Milton Glaser loves NYC

Gorgeous little film about the man behind the much loved I ♥ NY campaign. Well worth five minutes while you have a coffee.

Ikea gets cute

I'm surprised so few brands took the opportunity to riff off the hype around the recent royal wedding.

I mean everyone loves a good topical ad. Don't they?

Can't blame the marketers for this as it's generally creatives with an eye for an opportunity (and award) who do this sort of stuff.

Guess they were all too busy filling in overdue timesheets!

History will be made

An incredible 227,000m of thread was used to create this wonderful promo for the BBC's coverage of the upcoming World Cup.

Visually stunning and produced by the BBC in-house team. Oh and nice cameo by Liverpool legend in the making Mo Sallah.

Oh Dear....

I can understand people wanting to make vegetables sexy.

But associating broccoli with the male appendage is not the way to go about it.

Or maybe it is. And I'm just grumpy old man who's out of touch with the kids.

Nah...It's rubbish. Lazy. Dumb. Rubbish.

Timeless classics

Obviously the photo is a little faded but how beautiful are these old British posters?

It's easy to say they don't make 'em like this anymore but they really don't.

Gorgeous illustrations. Simple headlines. 100% charm. 

Made in the USA

Here in Australia the best known example of a brand featuring staff is Bunnings.

Terrible ads. Real people.

In America things are a little better.

This ad is one of many by staff from Johnsonville in conjunction with their agency Droga5.

Pretty sweet don't you think?

Lifecycle of a concept

A rather excellent chart courtesy of my very wise friend Dr Draper.

Now I hate to be a nit picker but...

I suspect the bottom axis of the graph may not be linear because as you reach the 'running it by' phase time seems to either slow down or speed up.

Still a great chart though!

Famous Fingers

Cute Idea

Doesn't add up

Folio in disguise

Hot on the heels of the Fearless Girl stunt to get your folio seen comes this charming idea from young Danish creative team René Schultz and Casper Christensen.

After doing a bit of digging on the boys I found out their Lurzers folio idea is from a couple of years ago. Still a great idea though! 

Classic Dave Trott

Classic Dave Trott ad from the golden age of his much loved agency GGT.

Beautifully typeset. Beautifully written.

But what's more interesting is that this ad could've been written for the social media age.

Guess some things never change.

Spot the mistakes

It's not often you get a world first in a TV spot, but this new ad from my old agency Cummins&Partners most definitely does.

You just need to watch the ad very carefully to spot it. And I do mean carefully.

Described as a world first eye test in an ad there are 15 mistakes to be seen during its 30sec run time.

And if you spot them all it could win you $1,000.

I'm confused

I've lost count of how many times I've said that anyone can be a copywriter because everyone has a keyboard.

And this simple message from Woolworths is proof of this.

Does it mean that single-use plastic bags will be free from 20th June?

Or does it mean that Woolworths supermarkets will no longer be providing single-use plastic bags from 20th June?

Of course I know the answer. But will a busy shopper with a trolley full of goods?

Fearless girl copywriter

Love love love this!

Aspiring young female copywriter Jade Delaney has dressed up as McCann's award winning Fearless Girl and stationed herself out front of the Bristol office of McCann in the hope of getting a foot in the door.

And she did.

A month's placement on work experience. Well done Jade.

Start with Pinterest

I find Pinterest fascinating and annoying. Probably in equal measure.

As a pop culture buff I got on board (pardon the pun) early and assembled an enormous collection of pics that essentially define me as a person.

But then Pinterest went 'n went all advertising and marketing. It lost focus and meaning for me.

Yet people still use it. And love it. But I'm not one of them anymore. 

Just keep doing it

Did a copywriter write this?

Or did a team coach scream it at their players?

Either way it is motivation at its best.

Which is what the Nike brand is all about. 

Not so Original

New spot for Adidas Original by Johannes Leonardo is hyper kinetic, colourful and fun. But compared to Nike LNDR it just feels a bit try hard. Time for Adidas to start reading up on Challenger methodology me thinks. 

Too much monkey business

I worked with a tone-of-voice specialist last year to fine tune and nail a brand tone-of-voice.

It was definitely time well spent.

Not just for the outcome. But for the things I learnt along the way.

Yesterday someone sent me a link to the tone-of-voice guide for a digital bank from the UK with the rather odd name of Monzo.

A piece on passive writing really resonated with me.

Why?

Because it suggested adding 'By Monkeys' at the end of a statement to see whether or not it was too passive.

You can see the results in the above pic.

In the gutter

When I began my career I had a hand drawn folio full of print ads.

First ad I ever had approved and made was a print ad.

My first Cannes finalist was a print ad too.

So as you can imagine I have a soft spot for print even though I hardly ever do a print ad these days.

One of the first things they taught you as a young creative back in the day was to always think about 'the gutter' when laying out a magazine ad.

Looks like the art director at Empire mag didn't get the benefit of this sort of teaching.

Or perhaps his mind actually is in the gutter!?

Awkward moments

I really like the new campaign out of the UK for Maltesers. Love the casting. Love the simplicity. Love the inclusivity. I also love that there are several more spots on YouTube. Be great to see something like this created in Australia. 

What Trott said...

Gladwell on Ideas

He's a smart fella is Malcolm Gladwell. So grab a coffee and put aside 15 or so mins to get some great insights into how he has ideas.