These ads to promote video calling through google's Duo service make me wish I'd thought of them. They are very funny and cute. I especially like the lost sock talking to his partner.
Friday 16 September 2016
Thursday 1 September 2016
Spike Jonze for Kenzo
The world is going crazy for this Spike Jonze directed perfume ad. And why not? It's beautiful, irreverent, weird and good fun. Perfume ads can be the most pretentious type of advertising. So t's really great to see someone making something that people actually want to watch instead.
This one reminds me of the Prada Candy adverts, directed by Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola. Here's my link to those ads: Adverts like Soap Operas
If you haven't already seen Spike's masterpiece here it is:
..
This one reminds me of the Prada Candy adverts, directed by Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola. Here's my link to those ads: Adverts like Soap Operas
If you haven't already seen Spike's masterpiece here it is:
..
Dogs in togs
Photographer Tammy Swarek came up with a novel way of drawing people's attention to dogs in need of adoption from her local shelter, UCAPS. Photograph them in formal looking portraits wearing clothes.
I imagine this campaign must have seen adoptions rise highly with the project reported in newspapers across the world.
Here are some of the portraits and the stories of the dogs in them.
I imagine this campaign must have seen adoptions rise highly with the project reported in newspapers across the world.
Here are some of the portraits and the stories of the dogs in them.
Midnight has been at the animal shelter for five years. After five years of being overlooked Tammy says it was extremely moving to see her proudly wearing such a fabulous design. The headpiece was designed by Marentis Kelly.
Sammy Jammer is 5 months old and was abandoned in a lumber yard by his feral mother. His eyes were infected and he was lying on the ground when spotted by some workers. One, named Sammy, took pity on him and contacted UCAPS. He was dehydrated and malnourished and with the infection they didn't hold out much hope of his survival. But survive he did! How adorable is that face?
Peggy Sue's adoption is pending but Tammy couldn't resist photographing her in this regal way. She reminds me of Elizabeth I.
Cricket's owner had to go into a retirement home. Sad for both of them I imagine.
McKenzie and her sister Radar were abandoned and taken in by UCAPS. They spotted how clever they were and put them into their Paws in Prison program. McKenzie however looked too pit-bill and tested positive for heart worm. Her sweet personality has earned her many pats on the head but never a new home. She has been at the shelter three years now.
If you'd like to see more of Tammy's work, and read about more of the dogs visit her website tammyswarek.com
Tuesday 23 August 2016
Photography trickery by Stephen McMennamy
Everyone loves a bit of photographic trickery. Art Director Stephen McMennamy's combo photos combine two very different images to seamlessly blend them into surreal scenes where paintbrushes turn into noodles and headphones are seemingly made out of donuts. Check out some of his great images here and on his website and Instagram account.
They already make me think of ideas for adverts...
They already make me think of ideas for adverts...
Advert for airline or holiday company perhaps?
Could be used to promote healthy eating?
Ad about how good listening to music on a particular radio station is? Or particular pair of headphones perhaps?
Perhaps ad about energy drinks making things that seem hard easy? Or one for how much meat is in a frozen food range?
Ad for how good eggs are for your brain? I'm making this shit up.
Ad for a summertime product? Maybe a clothes brand?
Monday 15 August 2016
Olympic Advertising Gold
Great Britain are in second place on the Olympic leaderboard at this moment. Can we just stop for a second and think about that? We are ahead of CHINA and only the USA stands ahead of us. We are in Silver medal position and compared to the size of these other top of the leaderboard countries we are a teeny tiny island.
Craziness.
Anyway to celebrate I thought I'd pull together a medal leaderboard for some of the Olympics advertising I've seen. So, on the podium we have....
Gold in the sport of "Hero" portrait goes to this Michael Phelps spot by Droga 5. This spot was is one of the most shared spots on social media ever so it wins a Silver there.
And here's the social media Gold winner, very well deserved - Channel 4 for the Paralympics. This has to be the biggest celebration of human ability in an ad ever. I love it. Gold for being generally uplifting then.
Gold for riffing off of the Brazil theme and Gold for CGI goes to the BBC for their Rio trailer.
Gold for biggest tear jerker (can't see my keyboard right now) goes to P&G - with the message Thank you Mum - It takes someone strong to make someone strong. How true is that and what a lovely sentiment, can't see my keyboard again through the tears.
This Samsung spot deserves a medal for most interesting angle - picking to tell the story of an athlete from South Sudan who are entering the Games for the first time ever.
This Nike ad wins a Gold for most annoying Voice Over. But I like the premise so let's give it an honourable mention for that ey?
And this spot for Gillette wins the Gold for most tenuous connection to their product. Congrats Gillette.
So there we go. My leaderboard. Enjoy the Olympics everyone :)
Craziness.
Anyway to celebrate I thought I'd pull together a medal leaderboard for some of the Olympics advertising I've seen. So, on the podium we have....
Gold in the sport of "Hero" portrait goes to this Michael Phelps spot by Droga 5. This spot was is one of the most shared spots on social media ever so it wins a Silver there.
