Everyone Thinks They Can Do What We Do

Freud Communications, a PR company, has won the advertising account for my favourite newspaper - the Independent. Full story here.

This kind of thing happens from time to time. After all, most advertising is shit - so naturally there are a lot of people out there who think they can do it better.

And maybe Freud can. They did recently take over a real ad agency (DFGW) which had done some great work back in the day, before falling on hard times.

But luckily for us, most 'non ad agencies' cock it up.

Look at this ad for Kickers, done by ODD - the 'creative arm' of Naked Communications (a media company).


I don't even get it. Do you?

(Other executions, equally incomprehensible, are on Brand Republic)

Tuesday Tip No.41 - How Do You Know When Something's Finished?

While David Bowie was recording 'Low' in Berlin, he apparently took so much coke that he was unable to finish any song, instead spending weeks on a restless, repetitive fiddling that he later referred to as 'punding'.

Be wary of punding.

As a Creative, time is your only resource. And just as stopping too soon is a deadly sin, so is going on too long.

Hence, it's vital to know when something is finished. Unfortunately, as there are an infinite number of ways to write a headline, or crop a photo, there is no 100% foolproof rational method of deciding when a job of work is done, especially when it comes to craft.

All you have to go on is a feeling. The time to stop is when whatever you're working on 'just feels right.' You need to listen for that feeling in your head, nurture it, and pay heed to it.

Perhaps a couple of analogies might help explain what 'it' is:

In his magnificent book "Hey Whipple Squeeze This" Luke Sullivan quotes the poet William Butler Yeats who said the sound a good poem makes when it's finished is like a lid clicking shut on a perfectly made box.

Then there's these lyrics by New Zealand songwriter Don McGlashan, as featured on Cleaver's blog.

Look at the way this gun fits the crook of your arm
To make a thing like that you’d need to know what you were about
You’d need to know where you were going and go there in a straight line
And everything else you’d have to shut right out

Can you see the man who made that?
Can you see him putting it down and standing back?
Can you see the moment when he said, “that’s it, that’s perfect”?
At a time like that you wouldn’t care about your job
Or your mortgage or the fight you had with your wife
‘Cause when a man holds a thing well made there’s connection
There’s completeness when a man holds a thing well made

I don't actually know who Don McGlashan is, but he hit the nail on the head there for anyone whose job involves crafting something.

Tip No.40 - Challenge The Brief
Tip No.39 - Tell The Truth
Tip No.38 - Playing To Lose
Tip No.37 - How To Write Headlines
Tip No.36 - How To Do Direct
Tip No.35 - How To Do Radio
Tip No.34 - How To Do Press
Tip No.33 - How To Do TV
Tip No.32 - How To Do Digital
Tip No.31 - How To Do Posters
Tip No.30 - Look At Weird Shit
Tip No.29 - Presenting To The Client
Tip No.28 - Presenting To The Team
Tip No.27 - Presenting To The Creative Director
Tip No.26 - How To Deal With Rejection
Tip No.25 - Look Creative
Tip No.24 - Don't Be Afraid To Ask
Tip No.23 - Your Idea Has To Be 120%
Tip No.22 - Read Iain's Tips
Tip No.21 - Don't Behave
Tip No.20 - How To Discuss Ideas
Tip No.19 - Read Hugh's Tips
Tip No.18 - How To Get A Job In Advertising Part IV - How To Turn A Placement Into A Job
Tip No.17 - How To Get A Job In Advertising Part III - How To Approach Agencies (re-print of Tip No. 7)
Tip No.16 - How To Get A Job In Advertising Part II - How To Put A Book Together
Tip No. 15 - How To Get A Job In Advertising Part I - FAQ
Tip No. 14 - Make Friends With Traffic
Tip No. 13 - Get Reference
Tip No. 12 - Don't Stop Too Soon
Tip No.11 - Be Very
Tip No.10 - Breaking Up
Tip No.9 - Working Well With Your Partner
Tip No.8 - Finding The Right Partner
Tip No.7 - How To Approach Agencies
Tip No.6 - Never-Seen-Before Footage
Tip No.5 - Dicketts' Finger
Tip No.4 - Two Blokes In The Pub
Tip No.3 - Play Family Fortunes
Tip No.2 - Should You Take A Bad Job?
Tip No.1 - Don't Overpolish

Friday Poll - What Do You Think Of Our Trade Rag?

Every industry has a trade magazine, and ours is no exception.

