What are words worth?

An iPhone App for obsessives

Best job but not best ad

The Queensland Tourism Best job in the world campaign is one of the most talked about ideas of the last year.

It was created by Cummins in Brisbane.

Recently it was announced that the account had been put out for pitch and that Cummins had not retained the business.

The winners of the pitch created this ad - Make of it what you will.

iPod Macro

One of the problems with the iPod is that no sooner have you bought the latest model and it goes and gets superceded by an even better one.

No such problem for designer Paul Smith who was given this one off iPod Macro for his birthday by Apple's head of design Jonathan Ive.

Lucky bugger!

Brad dines out

I don't know how much Brad Pitt got paid for this ad for Japanese telco Softbank but I really don't think he was worth the money. Do you?

Video game classics

Back in May I posted about a Flickr set of classic album covers re-imagined as Pelican books.

Now designer Olly Moss has createn a similar set of old school book covers for popular video games.

Click here to see a few more.

Twitter spam?

Spam is starting to become a real problem on Twitter.

So many brands have jumped onboard and set up automated replies to tweets that contain references to the brand.

I find this highly annoying. I suspect I'm not alone in this.

Today's piece of Twitter spam is particularly weird.

I posted that I was culling a few live tracks by the Rolling Stones from my iTunes.

Moments later I had a reply from someone purporting to be a Stones fan.

Like most people sucked in by spam I clicked on a link.

My clever Macbook told me it wasn't such a good idea to have clicked on the link.

As you can see from the pic above I wasn't the only person to get this piece of spam.

Which as I said before is becoming a real problem. But what can we do about it?

And more importantly what are Twitter doing about it?

It's over already

It's Tuesday. The Ashes was supposed to finish yesterday.

They actually finished on Sunday. A day early.

So why oh why are Foxtel still running ads telling me I can catch The Ashes?

Wakey wakey Mr Foxtel Media Buyer.

That hurts

No idea who did this but I tip my hat to them. Bastards!

Click the pic for a better look.

Creativity can solve anything

I wrote about the film Art & Copy a few weeks ago.

Sadly I missed at the Melbourne Film Festival. Grrr!

Now I've seen the poster I'm even more desperate to see it.

It's an absolute cracker - don't you think?

Check out the trailer here.

Fresh thinking from Japan

Now this is a clever idea. Food packaging labels that change colour as the expiry date approaches.

Once the product has passed its 'use by' the label becomes unreadable.

They were developed by Tokyo design group To-Genkyo.

I imagine this idea could be put to other time sensitive uses too.

For instance the price of a special offer could become unreadable by the time the offer expires.

Customers seeing the changing colour of a label may also be tempted to purchase quicker as the label gives a purchase a sense of urgency.

Be interesting to see if this form of labelling is taken up outside of Japan. Only time will tell I guess.

2% polar bear tears

I wrote about the bottled water lies campaign last month.

For those who don't remember I found some of their stuff more than a bit over the top.

This ad however is just lovely.

Made me smile, think and feel a little sad all at the same time.

Jordan lights up Gatorade

Absolutely love this idea for Gatorade's limited edition Michael Jordan bottle.

Yet you hardly get to see how clever this idea is as the key visual lasts for only a matter of seconds.

I'd imagine there's a 90 sec version of this ad for cinema purposes. If not this is a waste of a great idea.

Some things never change

Two American things that I used to love when I was a kid were Bazooka Joe bubblegum and Sea Monkey ads.

Can't remember the last time I saw either of them to be honest.

Until today that is when I stumbled on these new ads for Sea Monkeys.

Only $8.99 - they've definitely gone up in price since I was a boy.

Somehow I don't imagine they're any better value though!

Come join us

Hugh Macleod is well known in social media circles.

His book Ignore Everybody is a must read for anyone who works as a creative.

He is I feel a kindred spirit. But don't take my word for it - read this and you too will want to lay claim to being a crazy deranged fool:

"A CrazyDerangedFool [CDF for short] is, like me, somebody who has the temerity to aspire to work in a way that produces both joy, meaning and contribution for both them and others, while also paying the bills. It's about creativity, it's about finding meaning, but it's also about living in the real world."

Wisdom of Rory

Seen one car seen 'em all

Very cute little ad by leo Burnett in Budapest.

But...

Is it just me or does it look a hell of a lot like a Volkswagen ad?

Random idea of the week

This has to be one of the most random iPhone apps I've seen.

It's for Bell - a European meat & smallgoods company.

It lets you BBQ a Bratwurst in real time.

Why?

Who knows! Sure looks like fun though.

Best bit is that if you blow into the iPhone mic it makes the embers glow.

Like I said it's totally random. But fun none the less.

Anyone seen Johnnie?

I'd heard good things about the six minute video doing the rounds for Johnnie Walker whiskey.

It features, or so I've heard, a wonderful storytelling performance from Scottish actor Robert Carlyle.

