Atheism Update

As a personal project, I've started a campaign to promote atheism. Here's the website.

Submissions are very welcome; this is my pick of the latest batch:






I was inspired by the British Humanist Association's plan to create an atheist bus campaign.

I had a couple of meetings with them, along with the media agency, Naked, and shared some ideas, but it now looks like we won't be working together. They're a cool bunch of people, but they have decided to commit all the funds raised by their campaign to the original bus-side concept.

I still want to promote atheism in other ways; it looks like I am just going to have to do it myself, guerrilla stylee.

To that end, Scowling A.D. and I have a meeting with a very talented director tomorrow morning, to discuss shooting this script as a test:

We open in a typical large bookshop, e.g. Waterstone’s. Maybe we’re upstairs.

There are quite a few customers milling around, and one member of staff.

When the member of staff goes off somewhere, the ‘customers’ all swing into action. Each of them pulls out two or three copies of the bible (same edition), and place them on the Fiction table (there’s a sign clearly marked Fiction), then they scurry away.

We film the reactions of normal customers and members of staff, when they see this new display.

Title: DiscoverAtheism.Info

I think this could make for an amusing and thought-provoking piece of film, something akin to the style of Whopper Freakout. Incidentally, this was also written by a U.S.-based team.

I'll keep you informed of how it goes.

Exciting News If You're A Fan Of Either Fallon, Kaka, Or Zoetropes

Euro ad-blogger Dabitch has all the info you could want about the shooting of the next Sony Bravia ad.

Friday Poll - How Hard Are You Trying?

This week's poll, suggested by J, looks at effort.

Are you busting your balls? Or are you coasting? Or something in-between? Vote now, in the right hand column of this blog.

And on the wider question... are the most successful creatives the ones who are trying the hardest? Or is it better to be more laid-back?

Previous Polls


P.S. Comment moderation is now on. I met up with Ben of If This Is A Blog... the other day and he said it was working out really well for him. So I'm going to try it. Also, please note change to comment policy. Personal attacks no longer allowed. We can still critique work, but not each other. Goal isn't to make this place more boring, just more positive.

Today's Quote From 'Murder Must Advertise'

This is a quote from a "dyspeptic" senior copywriter called Mr Copley: "He had always said that the younger generation of advertising writers were No Good. Feather-headedness. No solid business sense. No thought."

Not Voodoo

I've discovered a rather good new blog called Not Voodoo, by an advertising creative who uses the pseudonym 'Gordon Comstock'.

And here are three examples of his writing:

If you were the Chapman brothers (both of them, so you wouldn’t have to argue about it) you could do a series of poor copies of adverts, or even just copies of ads taken from YouTube, and sell them for millions as studies of the relation between commercial ideas and ideas that sell. It wouldn’t be good, or even original, art, but it would really annoy advertising people.

Recently my Art Director produced a visual for charity ad that was so unpleasant anyone seeing it involuntarily recoiled in shock. We were all ready to do it, but at the final moment discovered that, like most unpleasant things you’d really like to do, it had already been done in France.

I was put in mind of a cyber-spat I had with Neil Boorman, erstwhile Shoreditch Twat, about his book the Bonfire of the Brands. I'd picked a fight with him based on the fact that he was using Facebook, a brand, a rather big brand, to promote his anti-brand book. He clocked that I worked in advertising and basically told me to fuck off, saying sarcastically, "actually you're right, I really want to work in advertising, this whole burning all my possessions thing is just an attempt to get my book in at Mother."

It's a blog worth keeping an eye on, I reckon.

Today's Quote From 'Murder Must Advertise'

"The new copy-writer - Miss Rossiter was saying he was potty."
"They're all potty in that department, if you ask me," said Mr Harris. "Children. Arrested development."

As Heard On A Shoot

Sent to me by a very senior production company person, who stresses that he loves working with ad agencies, and this is just a bit of fun:

The map is wrong, how do they expect us to get to the location? Look, they mis-spelled my fucking name! What happens if it rains? That’s all they do is drive trucks? I have to have coffee. Don’t they have chairs for us? When you’re lit the client would like to look through the lens. Are we going to see that cross on the film? Can they make her look more French? Can she hold it closer to her face? It looks like something’s on fire. We forgot the product – have you got a runner who can go to the shops? He did it in casting. Can we make the product larger? Why does it look so dark? Can we pause on the bite? Is the video guy asleep? Unfortunately we don’t have the right pack but we can fix that in post can’t we? I liked it better in the animatic. Which one is the eyepiece? What am I looking at? The client is very sensitive about that - I don’t think we should bring it up. Where is my Evian? Nobody told me. When is lunch? He doesn’t care what it costs, he’s not fucking paying for it! Why isn’t she smiling? I hope we’re not having Italian, we had Italian yesterday. Where are they going to put the camera next? It worked fine in the test kitchen. Can you find me a charger? Is this the same guy we cast? That’s not what we discussed in the PPM. Can the Client get his hair cut? Can we cast a model with size three shoes... like me? Can we shoot it both ways? Can’t we get wi-fi up here? Breakfast was beautiful. The drinks are great but tomorrow could you serve the client’s product instead? What is the call time for us? Where’s the best restaurant? How do we get to the hotel? Do you need us anymore?

Do they mean us? I rather fear that they do...

How many have you said?

Today's Quote From 'Murder Must Advertise'

"Truth in advertising", announced Lord Peter, "is like leaven, which a woman hid in three measures of meal. It provides a suitable quantity of gas, with which to blow out a mass of crude misrepresentation into a form that the public can swallow."

Girl Sucks Up Her Own Vomit

This 'use a condom' commercial by DLKW is super well directed, and I love the 2 (two!) scenes where the girl sucks up her own vomit - genuinely haven't seen that before - but something about the ad bothers me.

I think it's this: there's no reason why the ad should run backwards. Compare with a legit use of the device - an old ad for BT that showed an engineer 'unsnipping' phone lines because thousands of people were 'coming back' to BT.

Anyway, it's rude to criticise without being constructive. So here's how I would have constructed the ad: there's a great visual parallel here between the alcohol-induced vomit and the pregnancy-induced vomit. That tells the whole story. Put the first one at the beginning and the second one at the end, and suddenly you've got a structure that makes sense.