But what do you really think of the publication that - this week alone - has brought us such unforgettable headlines as:

"Six line up to pitch for N&P [that's the Norwich & Peterborough Building Society] media task"

and

"The Cello Group has rebranded its Response Communications divisions as the Tangible Group"

Do you find it's an essential read - eagerly devouring every page... even the media bits?

A thoroughly shoddy publication, not even fit for wiping your bottom on because the paper's too hard and shiny?

Or is the truth somewhere in the middle.

What do you think of it? The comment section is below; also you can vote in the poll, top right hand corner of your screen.

Would You Like To Write The Copy On Innocent Smoothies?

Dan Germain, creative supremo at Innocent Drinks, is looking for a copywriter.

Dan says: "It’s still me writing all of the rubbish that people have to wade through whenever they buy an innocent smoothie. Imagine the delight on a child’s face when he/she realises that someone new and fresh wrote the copy on the back of that label, and not that old guy with the beard again."

You rarely see job ads for creatives, and when you do, they're often dodgy. Scowling A.D. and I once applied to a "Creative team wanted" ad that appeared in Campaign. It said at the bottom of the ad "No wankers". We got the job, but unfortunately our boss was himself a world-class wanker. I guess it should have been obvious. I mean, who else but a wanker would write "no wankers" in a job ad?

But that isn't the case here. Dan is someone that I've known (virtually) for some time and I can state with confidence that he is a good egg.

See full info on Dan's job here.

If Banner Ads Were Honest...

See more here.

Thanks for this tip are due to Doc Rogers (tagline: surfing the web, so you don't have to)

Tuesday Tip No.40 - Challenge The Brief

We Creatives like to think of ourselves as maverick uncontrollable rebels.

But we're not.

The truth is, we're all too compliant.

How many briefs have you rejected - ever? How many have you even challenged?

I've seen briefs where under "single-minded proposition" there were three adjectives. Linked by two uses of the word 'and'.

How can you possibly write a good ad to that?

Now, it's true that before the brief gets to you it will have been signed off by your creative director. Perhaps by a few planners and clients also.

Nevertheless, a brief is not a legal contract. It's a series of suggestions, a step in a process - and you're a part of that process.

So don't be like rabbits just sitting there in your hutch, happy to nibble on whatever you're given.

Be like the tiger cubs. Cute and adorable, of course. But alert and challenging also. Indulge in a bit of 'rough play' with your planner. Bat his brief around like a balled-up pair of socks. If anything doesn't smell right, scratch at it.

Above all, if you don't feel the brief is right, say something. You may be surprised how much say you can have.

Tip No.39 - Tell The Truth
Tip No.38 - Playing To Lose
Tip No.37 - How To Write Headlines
Tip No.36 - How To Do Direct
Tip No.35 - How To Do Radio
Tip No.34 - How To Do Press
Tip No.33 - How To Do TV
Tip No.32 - How To Do Digital
Tip No.31 - How To Do Posters
Tip No.30 - Look At Weird Shit
Tip No.29 - Presenting To The Client
Tip No.28 - Presenting To The Team
Tip No.27 - Presenting To The Creative Director
Tip No.26 - How To Deal With Rejection
Tip No.25 - Look Creative
Tip No.24 - Don't Be Afraid To Ask
Tip No.23 - Your Idea Has To Be 120%
Tip No.22 - Read Iain's Tips
Tip No.21 - Don't Behave
Tip No.20 - How To Discuss Ideas
Tip No.19 - Read Hugh's Tips
Tip No.18 - How To Get A Job In Advertising Part IV - How To Turn A Placement Into A Job
Tip No.17 - How To Get A Job In Advertising Part III - How To Approach Agencies (re-print of Tip No. 7)
Tip No.16 - How To Get A Job In Advertising Part II - How To Put A Book Together
Tip No. 15 - How To Get A Job In Advertising Part I - FAQ
Tip No. 14 - Make Friends With Traffic
Tip No. 13 - Get Reference
Tip No. 12 - Don't Stop Too Soon
Tip No.11 - Be Very
Tip No.10 - Breaking Up
Tip No.9 - Working Well With Your Partner
Tip No.8 - Finding The Right Partner
Tip No.7 - How To Approach Agencies
Tip No.6 - Never-Seen-Before Footage
Tip No.5 - Dicketts' Finger
Tip No.4 - Two Blokes In The Pub
Tip No.3 - Play Family Fortunes
Tip No.2 - Should You Take A Bad Job?
Tip No.1 - Don't Overpolish

Heresy Of The Month

Orthodoxy:
We all need to stop doing TV ads, because a) The young people are not watching TV any more, and b) The airtime is getting too expensive.

