Here.

Congrats to Mike and Paul and the DDB creative dept.

My personal print Gold goes to this website. (Thanks, L).

The creative world is divided in many ways: asymmetric haircut/normal haircut; skinny jeans/bootcut jeans; steal ideas from Magma /steal ideas from YouTube etc.

But the one that dare not speak its name is keeping a scrapbook of useable idea snippets versus tapping the side of your head and saying ‘it’s all up there’.

I write as one who does the latter, partly because I’m not quite organised enough to keep a scrapbook and partly because I trust the ebb and flow of my brain, allied to whatever I’m experiencing at the moment.

However, I know of many others who keep several years of orderly clippings, random photos and yellowing newspaper articles in those blue hardback books, just waiting for the moment when their usefulness will spring into life.

But there doesn’t seem to be any consensus on which is better.

When I was at college, we were visited by Jim Bolton and Chas Bayfield of Blackcurrant Tango fame. At that stage, they had yet to make that particular work of genius, but they did show us a page of their portfolio that was just a series of little thoughts that might come in useful in future. One such thought was ‘a naked fat man running down a hill is funny’. I don’t know if that’s exactly where Blackcurrant Tango came from, but the relationship is close.

Then again, I once read an interview with John Hegarty where he explained that he didn’t think it was a good idea to keep scrapbooks because your brain then relied on those notes and didn’t work as hard to connect things in the generation of ideas.

I also recall the advice of a novelist who said that it was ridiculous to note your favourite little lines and metaphors for future use because you’d end up forcing them into situations where they didn’t really belong, and besides, you’d have to constantly look through your notes hoping for the right bon mot to make itself known just when you needed it.

Then again, I suppose there are other versions of the scrapbook, such as keeping fffound and Deputy Dog bookmarked for those times when your brain refuses to work. And the walls of my office have often been home to fading Post-Its that say ‘Beadle’s hand/Magimix’ or ‘Tit age vs real age’.

But I’m open to suggestions of technique improvement: do you have any unusual filing systems that you rely on to lead you to the promised land?

It is.

Lovely details (the pack of worms in the fridge), great post, original idea on a done-to-death brief…

What’s not to like?

And if you haven’t clicked on the Deputy Dog link to the right for a while, this is amazing.

Aren’t you always bloody amazed at the indescribable, against-the-odds occurrence of making a good ad?

You come up with a great idea and the first thing that happens is that it goes through the filter of your brain: do I want to make an ad like that? Will that keep the client happy? Will that win me an award? Will the public love it? Etc.

Then your partner has their own set of (possibly completely different) filters that might include wanting to make it closer to his or her speciality (a more visual solution for an AD; more words for a CW). They might also want to go broader with the laughs, older with the cast and more experimental with the director, so you’ll have to deal with all that – perhaps to your liking, perhaps not.

Then it’s the CD, who will have his or her own agenda about what they need to do to keep their job, stop the MD asking why they haven’t won as many awards as last year, or go home early to watch the football. They might know that someone else in the department is doing something similar and will have to choose who gets disappointed. They might have heard the international client in Beijing doesn’t like humour. They might be on the verge of a divorce and just ‘not in the mood’ to deal with your shit today.

Then there’s the account team, who have their own agenda about what they expect, what the client will expect and what will/won’t be an arse to sell.

Then the client gets to run roughshod over all the above. If your script gets to him/her unscathed (or at least in a state that isn’t a complete embarrassment) then you will have to deal with the fact that he/she will have an opinion that comes from a mind which is diametrically opposed to your own. Good luck with that. Then he might pull the entire budget, or, more annoyingly, half of it, so that you have to desperately sew together a silk purse, handbag and matching evening gown from just half a sow’s ear.

Then everyone else will chip in: the TV producer, director, editor, sound engineer etc. And, of course, any of the above might change their mind at any moment, potentially throwing your realigned perceptions into another 180-degree turn.

Then again, it’s just possible that all those little contributions could make your ad better…

You can check out the winners here.

It really confirms what I think we all suspected: last year was a pretty terrible year for UK advertising.

Obviously the British shows, such as BTAA and Creative Circle, wouldn’t show this up, but the One Show and the TV section of D&AD seem in broad agreement that we could have done better.

I wonder what Cannes and the Clios will hold.

It only seems to be showing half the picture. If you double click, you can get a much bigger image in YT.

Can someone tell me how to improve my educationally subnormal embedding skillz?

Sorry, it works because…

It’s inventive, funny, original (although I’m waiting with bated breath for the YT clip it did or didn’t rip off) and on-brand, with a great, irreverent use of the product.

Then it feels like they needed some kids having a great time because they didn’t think the quirky animal organist was crowd-pleasing enough. You see, he’s fun. What he’s doing is fun. Coke is fun.

And by God we’re going to bash you over the head with that thought even though we don’t have to.

It reminds me of that time about 9-10 years ago when agencies (particularly Mother) would set their ads in a location that was not strictly relevant to the idea just to make them a bit more interesting.

In my opinion, the tactic worked then, and works now. Britain can get really dull, and this ad is a good example of where the exact same script would not work as well if set in Droitwich or Bexley Heath.

And it’s got a giant rubber duck in it.

Like Cactus Kid (which I loved), it’s a bit hatstand for the sake of it, but what the hell; it’s an ad for orange squash (or something). Logic would kill it.

Lack of logic makes it fly.

Instead of this giant heap of unutterable bollocks: