Wisdom of Gossage

Nike at the London Olympics

I just found out that Nike is not an official sponsor of the London Olympics.

Which came as quite a surprise because I’d automatically assumed that they would be.

After all they’re the biggest most high profile sporting brand on the planet.

Which when you stop and think about it is probably why they’re not an Olympic sponsor.

They just don’t need to be.

I imagine that most of the high profile athletes competing at the games will be wearing Nike kit.

And Nike will be paying them plenty to wear it.

But handing over squillions to the Olympic coffers?

They just don’t do it.

More bearded wisdom

As I said last week, the beard may well be wiser than the man.

Case in point this cracker of a tweet.

Brilliant. Just brilliant.

Now that's a campaign

So nice to come across a campaign that is actually a campaign.

Confused?

Well you shouldn't be.

 A campaign should basically be a single idea expressed in different ways.

Not the same idea repeated multiple times.

If you still don't get what I mean just be patient as Cannes is almost upon us.

And at Cannes they hand out award after award to campaigns that are essentially one idea repeated three times.

This lovely campaign comes from Leo Burnett in Toronto.

Personally I don't think the plant ad is as strong as the other two.

But it is a damn fine (and real) campaign none the less.

Ken Burns - Storyteller

Brands and their stories are integral to the ad business.

But there's so much more to telling a great story than simply telling the story.

Confused?

Don't worry. Just watch this 5 minute short film by a master storyteller.

Trust me. You'll be so glad you did. 

Guinness QR code

QR codes. We're pretty much over them.

They promised so much yet have basically given us little more than links to bloody websites.

Even this Guinness QR code could be shit for all I know.

But it's execution however is top notch.

It's etched on to Guinness pint glasses and only reveals itself when the glass is full of the black stuff.

Ingenious don't you think?

Hopefully it's worth scanning.

Lee Clow's beard

 I don't know if you follow Lee Clow's Beard on Twitter but you should.

It's possibly even wiser than the great man himself.

As this handful of pithy tweets shows.

 Believe it or not over 24,000 people follow The Beard.

Which is quite astonishing I think.

Sadly I suspect very few of them are clients.

 So why not do yourself a favour and buy the just released Lee Clow's Beard book for your 'favourite' client.

It may not make them any smarter but it might open their mind just a little.

At least I hope it would!

Happy Birthday YouTube

YouTube is seven years old today.

Weird is much in the scheme of things.

Yet it's hard to remember life before it.

Happy birthday! 

Fiat or Volkswagen?

I love a bit of ambush marketing and it doesn't get much cheekier than this.

The people from Fiat in Sweden discovered the Google Streetview camera car was in the vicinity of the head office of Volkwagen.

So they quickly organised a staff member to drive an instantly identifiable bright red Fiat 500 and park it out front of Volkswagen.

And now (and for the next year) whenever anyone searches Volkswagen HQ or the street address on Google Streetview they'll see that little red Fiat Bambino parked out front.

Bella bella!

Simply beautiful

 Two of the most beautiful household appliance ads I've ever seen.

Simply stunning. Don't you think?

Weird thing is they look very American but they're actually Japanese.

And believe it or not they're 50 years old.

Don't know about you but I'll definitely be filing these away for inspiration.

An iPhone deconstructed

Thwackety thwack

Don't think I've ever seen the word 'thwack' used in a headline before.

And even if I had I very much doubt it would've been in an ad for lemonade.

Nice work by London upstarts Sell Sell. 

Beware the vodka

Soviet era posters on the perils of the demon drink.

Very cool.

Although some are more than a little creepy.

Click here to see lots more.

Turning wine into beer

Absolutely love this idea from New Zealand to get beer drinkers to resist the desire to buy wine and buy DB Export beer instead.

If your eyes are anything like mine I suggest you click the label below to enlarge it.

It's a pretty good read don't you think?

Bottles we put on display in liquor outlets and anyone who took a bottle to the cash register was rewarded with $5 off the price of a dozen DBs.

The campaign bumped up sales by 350% in just a week.

Cheers to that!

And cheers to the crew from Colenso BBDO who were behind the idea.

I wanna MotorSicle

Evel Knievel was one of my childhood heroes.

The coolest cat this side of The Fonz.

And what I wouldn't have given to get my hands on one of those Evel ice creams.

But seriously. What is with the kid in this ad?

Quite possibly the weirdest looking young fellow ever to grace a full page colour print page. 

Use words carefully

Saddened to learn of the passing of Maurice Sendak.

Believe it or not his brilliant book Where The Wild Things Are was a big influence on my copywriting career.

Why?

Well they say a picture is worth a 1,000 words. And Sendak's book proved that beyond doubt.

Wild Things has page after page without any words.

Just great imagery.

Amazing imagery.

Eye opening imagery.

Stay with you a lifetime imagery.

Yet as good as the images are the book still needs words.

It just uses them very sparingly.

And that's something I've spent my whole career trying to do.

It ain't always easy. But it's definitely worth doing.

I'd like to say RIP but I know that  Maurice Sendack won't be resting.

He'll be spending eternity in the place where the wild things are.

When George speaks, listen

George Lois is an adland legend and a personal hero of mine.

He's just published a great new book which is one of the many things he talks about in the latest Future of Advertising podcast.

George is never ever short of an opinion.

So click here to go get inspired and get some George onto your iPod.

Kirsten gets catty

I can never quite get my head around perfume ads.

And I'm bloody glad the brief to create one has never landed on my desk.

I mean really what on earth has Kirsten Dunst and a huge lion got to do with Bulgari?

Bugger all if you ask me.

Great image though! 

Words to live by

Hand lettered by Sean McCabe

Position Vacant

This job ad appeared in The Guardian this week.

The job title grabs the attention straight away.

Very nice copy too.

Click the pic if you can't read it.

A really rather good idea I think.

Love to know who did.

Anyone? Anyone?

Pic via

(B)ad of the week

Oh dear...

Steve Jobs said...