Ads/Ad BLogs Of The Decade

Vote for and watch the ad contenders here.

Did anyone else forget the decade was coming to a close?

I was just sitting here minding my own business when suddenly I couldn’t move for decade-based reviews.

Anyway, here are my top ten advertising blogs of the decade (they’re based on the scientific measurement of whether or not I read them on a regular basis):

1. Scamp. Ah, I remember Scamp. It was where all the shit hit the fan. Simon and his magic fingers, playing us all like a fucking viola by innocently throwing an ad into the arena and seeing if it got mauled to shreds or frottered to oblivion. Happy days.

2. Dave Trott. I always, always, always come away from one of Dave’s two blogs feeling cleverer, sometimes with a story about heroin and the New York Dolls; other times with an exploration of Bertrand Russell.

3. The Ad Contrarian. I love the fact that an unanonymous (try saying those two words with a mouthful of frozen peas) agency head puts his always-correct-yet-always-provocative opinions out there for all to see.

4. I Am The Client. This is a new one, but I have to say that it’s the one that makes me jealous. Brilliantly written, funny, sad and poignant with swearing that makes The Thick Of It look like Blue Peter. It tells a great story with perceptive, incisive, hilarious characterisation that actually made me go back and read the entire archive.

5. Rory Sutherland’s. Always brilliant, but he doesn’t post enough, so marks off for that.

6. Sell! Sell! A righteous mix of new things you haven’t seen and ad opinions from the moral high ground.

7. DHM Murmurs. Lovely agency, lovely people. Arsenal fans. Good to see a decent agency blog. Odd, when you think about how agencies like to proclaim themselves to be digital, yet they don’t even get themselves out there in this fairly simple format.

8. Escape Pod. Look! You can read the wisdom of a Cannes Grand Prix winner who made an ad that you defintely did an impression of. Now Vinny Warren has an agency that produces really good work ten years on from that.

9. Welcome To Optimism. Unlike DHM’s, WTO isn’t so much a dissection of Adlife as a dissection of W&K. The insight this must give to all the people who are gagging to work within its painfully cool walls should be commended. How Neil finds the time to update it, I have no idea, but it might explain why Wieden’s is one of the least respected agencies in the world (smiley face made out of punctuation).

10. The Toadstool. Perversely I sometimes feel like looking at things from a more businesslike and American perspective. I can’t explain why. At least this blog allows me to do that and enjoy myself.

There are loads of others that I love for a week or two then forget about then rediscover and kick myself for missing out on, then forget about again, so their quality is not in question but if they don’t stick, they don’t stick.