Heresy:

| View | Upload your own

via Diary Of A London Account Handler

Do You Like Horses?

Apologies for the 'unscheduled outage' earlier, a problem with blogpoll caused people trying to access Scamp to end up at blogpoll. They have also lost the most recent poll.

Doesn't matter. The results had been stable for a while, revealing that 61% of non-digital creatives are looking forward to getting involved in digital, while 39% would rather not.

It may seem easy to write off the 39% as idiots, but that would be hasty. Remember, the question doesn't measure "what do you think is going to happen in the advertising business" it measures "what do you want to spend your working day doing."

I think I understand where those 39% are at. Imagine you were someone who loved horses, and you got a job driving a horse-and-cart. Then they invent the internal combustion engine, and you are now forced to drive a van.

Now, this isn't an exact analogy, because digital is not going to exterminate other media in the way that vans eliminated horses.

But it does show that maybe it isn't fair to lambast the horse-and-cart driver as a "dinosaur" who doesn't understand that "the goods delivery business has totally changed now."

He's just a guy who loves horses, and there's nothing wrong with that.

Previous poll results:
Friday Poll No.18 - Does It Help If You Look Creative?
Friday Poll No.17 - Ad Of The Year 2007
Friday Poll No.16 - Do Difficult People Do The Best Work?
Friday Poll No.15 - Who Is Responsible For Ineffectiveness?
Friday Poll No.14 - Your Personal Success Record
Friday Poll No.13 - Which Department Is The Most Insane?
Friday Poll No.12 - What Music Do You Listen To While Working?
Friday Poll No.11 - What Time Do You Get In?
Friday Poll No.10 - Who Drinks The Most?
Friday Poll No.9 - Press v Online
Friday Poll No.8 - Success Or Glory?
Friday Poll No.7 - Is Reading Blogs A Waste Of Time?
Friday Poll No.6 - Job Satisfaction
Friday Poll No.5 - Festive Greetings
Friday Poll No.4 - Ad Of The Year 2006
Friday Poll No.3 - What's Your Favourite Medium To Work In?
Friday Poll No.2 - Agency Of The Year
Friday Poll No.1 - Which Department Is The Most Overpaid?

More Jury Gossip - This Time About Gorilla

Juan Cabral, at last year's Pantene awards
When the ad first came out, a lot of people felt they'd seen drumming gorillas before. Or at least drumming babies (Magic FM).

I went on record to say I didn't believe Juan had lifted the idea from YouTube.

But I was wrong.

Jury gossip reveals he originally presented the idea in the form of a YouTube clip.

Not only that, but he had previously presented it to Cinzano (in Argentina), who didn't bite.

Please please please let's not have the originality debate again.

I want to make a different point here: NEVER FORGET THAT YOUR BOTTOM DRAWER IS YOUR BIGGEST ASSET.

Have an efficient filing system for your rejected work, because a lot of briefs come up time and time again (this product is simple to use, this product is inexpensive, or in the case of Cadbury's - this product will make you happy).

And have an efficient storage area for funny photos, YouTube clips, news articles - things that one day you may be able to make into an ad. Because as someone once said, "the worst time to be looking for an idea is when you actually need one."

Psychoanalysing Account Handlers And Planners

I'm lucky, in that relations between the departments are excellent at BBH, and were great at my previous agency too. But I've certainly experienced shops where that isn't the case.

A CD I met yesterday on an awards jury had a very interesting psycho-analytic explanation for inter-departmental tensions: he suggested that Account Handlers and Planners in fact hate Creatives, because unconsciously they are jealous that we can do something they're unable to.

Furthermore, since they are dependent on us to come up with ideas, they also resent us, just as all human beings unconsciously resent anyone they are dependent on.

Got a couch? Climb aboard.

Tuesday Tip No.39 - Tell The Truth

I don't think much of McCann's.

But I do like their logo.

And 'Tell the truth' is great advice for young creatives. Now, let me be clear : this isn't for moral or ethical reasons. But purely because it will help you create better adverts.

1. It's more interesting. Telling the truth can often make an ad nicely raw, fresh or edgy - especially in staid categories.

2. It's more persuasive. Something that contains a genuine truth about the product, the world, or the target will always be more persuasive than flim-flam. And persuasiveness doesn't just make an ad effective, it's a quality that awards juries value too.