My version's better, right? I would put it together myself on iMovie, but I haven't got that much time on my hands.

Murder Must Advertise

On the recommendation of Russell, I've been reading 'Murder Must Advertise', the 1933 novel by Dorothy L Sayers.

The plot features a mega-posh amateur detective called Lord Peter Wimsey, who goes undercover in an ad agency after one of the creatives gets murdered.

As one might expect, he finds copywriting terribly easy, and they're rather sorry to see him go once he's solved the murder. (I won't bore you with the details of the actual crime, or the laughable sub-plot concerning advertisement headlines being used as code for a gang of drug dealers).

But Sayers herself worked as a copywriter for seven years, and I was curious to see if any of the ad stuff would resonate today.

It does. Here are the words of warning that creative director Mr Hankin gives Lord Peter on his first day at the agency: "You'll soon find that the biggest obstacle to good advertising is the client."

1933, folks.

The Campaign A List

They say no one reads the A List apart from the people who are in the A List.

But I did. And I've rootled out the funny(ish) bits, for you.

What would you change about yourself? I'd have a tail (Graham Fink)

Best thing about your job? The frisson of staff fear as I stride to my desk every morning (Leon Jaume)

Worst thing about your job? The constant backdrop of distant, mocking laughter (Leon Jaume)

The biggest lie you've ever told? The one about advertising (Trevor Beattie)

What would you change about yourself? My constant fucking swearing (Ringan Ledwidge)

Your USP? Tits and balls (Kate Stanners)

If you could be anyone else in the business, who would it be? I'd have Beattie's head, Davidson's gut and Craigen's hollow legs. I'd be a fucking ripsnorting ad monster (Ben Walker)

Advice for a wannabe A Lister Work every weekend (Tim Delaney)

The Ten Biggest Cocks And She-Cocks In Advertising... Ever

Following on from this and this, angry genius Charlie Brooker has made another damn funny programme about advertising. Well worth watching the whole thing via BBC iPlayer here.

In case you can't, here's Charlie on a 1970's Twix advert:

Anyone who fails to buy a chocolate bar that can be easily shared with attractive members of the opposite sex is a girlfriendless loser destined to catch the bus home and spend the evening wanking and tying a noose.

On the acting seen in ads:

There's a whole range of facial expressions that human beings never pull in real life, only in commercials. Expressions which register emotions like 'good value'

On the Gold Blend couple:

Stop talking about coffee and start fucking.

And on advertising in general:

5x worse than the Nazis.

Ah yes, but we can laugh at ourselves. So maybe we're not quite as bad as Hitler's mob...

Thanks to ben for the tip

Tuesday Tip No.66 - How To Write Endlines

Civilians think that 'coming up with slogans' is our whole job.

And in a way, they have a point.

The slogan, that much-derided term, is the complete encapsulation of a campaign or brand idea. Ideally it distills everything important that a company stands for, and acts as a springboard for great communications.

So endlines are important. Which makes the ability to write good ones a valuable skill to have.

Lines win pitches. They build brands. And they create fame for the person who wrote them.

I always thought it would be a bold move for a creative team to have a tiny portfolio with just 8-10 pages in it, and on each page nothing but a campaign endline they'd come up with.

The first thing to do is be absolutely clear about what you are trying to say.

"Australians wouldn't give a XXXX for anything else" says 'Australian'
"Finger lickin' good" says 'delicious'
"The appliance of science" says 'advanced'

Don't even start trying to write an endline until you've got what you want to say down to one word.

From there, it's about applying dem old-fashioned copywritin' skills to express that concept in a new and interesting way.

Here's a few devices you can deploy:

1. Insight. The KFC line is a good example of this. What do you actually do when you find something delicious? You lick your fingers. Think about what people actually do when they use the product.

"Let your fingers do the walking" is another example, coincidentally it's also finger-related. The line says 'convenient'. And it works because of the insight that when you use the Yellow Pages, you go through it with your fingers.

2. Zingy language. Rhyme, alliteration and neology (coining new words) all help. "Beanz Meanz Heinz" is just so much more memorable than "Heinz - the definitive baked beans" isn't it?

3. Words with two meanings. Of the 20 endlines that Adslogans nominated for slogan of the year 2007/8, no fewer than 6 of them employed words with double meanings, including the excellent "Be humankind" for Oxfam, and "Get some nuts" for Snickers. So, think about the words related to your product, and whether any of them have additional meanings that you can use to your advantage.

And if you have a method that you use in writing endlines, do share it in the comments.


Previous Tips

Break The Cycle

Following Hunting, which opened the debate, here's the next film in our Barnardo's campaign.



Director: Jeff Labbe
Creatives: Nick Allsop, Nick Gill, Dominic Goldman, Simon Veksner
Creative Director: Nick Gill

There's digital activity too.

It's Goodnight From Vando

Vando, Sydney-based writer of The Jason Recliner, has announced the 'final recline'.

Knowing there's no coming back has let the already-candid Vando truly let rip.

Transmedia planning is described as: "a wank... just a fancy term for coming up with a well rounded media plan."

Second Life: "Not only is it weird, it's dying."

And on trade magazines: "do we really need... weekly mags where everyone in advertising talks about each other and bla bla bla. At the end of the day, if a Creative Director at Watkins, Spruce and Gribley thinks a competitive ad for Fruit Loops is crap, who gives a shit. Ad folk could spend more time educating their clients rather than their colleagues, but that doesn't win new business does it?"

Goodbye Vando, you'll be missed.

The Marketing Blogs section of my sidebar's looking rather threadbare. Anyone know any good ones?

Sony Balls On Steroids

There's something weirdly compelling about this.

Carnival Cruise Lines dropped a giant beach ball in Dallas to break a record for the world's largest beach ball, and made an ad out of it.

I don't know what it is about giant objects... but they're just great, aren't they?

Oh, and why is it that in advertising you need to have either one big thing (PlayStation giant ball idents, British Airways 'Manhattan') or many small things (Sony Balls, Big Yellow 'Tide')?

