Soup by Warhol

Campbells have just announced that they will be releasing a range of Andy Warhol inspired soup cans.

Which seems a little odd given Warhol first painted Campbells' cans around 50 years ago.

That's a half a century if memory serves.

I'm pretty sure they weren't that keen on Warhol's work back then.

And may even have contemplated legal action.

Still I guess time heals all wounds.

Especially when soup sales aren't as good as they used to be! 

Multitask with Google

Can't believe I missed this cracker of an April Fools video earlier this year. Love it! 

Is Lana Del an F-Type?

When I was a kid the E-Type Jaguar was the car we all coveted.

Sleek lines. Seriously long bonnet. And it was oh so British.

Motoring perfection in fact.

Now Jaguar are about to launch its long awaited successor. The F-Type.

That's it in the pic above.

Sadly for me it looks very un-Jaguar.

And anything but British.

So I guess the announcement that Lana Del Rey will be the face of the launch campaign
is based more on her sleek lines than anything to do with British motoring heritage.

Although I suspect the F-Type will have a purr that is very reminiscent of Lana Del.

At least I hope it does!

Prince Harry's deodorant

It has to stop

I've never met anyone who got in to the ad biz to make shit ads.

Yet the ratio of good to bad is heavily weighted towards to the bad as far as I can see.

And based on my experience most bad ads started off as good ideas.

There are a number of reasons why this happens and I'm not going to go into them here.

But suffice to say next time your idea starts turning into a Frankenstein's monster show this Bernbach quote to your account handler or client.

Please! 

Shady characters in Diesel

Maybe it's because I've unwittingly become a dog person recently. Or maybe it's because I have a soft spot for really random ideas. But I've gotta say I absolutely love this doggy little Diesel film from the peeps at Poke. 

The only way

A press ad with a headline that sums up life in the creative end of the advertising business.

Seriously what's not to love? 

Shhhh!!!!

Actually make that brands not people.

But you know what I mean.

Don't you?

Mary had a little what?

The Australian media is currently awash with ads for the new lamb burger from McDonalds.

The TV spots feature Sam Kekovich which is a smart move as he's well known as the Lamb Ambassador down under.

What's not so smart I think is the Mary had a little lamb poster I drive past on the Nepean Hwy every morning.

Sure it caught my eye.

But seriously. How many kids have seen that ad and done a double take?

Yes it's funny. Well kinda.

However I very much doubt that the little folk who flock to McDonalds for Happy Meals will be happy to have their cute 'n cuddly nursery rhymes linked with their lunch.

Of course I could be completely wrong.

But given my wife and both my kids thought the exact same thing when they saw the billboard I suspect not.

Big man - Small screen

I was saddened to hear of the death of Tony Scott yesterday.

Well known for his big budget big action films he's also made his fair share of ads.

This is one of my favourites.

RIP Tony. 

Another shitty idea

I see in the news this morning that someone has come up with the idea of toilet paper advertising.

Well they say come up with. But I'm pretty sure It's been done before.

Regardless of whether it has or it hasn't it's still a shitty idea.

I mean really what sort of brand wants people to wipe their arse with it?

Adding to the noise

Kill Bill outdoors

This pic landed in my inbox yesterday.

Had to share it with you.

Obviously it's a little on the gruesome side.

But then again so is Kill Bill.

No idea who did it but it's from New Zealand. 

Hendrix wonders Coke or Pepsi

I could never understand why so much Pepsi advertising in America went head to head with Coke.

But I'm definitely prepared to make an exception for this very cute little Jimi Hendrix ad which made me smile. A lot! 

More and more advertising

Statistics released this week show the Australian online ad market has broken the $3 billion mark.

That's a figure unimaginable just a couple of years ago.

It's even more surprising given that digital was supposed to make advertising less and less attractive to marketers.

Although given how bad most banner ads are I suspect what it's actually done is make advertising less and less attractive.

Actually make that downright bad. 

The pizza puzzle

As someone who confronts a blank A3 pad that needs to be filled with ideas every day I know that sometimes inspiration can be found in the work of others.

That may be a painting. A magazine article. A film or even another ad.

Based on the video above it seems some people don't look for inspiration. They just copy.

Or should that be steal?

Note to self

Mac or PC?

It's often said that there's more computing power in an iPhone than it took to land a man on the moon.

So it seems fitting that the control room for the recent Mars landing was heavily populated by Apple products.

Funny thing is the sight of people using Apple has become quite commonplace these days.

Not because a lot of people use Macs but because of product placement in movies.

Somehow I doubt the NASA Macs we part of a product placement deal.

But imagine if they were...

Enough with the ads already

I first got involved in the digital side of the ad business way back in 1995.

The internet was still called the information superhighway back then.

One of the great promises of digital was that it would bring to an end the era of interruptive advertising.

Sadly it hasn't.

In fact it's more interruptive than ever.

It's almost impossible to avoid ads these days.

Case in point is the announcement today of a new form of advertising in Australia - the lids of takeaway coffee cups.

Honestly. Do we really need this shit?

The company behind it is, of course, called Lid Media.

Which makes branching out into advertising on the rest of the cup a little difficult.

Anyway according to their press release Lid Media "has developed a patented method to stick messages on take away coffee lids."

Just what the world need. Not!

Old school auto advertising

Love me some old school automotive advertising.

I'm a big fan of illustration and typography too.

So this campaign by Texas agency The Richards Group pushes all my buttons.

What really makes the campaign work for me though is the use of muted colour.

So good to a campaign escape relatively unscarred by the client approval process.

Nice guys never come first

Click on pic for a better look.

Back seat non driver

Found this police car taxi mash up on Hey Whipple.

He spotted it in Savannah in the south of the USA.

It would definitely catch my eye in the street.

Closer examination reveals that a ride in the front of the car would cost more than $1800 whilst a seat in the back would be around $20.

Now this is the sort of idea I wouldn't mind seeing adapted for use here in Australia.

Doubt that it'll happen though.

I'm a resource for management

I'd never consider this blog a resource for management types.

It's just the ramblings of a man with an opinion who's prepared to wield it whilst keeping his tongue wedged firmly in his cheek.

Still if the smart folks at PHD in Management reckon it's a good resource for managers and PHD people then who am I to argue?

Click here to find out more.

Did Ogilvy invent Lady Gaga?