of festive offerings from adland on the sceptred isle.

Amid the shimmering tinsel and gargling egg-nog a few ideas sparkled.
For a while now the famous PG Tips tea Brand has used a stuffed monkey to promote itself, appearing alongside Al (comedian Johnny Vegas), the commercials have a cult following amongst the English TV viewing public. For Christmas they launched a parody of the Queen’s Speech with Monkey as the Queen trying to tell the world about his and Al’s Christmas day special, but one too many sips of bubbly played havoc with his performance.
See it at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkHwhz-3yJg&feature=related.
Monkey’s message, voiced by Ben Miller, gets more and more convoluted with every toast to the past year. Luckily the super at the end tells us what we need to know. “There should be one thing on one’s telly that one shouldn’t miss this Christmas. It’s Monkey’s Christmas Sketch, shown on ITV1, Channel 4, Five, Sky1, Sky3, ITV2, ITV3, ITV4, E4, More4, Film4, Virgin1, Gold, Dave, MTV One, TMF, 4 Music, Nickelodeon, Jetix and Many More.”
Go to www.pgtips.co.uk. and catch Al and Monkey’s 90 second remake of the classic Morecambe and Wise breakfast sketch from the late 70’s, using the same music (The Stripper) and some of the same moves, ending of course with a great cup of tea.
Developed at AKQA by executive creative director James Hilton, creative directors/copywriters Colin Byrne and James Capp, copywriters Ben Oliver and Leo Thom, Shot by director Chris Balmond via Red Bee and AKQA.Film.
It’s fun, in a slightly quirky, good old-fashioned romp kinda way.

M&C Saatchi London entered into the spirit of Boxing Day with a charity-focused Christmas promotion. Boxing Day, December 26th, a public holiday in the United Kingdom, is based on the tradition of giving gifts to the less fortunate members of society.
Staff at the agency this year filled 400 boxes to be given to the UK charity Action for Children and delivered in time for Christmas. Because even the simplest piece of corporate responsibility deserves to be preserved for posterity, the agency shot a stop frame animation film showing how the idea came together in their reception area. It’s ok , if a tad dull, in a typically MC Saatchi stark, clean lined way.
The M&C Saatchi team included creatives Nick O’Brien and Paloma Reed and agency producer Charlie MacPearson.
Filming was shot by director Dan Lumb via th2ng with producer Mark Farrington. Post production was done at “th1ng.”
Music was provided by composer Lorenzo Piggici at Felt Music with executive producer Dominic Buttimore.
See the whole thing at : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMIstLztiPM&eurl=http://theinspirationroom.com/daily/2008/mc-saatchi-boxing-day

New year, of course, is a time of reflection, a time to review our time on this wonderful planet. The new Audi commercial by BBH reminds me of many things, the simple pursuit of origami perhaps, that ads don’t have to look expensive to be interesting and most of all, why Woodie Guthrie remains a cult figure after all these years rather than a mainstream artist.
Created by Maja Fernqvist and Joakim Saul and put together by Aaron Duffy and Russell Brooke of Passion Pictures and 1st Ave Machine it’s a simple little idea about unboxing the box that is the Audi Q5 accompanied by the enigmatically named “Car Song” by Mr Guthrie. It’s on show at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8eng7lG9OME

Flying into 2009 with a “Flock of seagulls” haircut, an Asteroids arcade game, a Rubik's Cube, a yuppie banker with a cell-phone bigger than his briefcase and a newspaper headline shouting about the miner's strike. It can only be the 80’s, again. 1984, in fact.
The commercial celebrating the launch of Richard Branson’s Virgin Atlantic Airline 25 years ago this year was put together by Y&R/RKCR in London. Looking like a sey from Dynasty It’s crammed full of 80’s iconography and some slinky flight crew in bright red gear. If nothing else it’s a timely reminder that even in times of trouble a good idea can really take off. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFz2-b3NrA4

Speaking of good ideas, I must admit the concept of “Guitar Hero” sounded a tad lame to me, after all what can it achieve that I can’t get out of an old tennis racquet and Led Zep III on vinyl?
The new commercial for the latest Guitar Hero World Tour game, however, did change my mind a bit. It’s a homage to Tom Cruise’s scene in “Risky Business” but instead of the couch-bouncing Christian scientist we’re offered Ubermodel Heidi Klum in lacy black lingerie for our viewing pleasure.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BddCq1zFI4, it certainly had me banging my head against the wall.

To round off the festive season, one of the younger guys hovering around the bar the other day was muttering darkly about how he’d “gone large” over Christmas, presumably building himself up for a bit of a new year’s gym resolution. Anyway, looking for health tips myself, somewhere between the turkey and chips of Boxing Day and the suspicious turkey curry of two days later I came across a commercial for the British Food Standards created to remind us to watch out for food poisoning.
There’s no other way of putting it, it really is a fart-laden online offering. The video, complete with retro colour grading and 70’s typefaces, is designed to make us think twice about how we use the turkey leftovers, and includes the rather frothy line, “A fabulously festive feast of faeces.” Marvellous.

The Safe Christmas campaign was developed at Farm London, by creative director Gary Robinson, art director Raymond Chan, and writer Simon Cenamor.
Shot by director Mark Denton via Coy! Communications with producer Sara Cummins. Catch a whiff of it at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSyWWVNiuTU&eurl=http://theinspirationroom.com/daily/2008/diarrhoea-for-christmas/
I’m off for a little well deserved cold turkey.

"Let there be light"

In the 60’s John Lennon claimed the Beatles were bigger than God, God retaliated by having the pop stars banned from Israel and Mr Lennon became the unwilling recipient of numerous death threats.

In December the swaggering self-publicity machine that is Simon Cowell was voted the most famous person in the world in a poll of under 10’s, beating The Queen, Harry Potter and God. (Whether God was a person was not debated).
Now, however, it appears God is back in the news again.
A major new billboard campaign, which broke first in the UK but has spread across Spain, Canada, the USA and is picking up speed elsewhere, exalts the beauty of being a non-believer using quotes from famous people.

“Isn’t it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?” Douglas Adams
"THERE’S PROBABLY NO GOD.
 NOW STOP WORRYING AND ENJOY YOUR LIFE."
www.humaism.org.uk www.richarddawkins.net www.atheistcampaign.org


“I’m an atheist and that’s it. I believe there’s nothing we can know except that we should be kind to each other and do what we can for other people.” Katherine Hepburn.

And from the man who reputedly had a thing about God the gambler:
“It was, of course, a lie what you read about my religious convictions, a lie which is being systematically repeated. I do not believe in a personal God and I have never denied this but have expressed it clearly. If something is in me which can be called religious then it is the unbounded admiration for the structure of the world so far as our science can reveal it.” Albert Einstein.

Rather tamely, given their usual robust approach to headlines, our Australian cousins have their own take on the ungodly with posters reading:

“Beware of Dogma.”
Freedom From Religion Foundation. (www.FFRF.ORG.)

And:

“Imagine No Religion.” (An interesting cross reference to Mr. Lennon’s words creeping in again there).

The land of Obama rejoined with:

“Don’t believe in God? You are not alone.”

And a special festive one:
“Why believe in God? Just be good for goodness sake.
www.whybelieveinagod.org

It’s strange that even these strict non-believers use a capital “G” to spell his (or her) name.

As you’d expect from some of the richest corporations in the world, the churches have hardly been silent over the years.
Just recently, for instance, the producers of a TV documentary asked international ad agency Fallon to come up with a campaign to re-ignite interest in the Church of England. Simple black and white ads carried headlines like:
"Church. It isn't as churchy as you think."
"More dances are held in church halls than dance halls. And yes, the lord
does move in mysterious ways."
"Apparently there's stuff going on here all week. Even Sundays."
"Why go to India to find yourself? You might be just round the corner."
"The church educates millions of children. 'And not in a what does Psalm
17 tell us' kind of way."
Harmless stuff, and I must confess they’re hardly likely to drag me out of bed and to my knees on a Sunday morning.

