Fight for low prices

Fun ad for a cheap supermarket in Israel.

Although the logical part of my brain can't help questioning the placement of the shooter at the end of the aisle.

Or maybe I'm just overthinking it.

It's by McCann by the way.

What would Bernbach think?

Checkout the credits on an ad on most ad blogs these days and I guarantee you'll see many of the job titles in the pic above credited on the work.

A Creative Director I get.

Even an Exec CD makes sense.

But the rest of them?

It's job title mania meets ego on the loose.

Utterly ridiculous.

Bill Bernbach was a Creative Director. So too Ogilvy and Abbott.

So why the job title madness?

And why do we as an industry keep giving these people credit on work that has most likely not even passed under their collective noses?

Starbucks does good ad shock!

It was Martin Luther King Day in the US last week. MLK Day as it's more popularly known.

As you can imagine a bunch of hopeless social media types pumped out a series of godawful MLK related brand tweets. The less said about them the better.

Meanwhile in the New York Times none other than Starbucks ran a seriously good MLK ad.

Obviously it's hard to reproduce a full page broadsheet ad in a blog. So try clicking the pic for a better look.

As you can probably see the 'visual' in the ad is the alphabet backwards.

And the headline?

Well that says - It's time to look at things differently. Again.

For me this ad speaks volumes about America today. A country with massive inequality between rich and poor. Where shootings and race are an ongoing problem.

So kudos to Starbucks for encouraging people to think differently.

Here's hoping they start doing so. 

Stock Photobombs

This has got to be the funniest thing I've seen this week.

Freelance creative Matt Vescovo has created what he is calling The Stock Photobomber.

In essence Matt inserts himself into stockshots.

He is obviously bloody good with photoshop as the inserts look pretty seamless.

Check out more here.

Coolest dad in the universe

Love this film. I really do.

Could be because I grew up in Northern England.

Could be because I love the music.

Could be because I love the grit and authenticity in the casting.

Big thumbs up to McCann London. 

A suit to travel in

Paul Smith has been using Vine to showcase a newly launched Travel Suit.

Fabulous way to demonstrate the product.

Don't you think?

There's a few more Paul Smith Vines here.

Human Technology for Beretta

Utterly mesmerising piece of film-making.

To be honest I (like you most probably) have no interest whatsoever in guns.

Yet this brand film kept me hooked till the end.

Never gonna buy the product. Obviously.

But man oh man I love how much they love their work. 

Cats love #PackAttack

No copy. No logo. No product.

Just what's left of the pack and a very tasty hashtag.

This is great advertising from Adam&Eve DDB in London.

It's also, quite probably, been created by a cat owner.

Arrogance and Porsche

Arrogance.

Especially from a brand.

It's something your very rarely see in advertising.

Which is a damn shame if you ask me.

Mind you most brands really don't have anything to be arrogant about.

Which is an ever bigger shame I think. 

Content about content

How much more content do we need about creating content?

Obviously quite a lot based on what I see in my Linkedin and Twitter feeds.

Seriously though. How 'bout we give the constant content crap a rest.

Even if it's only for one day.

Nobody tells beginners

Lovely little film. Please watch.

Flying the flag?

This ad has been doing the rounds of the internet over the last week or so.

General consensus is it's award worthy.

For the life of me I can't work out why.

I stared at it for ages before I finally worked out the idea.

And when I did it hardly seemed worth it.

Especially after someone sent me a link to this.

Lazy copywriting

I think this may be a spec ad. But I'm not sure.

It is however a lovely illustration.

Click on the pic for a better look.

What bugs me about this ad however is the headline,

It reads like a first thought that has not been run past a creative director.

For starters the 'Seaworld' part of the headline would've worked better as 'Infants are free at Seaworld.

It just reads more succinctly.

As for the 'our world' part, it's a very clumsy read.

I reckon fullstops at the end of both lines would've helped too.

Having written this I'm more convinced than ever that is ad (one of a series of three) is a spec ad.

There's no way a creative director would've let copywriting that lazy out of the agency.

Gordon the boar

Classic James Brown soundtrack. Christopher Walken dance moves. A bit of a Lockstock vibe. Oh and let's not forget the boar! 

You're not...

Or you work in an advertising agency. ;-) 

Poetic pasta

Nicest ad I've seen this year. No idea who did it but kudos to whoever they are. 

Escape Pod

I enjoy the open plan office environment as much as the next guy.

But sometimes I wish I could escape it.

If only for an hour or two.

Thinking I might have to get myself one of these V1 chairs.

Pretty cool huh?

Get out of school

Ten years ago I took a sabbatical year (I was burnt out) and ended up teaching in the advertising school of a university.

It became quite clear to me very early on that pretty everything there is to learn about working in the creative department of an agency is best learned on the job.

I'm not saying degrees and education aren't important. I just think that being an art-director or copywriter should be a cadetship or apprenticeship rather than a formal learning process.

Now I hear a college in the US is offering a Masters in Branding.

Yes you read that correctly.

I hope this course covers more than brand guideline related case studies! 

My fave Xmas idea

First post for 2015 is a lovely tongue-in-cheek Xmas idea by Indian agency Watercrab.