Agitation alert

Think I need to get me a jar of Thorazine and keep it in my drawer at work. For emergency use only. Obviously!

Scent of perfection

I stumbled on a great collection of vintage perfume ads today.

Although if truth be told most of them were far from great.

Which is quite surprising considering the fashion/design connections with fragrances.

One ad really caught my eye. The one above for Mitsouko.

It's quite striking don't you think.

Apparently it dates from the 1960's. Although judging by the model's eye make-up I suspect it may come from the early 70's.

The only othe perfume ad I know that comes close to it is this Chanel poster by Andy Warhol.


This ad dates from 1997 and the original poster can often be found at vintage poster outlets.

Warhol actually created this design in the 1980's but because of his death the images were not used until much later.

That's two utterly iconic fragrance ads. What a pity I couldn't recall any others. Can you?

Mags are important

Print is a medium under threat.

The introduction of the likes of the iPad may help reinvent and rejuvenate magazines but not the actual medium of print.

Yet many of those predicting the death of print perhaps underestimate its power.

Stand in a supermarket queue and see how magazine covers draw people to pick them up and flick through them.

Nowhere is the power of the printed magazine better demonstrated than in this collection of covers looking at the Iraq war.

Sheer apparel

I written before about American Apparel. So I'll spare you my thoughts on whether or not their advertising is exploititive or pseudo soft porn.

Suffice to say the one word headline on this ad says it all - Sheer.

Click pic for a better look.

Drop or plummet?

Source

Would you like fries with that?

Another lovely concept for my Xmas ad series. No idea who was behind this one. If you know, be sure to let me know.

Can't beat it

Beautifully simple idea for MTV by BBDO Dusseldorf.
Love it!

Breaking news or broken?

Once upon a time, in an Aussie adland far far away, the only way to get industry news was in trade magazines.

These were B&T which came out every Friday. AdNews which came out fortnightly and the creative’s favourite Campaign Brief which arrived by mail on a monthly basis.

All of these mags are still going, however they seem less and less relevant with each passing week.

Why?

Not because they’re printed. But because they have regular e-newsletters. So by the time the print edition arrives the stories are old and most of us have already read them.

Which makes me wonder how much longer before one of either B&T or AdNews stops printing and becomes an online magazine.

Much like new kid on the block – Mumbrella.

What bugs me most about our trade publications though is their reliance on press releases as content.

This probably didn’t matter back in the old days. But when I see the same “story” in all of the trade e-newsletters it really pisses me off.

Surely these guys have writers on staff to tweak the PR material they are supplied into something resembling a story?

If they don’t I recommend they get some. And fast. Because if the content is essentially the same on all of them then one of them surely has to go.

Did Don Draper write this?

One of the interesting developments in the 3rd season of MadMen was the storyline involving Conrad Hilton.

Such a fascinating character I thought. In fact I often found myself wondering how true to life he actually was.

Very different to Paris Hilton that's for sure.

Of course back then international travel was generally something reserved for those with money.

Which is why travel advertising from that era is so interesting. This Hilton Hotels ad is a particularly good example.

It still exudes class and style even though it's close to 50 years old.

That ad is the antithesis of the sort of advertising done by the likes of Club Med or Contiki.

And it's a world away from the legendary Hans Brinker Hotel in Amsterdam.

But if I had to choose my next holiday based on a print ad I think I'd definitely plump for the oh so classy Don Draper style Nile Hilton.

Click the pic for a much better look.

Copy lives outdoors

Love a good long copy print ad.

This is not one though.

A print ad that is.

It's one of a series of posters that run in the London Underground.

Click pic to read.

Great stuff from M&C Saatchi.

Headline of the week

Obviously this ad predates the war on terror. Then again maybe the client just had a warped sense of humour. Who knows!

Did God approve this?

Stumbled across this less than classic ad today. Proof that even Apple was daggy when they were young.

Happy Halloween #2

Hot on the heels of yesterday's Guinness Halloween ad comes this one for Miller Lite.

It's by Arc Worldwide in Chicago.

Unlike the Guiness ad it's anything but subtle.

And what kind of Creative Director lets a headline like that leave the agency?

Click pic for a better look.

Happy Halloween

Sometimes an ad can be too clever for its own good.

I suspect this one by an agency called Tempo is one of those ads.

Then again maybe I'm wrong. Because once it clicked it did make me smile.

Drink any more than two pints of Guinness however and I'm pretty sure this ad would leave you completely mystified.

It does make a change from bloody pumpkins though!

Click pic for a better look.

Nobel Prize for denim?

Far be it from me to question the work of the mighty Wieden & Kennedy but WTF!?

What on earth has Levis got to do with gender equality or the Nobel Prize?

Bugger all if you ask me.

Back in the 60's and 70's Levis was definitely a part of the counter culture. Hell it was practically a uniform for longhairs and bra-burners everywhere.

But where is Levis in 2009?

Of course I could be completely wrong. And research labs across the world may well be populated by women wearing Levis.

But somehow I doubt it.

Click on pic to enlarge.

Real life adventure

I was playing with an idea like this for the Ford Falcon Ute last year.

Sadly it never got past concept stage.

So as you can imagine I felt a serious twinge of jealousy when I saw this campaign for Ford of Europe by Ogilvy London.

Sex sells but what about slutty?

A few months back I wrote about an article I'd seen in The Age newspaper about the use of sex in the advertising of American Apparel.

Quotes from the article included "soft-porn imagery" "semi-naked female models" and "blatant use of sex".

Now fashion blog Stylecrave has put together a list of the 50 sluttiest American Apparel ads of all time.

Slutty they may well be but they're definitely well photographed.

Click here to go take a look.

Everyone's an expert

I think it was Kate who pointed out that most of the top marketing blogs were written by people in who don't work in marketing.

Similarly all the people saying print is dead have probably never been involved in the print medium.

And all those experts that proclaim no-one watches TV anymore seem to be the exact same people who spent a large part of last night tweeting about the return of HeyHey on Channel Nine.

As for social media - well you're damned if you do and you're damned if you don't.

People who are active online are way too quick to put down any tentative attempt at a social media campaign.

Which makes it harder and harder to get clients to dip a toe in the water.

So maybe it's time all those self proclaimed experts took some time out from being negative and instead started focussing on something positive for a change.

Outstanding coverage

The Magazine Publishers of America have chosen the finalists for their 2009 Cover of The Year.

This Tina Fey Vanity Fair cover is one of my faves.

Click here to go take a look at the finalists.

The house of fun

I'm not big on Microsoft but I love this ad. Really sweet idea.
Thanx to Len for his tweet.