They have all been used to sell stuff in these disturbing vintage ads. Check out this post over at retrocomedy for a few more dodgy ads, brilliant if not slightly scary.
What do murder, paedophilia, suicide and a baby tiger have in common?
They have all been used to sell stuff in these disturbing vintage ads. Check out this post over at retrocomedy for a few more dodgy ads, brilliant if not slightly scary.
Augmented Reality
We've been hearing and seeing lots of things to do with augmented reality technology recently. And not a lot of it has been particularly useful. But a new app for the iPhone being developed by acrossair is helping change that. The application is essentially a 3d tube map using augmented reality and the magnetic compass in the iPhone. Clever stuff.
Lubalin archives
At the Cooper Union school of art and science in the USA, they have an in depth archive of Herb Lubalins work. Not just the polished, finished work he is famed for, but also a lot of good rough work. You can see some of whats available in this flickr set.
Vintage Photographic Cards
More great stuff over on the Delicious Blog, these vintage photographers' cards have some really interesting typography and photography.
Long exposure?
This interesting set of photos was found on a russian photography site. They look awesome but not sure exactly how much photoshopping as been done to them. I'd like to think they are just long exposure with some clever lighting but I doubt it. They still look brilliant togethor though.
Bullshit Free Zone Update
We're happy to report that we've had an overwhelmingly positive response to our fight against bullshit in advertising and marketing. Thanks to everyone who's asked for a poster so far, and to those still waiting for theirs to arrive, hang in there.
Flickr set here.
The Bullshit Free Zone poster has made it into all kinds of weird and wonderful places, including some of the true shrines of advertising bullshittiness (obviously not the places shown here). Thanks especially to those folks who have sent us pictures of their poster in situ. These are some of our favourites (starting with what has got to be my favourite picture of the year so far), keep 'em coming...
Flickr set here.SYNESTHESIA
TERRI TIMELY, aka Ian Kibbey and Corey Creasey, have created some super shorts, ads and music videos.
We spotted 'Synesthesia' - a short film created by these guys, over at Collectiva's blog. It's totally nuts, but by gum it's good. With superb art direction and general weirdness from start to finish involving a family of synesthetes, this captivating piece really shows off their talents. The stills we've taken from it (as shown above) don't really do it much justice, you've got to watch it and listen to its toons to truly experience it in all its glory. For optimal viewing pleasure please click here.
Their site is packed full of brilliant stuff. Very, very inspiring. One to keep on the radar.
Strategy Is Not A Department
Strategy is not a department. There. We've only gone and said it.
"Ideas can come from anywhere" is a phrase that's often spouted by anyone who doesn't work in a creative department keen to add their tuppence ha'pennyworth into the melting pot of the advertising development process.
It's true. Ideas aren't the preserve of a single department. They can come from anywhere.
However, in my twenty years of working in this advertising business lark, I’ve found that great advertising ideas have always come from the creative department.
This might be something to do with the fact that creatives are paid to come up with great ideas. It's their job. It's what they do. It's why they're called "creatives".
Over the last two decades I’ve also observed that it’s become increasingly harder and harder for creatives to do great advertising.
The single biggest reason for this in my ‘umble opinion is that there has been a seismic shift in the role, influence and importance of a certain kind of planner in the creative development process.
The kind of planner who always wants to take the lead and decide what the advertising should say. The kind of planner who wants to be the architect of any great leap in thinking. The kind of planner who thinks his brief must be obeyed. The kind of planner who wants his “idea” to be unquestioningly executed by a lapdog creative team. The kind of planner who lives in cloud cuckoo land rather than the real world.
Agencies seemed to have willingly embraced and actively encouraged the involvement of these planning geniuses and it’s no co-incidence that a lot of British advertising has become unnecessarily complex, confusing and oblique as creative teams have been forced to work with bullshit or nonsensical strategies.
The fact of the matter is that great advertising can be easily created without the help of a planner. All the best creative people I’ve worked with are also great strategists. They’ve worked on crafting their books in their formative years without the help of a planner writing briefs for them and developed a strong instinct for generating engaging and impactful ideas that contain a single-minded central thought.