And here's the social media Gold winner, very well deserved - Channel 4 for the Paralympics. This has to be the biggest celebration of human ability in an ad ever. I love it. Gold for being generally uplifting then.
Gold for riffing off of the Brazil theme and Gold for CGI goes to the BBC for their Rio trailer.
Gold for biggest tear jerker (can't see my keyboard right now) goes to P&G - with the message Thank you Mum - It takes someone strong to make someone strong. How true is that and what a lovely sentiment, can't see my keyboard again through the tears.
This Samsung spot deserves a medal for most interesting angle - picking to tell the story of an athlete from South Sudan who are entering the Games for the first time ever.
This Nike ad wins a Gold for most annoying Voice Over. But I like the premise so let's give it an honourable mention for that ey?
And this spot for Gillette wins the Gold for most tenuous connection to their product. Congrats Gillette.
So there we go. My leaderboard. Enjoy the Olympics everyone :)
Friday 29 April 2016
The Queen is starring in an advert! The REAL Queen. I can't believe my eyes.
Prince Harry wants to promote the Invictus Games. So he calls on his mates to appear in an advert with him....look who he got - only the flippin' QUEEN! Oh and Obama and Michelle, but let me say this again, THE QUEEN is in it!
BOOM!
BOOM!
Car advertising meets the movies
When I was younger I always used to watch car commercials and wonder why they were so boring. You'd always get a car looking beautiful driving down a long winding mountain road. Sometimes, just to mix things up a little, you'd get it driving through the desert.
Of course then Honda came along and showed us that car advertising could be so much more. It could be engines flying around animated worlds with catchy songs, or ingenious domino type set ups. Mini has had some good ones too - I really liked their game of hide and seek.
But how come Hollywood's most beloved car scene never featured: the car chase? Cars in movies are always featured in tense and dramatic scenes where the good guy is chasing the bad guy. It's about time that car manufacturers picked up on this cliched scenes and used it in their advertising. After all, who doesn't want to feel that their car (and their amazing driving skills) could save them if a Bond villain were after them?
Hello Audi. Their latest ad uses the car chase cliche and undercuts its drama with a normal family in an Audi complaining that our villain hasn't used his indicator. The ad features a chase and punch up with Captain America and Black Panther. I don't care about the film much but the partnership works very well in this ad. Nice one Audi.
Friday 8 January 2016
Happy 2016. Christmas is over so what now?
Christmas was a blast but it's over now.
Soz.
But all is not lost! January can be a great month.
Here's what everyone seems to be picking themselves back up to do, think and talk about.
1) DRY JANUARY
Look I don't know why this seems like a fun thing to do because it's actually the opposite of fun. But I like to think of dry January a bit like a tricky computer game. You have to navigate the social calendar, avoiding the alcoholic beverages and find new tactics to be sociable without being forced to down a beer. See? Fun.
EVERYONE is doing dry January this year. My deskman Ludo reasons that it's because every year we are consuming more and more alcohol and we're scaring ourselves. Good theory. Mine is that the adverts for Cancer research in December have struck a real chord with people. See below.
Whether people would say this ad was the reason they were giving up alcohol or not I think that this ad planted the seeds of the thought in a lot of people's minds this Christmas and of course then there is a snowball effect. I said I was thinking of doing dry Jan after seeing this ad then my sister agreed and so did her bf Tim and my dad and then my friend Lisa. See what I mean?
2) MAKING A MURDERER
Who isn't watching this yet? You? Well mark my words, if you have Netflix then you may as well start this weekend because you'll watch it eventually. People are getting hooked by this real life story just as they did by Serial and the "is Adnan guilty" question. Don't be behind the curve peeps.
3) GYM WARS
Discontent with just giving up alcohol, many of my friends are embarking on punishing fitness routines. The problem is that the weather is not playing ball. Rain is not conducive to running and outdoor yoga sessions and so that's why gyms in January become unbearably packed places. Yes January is the season of gym wars when everyone moans about the fact that they couldn't even get on a running machine because they were all taken by tubby new gym members. The weights machines are all taken by people sitting the wrong way around and attempting to lift weights that are far too heavy. This is the season where regular gym members need to resort to stealth tactics like lunchtime sessions or attempting to cause a large proportion of other gym users get food poisoning by leaving contaminated protein balls at the front desk. No I haven't actually done that yet but it's an idea?
Also can I just say I got some boxing gloves for Christmas so you might want make way yeh?
4) YEAR AHEAD PREDICTIONS
Yes January is the month when everyone is making Mystic Meg year ahead predictions.
I've been doing a lot of reading recently about the power of the mind to shape reality. According to the law of attraction you can make whatever you choose to be a reality happen. So I've been telling everyone they're going to have an amazing year. I will be having an amazing one - I've decided.