Thanks to DW for the tip

The Goat That Ate Its Own Legs

I wrote a post a couple of months ago about ad people who have written books.

Well, now we have a new name for the list.

Alex Burrett, formerly top radio producer at BBH, has written what sounds like a cracking book of short stories called My Goat Ate Its Own Legs.

Characters in the tales include the ex’s of both God and Death, a dog addicted to cocaine, a couple who literally merge through the intensity of their mutual lust, and another who eat their kids. Plus the goat that ate its own legs.

The cover has a bite chewed out of it. I like that.

A Terrifying Counter-Theory

A colleague has just sent me this oldish but influential article on Low Involvement Processing, by Robert Heath.

The article makes two main conclusions: one good for us, one terrifying.

The good one is that Heath believes emotional advertising is far more effective than rational messaging.

"I believe... the majority of successful UK advertising campaigns... do not succeed by getting over rational performance-based messages, but by building up simple yet potent associations and linking them to brands."

We can all be happy about that, can't we? No more 'science bit' that the client makes us put in and is delighted with, and which everyone else completely ignores.

However, the reason Heath prefers emotional advertising is because he reckons ads are 'low involvement processed', i.e. consumers aren't paying active conscious attention to ads and so don't pick up facts and rational stuff, but do pick up feelings and associations.

And the conclusion we must draw from that is it doesn't really matter whether your ad is 'noticed' or not.

We all talk constantly about the need to 'stand out', 'get noticed', 'get talked about'.

I've even written about how there's no point doing an ad that looks like something people have seen before, since they'll just screen it out, in the same way that early man screened out 'that rock' and 'that tree', and would only notice 'holy shit, a sabre-toothed tiger' things he had not seen before.

But maybe being noticed doesn't matter, as long as you create the right associations.

I'm reminded of this piece by Jon Howard that talked about an ad for Amoy sauce which generated virtually no awareness, but a big sales uplift. The ad was 'invisible', but worked.

If true, this is all a bit worrying, isn't it?

"They're feral, cruel and ruthless"

Director: Jeff Labbe; Copywriter: Scamp; Art Director: Scowling A.D.; Creative Director: Nick Gill

This piece of film we made for children's charity Barnardo's was released this morning; it's had coverage on BBC Breakfast TV, the Today programme on Radio 4, and others, which I'm delighted about.

I've always been interested in language and use of language, so it was gratifying to get an idea out which is on that theme.

Here's the link to the BBC's online coverage, plus they've opened up a forum on the subject, which has attracted over 900 comments (as at 11.30am). Obviously not everyone will agree with what we're saying, but it's great to see a proper debate about society's changing attitude towards children.

The Science Of Having An Idea

I've written before about How To Tell If You've Had An Idea in which I described how my own (regrettably rare) 'lightbulb moments' feel like a mild electrical shock in the brain.

Now a wonderful New Yorker article from July 2006, sent to me by Johnny Cleaver, sheds some scientific light on the question.

It's largely an interview with Mark Jung-Beeman, a cognitive neuroscientist at Northwestern University, who has spent 15 years studying exactly what is happening in the brain at the 'moment of insight.'

His observations include these:

1 Solving problems with insight uses a complete different part of the brain than solving problems with analysis

2 The sensory areas of the brain go quiet just before an insight, as the brain diverts its considerable computational powers to focusing on the problem

3 Insight nearly always follows a feeling of impasse, comes suddenly, and is preceded by a massive spike of electrical activity

Does this tally with what it's like for you? And I'm curious to know how many times a day/month/year do you experience this moment of insight?

You can read an extract of the article here, maybe the whole thing if you register.

First Presentation of Atheist Ads

I met Ariane yesterday, organiser of the atheist bus campaign, to talk about what they might do next.

I was lucky enough to be able to show her what I think are some very interesting ideas... produced by you lot.

I haven't attached names, since many prefer to remain anonymous.

But we had over 100 submissions in all, from Melbourne to China to New York. Thanks everyone.

Everything was looked at, discussed, and helped hone our thinking, so if you don't see your ad up here, that doesn't mean you didn't make a contribution. You did.

Let me know what you think of them...

Two excellent new TV ads today

The John Lewis Christmas ad continues the fine work Lowe London has been doing on this brand.

Clarity, purity, emotion... built on a first-class present-shopping insight.

Top work.

It's also notable for apparently being the first UK advertiser to use a Beatles track.

Secondly, the new Toshiba ad.



A cynic might say there's no idea. There isn't one.

But I think this will still work. The technique is so gobsmackingly amazing that even though I didn't really glean anything from the VO, the association of the word 'Toshiba' with this piece of film has shifted my perception of the brand.

And the fact that it was by Grey makes me feel a bit strange. I might have to go for a lie down.


P.S. There's still time to vanquish God. Click here.

I Believe In Advertising

Dodge Avenger. Buy one get one free.
Great story in The Guardian on Saturday.

Apparently the motor trade is in deep doo-doo - to the point where one car dealer actually reduced the price of his Dodge Avengers by 50%. And even then, his stock wasn't moving.

But when he had the idea of offering the cars on a Buy One Get One Free deal - he got 22,000 customers.

That's right. The exact same product. At the exact same price.

It was purely the way the offer was marketed - the power of words - that generated desire.

And that's what we do, ladies and gentlemen. That's what we do.


P.S. In keeping with today's money-off theme, a friend of mine has set up a company selling British wool and sheepskin clothes called Woollen Salmon. Their whole collection is knitted by small family-owned companies within the British Isles.

As an ex ad-person, she is offering ad people a 20% reduction. Just go to their website and enter the code AD01 to get the discount.


P.P.S. Keep the atheism ideas coming in. We've had loads of great stuff, but there's still time - the first meeting is Wednesday.

Advertising For Atheism

The remarkable Ariane Sherine is organising an atheist bus campaign, which has already generated loads of PR (just try Googling 'atheist bus campaign').

And she has already raised upwards of £50K to fund the execution you see above.

I've offered to help her out with some other ideas.

And I'm asking Scamp readers who are free of the God delusion to help out too.

