Peckham Style

Taken in a shop in Peckham. Thanks to Nick for this entry.

Adidas Dogs

Sleepy dogs in front of adidas shop window. Bucharest, Romania.

Thanks, Aurel.

Photography Competition

Straight from the camera- Outside Gray's Papaya, W.8th Street, NYC. From Avril

Photography Competition

A donkey, advertising El Burro mexican restaurant on a wet Wednesday lunchtime, Goodge Street. El Burro promises crazy times. It's raining. One of his ears has drooped.

Thanks to Simmer Dim for this one.

Photography Competition

I'm on holiday for the next two weeks.

But instead of just putting up a 'Closed' sign for a fortnight, we're going to try something out here.

If it doesn't work, we won't do it again. (In fact we'll probably pretend it never happened.)

But if it does work, it should be a lot of fun.

We're going to have a photography competition.

The theme is "Advertising."

Here's one to get things started. From 'anonymous'

Entries can be a photo, cartoon, illustration, photoshop comp, whatever. Either something you've made, or something you've found. Just your take on the theme.

Send it to my friend Ali Merry. Alastair dot Merry at BBH dot co dot uk. Let him know if you want your entry to be anonymous, or have your name on it.

He'll put up one image a day.

At the end of the two weeks, the 1st 2nd and 3rd will be announced.

The Winner will be interviewed on Scamp. (Unless you want to be anonymous). Other prizes for 2nd and 3rd.

So come on, have a bash. The worst that can happen is you've wasted some time. And there's nothing wrong with that.

Is It Time To Re-Appraise CHI?

So we've discussed how much they pay. But are they any good?

Actually, I think maybe they are now.

Here's the new spot for Drench mineral water.



Puppets are funny. Fact.

Okay so it drags a tiny bit - the 60 is probably better than the 90 - but the sight of Brains grabbing his crown jewels is not one I'll forget in a hurry. Even logic-fans will be thrilled, because all that lovely entertainment is fully justified with an endline about Brains performing best when hydrated.

Exhibit B, this ad, with the remote-controlled plane. A funny idea, with great casting and great performances. What more do you want? Toyota is carving out quite a nice little VW-esque tone of voice for itself.



And let's not forget the awesome 'Tide' spot for Big Yellow Storage.



Even their print is getting better.

I saw a cracking tube card the other day for the Prius. It was just a picture of the car, and the words "The bandwagon. By Toyota."

CHI have always had some good Creatives - like Charles Inge, Mickey Tudor and Brian Turner. But the work was inconsistent. I thought the Telegraph 'Bestseller' campaign wasn't bad, and the Tango spoof was okay. But nearly everything else was abysmal. Especially British Gas.

So why the improvement?


Two words. Ewan Paterson.

Since he joined, the graph has moved in only one direction.

I like that. I like the fact that they have the same Suits and the same Planners, but a great new CD makes a great difference.

I know Ewan from DDB days, so I'll probably get accused of arse-licking.

It won't change the fact that he's doing a pretty nice job over there.

Tuesday Tip No.50 - How To Choose Where To Work

A Certain Ratio were a band from Manchester,
and are tangentially related to this post

Let's assume you are lucky enough to be offered more than one job.

How do you know which agency is better?

Well, there are lots of factors that will be particular to you - whether you like the people, the agency's style of work, and its location, for example.

But the most important factor, by far, is Awards Per Head.

For reasons we all understand, and have discussed many times before on this blog, nothing will help your career more than awards.

Therefore, the best agency is the agency that wins the most awards per creative team.

Judging on the ratio is crucial. If you only look at overall number of awards, and not ratio of awards-to-Creatives, you could go wrong. For example, some might think AMV is a better career choice than Miles Calcraft Briginshaw Duffy, because AMV wins more awards - maybe 30 a year, to MCBD's 10. However, AMV has about 60 Creatives and MCBD only has 10. These are very rough figures, but as they show MCBD wins twice the Awards Per Head as AMV, it's still pretty conclusive.

I reckon Awards Per Head is how all Creatives rank agencies, albeit unconsciously.

So it can't do any harm to be consciously aware of it, when deciding where you want to work.


Previous Tips:

Working Outside London; What Would John Webster Do?; What Would Paul & Nigel Do?; The Hidden Flaw; How To Write Copy; Be Funny All The Way Through; How To Do Virals; How To Get A Pay Rise; Be Wary Of Punding; Challenge The Brief; Tell The Truth; Playing To Lose; How To Write Headlines; How To Do Direct; How To Do Radio; How To Do Press; How To Do TV; How To Do Digital; How To Do Posters; Look At Weird Shit; Presenting To The Client; Presenting To The Team; Presenting To The Creative Director; How To Deal With Rejection; Look Creative; Don't Be Afraid To Ask; Your Idea Has To Be 120%; Read Iain's Tips; Don't Behave; How To Discuss Ideas; Read Hugh's Tips; How To Get A Job In Advertising Part IV - How To Turn A Placement Into A Job; How To Get A Job In Advertising Part III - How To Approach Agencies (re-print of Tip No. 7); How To Get A Job In Advertising Part II - How To Put A Book Together; How To Get A Job In Advertising Part I - FAQ; Make Friends With Traffic; Get Reference; Don't Stop Too Soon; Be Very; Breaking Up; Working Well With Your Partner; Finding The Right Partner; How To Approach Agencies; Never-Seen-Before Footage; Dicketts' Finger; Two Blokes In The Pub; Play Family Fortunes; Should You Take A Bad Job?; Don't Overpolish