Of course the interesting predictions for us Ad peeps are trend forecasts. Here are some of the forecasts I've read about so far for 2016, plus a few of my own predictions:
a) Brands asking consumers to prove their worth. A bit like clubs looking at how pretty you are and deciding whether to let you in. If it's exclusive the worth goes up.
b) Micro-moments - super targeted contextual ads will be big - meaning less spamming and more adverts that people actually want to see...in theory.
c) Virtual reality – Last year I was absolutely blown away by experiencing the Oculus Rift. This year brands will get in on the act, offering virtual reality experiences for their consumers.
d) The Internet of Things will continue to get bigger. On the Apprentice this year the winner was a guy who wanted to get into renewable energy. Instead energy firms said that he should be thinking about smart technology. Apps that can turn on your heating for example. If even Alan Sugar's getting his fingers in this pie then it's gotta be big news.
e) Ethical companies - Last year one of the nicest news stories was a boss who had taken a huge pay cut to ensure that his staff were all paid equally, a flat pay structure which meant huge pay increases for those at the bottom. This year brands will be trying to sort out their own houses, creating great PR in the process.
Other things people are talking about in brief:
Deutschland83 on Channel 4 - apparently very good.
Obama crying - def real. I'd vote for him.
The rain - for fuck's sake when will it end?
Books - I'm writing one, my desk mate's writing one, my friend Thomas is writing one, my friend Hollie has written one. How do we get publishers?
Cards Against Humanity - still the dinner party fav.
War and Peace - BBC's Downton replacement therapy with a bit of incest thrown in.
Sherlock - the last episode was shit tho wasn't it?
Soz.
But all is not lost! January can be a great month.
Here's what everyone seems to be picking themselves back up to do, think and talk about.
1) DRY JANUARY
Look I don't know why this seems like a fun thing to do because it's actually the opposite of fun. But I like to think of dry January a bit like a tricky computer game. You have to navigate the social calendar, avoiding the alcoholic beverages and find new tactics to be sociable without being forced to down a beer. See? Fun.
EVERYONE is doing dry January this year. My deskman Ludo reasons that it's because every year we are consuming more and more alcohol and we're scaring ourselves. Good theory. Mine is that the adverts for Cancer research in December have struck a real chord with people. See below.
Whether people would say this ad was the reason they were giving up alcohol or not I think that this ad planted the seeds of the thought in a lot of people's minds this Christmas and of course then there is a snowball effect. I said I was thinking of doing dry Jan after seeing this ad then my sister agreed and so did her bf Tim and my dad and then my friend Lisa. See what I mean?
2) MAKING A MURDERER
Who isn't watching this yet? You? Well mark my words, if you have Netflix then you may as well start this weekend because you'll watch it eventually. People are getting hooked by this real life story just as they did by Serial and the "is Adnan guilty" question. Don't be behind the curve peeps.
3) GYM WARS
Discontent with just giving up alcohol, many of my friends are embarking on punishing fitness routines. The problem is that the weather is not playing ball. Rain is not conducive to running and outdoor yoga sessions and so that's why gyms in January become unbearably packed places. Yes January is the season of gym wars when everyone moans about the fact that they couldn't even get on a running machine because they were all taken by tubby new gym members. The weights machines are all taken by people sitting the wrong way around and attempting to lift weights that are far too heavy. This is the season where regular gym members need to resort to stealth tactics like lunchtime sessions or attempting to cause a large proportion of other gym users get food poisoning by leaving contaminated protein balls at the front desk. No I haven't actually done that yet but it's an idea?
Also can I just say I got some boxing gloves for Christmas so you might want make way yeh?
4) YEAR AHEAD PREDICTIONS
Yes January is the month when everyone is making Mystic Meg year ahead predictions.
I've been doing a lot of reading recently about the power of the mind to shape reality. According to the law of attraction you can make whatever you choose to be a reality happen. So I've been telling everyone they're going to have an amazing year. I will be having an amazing one - I've decided.
Of course the interesting predictions for us Ad peeps are trend forecasts. Here are some of the forecasts I've read about so far for 2016, plus a few of my own predictions:
a) Brands asking consumers to prove their worth. A bit like clubs looking at how pretty you are and deciding whether to let you in. If it's exclusive the worth goes up.
b) Micro-moments - super targeted contextual ads will be big - meaning less spamming and more adverts that people actually want to see...in theory.
c) Virtual reality – Last year I was absolutely blown away by experiencing the Oculus Rift. This year brands will get in on the act, offering virtual reality experiences for their consumers.
d) The Internet of Things will continue to get bigger. On the Apprentice this year the winner was a guy who wanted to get into renewable energy. Instead energy firms said that he should be thinking about smart technology. Apps that can turn on your heating for example. If even Alan Sugar's getting his fingers in this pie then it's gotta be big news.
e) Ethical companies - Last year one of the nicest news stories was a boss who had taken a huge pay cut to ensure that his staff were all paid equally, a flat pay structure which meant huge pay increases for those at the bottom. This year brands will be trying to sort out their own houses, creating great PR in the process.
Other things people are talking about in brief:
Deutschland83 on Channel 4 - apparently very good.
Obama crying - def real. I'd vote for him.
The rain - for fuck's sake when will it end?
Books - I'm writing one, my desk mate's writing one, my friend Thomas is writing one, my friend Hollie has written one. How do we get publishers?
Cards Against Humanity - still the dinner party fav.
War and Peace - BBC's Downton replacement therapy with a bit of incest thrown in.
Sherlock - the last episode was shit tho wasn't it?
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