Are you a Planner? Maybe you could contribute a cool strategy.

Creative? Write us an ad. Do it up in photoshop if you like, but a scamp is fine, or even just a headline. Obviously this isn't a BBH project and there's not going to be any money for anyone at any stage, but you'll get full credit.

You can make a suggestion in the comments on this post, or e-mail me something at simon dot veksner at bbh dot co uk.

Or go to a separate site I've set up called Advertising For Atheism, where I'll be putting up some of my and anyone else's ideas.

If a few of us get involved, I'm hoping the crowdsourcing thing could be really fun. Don't you think?

I've had a go at writing a brief, so here it is below, but if you want to suggest a better one, then feel free.

First presentation is on Wednesday.


Atheism Brief

BACKGROUND
Even in the 21st century, religion still has a big hold on people. Religious fanatics around the world kill thousands every year. Millions of people live in countries with oppressive faith-based regimes. Bishops get an automatic seat in the UK legislature. And state-funded ‘faith schools’ are allowed to discriminate in favour of religious pupils. Meanwhile, churches and evangelist groups (‘The Alpha Course’) are advertising for recruits. Where is the voice promoting rational, science-based atheism?

THE OPPORTUNITY
The British Humanist Association has raised over £50K to fund a campaign promoting atheism. The subject of our ads should probably be religious belief in general, rather than any religion in particular. But if you do mention a particular religion, it would seem to make most sense to reference Christianity, since this is by far the most widespread religion in the UK.

OBJECTIVES
Get PR. The campaign has already had great coverage in the media (try Googling ‘Atheist bus campaign’), and will hopefully get even more when we launch. An ad with real insight and bite will be more likely to get PR.

WHO ARE WE TRYING TO ENGAGE?
We’ll never reach the religious fanatics, and there’s no point talking to existing atheists. We should aim at the (very large) group in the middle – reasonable, intelligent people who were probably brought up with a bit of religion, and haven’t really questioned it since. We need to move their dial.

WHAT IS THE SINGLE THING WE WANT TO SAY?
There is no God.

SUPPORT
Fossils. Empirical science. The presence of ‘evil’ in the world contradicts the Christian notion of God as omnipotent and beneficient… more at RichardDawkins.net, especially the Debate Points section.

TONE
Plain and factual might work. But then again, nothing undermines more effectively than humour. It’s open.

MANDATORIES
1) Idea must be cheap to do
2) In terms of media, it would be good to do bus-sides because bus-sides have already been announced. But we could propose an alternative use of their money if we had a great idea for a different medium.
3) The ASA code says “Marketing communications should contain nothing that is likely to cause serious or widespread offence. Particular care should be taken to avoid causing offence on the grounds of race, religion, sex, sexual orientation or disability.”

We Made A Difference

He didn't just have amazing oratory, an army of volunteers, and the advantage of representing the opposite party to George Bush.

He also had some truly kick-ass comms.

Like this

(10 million views)

This

(12 million views)


And perhaps especially this

(4 million views)

Makes me proud to work in advertising.

Do The Test - The Sequel

Agency: WCRS
Creatives: Kit Dayaram & Tom Spicer
Director: Chris Palmer

I hope this one can be judged as an ad, without the whole originality/non-consultation hoo-ha thrown up by the last one.

And judging it as an ad, it's pretty damn good. The country-house murder scenario is pulled off with aplomb. The bit where the ***SPOILERS changes are revealed END SPOILERS*** is genuinely intriguing. And crucially, it passes the 'do I want to watch that again?' test.

My only gripe is that surely they could have cut one of those supers at the end.

However, as with all sequels, there's one burning question we need to answer: is it Godfather 2, or City Slickers 2?

Guinness 'Horses' or Cadbury 'Trucks'?

I reckon it's Sony 'Paint'. Which was slightly less good than Sony 'Balls'... but still ended up being one of the ads of the year.

Is Copywriting A Bit Like Poetry?

That was the question posed by a Radio 4 documentary broadcast yesterday, entitled 'Beanz Meanz Rhymz'... which included a brief contribution from me and Scowling A.D. (should be available here - our bit is at 25 mins in).

The presenter concluded there ARE similarities between copywriting and poetry, since both deploy a similar armoury of linguistic weapons, including rhyme, alliteration, rhythm, metaphor, simile and compression.

Most contributors agreed that these techniques help advertising messages penetrate the cranium and stay there. However, some of their examples ("You'll wonder where the yellow went when you brush your teeth with Pepsodent") were archaic.

So my contribution was to suggest that while you & I may remember tons of jingles and slogans from our childhood, the adults of tomorrow won't. What sticks in their heads is more likely to be the visual extravaganzas of Cog, Balls and Gorilla.

Or am I wrong?

Stress Poll - Result

I don't know what to make of this poll - maybe a planner can help me interpret the data. (Sorry for all the mean things I've said about you, guys).

It's a strangely equilibrious (is that a word?) chart. Few of you feel either totally chilled or totally stressed-out. But few want to describe themselves as 'average' either. Maybe I should re-run this baby when we hit the middle of the recession...

Previous Polls

Dear Client, We Work Hard For Your Money

Ogilvy Athens unaccountably removed their beautiful song from YouTube, despite the worldwide acclaim it received (still available here though).

And McCann's Manchester took their wonderful video down less than 8 hours after I posted about it.

So now I wonder... how long will this sumptuous re-working of Donna Summer by Mindshare remain live for...?

The Barry & Troy Show

Today I've added a link on my blogroll to digital creative team Barry & Troy.

They've done this drawing of Wolverine on the shitter, which I like.



And Superman reading a book.

Are You Wasting 10,000 Hours Of Your Life?

There's been much coverage recently of Malcolm Gladwell's new book Outliers, due out in a couple of weeks, which outlines his theory that the secret of success in any discipline is simply to put 10,000 hours into practicing it.

Russell posted something on this a year ago.

Namely, that Gladwell's 10,000 hours principle is wonderfully reassuring for violinists or chess players - their job is the same today as it was 10 years ago, and they'll be doing the exact same thing in 10 years' time.

But what about us?