The First Baptist Church in Snellville, Georgia takes a rather more direct route to encouraging the growth of their flock.
In front of the church’s large campus is a sign proclaiming “Free Gasoline!.” The church is raffling off two $500 petrol cards, giving free raffle tickets to every attendee of a church event between Sundays and Wednesdays.
“We don’t know how far it will go with these soaring prices,” Senior Pastor Rusty Newman said. “But it will make someone’s night.”

Across the world churches have stepped out of the dark ages and seen the light, learning how to manipulate the newer types of media and communication. Many now offer elaborate websites crammed with sermons and Christian sayings for the day, some even proclaim their messages through youtube trying to catch a younger audience at play. For an interesting take on this tyou can catch a parody of the Mac vs PC commercials called “I’m a Christ Follower” at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RtfNdg1fQk

For congregations languishing by the sea there’s the chance to indulge in the art of “Sand advertising,” creating sand billboards with inspirational messages crafted by the sandals of the faithful.


Try-vertising, as championed by Nike is also being touted to help spread the word. (Nike used “trial vans,” each containing more than 1,000 pairs of shoes. Reps took the vans to strategic spots (popular running paths and athletic events and let people try out their shoes, allowing consumers to make up their minds based on their own personal experience).

“What if churches had trial vans?” asks Kent Shaffer, writer and founder of ChurchRelevance.com. Shaffer concludes that “a church could feed its live or pre-recorded services to trial vans with big-screen TVs, and then show up at strategic places on Sunday mornings where lots of non-churchgoers gather. They could experience church and decide for themselves.”

Unfortunately the need to proselytize comes all too naturally to those on both sides of the fence of devotion often leading to repetition of old, tired and trite stances. The Sandown Free Presbyterian Church in Belfast, for example, was recently slapped by the UK Advertising Standards Authority for using strong biblical references to campaign against homosexuality, with a press ad reading:
“Thou shalt not lie down with mankind, as with womankind;
it is an abomination.”

For true believers however, returning to the home of Mr. Lennon and his fellow Merseybeaters, as you drive into the hallowed land of Liverpool there’s a concrete bridge over the motorway made famous because some evangelical tagger once sprayed “JESUS SAVES!” on it; to which some scouse wit added “RUSH SCORES ON THE REBOUND.” Amen to that.

do do. do do, do do, do do...

“My name is Ian Franks. I had an accident and I woke up in 1973. Am I mad, in a coma, or back in time? Whatever's happened, it's like I've landed on a different planet. Now, maybe if I can work out the reason, I can get home.”

The first thing I notice in this alternative world is an ad for Cadbury’s. Reassuringly it’s the usual montage of runny chocolate being poured over a saccharine soundtrack and lots of purple foil type colours. And odd response to the genius that was the Gorilla ad. Ahhhhh but the 70’s are a great time to be alive and advertising.
Then a Tiger Wheel & Tyre commercial crammed with an end to end super fast voice-over bounces on and whips off with a frisky jingle ShowaddyWaddy would have been proud of.

Adland sure is a simple place, nice big product shots, some of them even in focus, lively voice-overs peppered with soothing, often vaguely illegal sounding, promises,
A Sunlight Washing up liquid commercial pops up, mam and other family members are still racing to see whether an “alternative” detergent will wash as many plates as our hero. I wonder if they’d be as keen and smiley if they knew that in 30 years time they would still be washing the same pile of plates, adlands’ own Groundhog Day.

Like Michael J Fox in his DeLorean, I race back to the future in time to catch the new Guinness ad from Saatchi’s Capetown, created by Tim Hearn, Anton Crone, Alice Gnodde and Larissa Elliot and directed by Martin Krejci of Stink London, it’s an epic. Well, it’s quite big.
The effects are quite good, the shot list is mostly Twister and other leaving the road to chase big windy things films, but it’s ok. The link to the guys in the bar is odd but once you’ve read the publicity blurb about a modern African storyteller you kinda get the idea. Catch it at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inc44ReRxQk

The commercial for Neotel called “No Restrictions” goes on, and on. It’s one half-arsed technique stretched over 60 seconds with those annoying little symbol guys turning up everywhere. It’s ok but if this is the challenge to Telkom’s Do It stuff then I fear it’s hardly going to scare the competition.
If you’ve been away on Mars and missed the massive media spend take a look at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-Z8l9k9Ch8

Great ads come from great ideas. Simple? You can’t get any simpler than the new Harley Davidson Cologne commercial by Fran Luckin and Tetteh Botchway of Ogilvy Johannesburg. It’s well shot, beautifully timed and very, very funny. And for those parochial idiots who warble on about “local content” all the time, the joke is as local as the shop in “The League of Gentlemen.” Catch a sniff of it at: http://www.metacafe.com/watch/1244284/harley_davidson_cologne_smell_like_a_bad_ass/

If local is indeed lekker then the DDB Vancouver spot for Midas tyres is a perfect example of why. Set in a Canadian high street it’s a car chase in deep snow that goes nowhere fast. It’s a daft joke that makes its point quickly and effectively without a special effect in sight. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibWO6KaYXfI

At the other end of the scale there’s the new Barclaycard commercial out of BBH London, created by Pete Bradly, Gary McCreadie and Wesley Hawes and directed by Peter Thwaites of Gorgeous Enterprises. To that well-loved classic tune “Let your love flow” by The Bellamy Brothers.
We see a young guy in an open plan office as his mates are all heading for the door home. He strips off his clothes and walks through the office in some very fetching under-wear, his work mates smile knowingly at him.
He opens a store cupboard and we see an opening to a waterslide,
He slides down and we cut to the outside of the office skyscraper and see the chute runs down the side of it at a hair-raising angle before shooting off across the city taking our guy with it.
The waterslide takes him through other offices and and across the cityscape, before he shoots through several stores, swiping goods from shelves then swiping his card as he goes.
It’s all about some new “contactless technology” that Barclaycard have introduced to make payments simpler evidently. What it really is, however, is a water-sliders dream and a bit of a laugh to boot.
Make contact with it at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUDtkD_CjLg

With the recession lumbering around us there’s the usual panic in adland that clients will be hacking away at budgets to save their pennies. As always we will respond by citing studies and reports that show why this is short-sighted and how it’s the companies with the foresight to maintain and even increase their ad-spend in difficult times that are the ones who are left standing afterwards. New media pundits will punt their wears as the final solution and traditional media will circle the wagons and shoot protectionist arrows at all comers. And as always it will come out sounding something like The Emperor’s clothes meets Chicken Little.

Those who’ve seen it all before will nod sagely and keep their heads down muttering how they’ve seen it all before. But this is a new world, brave or not, and there’s a lot of new stuff to consider this time.
Many of the things in this 2009 world I find confusing, the fakeness of Reality TV, the popularity Paris Hilton most of all why is the Dakar Rally racing across South America?
All I know is they never had these worries in the 70’s.

bowled over, or not

“Whatisit?” hisses the girl behind the bar as all heads are swivelled towards the large flat screen TV glued to the wall. “Superbowl 2009,” someone whispers back.

Indeed, it’s that time again, a time to gather our friends and colleagues together to pay homage to that most Yankee of affairs the Superbowl. There was a time, when the invasion of burgers and fries were new to the world at large, that we would sit up all night to catch every throw and dive of never-ending rows of guys dressed in what looked like Sumo suits.
Now, of course we just record the action and watch it the next night down the Keg & Minstrel.
Not the actual game you understand, in what may be seen by civilians as a perverse reversal of the use of PVR recorders we have all the commercials spliced together and dump the game, revealing a glorious celebration of American life.
At an average of $3 million just for a 30 second media slot at Super Bowl XLIII it was interesting to see how the economic downturn had affected this advertisers’ haven.


Kicking off with an ad nodding to the worries besetting workers across the world, the Wieden & Kennedy CareerBuilder.com commercial begins with the statement;

“It can be hard to know when you need a new job…

as a rule if you hate going to work every day…”
[woman in car screaming and banging head against steering wheel]

“and your co-workers don’t respect you…”
{Guy walks past and says “Hey dummy]

“and you always wish you were somewhere else…”
[guy sitting on back of a leaping dolphin]

“and you cry constantly…”
[large bloke at bus stop crying inconsolably]

“and you daydream of punching small animals…”
[stuffed koala has it’s glasses knocked off]

“and you sit next to this guy…”
[half-naked geek picking his toe-nails]


“if you make loads of money it may not be time.”
[ guy in smoking jacket is handed a large glass of gold liquid as his man servant feeds gold bars into a blender]

But if you make loads of money…It can be hard to know when you need a new job as a rule if you hate going to work every day, and your co-workers don’t respect you, and you always wish you were somewhere else, and you cry constantly, and you daydream of punching small animals, and you sit next to this guy…it’s probably time…as a rule.”