Sadly when I went looking for the video all I could find was a blank screen where the video used to be.

For some unexplainable reason the agency behind it was not keen for it to be shared.

Weird. Very weird indeed.

Anyone have any idea why BBH would do such a thing?

Anything but soft

August 14th is the 33rd birthday of maverick record label Stiff Records.

As I kid I collected pretty much everything Stiff produced. Not just music but their ads and slogans too.

Thinking about it now as a guy sliding into middle age I can't help but noticing how much of an influence Stiff and there modus operandi has had on my career.

Just take a look at these great Stiff slogans and marvel at how good many of them still are after all these years.


But wait...there's more!

Love those racey shapes

I can't ever see myself buying this product. And on a personal level I have real issues with the Bonds brand. But so what! This is a damn cute little ad.

Junior Presentation

These are the visuals that accompanied my talk at Junior last night. Obviously not quite the same without my dulcet tones and yarn spinning but still a pretty good read I think.

We'll be back ... Eventually

I gave a talk last night to a bunch of young creative hopefuls at Junior.

The preso was very well received so I thought I'd share it with you via Slideshare.

Except Slideshare was down for maintenance.

No problem with that.

But I do have a problem with one of the worst down for maintenance messages I've ever seen.

Back after some time!!!

Honestly is that the best they could do?

Rocks in the head

I haven't written about urban spam for a while.

I won't be writing much about it today either because this 'idea' speaks for itself.

Honestly. Who approves this kinda stuff?

Sat Nav Soccer

Luckily for Liverpool Fernando Torres operates much faster than his GPS system can. Great ad though!

Playboy or Mad man?

I suspect that in the era of on demand online porn that the days of Playboy may be numbered.

But back in the day it it ruled supreme as a men's magazine.

Obviously the opportunity for them to do a brand collaboration with MadMen was one not to be missed.

And I think they've done a damn good job.,

Click here to go check it out.

And if anyone asks, just tell 'em you're only reading the articles.

Who loves Honda love?

This Honda Love idea on Facebook looks really interesting.

It was developed by an agency called RPA in California.

Click the pic to get a better look.

I'd really like to know more about it. So if you know anything please leave a comment.

Forty years ago

In the year that man first walked on the moon the internet as we know wasn't even so much as a dream. Or was it?

Visual mixology

Brian Eno has been playing with the idea of generative music for many years.

This is a wonderful example of it using YouTube videos.

It was created by Darren Solomon.

Click here to give it a try. You will not be disappointed.

What are you up to?

When my wife and I had our first child our parents used to tell us that children liked routines.

As this great blog that Kangus introduced me to shows, creative people seem to thrive on routine too.

On the shoulders of giants

Last night the AWARD Hall of Fame lived up to its name when it inducted this collection of silver haired superstars.

Forget your David Drogas. These are the guys responsible for the ads that made most of us want to get into the ad biz in the first place.

All told 11 people entered the Hall of Fame last night. They were Jack Vaughan, Lionel Hunt, John Bevins, David Denneen, Bob Isherwood, Allan Johnston, Ron Mather, Alan Morris, Kim Thorp, Gordon Trembath and Neil French.

For those of you too young to get just how great these guys are I recommend you click here and read about their exploits courtesy of Campaign Brief.

Dog of an idea

Call me a cynic if you will - but dog laxatives!?

Surely the ultimate scam ad product.

This ad is one of three that have been popping up on advertising websites.

Hmm!?

Why is it that ads with the scent of scam about them always seem to come in a set of three?

Could it be that a campaign entry at an award show requires a minimum of three ads.

I think it might...

More newspaper news

Ah the irony of it all.

Yesterdays papers

I've just learnt that The Observer, one of Britain's most respected Sunday newspapers, is facing possible closure.

We all know that newspapers are under a lot of pressure these days, but the closure of The Observer?

Wow!

That is serious.

Especially when you consider it is part of the Guardian Media Group.

I thought the Guardian papers had a good future, given they were one of the first papers to fully embrace the opportunities of the online world.

Anyway The Observer is apparently suffering from ever dwindling circulation.

So what will happen if it closes?

Will the Guardian go from 6 days a week to 7?

Surely not, given The Observer is pretty much a default Sunday Guardian anyway.

Despite it's lower circulation surely The Observer still has advertising revenue?

So if it closes what happens to that ad revenue?

This is one story I'll be watching very closely. As will I'm sure Rupert Murdoch and other big media operators.

Feeling tired?

I suspect old Anton Checkov may not have been the cheeriest of chaps.

Around the Blogosphere

This month's issue of Marketing magazine is out now. As usual there's plenty to read including my regular column - Around the Blogosphere.

I've just posted my latest column online. It looks at the idea of brand relationships and whether or not each and every brand is actually capable of having one.

Whether you agree or disagree, if you have something to contribute to my thoughts feel free to leave a comment.

Wisdom of age

Thanx to Lady C for the wisdom.