Our business is changing fast. Are you spending 10,000 hours becoming an expert in something that won't even exist in 10 years' time?

Soho, Lunchtime Today. The Recession Has Officially Begun.

For those of you tuning in from outside the UK, Greggs is a notoriously inexpensive sandwich retailer.

But you know what? I think the midday moneysavers in this picture are over-reacting, because I don't believe downturns actually affect individuals that much.

Sure, they affect companies. Agencies will have less business, and so are forced to fire people. But assuming you don't lose your job, that means you have roughly the same amount of work as before, doesn't it?

The First Christmas Ad Of The Year Has Arrived (And It's Actually Good)

I've reported before on the alarming news that CHI have begun to make good adverts, like Drench and 'Tide'.

But now they've only gone and made a good advert for Argos. (Not on YouTube yet. Click here to see it.)

That, my friends, ain't easy. Especially considering it's the fucking Christmas ad, for God's sake.

Maybe I'm a sucker for the Hammer. But that isn't the only reason I like it. I'm also a sucker for solid product benefits ("we're a straightforward place to shop") delivered with solid entertainment.

It's no Gorilla or Snowplough.

But lest we forget, this is what the Argos christmas ad used to be like...

Friday Poll - Life In The Ad Mines

Last week's poll reveals that the majority of us are having lunch outside the office just once a week or less. A staggering 29% are little more than drones, eating lunch 'al desko' (thanks anon) every single goddamn day.

So it seems appropriate that, as suggested by "J", this week's poll should be about stress.

How stressed are you in general at work? Vote now, in the right hand corner of this blog.

And let's discuss it too. Are we all pansies, considering the worst that can happen to us is maybe we get a paper-cut, or sore eyes from watching YouTube all day?

Or are deadlines-of-death, Planners who put three separate adjectives in the 'what is the single most important thing we want to say' box, and people who should have been butchers not marketeers, all a legitimate cause of frustration?

Write your view in the comments.

Previous Polls

Campaign 'Big' Awards

I wasn't there last night - tummy bug. What was the ceremony like? Any thoughts on the winners?

"This Is The Way To Integration" - Come On, Sing It With Me

Wedding dad dancing. Mild sexual harassment. Behold a self-promotional video from McCann's Manchester (thank you, anonymous contributor) that gives Ogilvy Athens a run for its money...

A Ballad For David

Oh. My. God.

The folks at Bold Ogilvy Athens have made a tribute to David Ogilvy.

It's beyond parody, I won't even attempt to say anything funny about it... I merely draw your attention to the opening title: "Caution. The following video clip is an amateur effort."

Thanks to anonanon

Digital Ghost Towns

I heard of an interesting concept today (from Alistair at AKQA) - digital ghost towns.

These are corporate websites built at great expense, no doubt expecting a large number of visitors, but which don't get any.

I suppose the most notorious is Bud TV - just the 940,843rd most popular website in the world (according to Alexa).

Another example might be Texaco, which is only the world's 1,844,509th most popular website, despite its super-useful Texaco garage locator. (For when you need petrol, but only Texaco will do).

By some measures, Second Life is another, having 15.5 million registered users, but only 70,000 in any 24-hour period.

Arguably, the internet itself is one giant ghost town. Millions of sites, the vast majority being almost totally empty.

I guess the lesson is the same one it always is. People aren't interested in corporations, they're only interested in what corporations can do for them. So an insurance company has to offer security, a deodorant must give you confidence and a brand of football boots a winning mentality.

And a company website must offer something useful - something that people want - or it will become a digital ghost town.

'Fess up - have you built one?

Lunch Poll

Last week's poll says that the overwhelming majority of you care about advertising. The percentage who are 'faking it' was a little worrying, however, at almost 1 in 5. Don't you realise your souls must look like batteries when they've been left in the radio too long? Just kidding.

In this week's poll, we assess whether your conscientiousness extends to the lunch hour.

Are we still able to pop out for a pie & a pint from time to time?

Or has the credit crunch forced us into an almost permanent state of sandwich-at-the-desk?

Vote now, in the right hand column of this blog.

And in the comments, tell us your view on lunch. Is it a vital break from the ad-face? Or is it strictly for the dinosaurs, and it just pisses you off when people come back from the pub chewing a Polo to signify they haven't had anything to drink at all, honest?

Previous Polls

Huh?

iPint Lawsuit

Trevor Beattie is God, in my opinion. But he's having an interesting week.

First was the announcement that TBWA is not going to take over his BMB outfit after all. (Which incidentally means the position of ECD at TBWA London is up for grabs again.)

And now Creativity reports that the Silver Lion-winning iPint application for Carling by BMB - which has been downloaded 6 million times - is the subject of a $12.5 million lawsuit by the developer of the iBeer application.

There have been several cases (notably when director Mehdi Norowzian sued the agency that created the Guinness Dancing Man ad) that touch on the question of copyright infringement in a piece of film.

What the law will decide when it comes to an iPhone app, we shall soon find out...

Tuesday Tip No.65 - What Would Howell Henry Do?

It's impossible to reduce the output of HHCL - Britain's 'Agency of the 90s' to a single technique.

Certainly some of their work, like Fuji and First Direct, was avant-garde... but they also employed many time-honoured advertising methods such as adapting a pop promo (the commercials for Maxell cassettes using misheard lyrics were based on the video for Subterranean Homesick Blues by Bob Dylan).

And straightforward (but brilliant) metaphor ads like the fat slapping orange Tango man.

But there's one particular technique that they executed with great panache, which I think is an arrow definitely worth having in your quiver.

First example is one of their earliest ads, for Danepak Lean & Low bacon. This 30 second ad features fully 21 seconds of voiceover that is little more than a list of product benefits:

"We love... good food, like this Lean & Low bacon. And what's great about Lean & Low, this new product from Danepak, is that it's lower in fat, and salt. So it's better for our figures. Plus it doesn't spit so much fat everywhere. Danepak Lean & Low - the natural choice."



Of course, the fact that the Andersen family are naturists, their modesty preserved only by conveniently placed tablewear, makes the whole thing very amusing.