Get a look at it at:
http://commercial-archive.com/commercials/careerbuildercom-it-may-be-time-2009-60-usa

Better still go to; http://www.anonymoustipgiver.com/ where CareerBuilder.com allows you to send useful tips to your co-workers regarding such delights as personal hygiene, work ethics and toupee wearing.



As usual the Superbowl ads attracted more than a fair smattering of famous faces, this year we were treated to the versatile visages of Tiger Woods, Ray Lewis, Muhammad Ali, Alec Baldwin, Bob Dylan, MC Hammer, Derek Jeter, Michael Jordan, Ed McMahon, Danica Patrick,Troy Polamalu, Will.i.am, Serena Williams and Conan O’Brien.

Mr O’Brien’s spot for Bud Light was as good a use of celebrity as you’ll see. It’s a commercial playing upon the habits of famous people to star in commercials in foreign countries to protect their image at home while quietly raking in the cash. Created by DDB it contains the spoof pay-off line “Vroom, vroom, part starter,” something that may well come back to haunt the star for quite a while.
Watch it sail into the end zone at:
http://video.yahoo.com/watch/4408533/11822557

Celebs also pop up throughout TBWA/Chiat Day’s Pepsi-Cola commercial. In “Refresh” we are treated to an onslaught of split screen images reflecting a now and then scenario contrasting 2009 with 1969. It’s all very interesting and not a little amusing, worth a look if only for the brief clip of John Belushi and Jack Black arsing about side by side. Under scored by Bob Dylan’s anthem “Forever Young,” sung by rap star Will.i.am, the commercial suggests there was a close link between the fizzy drink and the laid back, hippy beatnik counter culture of the 60’s. An interesting historical rewrite given that at the time PepsiCo was run by Donald Kendall, a close mate of Tricky Dickie Nixon, and was regarded as the drink to quench neo-Republican thirsts as they led baton charges.
Sing along at: http://commercial-archive.com/commercials/pepsi-refresh-anthem-2009-60-usa

Probably the best way to use celebrity with any force is to take a well-known character from a popular programme and transpose their personality onto a product. It’s a notoriously hit and miss game.
Hulu,com offers computer users the chance to see an array of programmes from NBC and the News Corp. The ad, by Crispin Porter & Bogusky, stars Alec Baldwin in his persona from the award winning 30 Rock series. He explains how “TV doesn’t rot your brain, it only softens it, like a ripe banana. To take it all the way we’ve created Hulu.com.” The often bizarre sense of humour from the TV series translates perfectly to this commercial peppering it with phrases like “celebral gelatinising shows” and “Hulu, an evil plot to destroy the world.” It’s just silly. Which is why is works so well.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1m71m-LBqFQ


On a slightly more bizarre note a cable television provider has apologized to Tucson-area customers over a 30-second porn interruption during the Super Bowl. Philadelphia-based Comcast issued a brief statement Monday saying the company is "mortified" and is conducting a thorough investigation. See it all at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIadW_Mgrqo
This should finally put Ms Jackson and Mr Timberlake to bed, as it were.

One sign of the parsimonious times is that most of the commercials aired during the Big Game were for once not created specifically for the day. Hardly any make even an oblique reference to Superbowl or indeed any football game, the majority of large corporations seemingly happy to just air their latest offerings on the biggest stage available.
Billed as “airing in 27 top markets during Superbowl,” the media has often become the only message as this years’ selection of over 50 different ads failed to deliver the once-off punch and humour of previous years.
It’s all a tad disheartening really, if the world’s biggest consumers of advertising have stopped throwing their considerable weight behind their favourite Brands in such purpose built arenas then where does that leave the rest of us?
I mention it to the young bar maid, her tongue-piercing glistening disturbingly in the light of the bar taps she considers my concerns, “Yeh, but whatisit?.”
Exactly, I think.

so long, and thanks for all the badgers

It’s the beginning of the month, again. A time when events tend to come to a head in adland. True to form the door to my office bursts open and in strolls one of my young protégées swaggering like John Wayne heading for his horse. (Actually more like Nathan Lane doing his John Wayne in Birdcage; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfrhCvDLlCg&feature=related). With an air of defiance that can only mean one thing he tosses a letter on my desk and declares, “I’m outta here…”

Well, I don’t mind telling you I was shocked, not by his resignation, but by the letter itself. It was concise, made cogent arguments about why I was morally and intellectually dysfunctional, lightly touched on the legality of my parents’ marriage and was peppered with humorous and often poignant references to the agency’s management style.
All in all it was the finest piece of writing I’d read in a long time and by far the best thing the lad had ever pushed across my desk.

It was full of passion you see. Something it appears that young Bob had trouble translating into babies, beans and batteries ads. Passion, of course, has become one of those doomed buzz words so often beloved by the RaRa squads with their “quotes of the day” and inspirational bloody emails. Usually propagated by HR, PR or some evangelist you’ve never met from accounts, they pack the recycle bins of every computer in adland and beyond.
It’s all very well these desktop deliverers of drivel rambling on about pulling together, win, win situations and talking the talk but what of the guys and gals staring at the blank piece of paper confronted by a brief to sell over-priced cars to underpaid workers? It’s not just the passion that can go, it’s the will to live. Luckily the modern world has a response forr virtually everything, even crap jobs.
Artists Anne Elizabeth Moore and Steve Lambert, at Rogers Park cultural centre in Chicago, have founded the Anti-Advertising Agency Foundation for Freedom to counsel disgruntled ad people

Lambert says they want to help people find work that won’t compromise their ethics. “Most people in advertising have a line that they won’t cross or don’t like to cross and the agencies themselves don’t have that. They are there to sell whatever the companies want. And so there is always some sort of conflict and we want to give those people opportunities to work where they won’t have to make those kind of compromises to there values or be put in those positions.”

To do this they’ve created a competition to help push people who’ve been thinking about quitting to cut the cord. To win the award, which is currently about $700, you must provide proof you’ve quit, describe your sleaziest ad campaign, and write about the hopes and dreams you had for the world when you were five.

It may sound like a joke and they admit that they probably won’t see a mass exodus from adland. But Moore says they are reaching people. ”We started this crazy idea and we immediately got these sort of adoring letters from advertisers who are like “I’m so glad you guys are doing this. Oh my god, I’ve wanted to quit my job for so long.” And they are not necessarily committed to quit but that the emotional impetus is there for them to even write to us to me is just so telling.”
http://antiadvertisingagency.com/category/projects/foundation-for-freedom

Of course disillusionment with the daily bread earning is hardly the sole property of whinging creatives, but few would be resignation wavers have quite so much encouragement.
If you’re going to quit, do it well. With style, panache and single-minded bloodiness. Better still do it for a reward. The International YoungGuns Award’s call-for-entries “Quit in Style” campaign – a collaboration between Droga5 and a group of filmmakers and graphic artists from around the world, features its own site, www.quitinstyle.com.

It’s a chance to become instantly infamous in adland. Think up the perfect resignation scenario, film it and post it. The category requires creatives to submit work they’ve created specifically around the ‘Quit in Style’ theme, and is open to anyone with an axe to grind against their employers.

The project was overseen and directed by Droga5 Sydney’s Creative Heads, Matty Burton and Cameron Blackley, as a launch-pad for young creatives and directors to host their own content. This will ultimately be judged within the newly created “Craft in Quitting" category and will go on to win a specially made Matt Black Bullet at this year’s YGAward.
It’s the first advertising award dedicated solely to rewarding the colourful world of User Generated Content, an area that many assume sits at the forefront of the industry’s future, yet has been largely ignored on the global awards circuit. So far creatives have been posting a wide range of ideas from taking the boss out drinking and photographing him naked and drunk, to decorating his lunchtime sandwich with pubic hair.

