Dec 19 2011 December 19, 2011 December 19, 2011 11Comments by ben

2011

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I thought I had deleted this, but a kind reader called Copy and Paste seems to have saved it:

The week before Christmas is the perfect time for a round up of the year.

And as Campaign have printed several of my posts with whatever changes they deemed appropriate, I now present for you their top ten ads of 2011 with their commentary (small alterations made to fit the space):

John Lewis ‘Same Ending As Se7en’: Yep, it’s really good because it’s darn, darn, darn hard to do an ad that makes people cry for the right reasons (as opposed to boring them to tears). Hats off. If that doesn’t win all the top awards next year, we’re Chinamen (we’re not Chinamen).

Stella ‘Apartomatic’: The latest in the series of Stella ads that makes people miss the old Stella ads. We heard a rumour that Wes Anderson said he’d be co-directing it with Roman Coppola but then rarely turned up for the shoot. A bit like Robin Van Persie promising to co-play with the Campaign five-a-side team then fucking off down the pub. So it’s another one of Mother’s disappointing Stella ads, but the thing is our tongues can’t get enough of Mother’s orifi, so we also gave Stella Advertiser of the Year. And if you think that’s the end of our Mother bottom-love, you are of course wrong.

Cravendale ‘Cats With Thumbs’: Another year, another good, yet inexplicably fawned-over, ad with cats in it.

Pot Noodle, ‘WAG’: Mother at its comedic best. And if that’s not damning the place with faint praise, we don’t know what is.

Barnardos ‘Life Story’: Good one this. A couple of the performances are quite poor (guy one and guy two), but overall, it’a cracker. Thank god, because it gives us a good, credible opportunity to start smooching up to our other favourite agency.

Weetabix ‘Fuel For Big Days’: Do you think we’ll get away with putting this in the top ten of the year? Hmmm… It’s really dismally sexist, and the strategy is as old as dirt, but maybe people will think it’s the one with the girl and the teddy bears, which still ain’t great, but at least it’s memorable.

Yeo Valley ‘Boy Band’: Yes, it wasn’t as good as that one from last year, but as you might have noticed by now, this year has been so awful that you could pretty much put anything at this end of the list and no one would complain.

Thomson ‘Quality Time’: Nice. Beautifully shot, well-observed. Better than Weetabix, but not done by BBH.

Wall’s ‘Thank You, Kitchen’: Proper good. Funny. Sausages are hard to do, but these are top. Funnier than Pot Noodle, but not done by Mother.

Lucozade ‘Yes’. Almost good enough to balance out the one with everyone skating around on Venice Beach. Quite an achievement.