Next up, their famous ad for AA insurance. At the time, it was notorious for being the first ad to feature an Asian couple in a role that wasn't predicated on their ethnicity, and possibly the first ad to own up to the fact that couples argue.

The interest generated by these two factors enabled HHCL to smuggle in scads of product points about the AA's car insurance 'internet site.'

Finally, one of my favourite ads - Blackcurrant Tango.



Ray Gardner, with his flabby belly and disdain for French exchange students, must be one of the most memorable brand spokespeople of all time. In fact, he was so entertaining, we didn't mind that he fed us quite a few sales points about Britvic's new carbonate - that it's "a charge for the tastebuds" and even that Tango have been "working on it for three years."

Perhaps unfairly, I summarise this technique as 'wacky person reads brief.' But used well, it's highly effective all-round. Awards juries are happy - it's a clever conceit. The client is happy - they get to hear all the reasons why their product is so great. And the consumer is happy - they get to watch naturists or whatever.

As a further bonus, the heavy product content makes this type of ad more-than-usually easy to sell.

Previous Tips

New W&K Nike Ad

Not everything out there can be low-key and credit-crunchy. There has to be room for a bit of chest-beating sometimes, no?

And I'm still just a sucker for those big Nike ads. This one's directed by David Fincher, and has a nice respect-for-one's-opponent spin on the machosity.

Friday Poll

The most popular answer to the question "What would you do if you weren't doing advertising?" was 'Other'.

I guess this includes some of the answers we had in the comments, which ranged from 'chef' to 'midwife' to 'Han Solo'.

I'm pretty sure the Copywriters among you were the ones picking Journalist as an alternative career, with the Art Directors leaning towards Illustration or Photography.

But who would have guessed that 'The Armed Forces' would be the 5th most popular choice? My explanation is there's a lot of frustration in our job, so the idea of being allowed to legally kill someone can seem quite attractive.

This week's poll is about how much you care. It's often said that advertising doesn't 'matter' - so maybe it's foolish to actually care about it. Then again, maybe the foolish person is the one who spends 50 hours a week doing something they don't care about. Vote now, in the right hand column of this blog, and I'd love to know your views, in the comments.

Previous Polls

Life After Advertising

Our New Business Director is leaving to become an acupuncturist.

He's a young guy, very highly-regarded... I guess he just wants to do something else.

It's always been a bit of a mystery to me what people do 'after' advertising.

I know a few former adfolk stop by here from time to time... would love to hear from you - I want to get the perspectives of some people who have left advertising to include in the final chapter of my book.

What are you doing now? Do you miss it? Or in retrospect does it all seem a bit silly? Please do leave a comment, or send an e-mail to simon dot veksner at bbh dot co dot uk.

Baz Luhrmann Ad For Tourism Australia

Unlike most film directors who make commercials, Baz Lurhmann did a good job with this. It actually makes sense. And carries some emotion. The strategy is maybe a bit cliched, but the cinematography carried me through. Interesting to read the comments about it on Aussie ad blog Creative Brief.

Tuesday Tip No.64 - Be A Person Of Integrity

Have you heard the rumour that Dave Trott got his first job in advertising with a book of ads he didn't write?

The story was that he used American ads he knew UK creative directors wouldn't be aware of, and re-presented them as if they were his own.

Amazingly, Dave has now confessed on his blog that this story is true.

So the man who wrote the pamphlet on How To Get A Job In Advertising, the pamphlet that was recently re-printed by Campaign, the pamphlet that hundreds of creatives have used as a guide to writing good ads, didn't do it that way. He did it a different way. He stole someone else's ads.

Now, we're Creatives, and we're supposed to be 'creative' and break the rules. But this isn't cool.

I'm not going to write a post that explains why you shouldn't lie and you shouldn't steal. What next? Why you shouldn't rape a receptionist?

All I'll say is that even if you're completely lacking in moral principles - the Patrick Bateman of advertising - it would still make sense to follow common-sense morality.

Why? Because when people find out you've lied or cheated, they get pissed as hell.

I've seen a senior team, hired on approx £75K, get fired for pretending the work in their book was joint work, when it was mostly done with other partners.

I know of Creatives who have been asked to leave agencies because of petty pilfering.

If you're utterly brilliant (e.g. Dave Trott) you can probably get away with this kind of thing. But 99% can't.

So my advice is to be a person of integrity.

And if you're not, act like one.

Previous Tips

Friday Poll

Last week's poll says only 5% of you specialise in Direct. The figure for pure Digital was about what I expected, at 26%, and maybe pure Above-The-Line was a bit less than I expected. A fairly high percentage of you in today's mixed-up world work in a wide mix of media. And why not.



Today's poll (vote now, in the right hand column of this blog) asks 'What would you do if you weren't working in advertising?' I've tried to include a broad spread, though obviously there wasn't room to put in every possible career like 'working at Foot Locker' and 'filling the Smarties tubes with Smarties'. If you have a view on what you could or should be doing, or think I've missed out a glaringly obvious option, let me know in the comments.

Previous Polls

Top Ten 'Lies Directors Tell'

We've explored the lies of creatives and of suits. Now the top 10 lies we hear from the coked-up ex-creative behind the camera.

1. I love the script
2. We can fix that in post
3. During the filming I want you right up with me by the camera
4. Yes, we can cover that off, no problem
5. We haven't got time to do that shot
6. Hotel? I think I'm in the same one as you
7. I'm getting lots of scripts, just not of the right quality
8. Doing features is great, but I'll always come back to commercials
9. When I'm not shooting? Well, I still come into the office every day
10. My first priority is to get the idea across

Thanks to R&A for the suggestion. Click on 'comments' below to add your own.

The Ad Blog Charts For Q3 2008

Here are the world's most popular ad blogs, as measured by traffic rankings from Alexa.