As Matty Burton explains, although the tone of the campaign is outrageous, the idea behind it is firmly based in reality: “Some of us are still young enough to remember the lashing we got as juniors coming up through the business. It’s a bit of a rites of passage thing, like army boot camp, but with less sleep and more beatings! Quit in Style is designed to become a sort of secret 'Fight Club' for junior creatives, where they can meet to compare war stories and more importantly ideas of getting one over on their slave master CDs before they move on to the next challenge. It’s basically a tool-box for the underdogs."

It’s all rather entertaining, unless you’re a boss of course, in which case watch your back out there, I’m off to write a letter.

please join in, mr client

Do It Yourself. Just the initials make me shiver. D.I.Y. Tank-tops, sore thumbs and self-collapsing shelves, it’s no place for a grown man. Invariably you’re going to get a half-arsed job covered by that worst of phrases “cheap n cheerful.” Why is it so hard to understand? The reason we have experts is because we need them, desperately.

When you need something building, get a builder, when you need something fixing, get a fixer and when you need something advertising, get an adman, or woman, better still, an agency.

Bad advertising. It fills our lives like corrupt politicians permeating every part of our daily lives, from our breakfast paper to our night time TV it gets everywhere, leaving a bad smell and an evil taste in the mouth.

When I see bad ads I feel cheated. And not just of the wasted revenue. Of the opportunity, “who did this shit?” I shout from behind clenched fists. Who thought it up? Who sold it? And most of all which damned, irresponsible client bought it?
There’s a much trampled cliché that says clients get the advertising they deserve, a phrase which causes rabid scorn amongst clients world over
who believe it’s nothing more than another excuse from adland’s self-justification machine. And they may be right. But it doesn’t negate the truth underlying the cliché, clients get the ads they deserve because they expect too much of advertising.

All too often it’s expected to be some kind of all-soothing panacea, something to cure a company’s ailing balance sheets overnight or somehow fix a tired and lame business plan. If it was that easy our budgets would be soaring through recessions not being sliced as the first sacrifice.

A great failing on the client side is to take the proposed campaign around the office to garner reactions, “The Chairman’s Wife” theory as it’s known is based in the belief that anyone involved in the client company (and their spouses), could and indeed should have a say in the advertising. It’s a crap idea at best, would you let your plumber fix your lights? Or a painter fiddle with your pipes? Why then does the finance director get to comment on the advertising?
Advertising is a critical business tool, one that should only be undertaken by skilled and well-practiced professionals.

How about a bit of respect out there? As a client you hire adland talent because it can offer you expertise that you don’t possess yourself. So please, when your agency has a strong point of view they’re always being protectionist, sometime they’re being right, as you’ll discover if you listen. You hired them to make great ads, they want to make great ads and many of the great campaigns came from the agency “winning the argument.” By all means argue, and don’t for God’s sake always give in, but if you listen to their point of view and consider that they may be right occasionally too you may just form a working relationship that is productive rather than starting a war of attrition.

Take the creative approval process; if as a client you have been involved from the beginning and actively engaged in the creation of the ad then you’ll hopefully be familiar with the intricacies of the brief. This will obviously give you a big vote in the approval or otherwise of the campaign, you also have a responsibility to work with the agency to produce the best work possible. As one of the decision makers you need to make your opinion heard while sitting together with your team; it’s no good nipping off for a third or fourth arse-covering opinion round the water cooler and presenting it as a fait accompli.


There was a time, not in the dim and distant, when a marketing director sat on the main board of most companies, a seasoned professional trusted by the company to call the shots when creating and managing their public image. They had the ear of their fellow board members, so marketing/advertising were on the table as part of the central budget, not some grudge add-on as so often happens now.

On that note, if you happen to be sitting at the big table without a marketing director of your very own you might want to try a radical approach, like trusting your marketing team. More importantly, be willing to approve ads you don’t personally like. This is a real toughie. After all you’re probably a bright senior executive person surrounded by MBA’s and B.Comms and the like, you’re a strong business leader and your opinion is oft sought on matters of import. Which is great, but it doesn’t make you a great judge of ads or of which ads are going to work best for your company’s needs.
To trust the team who work on your image and respect the collective creative judgement of them and the agency requires both humility and self-confidence. Some would say the perfect mix in a far-sighted boss.

Let’s face it, it's hard to approve advertising you don't love.
But if you must say no at least give more of a reason than "I don't like it." That is unactionable feedback, please think through your responses with the care you expect your agency to have lavished on your Brand, and give logical reasons for hating the work.
(I’ve sat in meetings where the client has been adamant he hated pink and wouldn’t have it in his layouts, only to be gently reminded it was his key corporate colour.)

While you’re at it you might want to stop importing films made in Hispanic or Far Eastern countries where they talk ten to the dozen and expect us to lip-synch a nice South African voice onto it, se..am..les…ly.
Bad synch and hairy Latino blokes flogging fizzy drinks and sundry dairy products just make clients look cheap, like they care so little about local markets they don’t think it’s worth investing in an ad of their own.
Overall the rule is simple, “Don’t buy a dog and try to bark yourself…”
Got to go, there’s a self-build wall unit in the garage with my name on it.

"It takes two, baby."

Since Adam and Eve played snakes and apples the urge to pair off has been a powerful driver. Antony and Cleo, Romeo and Juliet, Abbott and Costello, two have always made a better story than one.

Even in the back-biting arena of adland it’s been that way from the late 40’s when Bill Bernbach opened the doors of DDB bringing with him his idea that writers and art directors should pair up in teams to combine their mighty talents in one office.
And it works. Sometimes you get a stupid partner, which allows you trample their ideas under the force of your intellect and ego, or you get a bright one whose coat tails you can grab at as they speed towards fame and fortune. More often though, especially when the teams have some say in the matter, you get a more equal meeting of minds, if not always personalities.

“Trust me”, the latest sitcom/dram to deal with all that is adland comes ambling out off the US of A. Centering on the relationship between Mason, the art director and Conner, the writer, played by Eric McCormick and Tom Cavanagh, it’s well enough observed to cause more than a few uncomfortable squirms of recognition. Particularly the tension between the pair as they try to come to terms with Mason being promoted to Conner’s boss will bring many a nod of recognition across adland.
Catch a trailer at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JolkpxOR2E

People are always making the analogy between a creative team’s relationship and a marriage. This is of course rubbish. It’s much, much harder to maintain a decent working relationship than a marriage. For a start, you’re stuck mostly in the same room for longer than 9 hours a day, you hear the same stuff, music, client service babble, arguments, and you deal with it as a team, ie: tantrums, sulking, and jubilation. It’s not healthy.
For one thing there really is no place to hide, so you either rant your way through your differences or you crash and burn. And it only takes a few failed partnerships before you get labelled a problem partner. The divorces can be equally as messy however, skeletons tend to come crashing out of cupboards as both sides seek to blame and claim the upper hand, as well as the credit for any decent work that might have been created.
But, surprisingly, some of these teams do stick together, changing agencies, jobs and even countries to add new spice to their lives.

No one gets between a great team, bad blood is leaked behind closed doors and a united front beats back the most ardent of attacks. And great teams create great work. They scoop the fame we all crave and the rewards we all feel we deserve. They also get their names on the doors of agencies.

Duos have always haunted advertising. From Mac man vs PC man with their cutesy little jibes. (all very PC, as it were), and sterile environment.
Boot up a couple of examples at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgzbhEc6VVo

To the sheer brilliance of the Leonard Rossiter and Joan Collins in the classic Cinzano ads (which include the rather fabulous line: “The Aroma wasn’t built in a day.”) LOL at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PirMZGL-0mQ&NR=1

One of the worst things that a creative team can find on their desk is a brief that comes complete with its own built in salesman, or worse, men. You have to spend half your day trying to shoe-horn some new, pithy and supposedly humorous responses into the mouths of these guys with one eye over your shoulder at the “character intrinsics” which have been built up over years of crushingly bad scripts and careless thinking.
Believe me there is nothing worse than having some humourless planning guy hanging around your office door extolling the benefits of the Brand equity he has built up over the years through a couple of two-dimensional drivel spouting prats which he insists are central to every commercial.