I think the outburst of “planner-baiting” that we’ve seen on the likes of Scamp’s blog are symptomatic of a widespread and deeply felt frustration from creatives that contrary to the original spirit of planning pioneers Pollitt and King, planners aren’t helping to make creatives ideas better. They’re making them worse. Much worse.
I was recently idly leafing through a back issue of campaign (April 18th 2008 – we’ve got our finger on the pulse of the trade press here at Sell! Sell!) when I came across an article which illuminated the scale of the problem.
The theme was about the imperative for speed of strategic thought in these challenging times.
Here were some of the words o’ wisdom for some of Britain’s finest planning minds on how to successfully nail a strategy quickly. They range from the mind-numbingly banal to the bleeding obvious to the esoteric and unfathomable.
Take a deep breath;
"Ask your mum"
"Swipe something that's been used in another category not your own"
“Base your strategy around the right business objectives”
“Continuously think of interesting strategies so when a brief comes you’ve got a beauty that’s ready and waiting”
"The most important behaviours are ritualised. Find the ritual and you've found the key to a better idea”
“Consider a brand’s unspoken truth, quiet regret, path not taken. Because in its silence and inaction may reside its strength and identity”.
That’s just the tip of the iceberg.
Of the 25 people who commented, only one, yes one, person mentioned the word “creative”.
Step forward, Stuart Smith the then head of planning at W&K, who said the following;
“Dovetail your strategy and creative. Develop creative ideas from day one, while developing the strategic brief. Don’t be proud, turfist or old-school linear. Allow early creative ideas to inspire strategy, which in turn inspire better creativity”
(It’s a somewhat sad irony that this voice of common sense is no longer working in the ad business as he left to join Google last year).
I wouldn’t deny for one minute that speed of thought is mandatory for agencies nowadays. But if agencies want to arrive at an exciting, relevant and ultimately workable creative solution then they need to get creative people involved from the get go.
Show them the client brief. Let them meet the client. Let them ask questions. Make them take responsibility for what the advertising should say. You’ll get much better creative work if that happens.
Remember, strategy is not a department.One Way Conversation
We found this funny video via the excellent Bob Hoffman and George Parker.
If you'd like to understand the Sell! Sell! point of view, just watch it.
Then imagine the absolute opposite.
If you'd like to understand the Sell! Sell! point of view, just watch it.
Then imagine the absolute opposite.
Blimey
Conversations assume that someone is already interested enough in a product or brand to engage. This is simply not the case with 99.5% of real humans.
Where does the assumption that all conventional advertising is talking down to people come from? There is a lot of shit out there. A LOT. But the best and most successful advertising in any medium tends to respect the audience and talk to them in a way that they enjoy, or at least relate to.
How much shit is it possible to talk in three minutes?
One other thing...
I just don't understand why people who are interactive/digital specialists still feel the need to make out like every other way of doing things is defunct. It seems to me like if you have something of value to offer, you only need to point that out.
The Ice Poll
Yep, you guessed it. It's top five time. Last week's top 5 saw a flurry of ice lolly fueled comments and this got us thinking about what our top five ice lollies would be.
Whittling it down to just five was no easy task, so we donned our white lab coats and conducted extensive research throughout the week.
The excessive fridge raiding at our local dusty shop and daily taste tests have taken their toll on our waistlines but allowed us to skip down memory lane, as we remembered some beloved long lost classics that you just can't seem to find these days (if anyone can get their mitts on a Lyons Maid Haunted House lolly please let us know).
So without any further ado we present...
1. The Kingly Fab
2. Magnum (P.I.) White
3. Feast
4. Lyons Maid Haunted House (the underdog)
5. The cider lolly
Other contenders that were pipped to the post are the 'push-up lolly', Polly Pineapple and Fat Frog (Irish classics, apparently), Calippo, Nestle's Mivvi, Twister, Cornetto, Nobbly Bobbly and Walls Funny Feet. Stiff competition.
Let us know if we've missed any mighty warriors off our list (any excuse for more ice cream based research).
Secret Blisters '09
The quality of the prints was top notch, not only in their design but in the intricate detail. No easy task with screen printing. The venue also helped make a it a night to remember. If you haven't been to MC Motors in Dalston you should check it out.
You can see a few more designs here and if there are any prints left they are going to be sold online here.
The new MacBook
Just when you thought the Macbook couldn't get any better, Apple release this bad boy.
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