Praise him

Hey little piggie

I have no idea what Tasteless Chill Tonic is.

Nor can I work out whether the headline is a benefit message or a side effect warning.

Which may be why this product isn't around anymore.

Weird. Really weird.

Skittles brand book

If there's one thing about the ad biz that bugs me it's brand books.

These things are generally created by branding agencies.

And branding agencies don't do ads. They do branding.


Anyway. This Skittles brand book is pretty damn cool.

I've cherry picked a couple of my favourite pages to share with you.

You can see the whole thing here.


Now this may or may not be the real deal.

But it certainly reflects Skittle brand values as far as I can see.

Run out of ideas

High profile US polititian Mitt Romney has a poster out that takes inspiration from the classic Conservative Party poster from the UK.

The similarities between Romney's poster and the original are not accidental.

The people behind it freely admit this on their website:

"the parallels that Americans face today cannot be ignored. With 9.1% unemployed, record deficits, a soaring national debt, and millions of struggling families, one thing is clear -- Obama isn't working, either."


I don't know about you but when I decide who gets my vote I look for people with fresh ideas.

And if this rehash poster is anything to go by then Romney must have run out of ideas before the US campaign even gets underway.

The typography's not a patch on the original either!

Oh dear

This ridiculous Cannes promo for Grey went nuts on Twitter over the weekend.

I'm sure you must've seen it already.

But if you haven't - Enjoy!

Ads added with eBay

If there's one thing that fascinates me about web brands it's their fondness for good old fashioned interuptive advertising as a source of revenue.

Latest example is AdShip from eBay or ad supported shipping to give it its full title.

Here's how eBay explain it:

"A partnership platform for advertisers and shippers: We are the first to offer Pay-Per-Ship® - a new advertising model that offers multiple advertising impressions to a single consumer throughout the order fulfillment process."

Personally I think the use of an ® says it all.

Anyway if you buy something on eBay and your parcel includes an invoice or reciept covered in ads now you know why.

Click here to see how it will look.

But only if you want to!

Stupid = Genius

I remember doing a Boss Button spreadsheet for a Guinness web timewaster back in 2000.

It was pretty innvative for its time.

Of course these sort of things are quite common now.

But this takes that idea to a whole new level.

Brilliant!

Good clean pun

Not sure what the man himself would think but this puntastic product sure made me laugh.

Get yours here.

Latest Blogosphere is up

Now that my teenage daughter has a part time job she seems to get a lot of packages from overseas.

And every time a parcel arrives her face lights up at the prospect of what lies within.

Watching her hurredly open her mail inspired my latest Around the Blogosphere column for Marketing magazine.

Click here to go to a look.

Love to hear your thoughts so feel free to join the conversation via the comments.

Hotel branding

I had dinner the other day at the recently opened Olsen Art Hotel.

As you can imagine artworks by artist John Olsen feature prominently in all main areas of the hotel.

This gives the hotel a strong point of difference.

Which is what branding is all about.

And in a me-too business like hotels branding is all important.

As is service obviously.


Recently the Morgans hotel group introduced a lovely branding idea.

A free downloadable soundtrack for your stay.

You access it via the QR code on the very cool key card they give you on check-in.

Pretty nice don't you think?

Sad but true

Via

Rambling Stan on your iPod

Yours truly chats with the esteemed Dave Birss in the latest issue of the Future of Advertising Podcast.

We cover a lot of ground including my thoughts on working in the UK and Oz, issues about integration and who I believe is the future of our industry.

Click here to download a copy from iTunes.

Did I mention it's free!

Ancient artifacts

Just found a brilliant collection of old typewriter logos and ephemera in a Flickr set by Basel based typewriter aficionado Georg Sommeregger.




To see more of his extension collection click here.

Use religiously

One of the most disappointing things about many student folios these days is their inerent political correctness.

There's no shortage of clever thinking.

But very little that really pushes the boundaries of what could be considered good taste.

Which is a shame. Because once a student gets a job their chances to shock are limited.

This is one of the reasons we see and hear so much about scam ads.

And the best scams and similar ads that never ran get their chance to shine at the annual Chip Shop Awards.

The ad above for Lynx was recognised at this year's Chip Shop.

It's an absolute cracker.

And would never ever see the light of day if presented to a client.

Thought for the day

Ignore change

I've had a fantastic young art director working freelance in my team for the last few weeks.

On Friday I marked up a couple of changes to one of her layouts.

I had a change of heart about one of the layouts so I marked it with a stet.

She had no idea what this meant.

Is this because she is quite young?

Is it because they don't teach classic printer's terms at college?

Or is it because digital and electronic annotations are making markups on layouts redundant?

Probably a combination of all three I suspect.

Click here if you have no idea what I'm talking about.

Chicken or egg?

Cracking print ad for Steggles chickens by M&C Saatchi in Sydney.

Short yet very sweet copy by Tom McFarlane.

Click pic for a better look or read copy here:

This is the only time a Steggles chicken is kept in a confined space.

We have no cages, just big barns.

Effort and ideas

By Christoph Niemann

Fosters doing a Bud

Fosters in the UK has just announced that they've snared Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer for an online comedy series.

This follows on from Fosters recent collaboration with Steve Coogan which also ran online.

Seems like a lifetime ago that Budweiser launched an online entertainment site that fared so badly it was closed down not long after it was launched.

Mind you back then YouTube was relatively new and online video was something that downloaded very slowly and chewed up a huge chunk of your monthly internet allowance.

Not anymore.

Obviously Budweiser were victims of their own vision.

Which is a bit sad really.

Guess it doesn't always pay to be first to market.

I blame Charles Saatchi

I often meet other parents who seem to me to be overly obsessed with hygiene and general cleanliness when it comes to their children.

I wonder if this is a modern condition?

Obviously my parents used to nag my sister and I to wash our hands etc.

But they were a long way from the obsessive parents of today.

Given most of the parents I know are of a similar age to me I wonder if Charles Saatchi's famous "A fly lands" poster is to blame.

It was a common sight in medical clinics in the 70's.

And given how young and impressionable us kids were back then this poster would have definitely been responsible for giving us a few sleepness nights.

Bloody Saatchi!

Especially on Facebook

Staying creative

Click pic to enlarge. Thanx to Mona.

Digital signature

How long till something like this becomes commonplace?

One of the greatest

I posted quite a few Amnesty International posters a few weeks back.

They've always done fantastic graphic work.

Today I stumbled on this poster which I have never seen before.

Great headline. Fantastic use of stockshot imagery.

A very powerful poster.

Give it a click to get a look at the copy.

Thought for the day

Make a wish

Love it when I see an art idea that goes viral.

Makes me feel good about the world.

Even if it's only for a few minutes.

This cute 'n clever I wish this was sticker idea is the work of installation artist Candy Chang.

Fingers crossed we won't end up seeing it ripped off for some goddam boring old ad campaign.

Feedback

Sadly this is not a joke.

It is a real sticky note.

And it contains genuine client service feedback.

I shall not reveal where it came from.

Suffice to say I am glad nobody ever had the gall to leave a note like that on my desk.