Take the blight of CTM’s now dead and unlamented Bob and Nige with their puerile sexist humour and pathetic asides. I bless the day they were finally laid to rest and hopefully cast into a pit of grout. (I would give you a link to some examples of their sub-human chit chat, but that would just be nasty).

Naturally there are exceptions. If you’re dynamic duo happened to be the couple of actors attached to an old Carling Black Label brief then your luck was definitely in. You could pack your bag and buy that ticket to Cannes to roil in the delights of being up to your derriere in awards when these two guys put your script to the test. Have a look at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVSBtivbUs4 to see how an ad can be well written and crafted but still hold the basic daft humour. (Even the pack shot is a laugh).

Of course for a team to be really effective they need to work seamlessly, to read each other’s minds and even anticipate each other’s actions and reactions. This takes a bit of time to get right but can pay great dividends if achieved properly. Take those old gag men The Two Ronnies, in their most famous sketch, “Fork Handles,” they balance each others frustration perfectly as the tension between them builds. It may be old but it’s gold:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=saP127nVfSk

To prove that teamwork is alive and kicking I’d like to thank my own art director for suggesting the topic for this week’s column.
But then she’s full of good ideas.

"Can You hear me...Mother?"

Looking out of the plastic curtain that surrounds the Brazen Head’s drinking arena a guy catches my eye and smiles uncertainly. He’s neither old nor young, just beaten up by life. He ambles over holding up a paint roller and a sign that says, “SID THE PAYNTER, ALL TIPES OF WORK.” It’s bright yellow on cardboard, with lots of drips and splodges. Even though you know it’s probably not representative of his window-frame and corner work, nor his Dado-rail filigree finesse, it does rather give one pause for thought.

So often, it seems, we undersell ourselves. The career changing interview where we forget our most famous triumphs, the babbled list of achievements to the prospective father-in-law, or the poorly remembered raison d’etre behind a wild, but possibly highly successful, campaign.
Let’s face it, most of us are crap at selling ourselves.

When broadcasting companies chose to advertise themselves they often start with the misguided idea that they know the medium because they are intrinsically involved in it. Luckily there are a few enlightened guys out there, like Shizuoka Broadcasting who turned to Dentsu Advertising for their self-promotional commercials the best of which is situated in a Sumo locker room.
Two body builders are talking after a competition, one is looking very dejected, the other is trying to talk him around. As they talk they start to flex their torsos.
1st guy: “Don’t be disappointed,
…you’ll win next time.
Well, I saw on TV…
Capybara also goes to Spa…”
(Here we cut to a shot of said super-rodent climbing into a pool of water)
2nd Guy: “I saw it too…”
1st Guy: “Isn’t he cute?”
2nd Guy: “I love him.”
1st Guy: “Very cute.”
Super up endline: “Very helpful programmes. Shizuoka Broadcasting”
Catch this inscrutable offering at: http://www.theinspirationroom.com/categories.html#category=latest&keywords=&id=2682
A nice cheap ad with a bit of a laugh in it, it’s one of a series of excellent little ideas that sell the whole that is Shizuoka Broadcasting.

It’s also about as far away as you can get from something that stars; Lou Reed, Bono, Skye Edwards (from Morcheeba), David Bowie, Suzanne Vega, Elton John, Sir Andrew Davis, Boyzone, Lesley Garrett, Lou Reed, Burning Spear, Bono, Sir Thomas Allen, Brodsky Quartet, Heather Small (from M People), Emmylou Harris, Tammy Wynette, Shane McGowan, Sheona White (tenor horn player), Dr. John, Robert Cray, Huey (from Fun Lovin' Criminals), Ian Broudie (from The Lightning Seeds), Gabrielle, Evan Dando (from The Lemonheads), Emmylou Harris, Courtney Pine (soprano saxophone player), BBC Symphony Orchestra, Sir Andrew Davis, Brett Anderson from Suede), Visual Ministry Choir, Joan Armatrading, Laurie Anderson, and even that Welsh warbler, Tom Jones.

The BBC accosted this rather curious cross section of performers to appear in their commercial punting their music programmes and reminding the great British public that their licence fee is being well spent.
Between them they sing, play and talk their way through what is certainly the best rendition of Lou Reed’s “Perfect Day” since his original on the perilously old “Transformer” album. It’s all rather magical and makes me fancy a nice cup of tea and a digestive biscuit or two. Be charmed at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXgRepmpmYI&feature=PlayList&p=07D36B8F5657A196&playnext=1&index=1

Closer to home the DStv Fire station Pole dancing Commercial, part of the
“Guess who’s been watching DSTV?” campaign is a rare delight. If you haven’t seen it, a fireman sweeping floor, checks he’s alone then performs his own private pole dance show before getting a deserving kick in the bollocks from his mates sliding down the pole.
It’s as good as the History channel ad where the little girl builds the sphinx in the sand-pit and far better than the irksome girl-child receiving the award with a predictably long thank you speech. Slide over and catch the show at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UGpMNqHXvI


It’s not only the mighty TV companies that need a little awareness raising.
The memorable campaign for Radio Scotland, created by Scottish agency Mightysmall, (nee 1576), is a dazzling display of what can be done with a small budget and a willing client.

To quote their own website, from I suspect the ever erudite pen of Adrian Jeffery, “When you watch TV, 70% of what you remember is visual and 30% audio. So how do you create a TV campaign for a radio station and make the viewer remember what they hear? What we did was to source real, emotive audio from the Radio Scotland archives. Then commission the world's best typographers to use that audio as their brief for the visuals, so, the words became the pictures.”

If it sounds ambitious check out the final ads, I think they’re excellent and deliver brilliantly on the promise, as did every awards jury in the world making them the most awarded ads in Scotland’s flamboyant history, (including 2 D&AD Silvers and 8 nominations). Tune into them at:
http://www.mightysmall.co.uk/work
Flirting with the concept of self-publicity, of late, I’ve come to realise it isn’t only a tough game for corporations.
Have you ever sat in a bar and looked up to find yourself making eye contact with a total stranger? And enjoyed it?
Wandering through the ultimate in putting yourself out there horrors, the colourful world of on-line dating, I dropped in on my current favourite http://www.eyegazingparties.com/ created by a spooky if oddly engaging guy called Michael Ellsberg.

Eye-gazing, which has taken off like snogging at a teenage party, has become New York’s hottest dating trend. Similar to speed dating but different in one fundamental respect, there’s no speaking permitted.
As Ellsberg himself puts it, “After a fun mini-lesson in the art of eye contact, the group splits into pairs, and each pair spends two minutes looking into each other's eyes, silently, just soaking in each other's essence through the windows to their soul.” Interesting, if a tad 60’s San Francisco.

These sessions are perfect for the easily tongue-tied, be warned though, most people are very uncomfortable holding eye contact for any length of time. I tried it on young Emily in the office only to be greeted by the cry of “Freak,” the flash of a dodgy tattoo and a certain stony silence around the percolator.
Next time I’ll just try it in the mirror, at least I know what reaction I’ll get.

Putting It Out There...

“All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players,” mutters young Bill into the depths of his Jurgemeister bomb as the S.A. Irish Pipes & Drums band blast past the bar window.

“Dinkum.” agrees my art director, smiling approvingly at him as she slams her fifth tequila down and looks decidedly unfocused in her Ladytron
t-shirt.

There’s no point in putting yourself centre-stage if no one’s going to notice you. Back in the dim and distant, London ad agency FCO created what was widely regarded as the first, or at least the first great, 3D outdoor poster campaign for Araldite glue. The series began with a real Ford Cortina (shows its age) stuck to poster sites around Britain with the understated headline: “Also sticks handles to tea-pots.” The second had two cars with the line “The suspense continues.” And the third had gaping holes in the posters where the cars had been and the line “How did we pull it off?”
Through the mists of time it all sounds a bit parochial but it was the first inventive use of outdoor posters and creamed the awards worldwide, -check out old D&AD annuals to see them, - and was the first advertising ever referred to in a positive light in Pravda. (Well, except for a few million Stalinist posters maybe).

