Hall Of Fame*
Here is one of the best ads of all time:
Doesn’t it hold up just brilliantly today?
It would easily have won BTAA ad of the year for the last few years.
Have a look at each example. They are both original and universal and that is a really tough combination to get right.
And the VO: John Cooper Clarke is a very unusual but absolutely excellent choice, conveying a sort of bemused ironic tolerance (try asking your next VO to do that).
And that lovely pause where the bloke spits. It’s a truly wonderful example of intelligent, original, brave advertising that you just can’t argue with. We all want to be that guy who doesn’t play by the shitty little rules in life, and here’s 60 seconds that gives you really smart permission to do just that. How many times can the brief, ‘Don’t run with the herd’ have been crapped out by a lazy planner? Here is the best way to answer it.
And here is the best thing to play someone who says you shouldn’t do negative advertising. Do an ad with a fat naked bloke and the words ‘don’t masturbate’, then set a car on fire.
Thank you Charles Inge and Lowe. The Cannes Grand Prix was well deserved (it beat Surfer, fact fans).
*An occasional series where I hark back to better days in the forlorn hope that they will return.
Its amazing. One of my favourite ads of all time too and worthy of a Grand Prox – but its not better than surfer.
Agreed. Fucking brilliant.
And absolutely timeless…
great ad.
bravo. bravo.
If i were campbell, carter and glazer I will be so crossed….
that I’ve missed out on the grand prix simply for being in the same year this ad came out.
Just to be clear: I don’t think this is a better ad than Surfer; I just think that it is Grand Prix worthy.
Flawless.
Wasn’t this ad done ages before Surfer?
Or am I just too old to remember when the good ads were done?
It came out in late 1998 and Surfer came out in early 1999, so they qualified for different D&AD years but the same Cannes year.
Evidently Chickentown.
Fabulous. And so much better than the actual product it’s advertising
Ben. Litany is indeed a great ad and often overlooked when the great ads are being recalled. But can’t you find inspiration from any of today’s ads? Why do you consistently “hark back to better days in the forlorn hope that they will return.”
We’ve previously had an exchange over campaigns like Whopper Sacrifice, Best Job, Gatorade Rematch, etc but even in “traditional” tv land there is still work being done which is amazing.
In fact I’d say far better than an ad as great as Litany.
For proof look no further than the latest Grand Prix at Cannes – Old Spice. Which would you rather have created? Litany or Old Spice?
Vote now!
Me? I’m on the horse
I believe I have stuck my tongue right up the jacksie of Old Spice, and will always put up the best work that’s out there, even if most of it is several rungs below Litany.
However, I write a few hundred posts every year and there’s no way in hell celebrating the current output of advertising (especially TV advertising – could you name another great ad from this year?) will provide enough material for that.
I do honestly think that current UK TV advertising is of a lower standard than I can remember, so the occasional mention of yesterday’s greats to provide inspiration seems to me to be a good idea.
I also think that the younger people in this industry may be unaware of the classics of the last decade (see the D&AD post I wrote this week) and there’s no harm in learning from the greats.
If any of that makes today’s ads better, then I’ll be delighted. I would absolutely love there to be an ad as great as ‘Litany’ every week, but there hasn’t even been one from this country since 2007. That’s a worryingly long gap.
Please, everyone, think that I’m a backwards-looking whinger and prove me wrong. Make a brilliant ad and I will kiss its arse all day long.
Ben. Just for shits and giggles can you put up Guiness Dream Club. Its always worth watching again and in my opinion is better than surfer. Any ad that starts with “and then there’s this guy” has to be in the hall of fame.
Here’s another question: how come all the great advertising of the last few years (Whopper, gatorade, Best Job, that Ikea thing where you can get the furniture on Facebook, Old Spice, Livestrong, Carousel, Millions, Great Schlep etc.) has come from other countries?
Can anyone name a truly great piece of UK advertising since Gorilla (and some people don’t even rate that)?
do any juniors out there feel they’ve made the wrong decision or have joined a doomed industry?
But Paul’s point is a good one: there is amazing work out there, so it can be done.
