It's ok to steal

Remember kids it doesn't matter where you take things from. It’s where you take them to.

Great book great price

If you love advertising you'll love this book.

If you don't love advertising you probably shouldn't be reading this blog.

Anyway this is a terrific book and it's now available as an e-book for a paltry £2.99.

Click here to go get yourself a copy. You can thank me later.  

Why didn't we?

An ad that starts off boring. Really boring. Then it gets all silly. But saying all that I have to say it hooked me in a way that only silly English ads can. Nice work by Lucky Generals. 

The genius of Droga

It's just been announced that David Droga will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award at The Clios this year.

I know he'll be proud. And so will his mum.

But I honestly believe every person working in Australian adland should be given a day off to celebrate.

What an achievement. 

Come fly me again

The 'hostess with the mostess' has always been central to airline advertising.

Singapore Airlines' 'Singapore Girl' being a much loved example in Australia.

Yesterday I came across these old ads for the now defunct National Airlines.

Charming ads from a bygone era. But can you imagine any airline running something like this today?

I certainly can't.

And yet airline ads are all about customer experience.

So maybe the time is right to reinvent this kind of approach for the 21st century.

A lot less innuendo. A lot more welcoming smile.

Oh and maybe a diverse range of people rather than oh so young women. Obviously.

Advice from Miles

Reebok nails it

Interesting spot for Reebok by Venables & Partners but if truth be told I find the whole nails gliding down the legs thing a little creepy. But hey I'm a bloke so what would I know! 

Obesity kills

Last year Cancer Research in the UK caused quite a stir when they launched a campaign connecting obesity to cancer.

'Fat shaming!' came the cry.

So this year they've been a little more subtle and a lot more clever by changing the message to obesity is second only to smoking as a cause of cancer.

As someone who's been working out and battling the bulge since forever this campaign really strikes a chord with me.

I'd imagine people in the UK will have a similar reaction.

Exclamation makes its mark

Spotted this album cover design in a magazine this morning.

Brought a smile to my face.

Every CD I worked for when I was young said to avoid using exclamation marks in copy.

Most of the time I agree with that wisdom. But not always.

Obviously legendary Blue Note Records designer Reid Miles couldn't care less as this cover design clearly shows. 

Packaging or Interface?

No idea what this is a pack of.

But what I do know is it looks like the packaging was designed by somebody who designs mobile screen interfaces.

Weird huh?

Find your flow

Every once in a while I come across an ad that leaves me wondering how on earth they dreamt it up. The new Puma spot Find Your Flow is a great example of this.

I honestly have no idea how someone could come up with an idea like this. Let alone get a client to buy it. Kudos to agency LAFOURMI.

Vuitton &

To celebrate 160 years of collaboration with artists and creatives fashion house Louis Vuitton has put on an exhibition in a tropical styled pop up.

Featured in the show are numerous vintage and archive pieces as well as some newly commissioned examples.

Seems a shame it's in Los Angeles of all places. So cross your fingers and it may come to your city.

You & me on Twitter

Social media is pretty much a catch all term.

For some people it's Facebook. For others Linkedin or maybe Snap and Instagram.

Twitter decided to capitalise on how they are nothing like those other platforms by making ads of tweets comparing Twitter to other platforms.

Probably an obvious thing to do. But damn charming none the less.

Here's a poster in the wild shared on Twitter. Very meta.

Top notch type

Had a terrific chat about type over coffee today with one of my old art directors.

I was telling him about a new logo I'd seen that used the font  ITC Avant Garde.

His eyes lit up as he told me some terrific stories about the font's creator Herb Lubalin.

It wasn't a name I was familiar with so of course I turned to Google when I got home.

Boy what an amazing typographer he was.

Well worth doing some digging of your own.

BrandDNA at SXSW in 2020

I learned a helluva lot from my (almost) five years as Creative Director of a tech company.

So I've decided to take my mistakes and successes and turn them into a talk which I have pitched to South By South West.

It's called My life as a round hole in a Square Peg business.

But to get to do my talk I need votes. And lots of them.

So if you have a moment please click here and vote for my talk.

If I get to SXSW I'll definitely owe you a beer. 

Tasty work from Vegemite

You can probably read this ad if you squint.

Just click the the pic to enlarge if you can't.

Now I love a good topical ad. Especially in the old school print media.

So kudos to Melbourne agency Thinkerbell for creating this cheeky two fingers to the Poms ad following the first Ashes test.

Plus a huge thumbs up for running it in the UK's Daily Mirror. 

What a view from VW

Sadly my blog formatting won't let me show you this ad at a bigger size. Sorry.

So you'll need to click the pic to read the copy.

Anyway...

I thought I was familiar with most of the great Volkswagen ads but this one seems to have passed me by.

It's from '65 I think. For the Kombi obviously.

What a brilliant visual idea. Lovely art direction to bring that idea to life.

The clincher though is the final line of copy. So click the pic and check it out. 

Guidelines for Guardian

I understand the importance of brand guidelines but I have to say I'm not a fan of them.

Actually it's not so much the guidelines I don't like. It's they way they are written and compiled.

They reat creative people like they are juniors.

Do this. Do that. Oh and do not do this.

To see it done with style, authority and beauty check out the new digital style guide for The Guardian.

So so good.

No need to fly

Simple idea. Beautifully executed. Digitally smart too. Deutsche Bahn and their agency Ogilvy used an algorithm to identify German locations on Getty Images that had a general resemblance to iconic international landmarks.

Introducing the NHS

The British National Health Service or NHS as it's better known was introduced a couple of years after the end of WWII.

This is the cover sheet from the document introducing it to the people of the UK.

Reading it I was struck by the tone-of-voice.

Simple. Straightforward. Friendly.

And absolutely no sign of jargon.

Can you imagine what it would be like if it was written today?

I'm shuddering just thinking about it.

CLICK PIC for a better look.

Copy @ Cannes

Curious Combinations