When Pepsi had class

A friend sent me these Pepsi ads last weekend.

Aren't they beautiful.

So classy. So sophisticated.

And utterly unlike any soft drink ads I've ever seen.

Shame they don't still do ads like this.

Dylan plugs Audi

To be honest I'm struggling to really see the connection between a musical revolutionary angering his most ardent fans and a German hatchback. But hey it's still an entertaining piece of film. 

Let's make a McWhopper

Absolute genius idea. Read all about it in the New York Times. 

Wisdom of Bernbach

The Phone-brella

Now here's an idea I wish I'd thought of.

An umbrella that lets you use your phone while keeping the rain off.

So obvious you wonder why nobody thought of it before.

Click here to find out more.

Ad for a Teaser

Finally someone in confectionary land took up my idea of putting Maltesers in a bar.

And what better way to announce it to the world than with that cracker of a headline.

I gave a talk on print advertising at the ADMA Creative School last week. If this ad had been around then it would definitely have been added to my presentation.

Burn & Destroy

Stole this from a friend's Facebook.

Great quote from Bukowski.

Sums up what life as a creative is all about. 

Puppy power!

Love this new Amazon spot by Joint London for many reasons. We had a Maltese when I was a kid. the Lee Marvin song at the end was big on the radio when I was a kid. Plus it's a dog in an ad. And who doesn't love that?

Clever copy

Comments on or off?

It's very rare these days that people leave a comment on one of my posts.

In the early days of BrandDNA this was not the case.

There were lots of comments and plenty of banter.

Times have changed though.

There are now an untold number of ad blogs. When I started DNA there weren't.

And most of the banter has moved to Twitter.

Leaving BrandDNA to become essentially an advertising website.

Nothing wrong with that. But it's made having a comments section pointless.

So I'm thinking of turning them off.

Do you care? Probably not. I know I certainly don't. 

Surf's up

A friend in Sydney sent me a link to a photography series called Hazmat Surfing by Michael Dryland.

It's based on his experiences in the surf after a massive overnight rain deluge.

I live near the beach in Melbourne so I'm familiar with how the sea looks after a big rain.

The photos are quite striking don't you think?

They really got me thinking. But not about the environment.

Nope.

Sadly they got me thinking how long it will be before some advertising creative borrows the idea and enters it into an award show.

Plagiarism or inspiration?

There's an unwritten rule of advertising that says you can take inspiration from anything in the culture as long as it's not advertising.

Which is why creative people get all upset when they see an idea that has been done before.

This week's creative kerfuffle concerns my old agency Cummins&Partners and the Australian Football League.

Seems their idea for Multicultural Round is remarkably similar to the work of graphic designer Tyson Beck.

To be honest it's hard to argue against this as the two look pretty damn similar when placed side by side.

But seriously. Surely Saul Bass must've done something like this way back when?

The work of Blaine Fridrick is also kinda similar in style.

And what about this film poster?

Costly billboard

High profile billboards are expensive. We all know that.

But what about the walls they sit on?

Well this week the wall that the pictured billboard in Melbourne sits on was sold at auction for over $3 million.

That's for the wall. Not the building.

Who said there's no money in advertising? 

Shit advertising idea

I was in Sydney over the weekend.

Popped in the the toilet at the airport where the sound of an annoying ad annoyed me while I was taking care of business.

While washing my hands I saw what was responsible for the noise.

An advertising video screen.

Quite a large one too.

Now seriously. What kind of person hangs around in public toilets watching ads?

Certainly no-one that I know.

And who on earth thought a public toilet was a great venue for video advertising screens?

Guess that's the kind of question nobody would be willing to put their hands up to. 

Oreo overload

Hate to be mean but with their endless stream of ads and tweets 'n stuff Oreo is in danger of jumping the shark.

They're jumping pretty high. But jumping it none the less. 

New Muppets

The Muppets was the first kids show for adults.

Well I think it was anyway.

And it seems the people behind the promo material for the new Muppets agree.

How else could you explain these cheeky adult oriented posters?

Ready to Rumble

Friend in Brisvegas sent me this campaign.

It's by Brisbane agency Rumble.

I love a nice bit of type so of course I'm a big fan of this campaign.

Haven't heard much about Rumble but the founders are ex-Clems so I imagine this isn't the only good work they've done or will do.

Clean thinking

Print ads for a stan remover.

Classic student folio / scam ad territory.

But I'm putting my prejudice aside for a moment because I really like this campaign.

It's from Bolivia but I have no idea who the agency is.

Sean Cummins phone...

Not content with building two successful Aussie agencies bearing his name, Sean Cummins is now strutting his stuff on the global stage.

I spent a couple of years working with him and despite what his detracters may say (generally anymously on social media) he's a razor sharp adman who really knows his stuff.

This week the industry site Digiday asked a handful of industry names to tell them about their mobile phone homescreen.

As you would expect they all had Apple phones. Except Sean.

When I worked with him he was the only person I knew with a Blackberry. Seems he's now switched to a Samsung.

He also uses a PC rather than a Mac.

Which reminds me of the old Hegarty saying about zigging when others are zagging.

Perhaps that the secret to his success?