Back in the here and now, adland still tries continually to find that single cut-through idea that will hold the public’s attention long enough to flog them a perfume, a loaf of bread or a dead horse. Or a Chevrolet Aveo.
In London a poster went up made entirely of pennies to launch this value for money car. Purposely located at street height the pennies, nearly 20 000 in all, were fairly quickly removed by passing pedestrians of all shapes and ages, revealing the little getabout. It was good gimmick and was rewarded with hundreds of column inches in the press and news stories across the electronic media. Worth its weight in copper you might say.
This being the 21st century you can watch the ad be picked to pieces at;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juIpvn9nuuM

An even more rewarding poster was unveiled in Sydney where 10 000
$1 scratch cards, (scratchies to our wallaby worrying cousins), were fixed to a specially built 12m by 3m billboard. In a winner takes all competition to find the Best Outdoor Ad in Australia someone could walk away with significantly more than $10 000 with each card being a potential $20 000 winner. Some sad bugger has worked out that it will take 20 days to scratch them all at one a minute for 8 hours a day, that’s a bit of Repetitive Strain Injury that might be worth risking.

In adland, a world where gorillas play drums for chocolate and millions of coloured balls bounce merrily untethered through city streets, it’s hard to stand out from the madding crowd.
Sometimes you even have to create your own stage to get your message out there. In 2006 for Folgers Coffee Saatchi & Saatchi turned the manhole covers on New York streets Into steaming coffee cups with stunning street drawings. Drink them in at:
http://www.therawfeed.com/2006/04/nyc-manholes-turned-into-coffee-for.html

Taking the painting theme a tad further, for the World Cup in the same year, as part of their worldwide “Impossible is nothing” campaign, Adidas created a huge fresco in Cologne’s train station.
Commissioned by TBWA Germany, the 40 meters long and 20 meters wide piece shows 10 football icons exactly how millions of enthusiastic football fans around the world see them. As Gods.
Created by Hamburg-based illustrator Felix Reidenbach, (who in a creepy nod to its biblical origin took 40 days to finish), it contains a veritable pantheon of players including Michael Ballack, David Beckham, Zinadine Zidane, Kaka, Nakamura, Lukas Podolski, Lionel Messi, Juan Roman Riquelme and Djibril Cisse. Cross over to:
http://www.frederiksamuel.com/blog/2006/06/adidas-fresco.html
to see it in all its glory.

The same agency, the same client and the same campaign.
A billboard placed over a bridge construction site on the way to the Munich airport, featured a magnificent, stretching dive by the German goalkeeper, Oliver Kahn. As powerful as it was dramatic it branded the whole city as the centre of world football and made the creative team of
Stefan Schmidt, Kurt Georg Dieckert and Boris Schwiedrzik the toast of the town. Catch it at: http://advertisingforpeanuts.blogspot.com/2006/05/adidas-bridge.html

It used to be that only irritating fiancés wrote stuff in the sky where, luckily for all concerned, they soon dissipated back into the ether. Nowadays, however, even the skies aren’t safe from adland adages.
Honda’s Skydiver commercial takes place, well, in the sky. A sky near you perhaps. Anyway a bunch of people throw themselves rather recklessly out of a couple of large airplanes. The pilot informs them, and us, “Remember gentlemen, difficult is worth doing.” Then, in that rather self-conscious manner of all skydivers, they all join hands in little groups. (Is it only me that thinks jumping out of planes is supposed to be a way to get away from throngs of people?). They form into something that might or might not be a recognisable shape; more people leap out of other aircraft and make more indecipherable symbols.
Eventually they line up in a sort of pyramid shape and we can read the name Accord floating rather pointlessly across the sky and the endline says “The Power of Dreams. “ I can’t help thinking that this is a pretty crap dream, to say nothing of a dull ad, judge for yourself at:
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/1503371/honda_accord_skydiver_commercial/

I mention this to the guys around the bar as the S.A, Irish Pipe Band swirl and squirl around us, one of the lead pipers has collapsed in a drunken blur his pipes quietly deflating with him. “We have a piper down…” shouts the lead pipe bloke echoing perfectly Mike Myers in the wedding scene from “So I married an axe murderer,” a classic pre-Austin Powers moment. See what I mean at: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7564788953512686636

As Mr Shakespeare might have put it, “That ends this strange eventful history,”
Exit stage left, pursued by bear.

Turn on, Tune in, Drop out...

It’s been a week of ups, downs, drunken mistakes and sober pleasures. A mix of ridiculous happiness and soulful sorrows, turn-ons, turn-ups and finally, turn-offs.

Billed as “The Huge Turn Off” the commercial; starts with Alanis Morrisette sitting on a huge leather airplane seat clipping her toe nails as she explains about Earth Hour, a time when we can all turn off our lights for an hour and by doing so we will put pressure on all those nasty none green companies. Maybe it’s just me but there seems to be some kind of disconnect here. Are they supposed to be so impressed by a show of mass power, excuse the pun, that they will immediately stop doing bad things to the environment? Maybe all those years of marching up and down roads waving CND banners has made me a tad cynical about the power of the people. Anyway, it’s a pleasant enough spot for the WWF by Leo Burnett, switch onto it at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rl6jf-pT-dM before everyone switches off, tonight.

A much bigger turn off for those of us who enjoy nothing better than suspicious cow parts squeezed between two skanky bits of bun is the new ad for Arby’s. In a bid to find a new way to mess up the good old burger Arby’s have created the new roast burger, never fried, never greasy. The burger done better. (done better than the grammer did anyway).
To celebrate this devastating invention the ad agency, Fletcher Martin, commissioned artist Phil Hansen to demonstrate how greasy other burgers are by drawing with the them on greaseproof paper. In what is described as a “trans fat on paper masterpiece” he recreates the Mona Lisa, or Mona Greasa as some wag has named it. It’s amusing in a children playing with food kind of way and just tasteless enough to make you watch it. Get a mouthful at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITPQMOt7z10
Or better still visit their own website and win a delicious roasted Arby burger, although you’ll probably have to pay for postage and someone att the post office will most likely eat it, which will serve them right. http://www.burgergreaseart.com/

Leaving a much more dubious taste in the mouth is the new Ford commercial from JWT Sydney. It’s a corporate ad, which means it’s not selling you a product, it’s selling you a company ethos. Exactly. It’s one of those ads that ramble on about soul searching, making nebulous analogies to the freedom of the road and the freedom of travelling around in a 16 tonnes of metal at high speeds. This one is particularly tasteless as it employs Writer fallback position 3, or when you’re stuck without an idea nick a famous song or film track or, as here, a well-known poem. Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken,” one of the most hippy-abused pieces of nonsense since “Desiderata” is read over a series of shots of some young bloke wandering roads and doing crappy macho work on boats and interfering with sheep. It’s all very idyllic and has bugger all to do with cars, still you can get a glimpse of it at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYQc6tYVTaM


Or, to add a dash of Culture to your life you can see the tiresome old git read it himself at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yG24ohpacDk
“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference….”
It’s hypnotic, if you can stay awake.

Staying awake through the latest Nike commercial is no problem if you’re a fan of Eva Longoria, Sofia Boutella, Fernando Torres, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Rodger Federer.
In an attempt to reinvigorate the eternal battle of the sexes Nike have launched a “Men vs Women” challenge. If the ad is anything to go by it’s all about running up and down pavements and being a general pain in the arse, or being a jogger as it’s known. (Why is it that the Walk/Run for life people have to move 3 or 4 abreast down our roads? And what’s with the obliue slash thing? Do they change their minds as they go, “Do I run or walk…?”.) Famous people are seen running up and down pavements in that mildly competitive way that Americans are cultivating.
Run the ad down at:: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_W1sP344NM
It comes with a rather pleasant racy track by Mr Gnarls Barkley.