Top 25 Ad Blogs		(world
		ranking)
1     (1)	Ads Of The World	9,561	↓
2     (2)	AdRants	20,122	↑
3     (4)	Adland	45,268
4     (6)	Adverbox	53,169
5     (new)	Creativity	55,077
6     (8)	AdFreak	61,570
7     (5)	Coloribus	61,751	↓
8     (7)	Advertising/Design Goodness	68,983
9     (9)	Adverblog	71,732
10   (10)	Bannerblog	78,281
11   (12)	Logic + Emotion	111,232
12   (11)	Copyranter	115,783	↓
13   (13)	AdPulp	123,110
14   (new)	Ad Forum	126,470
15   (3)	The Inspiration Room Daily	135,391	↓
16   (14)	ViralBlog	169,483
17   (new)	Best Ads On TV	181,003
18   (15)	Jaffe Juice	274,786	↓
19   (20)	Scamp	285,912
20   (18)	Crackunit	312,842
21   (24)	Behind The Buzz	324,282
22   (17)	AdScam	328,713	↓
23   (21)	Make The Logo Bigger	330,415
24   (23)	Experience Curve	378,548
25   (22)	BrandFlakes for Breakfast	384,844

Top 10 UK Ad Blogs		(world
		ranking)
1   (2)	Scamp	285,912
2   (1)	Crackunit	312,842
3   (3)	Behind The Buzz	324,282
4   (4)	Only Dead Fish	417,721
5   (6)	Spinning Around	422,405
6   (re-)	Rubbishcorp	442,513
7   (8)	Interactive Marketing Trends	528,482	↑
8   (7)	Welcome To Optimism	533,911
9   (5)	Adliterate	736,585	↓
10 (10)	TV's Worst Adverts	737,203

For those new to this chart, it’s based on rankings published by web metrics company Alexa, which measures visits by users who have the Alexa toolbar installed. As that’s mostly bloggers and techies, the chart is probably biased towards blogs which are popular with other bloggers, or tech-heads.

The definition of what is a blog as opposed to a website is becoming blurred. Some of the sites above are commercial ad archives, or the online versions of news-stand ad mags, which I'm now including for the first time. As long as the content is updated dailyish, and the blog portion of the site is separately measurable, I don't see why they shouldn't be in here.

Some people find the chart boring, others say it helps them discover new things. Me, I've just always loved charts. As a kid, I pored over the pop charts, and football league tables. That doesn't make me a geek, does it?

An ↑ means a blog's traffic has gone up by 15% or more in the last quarter, and a ↓ means it's gone down 15%.

UK means UK-based. Ad blog means ad blogs not marketing or PR blogs. I'm only counting English language blogs.

If I've missed anyone out, please tell me and I'll put them in next time.

Tuesday Tip No.63 - Read Jerome's Tips

Jerome Courtial, who writes the excellent Digicynic, has just left BBH for a fab new job to be a planner on Coke and Nike at W&K Amsterdam.

Sadly it means he won't have time to blog any more, hookers and blow being as time-consuming as they are.

But his parting gesture was an excellent set of tips on How To Have A Successful Career In Advertising, that are relevant to every discipline - planning, creative, account handling. Full of insight, his post reminds me just how much I'm going to miss him.

Read it immediately, if not sooner.

Previous Tips

Are You A Sociopath?

This handsome fellow is Tim Lindsay, president of TBWA London. I think he looks rather like Ian McShane, the actor who played sociopaths in Sexy Beast and Deadwood. Tim Lindsay, of course, is not a sociopath... but he does work with some. Us.

Explaining to The Guardian why people in advertising need 'diagonal thinking', he says that "most of all you need it to manage creative types - often borderline sociopaths who just don't play by the rules."

I do hope he was misquoted. Especially in the light of today's news...

Cream

Went to Cream last night.

In case you don’t know, it’s an event that showcases 'the cream' of student books.

87 teams entered, from the likes of Watford, St Martin’s, Bucks, and Miami Ad School.

20 were selected, by judges who included Nick Bell, Steve Henry, both Al Youngs, and even me. Hence my attendance.

It was much fun. Graham Fink was there, looking like a character from The Matrix, plus Trevor Beattie... and Agyness Deyn and Mark Ronson (they weren't at Cream, just there for a drink at the place it was held).

Stat fans may be interested to hear that 25% of Cream creatives were female, and fully 50% were non-UK.

I have to say that the quality of the books blew me away. Probably the worst ad in any of the books there was better than the best ad I had in my student book, fourteen years ago.

Rory Hill of The Talent Business (Rory did a tip-top job of organising the whole thing by the way) has an interesting theory on this. He reckons that the job market is very tough at the moment, which means young creative teams are taking longer to get jobs, and that’s why the quality of people without jobs is so high.

Scant consolation if you’re living on powdered baked beans I suppose, but there you go.

Here’s some of the ads that caught my eye:

“See God’s special effects. Visit Iceland.”







Pretty good, don’t you think?

Top Ten ‘Lies Creatives Tell’

Okay, just to even things up...

1. We worked all weekend on this

2. It just won’t make sense as a 30 - it has to be a 40, at least. A 60 would be best

3. I really wish I could squeeze it in, but we're swamped with work right now

4. I was stuck in traffic

5. I never got that e-mail

7. You'll have it by 3pm

8. Your brief is our No.1 priority

9. But it IS on brief

10. We tried the changes you suggested - it just didn't work

Again we thank Creative Beef.

If you're feeling confessional, add your own in the comments below...

Top Ten ‘Lies Account Handlers Tell’

1. The meeting went really, really well

2. This is the last change, I swear

3. The deadline is [time]

4. We’re not officially divorced, but it’s on the way

5. The client wants something edgy

6. Don’t worry about the budget

7. The client loves the idea

8. Rough layouts will be fine

9. It’s just a small change

10. We won't sell the safe option, but we need it there to show that our preferred route is better

P.S. I'm not talking about you, my friends the BBH account handlers! I'm talking about other account handlers.

Adapted from a post on Creative Beef, a US blog that's subtitled 'Horror Stories From The World Of Advertising'.

Add your own fave fibs below.

Galaxy Is Thrashing Dairy Milk - So Was 'Gorilla' A Failure?

A reader points us to an interesting and potentially worrying story from Brand Republic.

We've all been led to believe Gorilla was a resounding sales success. But it seems not:

Dairy Milk lags market as Galaxy steals share

by Nicola Clark Marketing 23-Sep-08, 08:30

LONDON - Cadbury's flagship Dairy Milk brand has lost market share to arch-rival Galaxy.