3. It's quicker. The list of true things about the product is much shorter than the list of all the possible things you COULD say. So you save time in your workings.

4. It's easier to sell. Ads based on a truth about the product automatically have 'relevance' and are therefore easier for the client to buy.

5. It gives you more creative licence. If your ad is based on a solid truth, then executionally you can stretch it way, way far - and it will still make sense. Example: Carling have been able to set recent ads in the Antarctic, or even in space, because they're grounded in a solid truth about mate-ship.

N.B. It is possible to be EXCESSIVELY truthful. For example, the real reason that men buy Porsches is that they believe the car will make them sexually appealing to women. But this is an uncomfortable (possibly even unconscious) truth, that would be embarrassing and counter-productive to reveal. I call it 'saying the unsayable'. If you find yourself saying the unsayable, you have gone too far.

Tip No.38 - Playing To Lose
Tip No.37 - How To Write Headlines
Tip No.36 - How To Do Direct
Tip No.35 - How To Do Radio
Tip No.34 - How To Do Press
Tip No.33 - How To Do TV
Tip No.32 - How To Do Digital
Tip No.31 - How To Do Posters
Tip No.30 - Look At Weird Shit
Tip No.29 - Presenting To The Client
Tip No.28 - Presenting To The Team
Tip No.27 - Presenting To The Creative Director
Tip No.26 - How To Deal With Rejection
Tip No.25 - Look Creative
Tip No.24 - Don't Be Afraid To Ask
Tip No.23 - Your Idea Has To Be 120%
Tip No.22 - Read Iain's Tips
Tip No.21 - Don't Behave
Tip No.20 - How To Discuss Ideas
Tip No.19 - Read Hugh's Tips
Tip No.18 - How To Get A Job In Advertising Part IV - How To Turn A Placement Into A Job
Tip No.17 - How To Get A Job In Advertising Part III - How To Approach Agencies (re-print of Tip No. 7)
Tip No.16 - How To Get A Job In Advertising Part II - How To Put A Book Together
Tip No. 15 - How To Get A Job In Advertising Part I - FAQ
Tip No. 14 - Make Friends With Traffic
Tip No. 13 - Get Reference
Tip No. 12 - Don't Stop Too Soon
Tip No.11 - Be Very
Tip No.10 - Breaking Up
Tip No.9 - Working Well With Your Partner
Tip No.8 - Finding The Right Partner
Tip No.7 - How To Approach Agencies
Tip No.6 - Never-Seen-Before Footage
Tip No.5 - Dicketts' Finger
Tip No.4 - Two Blokes In The Pub
Tip No.3 - Play Family Fortunes
Tip No.2 - Should You Take A Bad Job?
Tip No.1 - Don't Overpolish

Battle Of The Epic Car Ads

Honda 'Problem Playground' from W&K London...



...utterly spanks the pants off Ford's 'Beautifully Arranged' commercial for the new Focus.



First of all, Problem Playground has a great piece of thinking at its heart: the original and rather resonant truth that a job you enjoy doesn't feel like work.

And a truth is always persuasive - I do now actually believe that Honda engineers enjoy solving engineering problems (even though rationally I know these are not the real engineers in the ad but just interesting-looking men with beards).

Meanwhile, the Ford ad contains no 'thinking' at all; it's based purely on a pun - "beautifully arranged". And as this is just a claim rather than a truth, it isn't believable or persuasive.

Then the executions are worlds (or perhaps generations) apart. Honda is fresh, fun, quirky and modern. The Ford ad could have been shot in 1957.

Also one ad is honest and the other isn't. The Honda promises a problem playground and it delivers a problem playground. It's 100% quirky fun out there in that car-park. The Ford ad promises beauty but delivers ugliness. Giselle Bundchen is beautiful. The paintings of Cezanne are beautiful. This Ford ad is not beautiful.

Even the music in the Ford ad is dull as dishwater. Whereas Honda's is ace. So good, in fact, that it may force me to reappraise my allergy to modern jazz.

Perhaps slagging off Ford is too easy. Ditto praising Wieden & Kennedy.

And yet, the sheer size of the gulf between them does tell us something, don't you think?

Our New Levi's Campaign

Copywriter: Scamp, Art Director: Scowling A.D. (contrary to what it says in Campaign).
Click to make images bigger

Very excited about these, which launch today. Scowling A.D. went to L.A. to shoot them, with a very good photographer called Joseph Rodriguez, who did a book called 'Gangs of East L.A.' that we had long admired.

