Let's kill off agency blogs

An agency I used to work at is currently advertising for digital savvy Creatives who get social media.

Last time I looked blogs were considered social media.

So the fact their agency blog has been gathering dust for several months may be why they're hiring.

Although I doubt it.

Anyway it's not the only agency blog that's gathering dust.

There are loads of them.

Many of them probably started by well intentioned Planners.

But let's be honest - those people have probably got too much work to do to worry about updating a blog.

So how 'bout we issue an agency blog moratorium and kill them all off.

Yes all of them.

Because even those that have been updated within the last month generally only feature the agency plugging their work.

Except of course for W&K London whose blog is always up to date and well worth a visit.

Every little helps

Love me a bit of industry cheekiness and this is a great example.

Wieden & Kennedy London has just won Tesco. To help them celebrate Saatchi & Saatchi sent them a picnic hamper.

Inside the hamper was a selection of goods from rival supermarket ASDA.

Plus a note using the ASDA tagline of Every little helps.

Nice!

Burgerlympics

Not a lot of hard hitting commentary on the blog this week.

Buried under work at the moment.

Shouldn't complain as I'm doing it with people I like and respect.

Anyway this cheeky fake Olympics poster landed in my inbox today.

It was created by Elliot Townson for some sort of fake Olympics article I think.

Nice one Elliot!

The good ship Scientology

Love me a good topical ad. This one would have benefited from a bit of crafting but it made me smile none the less. 

Cheeky Olympic messages

The rules and regulations around the Olympic brand shit me no end.

They really do.

Totally over the top if you ask me.

I think it's because the whole brand protection and IP thing goes against what I consider to be the spirit of the Olympics.

Which is why I'm giving a huge Fonzie thumbs up to these bags on sale at a street market in London on the weekend.

Brilliant. Don't you think?

Hat tip to Mona for the pic.

The future of identity

I'm a big fan of the STW Group's Nextness blog.

It's so good it makes me wish I was an STW wage slave so I could write for it.

Someone who has written for it is my friend Simon Bloomfield who's a CD at Ogilvy in Sydney.

His piece on digital identities is a very interesting read.

My digital identity as Brand DNA and/or Stan Lee has definitely helped raise my profile outside of the cloistered environs of the Creative Dept.

I'm pleased to say that Simon's piece is so good it's now up for some sort of Nextness prize.

Click here to go check it out.

Trust me it's well worth it!

Well do they?

What happened to the colours?

Remember when Apple launched the flavoured iMacs?

Lime, Strawberry, Orange etc.

Then almost over night they went all 'Braun' on us and starting designing far less colourful far more minimal machines.

And as much as I love the white/silver Apple products I do miss the colours.

Guess it's 'cause I grew up in the 70's. The golden age of 'Crazy Color Portables'.

Fresh take on beer advertising

Snapped this poster on the wall of a pub in Hobart yesterday.

It's for Moo Brew the craft brewery owned by David Walsh the man behind MONA.

With most beers going out of their way to be knock about and blokey it's refreshing to see a beer brand set itself apart.

Headline of the week. Possibly the year.

For overseas readers this explanation might help.

Pure waters of Tasmania

The wife and I are off to Tasmania today for a few days break. Thought I'd leave you with a wonderful ad for Tasmanian beer James Boag. Bit of a shame it was made in Sydney not Tassie though!

An ad to make you smile

I'm well and truly over TV ads that use twee girly songs. I really am. But this energy saving idea is so damn cute I'm prepared to make an exception. Be even better with the original Crosby Stills & Nash song though! 

Have you ever failed?

I hate failing. I really do.

But if if you don't fail sometimes then you're obviously not trying hard enough.

So embrace failure as a means of learning and a by-product of the creative process.

Where are these people?

I was flicking through some old award annuals this morning when I came across this cracking recruitment ad in a One Show book.

Click the pic to enlarge so you can read the copy. Trust me - it's worth it! 

Recycled but still fresh

Like the Rolling Stones' tongue, the Coke bottle and McDonalds golden arches, the recycling logo is ubiquitous today.

But like so many design icons it had somewhat humble beginnings.

It was created back in 1970 by 23 year old Californian student Gary Anderson.

His design was created for a design competition to raise awareness of recycling.

Fast forward 40 or so years and I'd say he well and truly earned the $2,500 he received for the logo.

For more on Gary and his design check out this article in the Financial Times.

Apologies in advance if Murdoch has paywalled the page.

The Great British Mini

Lovely work by WCRS London.

Legal eagles my arse

Is there a bigger killer of creativity than the client legal dept?

I think not.

In fact I've been banging on about it for years.

Problem is most (actually all) of the account service people I've worked with are younger than me.

So they've grown up with the problem and hence don't really see it as a problem.

And before you roll your eyes this is not an ageist rant.

It's a when are clients going to stop our 'learned friends' in the legal dept from ruining copy and headlines with annoying asterisks rant?

Case is point - the headline above from a Qantas ad in today's paper.

I very much doubt when the copywriter wrote that headline that they would have envisioned it requiring an asterisk after the word name.

But then along came a risk adverse legal eagle and bingo. An utterly unnecessary asterisk.

Madness I tell ya. Madness.

Enough already!

Don't cry

I've always loved topical ads. And this one to coincide with England's early departure from the Euro 2012 tournament really made me smile.

Of course given how often the England team exit early this ad was probably written before the tournament even began.

It was created by London agency VCCP.

Cannes 2012 presentation highlights

Truth be told I'm well and truly over the hype machine that is Cannes.

But even I have to admit that the festival does feature some fantastic presentations most of which us mere mortals never get to see.

Luckily for me (and you) Jesse Desjardins has put together this handy collection of his favourite bits from Cannes 2012. 

Old school socks

 Ask anyone who knows me about my socks.

They'll tell you they're my thing.

They may even tell you how I'm the only person they know who matches his socks to his shirt.

So you can imagine how much I loved stumbling on a bunch of old sock ads.

That top ad features a thumbnail of an album by The Yardbirds.

No idea why.

Obviously it can't be easy advertising socks.

But why oh why would you fall for the obvious socks/sex pun?

I mean really.

And as for dancing the sock.

Well who knows where that 'idea' came from!

Thought for the day

I'm pretty sure a lot of people thought that when they saw this.

But as I discovered myself many years ago you don't win awards unless you enter them.