Some young guys are chatting outside of an office. An older guy appears, obviously the boss, and calls one of them over.
“Kevin, can we go for a coffee…”
As the horror of the phrase sinks in we cut to a montage of set ups over a coffee as the boss declares:
“You’re fired…
I love you, I’ve said it,
We need to fake your death
(He strokes his face singing softy),
You have a wonderful body. I’ve made a sculpture of you…
You’ll be based in North Korea.”
Kevin comes to his senses and, to avoid such caffeine driven nonsense suggests:
“Why don’t we go grab a Dare iced coffee.”
Super up line: “The coffee moment, without the moment.”
It’s beautifully paced and funny without being sentimental, just what you’d expect from Mr Warren Brown and his team of strangeness at BMF Sydney. Take a hit at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivzyCgj6j88

Imagine you’re a mini-cam and you’ve fallen into the hands of a Dutch creative team at Grey Amsterdam just as they’re confronted by a TV brief for Lactacyd, pH balance products for intimate feminine hygiene. The results are fairly predictable, but no less bizarre. A day in the life of a lady is seen from what could be described as “a tampon’s eye view,” it’s 30 seconds of film you may not want to watch too often. Catch an eyeful at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uO-qR8-HtY
It’s a tad unnerving for a chap, and for a chappette too as my art director proves, muttering knowingly about “gritty realism” while hiding her tousled blond hair behind her blood red nails.
Time to turn off the brain.

art for heart's sake

“A belief in creativity for the sake of creativity is a necessary condition for the success of creative companies,” says Gordon Torr in his excellent “Managing Creative People.” (Wiley Press),

Diesel, the purveyor of all things cool, trendy and grungy, have long believed this. You can see it in the post-eighties, industrial broken-downess of every store, it positively drips from every edgy company press release and, of course, runs riot across their advertising.
The latest offering Farfar, their Stockholm agency, is rather bluntly called “Hairbath,” it comes in three episodes and involves, well, a bath full of hair and a voluptuous young thing writhing in the huirsuit clippings sent to her by admirers. It’s very creative. You can tell because it’s shot black and white by someone called “Legs” of production company “Legs” of New York. I have no idea what to make of it all. It is as beautiful as the model is. However, by donning the hair-shirt of “creative for creative’s sake” it rather confuses the any advertising message, unless it’s saying, “our clothes feel hairy.” Slip into at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqflNCQmHi4 episode 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1VBsbHMxhg&feature=related
episode 2
and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipD0iUqDrgM&feature=related
episode 3.

Some time in the 60’s the Kinsey report declared that we think of sex 40 times a minute or some such nonsense. The latest two commercials from Durex, the creators of rubber barriers, certainlty show that when given the chance adland’s creative forces can certainly bend their talents in that direction.
From McCann Madrid we get a film where our horny Spanish cousins can’t seem to stop themselves thinking of a bit of afternoon rumpy pumpy. They see jack hammers pounding and think, “time for a shag,” or cups vibrating on tables and go, “well, time for a shag,” and….
It’s all rather amusing but a tad old-fashioned looking. Get a look at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXIZUUKFXZk
In Altanta they have squeaky clean sex.
Two balloon rabbits made from different coloured condoms approach each other cautiously, sniff each others behinds, as you do, and then, erm, get it on. In a frenzy of rubberised squeaks they shag in various positions until a third bunny joins in. It’s very funny and nicely produced and might even sell a few life-saving contraceptives. Have a laugh at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4cgqiolkkE

Creativity for its own sake is in show in Brazil, where Almap BBDO have decided that what every VW drive needs is a pet, in this case one that’s half dog, half fish. It frolics in the waves, gets chased by cats and caught by fishermen in nets. Actually it seems that owning one would generally be a pain in the arse, maybe that’s the subliminal message, the new VW ……. Is going to give you sleepless nights. Anyway, the ad is funny and nicely achieved and was probably a good laugh to put together. What else can you ask from your job? Reel it in at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9g2Fex04Ic

Animation has come a long way since Donald quacked his first spluttering hello. In the hands of talented creatives it can make a whole world of Pixar driven wonder and create more magical dreamscapes than otherwise possible with real life filming. In the hands of JWT Paris it can create pointless drivel. Their “Fight for Kisses” spot for Wilkinson Sword uses that annoying type of 3-D imaging that is neither reality nor fictional, the smooth skinned androids with too big eyes, too smooth movements and a decidedly spooky demeanour. It’s long and dull and it’s a technique disguised once again as an idea. Bore yourself stupid at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kOJ6d4LdXM

The Guggenheim in Bilbao is crammed with proper Art of the modern variety. The agency realised that many people are dubious about the integrity of anything that isn’t a lovely bowl of fruit or a half-naked woman lounging around a picnic area. The commercial opens on a security guard making his way through the collection to his allotted space. As he walks he mutters to himself.
“259,200 minutes guarding this…”
He reaches his exhibit and we see Dali’s “Lobster telephone.”
“…a telephone with a giant prawn on top… who would ever steal something like that? Sure I could make that!... or a gas bottle with a bra…or an anchovy wearing a tux at a computer… that’s it, I’m a genius, it’s no joke. But how would I face my workmates?”
He bends to look closely at the Lobster telephone and muses, “Does this thing ring, or clack, clack?”
Super up line “Guggenheim Surrealist stuff. Dreamers welcome.”
It’s a nice piece with just enough irreverence to highlight the genius of the artists rather than pour scorn on the exhibit.
The thing about giving creatives their head, as it were, is that while most of us are calm, grown up types who dream of Volvos and weekends with family, some of us are altogether different animals.
The guys from McCann Singapore are obviously not to be messed with, their ad for X-Box entitled “Hunting Season” is an odd number. Two red necks go hunting in the woods for deer, they chase droppings and finally track down… a sheep. They build a fire and toast marshmallows on twigs, then, fool about using twigs as antlers to act as deer, until one of them is shot in the backside. It’s ok. Not great, and definitely not as ground-breaking as other X-box work. Actually to be brutally truthful, it’s a waste of a decent brief and a client who loves challenging work. Track it down at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StOJr2k5Y-U

In the Brazen Head the other night things were a tad hectic, the air heavy with sarcasm, stern words were exchanged over a pint of Pilsner or three. The Heineken promotion is in full swing, showcasing the German grasp of creativity fully there are lanyards, and bottle openers and bags and dog tags and rather oddly, flip flops.
My art director is flopping around in them, flips flops the size of the Bismarck with the Brand name imprinted on the soles, it’s funny what a few bottles of bubbly will bring out in a girl, but that’s what happens when you release the creative spirit.

just for effect

Commercials built on an effect all too often end up as nothing more than a vehicle for the effect itself, a marvellously pointless visual feast from the director and his post-production guys. This in no way negates using the many sumptuous effects lurking out there, adland has a long and often stunning history of bending them to embellish a good tale. The Rhapsody Music ad by Droga5 New York, for instance is a good idea well achieved, of course it also has tracks by Kraak & Smaak and David Bowie to help it bounce nicely along, but the idea is the key not the FX. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hBN4roSRwg

New Zealand. A place of calmness, home to zillions of sheep, a couple of dozen people and a handful of hobbits. And The Dark Lord, of course.
Maybe it was the filming of Mr Jackson’s trilogy of middle-earth that awakened something dark and disturbing in the national psyche, or maybe they’ve always had a darker side but have been too far away for anyone to give a damn. Whatever the truth, the ad for Stihl power tools by DDB positively drips with the dark side of humour.
Put together by creative team James Tucker and Simon Vicars and directed by Adam Stevens of Robbers Dog Films it’s an interesting take on a real life moment, it appears to touch a significant spot somewhere deep within my ex-goth art director who growls approvingly from behind her Versace sunglasses, watch it to death at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJUalKcORbM
Adrian Cooper of Media matters, a New Zealand standards watchdog, feels that DDB and Stihl have crossed the good taste line. "I was really horrified,” he says, “I thought, this is not good enough, it's simply not good enough, and it's not the New Zealand I know."

The ad prompted a flurry of complaints to the Broadcasting and Advertising Standards authorities. "I think that any mature, responsible, thinking adults looking at that would find it offensive," says Mr. Cooper.
Personally, and I realise there’s not a whole heap to do in New Zealand, but if this is the sort of imagery that troubles him so deeply, I think he should get out more.