What do you think?

The Ad Blog Charts For January 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)	AdRants	31,260
2     (2)	Advertising/Design Goodness	52,627
3     (3)	Duncan's TV Ad Land	63,630
4     (6)	Bannerblog	69,745
5     (8)	Adland	79,875	↑
6     (4)	AdFreak	80,612
7     (4)	Adverblog	82,263
8     (8)	Adverbox	93,417
9     (11)	Coloribus	122,744
10   (9)	Copyranter	129,377
11   (new)	10ad	131,761
12   (10)	Logic + Emotion	136,131
13   (12)	AdPulp	190,096
14   (13)	Jaffe Juice	275,443
15   (14)	Ad Punch	310,215	↓
16   (15)	Experience Curve	341,196	↓
17   (20)	AdScam	359,453	↑
18   (17)	Agency Spy	374,408
19   (23)	BrandFlakes for Breakfast	440,806
20   (18)	Adliterate	441,659
21   (16)	Twenty Four	445,174	↓
22   (22)	Crackunit	454,556
23   (24)	Scamp	466,129
24   (21)	How Advertising Spoiled Me	470,943
25   (19)	Behind The Buzz	473,036

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

Top 10 UK Ad Blogs		(world
		ranking)
1   (1)	Adliterate	441,659
2   (2)	Crackunit	454,556
3   (3)	Scamp	466,129
4   (5)	Faris	482,956
5   (4)	Welcome To Optimism	622,371	↓
6   (6)	Only Dead Fish	1.1m
7   (7)	Fish N Chimps	1.1m
8   (8)	TV's Worst Adverts	1.1m	↑
9   (re-)	Serendipity Book	1.9m
10  (new)	Lunar.BBDO	1.9m

A first appearance on the chart for my friends over at Lunar.BBDO. Okay, so their agency is not as famous as W&K, but their blog is much more interesting. Have a look.

UK means UK-based. Ad blog means ad blogs not marketing blogs, so that excludes Gapingvoid. Although Paul Colman is now a planner at W&K (how’s it going, Paul? Your blog seems to be locked at the moment) he doesn't class Life In The Middle as an ad blog and Russell Davies no longer blogs about advertising, although his Campaign column continues to be utterly brilliant. 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.38 - Playing To Lose

What should you do when you are given a shit brief that you don't want to work on?

This is a very important question, as your answer to it will define your whole career.

If you are the dutiful type, you will produce the best solution that you can, given the limitations of the brief. This will help your agency, and help the client's business. But it won't help you. All that will happen is that you will soon be given another shit brief. Do a good job on a shit brief for a second or third time, and your career is basically over.

Sure, you may be safe for a while, because you are doing a valuable job. But your book won't move forward. And when the next round of redundancies comes, the fact that you have been doing a valuable job will be completely forgotten. All anyone will notice is that you haven't done a good ad in a long time.

So it's absolutely vital to develop an ability to avoid shit briefs. And you have to do it cleverly. For the good of your reputation, you can't do it in a way that makes you look difficult, arrogant, or primadonnish.

In truth, a desire to avoid shit briefs doesn't mean you are those things. No one wants to work on shit briefs. And the best way to avoid them is what I call Playing To Lose.

Let me illustrate with an example.

Years ago, when I worked at Saatchis, some friends of mine (who were a very good team) got briefed on Oil of Olay.

They came back with a script about a woman who is dead. However, because her friends regularly apply Oil of Olay to her face, no one realises. (The idea was based on the movie "Weekend At Bernie's").

A fun and lateral way to demonstrate what the product does for your skin, but of course, not something that Procter & Gamble could ever buy.

K**** & C***** were never given a P&G brief again.

And yet, no one could say they hadn't tried, or hadn't done a good job.

And that, my friends, is Playing To Lose.