According to the annual Biggest Brands survey compiled exclusively for Marketing by TNS, Dairy Milk lost share in the take-home confectionery sector, posting growth below the 2% market rate to reach a sales value of about £200m. By contrast, Galaxy grew 12% year on year to about £80m.

Jan Jesenovec, confectionery analyst at TNS, said that Dairy Milk's loss of share may be due to a lack of NPD. 'Advertising will not significantly increase your sales,' he added. 'It simply reinforces the positions of big brands.'

Dairy Milk and Galaxy use very different marketing strategies, and Galaxy attributed its strong performance to its unique positioning, which targets women in 'indulgent moments'. The brand has also been boosted by several high-profile partnership deals, including ties with the Sex and the City movie and the British Book awards.

The majority of the brands surveyed experienced value growth due to price inflation. The take-home confectionery market as a whole grew 6% year on year to reach £2.48bn, and nine of the top 10 brands in the market increased their sales year on year.

This week, Cadbury shifted its global ad account out of Publicis and into Saat-chi & Saatchi Fallon group. A spokesman denied there had been a lack of innovation, adding that its latest data showed growth.

Tuesday Tip No. 62 - What To Do When No Ideas Are Coming

There are loads of books out there with advice on how to have ideas.

It's normally some old shit like "look out the window and write an ad about the first thing you see." Why there aren't more ads about pigeons, I don't know.

There's also a section on what to do when you're stuck, which will be things like "go for a walk" or "have a bath."

I have no bath in my office. And you can't go for a walk in Soho. It's like Frogger out there.

So I thought it might be interesting to make a list of the Top 10 things I actually do - not things one should do - but what I genuinely do, when I'm stuck.

Here they are.

1. Carry on and hope (N.B. this never works)
2. Coffee
3. Look at brief again
4. Go to toilet
5. Look through bottom drawer
6. YouTube (sorry...)
7. Use different pen
8. Try using different pad (switch from lined to plain or vice versa)
9. Call planner
10. Tell Scowling A.D. I can't think of anything

What do you do?

Previous Tips

I Don't Know What It Means But I Like It

New Ford Fiesta commercial through Ogilvy London.

YouTube Poll Result

The result of last week's poll shows that most of you think it's okay to adapt a film from YouTube into an ad.

Creatives have been 'adapting' for decades - I was wondering if the discussion would throw up anything different about adapting from YouTube. I guess the most interesting point was that it's now much easier for people to find your source material.

In the old days, there might have been gossip that a big ad was ripped from a Slovakian short film, but no one would have seen it. Today, everyone will.

So either be comfortable with that, or do more to disguise your sources.

This week's poll simply asks what type of advertising you're most involved in. Vote now, in the right hand column of this blog.

Previous Polls

How Hard Are You Trying?
How Many Times A Week Do You Have Lunch 'Out'?
Do You Actually Care About Advertising?
What Would you Do If You Weren't Working In Advertising?
Do You Work In Mostly Digital, ATL, or BTL?
Is It Okay To Adapt YouTube Films Into Ads?
Who Is The Best ECD?
How Happy Are You With Your Agency?
Who Do You Prefer To Date?
What's Better - Small Agency Or Big Agency?
Is It The Client Or The Agency Who Makes The Work Good?
Why Is Fallon's Print Not As Good As Their TV?
Is Dave Trott's Thinking Still Relevant?
Which Brand Would You Most LikeTo Work On?
What Do Scamp Readers Do For A Living?
What Time Do You Leave Work?
Does Juan Earn One Million Pounds A Year?
How Much Do You Earn?
What Do You Think Of Our Trade Rag?
Should A Creative Look Creative?
Ad Of The Year 2007
Do Difficult People Do The Best Work?
Who Is Responsible For Ineffectiveness?
Your Personal Success Record
Which Department Is The Most Insane?
What Music Do You Listen To While Working?
What Time Do You Get In?
Who Drinks The Most?
Press v Online
Success Or Glory?
Is Reading Blogs A Waste Of Time?
What's Your Job Satisfaction Level?
What's The Best Kind Of Festive Greeting?
Ad Of The Year 2006
What's Your Favourite Medium To Work In?
Agency Of The Year 2006
Which Department Is The Most Overpaid?

Night shoot

Shooting an ad

Tuesday Tip No.61 - How To Avoid Contrivance

An accusation you may commonly hear against an idea is that it's 'contrived.'

To which the natural response is 'but of course it's contrived, it's made-up, it's an advertisement, not real life!'

However, the objection nearly always proves fatal. Although most people can't explain what they mean by 'contrived', it seems to be a massive problem for them.

What I think they mean is 'a coincidence that doesn't feel justified.'

As Creatives, we constantly need to play with reality, to engineer coincidence and unreality, in order to dramatise. But how to do it in a way that seems justified?

Probably the only thing I learned when I was screenwriting which is useful when I'm working on adverts is how to handle coincidence effectively.

It's a well-known principle in screenwriting that the audience will accept any coincidence - no matter how outlandish - as long as it has a negative effect on the protagonist.

In other words, if a movie hero has an immunity to snake poison, and then the treasure just happens to be guarded by snakes, the audience will feel the scene is unsatisfying, too convenient, mere coincidence... contrived.

But if the treasure is guarded by snakes, which happen to be the hero's very worst fear in the entire world... it's no more or less coincidental than before, but the audience reaction is the exact opposite - they find the situation to be dramatic, exciting and fulfilling.

Now let's apply it to advertising. Lucky, the former More Than insurance Spokesdog, starred in a series of adventures in which, by sheer coincidence, a chain of potentially disastrous events ended up causing no damage. Guess what? Those ads were not good. They felt cheesy. (Sorry, couldn't find on YouTube).



Whereas in 'Drugstore', my favourite advert of all time, there is a similarly massive coincidence - the pharmacist who sells our hero his condoms just happens to be the dad of the girl he's taking out that night. And it's thrilling.

So that's the tip. When you use coincidence, make sure it's causing a problem, not a solution. Then your ads will seem dramatic, and not contrived.