The ad on the left won a Grand Prix at Cannes this year.
In the 'Outdoor' category!
What really annoys me is I can hear the jury saying "Hey people, look at this, we just gave the Grand Prix to a poster that has 500 words on it! Isn't that just so totally crazy of us?!"
But it's a poor ad. Not a genuine poster. Not a genuine insight about how people look at art. Poorly written. And ugly.
Apart from that, dear reader, I loved it...
How can supposedly intelligent ad agency employees make an ad which is so lame, even a 3 year old thinks it's stupid?
My daughter's verdict on this ad was a simple "Cars don't go in the water, Daddy. They only go on the road."
What's yours?
In a previous post I wondered which advertiser would be the first to jump on the Peter Crouch 'robot' goal celebration. Now we have the answer. It's Citroen. A crappy ad but I still love the track.
Shortly after writing a post called Advertising Works - Unfortunately I have recently come to another blinding realisation. Marketing works too.
You see, we used to give my 3 year old daughter yoghurt. Then she decided she didn't like it. Then we discovered a product called Frubes. She loves it. And what are Frubes? That's right. Yoghurt in a tube.
All they changed was the name, and the packaging... and it worked.
(P.S. it didn't hurt that she saw TV ads featuring some amusing Frubes characters who get their heads ripped off and their insides sucked out).
There's a beautiful ad for Ariston washing machines over at AdBlather. But on texturl.net Brandon Barr points out its close similarity to a campaign for Ecover washing detergent.
Today's Campaign magazine carries a letter pointing out the similarity of the new NSPCC ad to one for T-Mobile, an article describing similarities between a Daily Telegraph and an Observer Sport Monthly campaign, and a whole slew of opinions on that hoary old topic of plagiarism.
For what it's worth, here's mine.
The commandment says "thou shalt not steal" not "thou shalt not steal an idea", so as far as I'm concerned, there's no moral law against it.
But our task is to sell. And if an idea doesn't feel original, it won't be as impactful.
What do you think?
Great post over at The Ad Pit featuring this wonderfully candid piece of communication.
It's a great achievement for a product recall ad to actually make me feel warmer towards a brand.
Why can't all our ads be this honest?
The front page of this week's Campaign magazine announces: "Britvic shifts £.2.5m J2O [an orange juice brand] from BBH to CHI."
CHI wins yet another account. Not big news really. They've gone from start-up to top ten agency in about five years.
But what amazed me was what the story revealed further down.
"Britvic's still-drinks business saw growth of 9 per cent. This was driven by strong sales of... J2O" meanwhile "Britvic reports a 9 per cent slump in sales of its carbonated drinks" many of which (e.g. Tango) are handled by... CHI.
So the agency that was doing well lost the account... to the agency that was doing badly.
Unbelievable.
Until you consider CHI's secret weapon. Johnny Hornby. (That's him in the picture).
To say he's quite an impressive account man would be like saying Brazil are not bad at football.
I've met him a few times. I don't know how he does it, but when he's talking to you... it's like the sun's shining. Clients give him their business because they just want to be around him.
Anyone else have ideas on what makes a good account man?
Every brand is looking to exploit World Cup fever at the moment. And a lot of them are doing it extremely badly.
For example, in the current Morrisons TV advertising, a football bursts through the screen at the end... with absolutely no relevance to the preceding 2 for 1 offer on sausages whatsoever.
If you like the idea of an irrelevant football bursting through the screen, you can see one here on the Morrisons website.
Any other examples of irrelevant football?
Even better than the last one, I think. The animation is great, and the track is a belter.
That's right, folks. Planners don't just ramble, make interesting charts with triangles and oblongs on, and feed biscuits to housewives in return for their fascinating views on washing powder.
They also blog.
Two excellent planning blogs I have found recently areRussell Davies and Northern Planner.
Highly recommended, whatever side of the fence you're on.
No post yesterday, as I was out all afternoon at Maze, Gordon Ramsey's latest restaurant.
Still recovering today.
Not that I'm ungrateful... but why do people in our industry have to celebrate finishing a job by going on a massive bender?
The new campaign for Birds Eye foods, from BBH, is brilliant. The campaign is attempting - I believe successfully - nothing less than a complete re-framing of the public's attitude towards frozen food.
The gist of it is that far from being unhealthy and full of preservatives, frozen foods are actually healthier than fresh foods, because they come to you naturally preserved, rather than deteriorating over a period of days before they reach you, like 'fresh' food.
A campaign like this, which can change the eating habits of a nation, in the service of creating greater sales for a brand, is basically... the holy grail.
Yes, the robot dance is sweeping the nation.
(Note to international readers: England striker Peter Crouch celebrated a goal against Hungary with some fine robotic dancing)
Fans of the consumer-generated content thing may be interested to note that there are over 2,300 mash-up versions of Crouch's dance on YouTube.
Given the instant fame and popularity that Crouch's moves have generated, it's only a matter of time before an advertiser jumps on his little wagon.
Who will be the first?
My bet is Nike, simply because one of their agencies in the UK is Nitrosoul. And the creative director of Nitrosoul is... Peter Crouch's dad, Bruce.
Or perhaps, Lynx - "Can't dance? Lynx"
Any others?
Great new Kit Kat ad. Footage from the 1966 World Cup Final is shown, with Geoff Hurst's infamous 3rd goal which strikes the crossbar, and as England celebrate, Germany are contesting the goal, so the referee goes to the Russian linesman and instead of following the action he is eating a Kit Kat and hasn't seen the controversy. Flustered, he gives England the goal. Then the tagline comes up: "Have a break, have a Kit Kat."
The idea is great, and the execution is brilliant.
What more could you want? Here's the ad, courtesy of fellow Brit ad blogger FishNChimps. Congrats to creative team Colin Jones & Michael Campbell, and director Chris Palmer.