Tip No.37 - How To Write Headlines
Tip No.36 - How To Do Direct
Tip No.35 - How To Do Radio
Tip No.34 - How To Do Press
Tip No.33 - How To Do TV
Tip No.32 - How To Do Digital
Tip No.31 - How To Do Posters
Tip No.30 - Look At Weird Shit
Tip No.29 - Presenting To The Client
Tip No.28 - Presenting To The Team
Tip No.27 - Presenting To The Creative Director
Tip No.26 - How To Deal With Rejection
Tip No.25 - Look Creative
Tip No.24 - Don't Be Afraid To Ask
Tip No.23 - Your Idea Has To Be 120%
Tip No.22 - Read Iain's Tips
Tip No.21 - Don't Behave
Tip No.20 - How To Discuss Ideas
Tip No.19 - Read Hugh's Tips
Tip No.18 - How To Get A Job In Advertising Part IV - How To Turn A Placement Into A Job
Tip No.17 - How To Get A Job In Advertising Part III - How To Approach Agencies (re-print of Tip No. 7)
Tip No.16 - How To Get A Job In Advertising Part II - How To Put A Book Together
Tip No. 15 - How To Get A Job In Advertising Part I - FAQ
Tip No. 14 - Make Friends With Traffic
Tip No. 13 - Get Reference
Tip No. 12 - Don't Stop Too Soon
Tip No.11 - Be Very
Tip No.10 - Breaking Up
Tip No.9 - Working Well With Your Partner
Tip No.8 - Finding The Right Partner
Tip No.7 - How To Approach Agencies
Tip No.6 - Never-Seen-Before Footage
Tip No.5 - Dicketts' Finger
Tip No.4 - Two Blokes In The Pub
Tip No.3 - Play Family Fortunes
Tip No.2 - Should You Take A Bad Job?
Tip No.1 - Don't Overpolish

Friday Poll No.19 : Do You Actually Want To Do Digital, Or Would You Rather Not?

Most above-the-line creatives claim that most digital creative work is poor, and they will be able to do it much better, when they're asked to. However, my question to above-the-line people is... do you actually want to?

Did you come into this business to sell, by any channel necessary?

Or did you come into it to make 'films', and quite frankly you'd rather someone else took care of the banners, just like they take care of the DM?

Vote now, in the top right hand corner of your screen.

Result Of Friday Poll No.18

Well shock horror. Image IS important in advertising. Who would have thought it?

Okay, a few counter-examples were raised. People like John Webster and Lee Garfinkel didn't/ don't look creative. They just dressed like a normal bloke.

Yes. But I'd say, consciously or unconsciously, they still had an image. When John Webster wrote a script for a lager ad about a pool-playing bear, and presented it dressed as a normal bloke, he was subliminally communicating to his audience: "Look, I know a pool-playing bear sounds a bit wacky, but it will appeal to regular blokes, and you can trust me on that, because I am one."

Previous poll results:
Friday Poll No.17 - Ad Of The Year 2007
Friday Poll No.16 - Do Difficult People Do The Best Work?
Friday Poll No.15 - Who Is Responsible For Ineffectiveness?
Friday Poll No.14 - Your Personal Success Record
Friday Poll No.13 - Which Department Is The Most Insane?
Friday Poll No.12 - What Music Do You Listen To While Working?
Friday Poll No.11 - What Time Do You Get In?
Friday Poll No.10 - Who Drinks The Most?
Friday Poll No.9 - Press v Online
Friday Poll No.8 - Success Or Glory?
Friday Poll No.7 - Is Reading Blogs A Waste Of Time?
Friday Poll No.6 - Job Satisfaction
Friday Poll No.5 - Festive Greetings
Friday Poll No.4 - Ad Of The Year 2006
Friday Poll No.3 - What's Your Favourite Medium To Work In?
Friday Poll No.2 - Agency Of The Year
Friday Poll No.1 - Which Department Is The Most Overpaid?

Why Aren't We As Funny As This?

We spend quite a lot of our working lives trying to be funny.

And yet nothing we come up with is as funny as Porn For Girls By Girls.

Maybe no advert has ever been as funny.

Why is that? Does the product always get in the way? Or is there some other reason?

Two Hearts Beating With Just One Facebook Account

Fred & Farid once did a fascinating interview with Campaign in which they claimed they lived in the same flat, saw the same films, and ate the same food, at the same time... which they considered essential to function as a true team.

I thought it was a load of old bollocks. And yet, a clever piece of image-building.

Now I wonder if it might be true after all.

Look at this - they have the same facebook page.


Is it useful for a creative team to be this close? Or is there such a thing as too close?

Read more Fred & Farid antics here

Another Example Of My Least Favourite Endline

This was scanned from an art magazine, but that doesn't make it excusable. Maybe it makes it worse.

"Hmm, the ad's going in an art magazine..."
"I know, how about 'The Art Of...' something?"
"By Jupiter, Carruthers - you've cracked it!"

Feel free to post endlines that you despise, in the comments. I find it helps.


Previous 'Art Of's:

The Art Of Refrigeration