I’m just a little bemused and confused as to why the UK can’t join in with the rest of the world.
A lot of those ideas are inexpensive, which surely makes them a much easier sell.
Answers?
Ben – know who directed it? I’m a little disappointed that I don’t know. Looks like Frank or Tony, but I don’t think it is……
It’s got me befuddled.
…It’s just harder now… sorry.
Why isn’t it harder for Johnny Foreigner?
George: Rob Sanders through HLA, although I heard a rumour that his involvement was not substantial, which might explain why we haven’t heard from him since.
@just interested
Yes.
Ben, do you really have no answer to why other still dynamic interesting cultures with aspirations produce better work than dull, has been economies, that are suffering from a moral impasse not to mention a lack of political ideas like Britain, or is that one of those trick questions like my Zen master sets me?
—
It’s not just advertising that has lost its edge, many other sectors have too. Of course there are exceptions in each sector including advertising. What state is the world of art, music, fashion, publishing and design in?
Jim, I think America fits into your withering description, yet they still produce many great ads.
But I agree that the UK is hardly buzzing in any art form.
I am not sure America does fit in, it will, but not quite yet. Has anything historic happen in America recently to give it some inspiration, perceived or real?
–
Define many? 50%, 10%, 5%, 1% of ads?
–
America has it’s first black President, we have our first coalition since the second world war.
I think there’s more great work out there from the rest of the world because the UK has been slow to realise that there’s more to great work than a 90 sec tv ad. Now we’ve got our heads out of our pretentious arses and we’ve seen what’s possible we’re starting to do more interesting stuff. But we’re not up there with the best yet
Great creative work is cyclical.
Britain had its turn, now ‘johnny foreigner’ is having his.
Isn’t this just a poem by John Cooper Clark, the poet, set to a film?
Or did they write it?
I thought they wrote it, otherwise the ending is a bit convenient and makes little sense away from the ad.
@Jim: “Has anything historic happen in America recently to give it some inspiration, perceived or real?”
Loads of historic stuff has happened in the US of late: The wars in the Middle-East, the housing market crash, the FUCKING MASSIVE economic crash, the auto-industry shit-storm, Healthcare reform, the almost-complete closure of NASA, BP Oil Spill, 9/11 attacks, the proposed Mosque near Ground Zero, Hurricane Katrina, etc. etc.
All that in one decade makes for a very inspired and motivated youth.
it’s = it is, it has, etc.
its = expresssing possessive relations
whose = possessive shit as well
@anon 7:23 – Creative work is cyclical? Really? Tell me more.
Creative revolutions/golden years are cyclical in the way that a certain generation born in a certain decade grow up under certain circumstances and get jobs a certain era to produce a certain type of work that happens to be revolutionary at that point in time. For the UK it was the 1990s when all the stars aligned. Now in the 2000s creative work is judged under different criteria and a new generation are at the helm, only the circumstances are that this generation happens to be foreign.
I’m a big believer in if anything you’re involved in goes tits up then you should blame yourself first. But in this case I really want to blame the account people and the lack of good ones these days.
I was at Lowe around the era of ‘Litany’ and it was also the era when account people, like Frank Lowe, had their own books (portfolios) with all their best ads they’d ever made in. These were account people that would bet you 50 quid that they’d sell your ad and you’d take that bet because that was all it was going to cost to get an ad made.
I think all creatives, if you’re working or have worked for a top ad agency, especially in London, are all much the same. We all have our moments of ‘‘genius’’ and brief spells in the spot light but we also have our barren patches and drift to the back benches. Even Charles would admit all the ads he writes aren’t a patch on ‘Litany’.
So if all creatives are capable of writing a good ad then it really comes down to the rest of the people involved. Their enthusiasm and determination to make a good ad. And that is the only way I believe any decent ad­­ in any media in any decade has ever come to being.
I know there’s not an account person in my building let alone a team of people who could sell ‘Litany’ to a client today.
That’s great ad.
Or even *a* a great ad. Damn. Hangover.
Cool. Greetings from the Speedy DNS