God knows what he’d make of the viral commercial billed as “THE RARE AND ELUSIVE CONDOM FAIRY.” Brought to us by “THE BEST COMPANY EVER, INC. AND LIFESTYLES SKYN CONDOMS.” It’s a tad raunchy for the first 15 seconds or so, (I can feel Mr. Cooper’s fingers twitching over his keyboard already), and then the elusive condom fairy appears. He’s elusive in the same way Mr. T was elusive in the “A Team” and is actually disturbingly reminiscent of him. Laugh your way to protection at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uV4WDBM7N3c

Fairies are featuring large in Adland at the moment. In the excruciating media space that is Celebrity Apprentice, (are they practising to be celebrities?), Sun Products were featured in a particularly gory episode.
Teams where challenged to create a viral video for their all® small & mighty laundry product. What they created needed to be on brand, appeal to the target audience and be interesting enough to pass the viral test, (ie: be worthy of people sending it on and on to friends).

Not only did both teams fail to produce a video that the client could feasibly run, but all of the videos they made were deemed to be in poor taste, (presumably Mr. Cooper has a U.S. cousin), packed with crap jokes and terrible innuendo, like a room full of junior creatives who’ve been told to “go wild” with a brief.
Eventually “Razorfish” were asked to step in and create a solution.
The result was the ‘LFU 320’. Starring Melissa Rivers it’s a mockumentary of the Laundry Fairy’s Union 320, an off-beat collection of stain fighting fairies who aid over-stretched women everywhere. All of course meant to punt the Laundry Fairy’s weapon of choice - all® small & mighty. Fairy small. Mighty clean.™ it’s worth a look just to see some of the decidedly disgruntled fairies. See them air their dirty laundry at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8qoUySSAto

Leaping out of planes for no good reason has been a bit of a thing lately on airwaves across advertising too. The Emerald Nuts “Falling” spot is all about banishing something called the 3pm slump, some kind of sugar low that appears to be the bane of companies across America. Created by Goodby, Silverstein & Partners in San Francisco, it’s an amusing piece where the guy is so distracted by this malaise he walks out of a plane door into the sky. It’s funny. Dive in at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-rKMBMVsQs

One ad that’s proven very popular down the Brazen Head of late is the Johnny Walker “Crossroads” commercial. This may be because it’s about booze and therefore goes down quicker than a two finger shot with lime. It’s one of those Mr Johnson at the spiritual crossroads sort of films. Full of beautiful post-Paris Texas shots and quirky little visual asides and it sort of brings the whole “Keep walking” idea home full circle. Shot by Walter Stern of Academy and created by Pete Bradley of BBH London it’s a classic piece of well-shot, not overly scripted advertising.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlKLoAOlPfs

Ever since the Axe campaign began it’s become a world-wide competition to make each ad progressively sexier and steamier, and it’s often been a pleasure to behold. The latest offering from agency Vegallmosponce in Buenos Aires is a slight move away from bursting blouses and hormones to erm, the world of what at first appears to be post-its.
These coloured squares of paper are all over the guys flat and car and well, everywhere really. Suddenly, a pretty, sexy, Axe girl appears attracted presumably by the deodorant rather than the smell of glued notepaper pieces. As they start to grapple the paper squares come to life and cover their unseemly behaviour in a sort of censoring manner. It’s a technique blended with an effect to very little effect indeed, chase it down at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgrZqX2DAXA
Time to see if Mr Smirnoff can still take effect as usual.

in it for the long run

In an unstable world like ours what we all seek is a sense of continuity, a feeling of never-ending stasis, that, to paraphrase that god-awful Celine song, that “You are safe in my heart, and my heart will go and on.”

An idea that resonates with many clients in adland who, having found a formula for their advertising stick with it, no matter what.
This sounds dull, but often it can lead to great work. After all if the agency has a framework to build on it frees up the need to create from the feared white page up. This can be as simple as an endline, a technique or even a spokesman.
In January of 2000 Sean, the man from “Trunkmonkey Racing” in the USA created the “Trunkmonkey” concept as a mascot for his race team and the North American Subaru Impreza Owners Club.
It proved to be a major hit with his teams’ supporters, so much so that they put together a commercial.
“Road rage,” plays upon that all too common situation where the seemingly helpless driver is confronted by the huge raging loony who feels he has been the victim of bad driving and stands banging on your car window demanding some kind of justice. With the press of the “Trunkmonkey” button a barmy chimp is released from the car boot, or trunk to our American cousins, and proceeds to beat the crap out of the big guy with a wheel spanner thing. It’s a very fulfilling commercial for those of us who have ever been confronted by purple faced giants intent on tearing us limb from limb.

Catch the monkey at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9tj3xnsqfY&feature=PlayList&p=655C6917AEE67806&index=9&playnext=9&playnext_from=PL

The crazed chimp, however, was such a big hit that the Trunkmonkey guys realised they had lucked into a viable company image. In fairly rapid succession they created an excellent campaign of ads. “Alien Abduction,” “First Aid,” “Chaperone,” “Pediatric Edition,” ”Want a Donut?” “Throwing Eggs.” And my own favourite, “Thrown off a Bridge, in which a car thief is dragged from the car and thrown bodily from a high bridge. Very satisfying indeed.
And it achieved two important things; it made the North American Subaru Impreza Owners Club famous, and created a sense of anticipation amongst the consumer as they waited to see who the mad chimp would assault next.
Locally our most successful version of this is no doubt the every youthful Nando’s campaign which, like most long-term formats, has it’s great moments and its lows. The latest political voting ad featuring the ANC youth leader as a puppet talking of great change is a timely, well thought out piece.
One of the touch-stones for longevity in ad campaigns for a long time was for Hamlet cigars. With the instantly recognisable musical mnemonic they featured people to whom a small misfortune occurred who rose above it with “a mild cigar from Benson & Hedges.”
From 1966 until 1997 they reigned supreme as an example of how to keep a great idea fresh and distinctive, yet remain true to the central concept.
You can inhale a comprehensive collection at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIckHmwZAeI
You’ll find not only the early stuff like “Music Teacher,” featuring members of the “Carry On” squad of comedians, but also “Robots”, the response to the original Star Wars film, “Tennis” and the ultimate Bald bloke horror, “Photo-booth.”
The genius of the agency Collett Dickenson Pearce was that to keep the idea fresh they backed it up with topical executions, not only on TV but on radio and in the press. Famously when the English cricket captain Ian Botham was dragged through the press for smoking a little recreational cannabis they ran a photo of him smoking a cigar with the “Happiness is a cigar called Hamlet” line under it. A quick reacting agency and a brave client are a powerful mix.
Great ideas come from anywhere, people are constantly telling me. In 1968 Hamlet ran an ad showing a bloke undressing in front of a bunch of scandalised women in a laundrette, popping his clothes in the washer and calmly smoking his cigar.
Twenty years later the exact same scenario was used by Bartle Bogle & Hegarty to re-launch a seemingly dying brand of jeans to an uncaring public.
Featuring model Nik Kamen and the Marvin Gaye classic “I heard it through the Grapevine,” it was admittedly a steamier version. Not only did it help push a lot of denim, it also was the start of one of the most successful campaigns of commercials ever seen which continues today around the world. Both in commercial and in adland fame there has probably never been a campaign with such diversity and longevity.
One of the latest, is a bizarre tribute to the 80’s classic “Tainted Love.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ne4X6ucn_Q

I include it not only as an example of the ongoing greatness of the campaign, but because my art director, sweet girl that she is, hasn’t stopped giggling and twirling her beads ever since she saw it last week. And if it can make her smile it can do the same for almost anyone.

As campaigns that make you smile go the long-running Castlemaine XXXX beer campaign is not often surpassed. Starting with two of our Aussie brothers who drop their cans of lager into a croc infested river: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jc3TGbZmMfU&feature=related
It has run successfully from the 80’s constantly maintaining its ability to poke fun at the flaws in the character of the Antipodean male. (it would probably go down very well here in S.A.).

Continuity in advertising is a strong and often neglected thing as clients and agencies alike struggle for “the next best thing.”
The overpowering urge for change, even in the midst of great successes it niggles at the back of even the sanest brain, “could I do better in another job/country/relationship.”
However, the cry of “if it’s not broken don’t fix it” is not always one of nervous protectionism from an agency, often it’s based in the knowledge that truly memorable advertising comes from powerful, single-minded ideas carried across campaigns that grow with time rather than fade away.