Two screens - One cat

Yet another ad with a cat. And yet another blog post about an ad with a cat.

Borrowed interest? Perhaps. But still fun.

But I have to say I can't understand why anyone would need a mobile phone with two screens. 

Copy gets Glossier

Three statements of two words.

So simple. So strong. And I like to hope so effective.

Great tone-of-voice for beauty brand Glossier.

Evolution of the 911

Personally I think the 911 peaked in 1972. But this is still a great example of how brands (or should I say icons) evolve. 

TopShop gets stranger

This is my final Stranger Things post for 2017. Promise!

To launch season two in the UK Netflix collaborated with TopShop on a storewide installation at their flagship Oxford St store.

The fictional town of Hawkins was brought vividly to life across no less than five floors with heaps of 80s goodies including Pacman arcade games..

Creepy Scottish Widows

I'm not overly familiar with Scottish Widows but from what I understand it's a pension and insurance company.

Truth be told it's not exactly the most reassuring of brand names.

Their advertising is though.

At least it was until the cheeky folks at We Fix Your Adverts got a hold of it.

Scared straight

As Alison from HR would say, "If you have any questions, comments or concerns, suck it the fuck up."

Nice and simple

Australia said Yes!

Last Wednesday a seemingly endless wait came to an end and the results of the Australian same sex marriage survey were announced.

The result (as expected) was a resounding YES.

The original of this gorgeous spot ran during the voting period. It was a love job (literally) from Leo Burnett and Airbag with media donated by Wrigley.

To celebrate the Yes result the film has been extended. And it's now even lovelier. Enjoy!

NYC meets Tokyo

How beautiful are these magazine covers?

Except they're not real covers.

They're homages to The New Yorker by Japanese illustrators.

Hence the name - The Tokyoiter.

Click here to see for a whole lot more.

Think Small - Shop Local

Pure Imagination Project

I've seen the effects of Alzheimers first hand and it sure ain't pretty. Kudos to the team at MullenLowe in the US who've taken the late Gene Wilder and cleverly brought some of the issues of this dreadful disease to life. 

It's your choice

Creativity is often defined as seeing a connection between two unrelated things.

So kudos to the owner of the corner shop who spotted the connection above and turned it into a sales opportunity.

As I've often argued sometimes you don't need a copywriter to write good copy. 

Give a little bit

Classic 70s tune from Supertramp, plus a bit of an homage to Toy Story 2, and you have yourself a very cute little Xmas spot for Amazon from London agency Lucky Generals. 

Stranger Things on VHS

I tweeted the other day that the attention to detail of Strangers Things was so good that rather than a show set in the *)s it looked like a pristine VHS of a lost show from the 80s.

Seems I'm not the only person thinking like this.

Stranger Things is now available at Target in the USA on VHS.

Well kinda

It's actually on DVD or BlueRay but comes packaged is a well worn VHS case.

Brilliant bit of packaging and marketing.

A letter from Ogilvy

April 19, 1955 

Dear Mr. Calt: 

On March 22nd you wrote to me asking for some notes on my work habits as a copywriter. They are appalling, as you are about to see: 

1. I have never written an advertisement in the office. Too many interruptions. I do all my writing at home. 

2. I spend a long time studying the precedents. I look at every advertisement which has appeared for competing products during the past 20 years. 

3. I am helpless without research material—and the more "motivational" the better. 

4. I write out a definition of the problem and a statement of the purpose which I wish the campaign to achieve. Then I go no further until the statement and its principles have been accepted by the client.

5. Before actually writing the copy, I write down every concievable fact and selling idea. Then I get them organized and relate them to research and the copy platform. 

6. Then I write the headline. As a matter of fact I try to write 20 alternative headlines for every advertisement. And I never select the final headline without asking the opinion of other people in the agency. In some cases I seek the help of the research department and get them to do a split-run on a battery of headlines. 

7. At this point I can no longer postpone the actual copy. So I go home and sit down at my desk. I find myself entirely without ideas. I get bad-tempered. If my wife comes into the room I growl at her. (This has gotten worse since I gave up smoking.) 

8. I am terrified of producing a lousy advertisement. This causes me to throw away the first 20 attempts. 

9. If all else fails, I drink half a bottle of rum and play a Handel oratorio on the gramophone. This generally produces an uncontrollable gush of copy. 

10. The next morning I get up early and edit the gush. 

11. Then I take the train to New York and my secretary types a draft. (I cannot type, which is very inconvenient.) 

12. I am a lousy copywriter, but I am a good editor. So I go to work editing my own draft. After four or five editings, it looks good enough to show to the client. If the client changes the copy, I get angry—because I took a lot of trouble writing it, and what I wrote I wrote on purpose. 

Altogether it is a slow and laborious business. I understand that some copywriters have much greater facility. 

 Yours sincerely, D.O.

Pink Kittens

Yet another cat video! I won't say anything about this one for fear of ruining the surprise. 

What I will tell you is it's from AMV BBDO London. It was directed by the people behind the Pharrell Williams video Happy. And the music is by Aphex twin.

That's some damn good credentials if you ask me.

Missing hyphen...

Kat Institute of Technology

Cats. Like 'em or loathe 'em you have to admit they always make for fun viewing on the internet.

So you can't blame blame the creates at AMV BBDO for dreaming up the obvious but fun Kat Institue Of Technology for Whiskas.

There are heaps of videos too. You can find them on YouTube. Or should that be CatTube?

Cute 'n Quirky

Who would've thought my fave campaign of the week would feature animated GIFs of an Instagram influencer?

Certainly not me.

But this campaign doing the rounds for Brookes Brothers is utterly charming.

The influencer in question is Mike Mellia. Check him out on Insta here.

Banana for one?

You don't always need to be a copywriter to write a really clever headline. Am I right? 

A twist at every turn?

This new tourism spot landed in my inbox late last week. I was keen to check it out as Melbourne (and the state of Victoria) has done some terrific advertising over the years.

This spot left me totally befuddled. So the next morning I shared it with the young creatives in my team. They loved it. And I do mean loved it.

Am I getting old?

Am I out of touch?

Who knows. But what I do know is this spot makes me wanna move to Sydney. And that's something I'd never do!

Hope says Yes

Great to see Nike getting involved in the Australian YES vote for marriage equality. And for my foreign readers that's female AFL star Moana Hope in case you don't recognise her. A great role model for young girls everywhere.