http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=MspN-CBOTaw#!
Still brilliantly shot, well written and inspiring.
Which is odd when you think that essentially they’re kind of the same as each other.
UPDATE: My wife’s in this one. Small world and all that.
I went to see Jerusalem on Saturday. As it was the last night, the lead actor spent a while thanking everyone involved, which included us, the audience. He said that he was grateful to us because the production just plants a seed, but then everything else happens in our imaginations and without that there would be nothing.
Interesting.
It reminded me of this lecture that I posted ten days ago:
Towards the end of it the lecturer suggests that we all exist within a version of Inception, where implanted ideas control the way we behave. Ultimately we don’t really know why we buy this car or that chocolate bar, but nevertheless we do so. He believes that we ae subject to suggestions placed in our minds by advertising that we can neither recognise nor consciously control.
On one side, that does feel like it has some truth in it, but on the other, we are are subject to many sub/unconscious influences that shape all our decisions and actions. Advertising may be more deliberate than most, but it just has to take its place in a chorus of voices vying for our attention.
And in the end it’s all down to what we are willing to listen to.
Something we have little choice over.
50 really very funny Facebook posts (thanks, M).
Things overheard at Goldman Sachs (thanks, J).
Art Thoughtz: Damian Hirst:
Support small businesses (in LA):
The latest beauty treatment (thanks, P):
007 song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=aT8lJEgEuTk#!
That doesn’t make you a model:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=yL_FMpE4zeU
Lovely bit of stop frame (thanks, P):
What is the opposite of FAIL?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=PkT2_WL6ACE#!
I was in Sainsbury’s the other day (I wouldn’t normally shop there, but some crushed Bee Gee had nicked all the camembert out of Tesco) when I saw a pack of sausages described as ‘Butcher’s Choice’. I wonder what happened to qualify them for such an honour. Did – gasp! – an actual butcher choose the meat or sausages from a selection of other meats or sausages? And was this butcher a knuckle-dragging simian, whose most recent other task had been a dead-eyed and furious bout of onanism? Or perhaps he was the butcher from Fortnums, moonlighting in the Sainsbury’s abattoir for a few extra quid. We may never know the truth…
It reminded me that I often see additional words, particularly in the description of food, that have absolutely no real meaning at all.
1. Pan fried. Admittedly, there is another frying option (the deep fat fryer), but I think when we’re talking about sea bass or lamb chops the implication is fairly clear. In fact, it does rather smack of insecurity to think you ought to remove the possibility of deep fat fryer doubt. But at least it’s not as stupid as…
2. Oven baked. Have you ever baked something in something other than an oven? How do you do that? The dictionary says that it means cooking, especially in an oven, but it fails to specify where else you bake things. I think they might bake stuff in the sun in sub-Saharan Africa, but again, I wouldn’t really expect that to be one of the options when I’m eating at a gastropub in Camden.
3. Best-ever. I’ve seen this quite a lot on chocolate bars that have changed their formula slightly. On the surface it seems fine, but the implication must be that there is a possibility that a new iteration of the bar might not be its best-ever because, for some reason, they decided to make a slightly crappier one. Is that the case on all the bars that don’t have ‘best-ever’ on them? I think we should be told.
4. Limited edition. Kind of loses its cachet when it appears on a Kit-Kat Orange Chunky (limited to 342,221,937).
5. Homemade. So someone made this ice cream/cake/tart in their home, then brought it in to the restaurant? Who was it? Was it the chef? Why does he/she prefer to cook some things at home when he/she has a perfectly good professional kitchen to work in? What about all the hassle of bringing it in? Wouldn’t the ice cream melt a bit? Or did they just add a pointless adjective to that thing they got in a massive catering delivery?
Continuing the very occasional series of creatives who are doing something extracurricular and entrepreneurial (I think the last one was about ten months ago), I present for your inspiration Dogeared Clothing.
It’s the brainchild (that’s a nice word, isn’t it? Like a little foetus that sits in your head, sucking away at your precious nutrients until – hey presto! – it’s ready for you to squeeze it out through your mouth or pen and watch it thrive into a fine upstanding member of society or become a whey-faced twocker with a lax attitude to sexual assault) of my DLKW/Lowe chums Seb Housden and Ben McCarthy.
They say:
‘Simple idea, t-shirt graphics based on books with £2 from each T going to the VRH, who we’ve got an agreement with.’
Log on and buy one.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJtk4akaEME
*Puts on best Andy Gray voice*
Take a bow, son.
Pingu’s The Thing (thanks, W):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ToCq_c3wOM8&feature=youtu.be
Jimmy Kimmel inciting parents to give their children terrible presents, part deux (thanks, P):
100 years in ten minutes (thanks, B):
Harrison Ford watches Indiana Jones for the first time* (thanks, P):
Cheesepeople (thanks, W).
I Tweeted this earlier in the week and people seemed to love it, so check out the website that can turn YouTube into a radio station.
Inception and philosophy (thanks, P):
*Not really. He’s actually advertising some Japanese video game.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JR0aZX1_TD8&feature=player_embedded
It’s engaging, amusing and memorable, and it’ll do some real good.
Nice one.
Here’s an article that sums up what’s been said in this country for the last few years.
But it’s just one reason why D&AD is a dismal load of bollocks these days. Here are some others:
1. The standard of advertising in general has slipped a great deal in the last few years. If the best advertising isn’t as interesting or inspiring as it was a few years ago, why care?
2. There are so many other ways to see the best work of the year before D&AD shows it to you. It’s late, it’s irrelevant and it’s kind of sad.
3. The judges are more international, but they’re also of a lower standard. Check ’em out. Do you give a shit what many of these people think of your work?
4. They pride themselves on diversity of categories but they are too thick to understand that giving out Pencils for Interface and Navigation for Websites and Digital Design means that Pencils don’t matter so much. A bunch of Pencils on a shelf used to mean that their owner was a fucking good creator and executioner. Now it means that you can design a button that brings up a screen really well. Who gives a toss? I’m sure it’s difficult and worth giving prizes for, but really, 99% of us do. Not. Give. A. Fuck.
5. God, I’ve written this so many times. They’re making loads of money. They couldn’t care less. Why do I care? I’m not sure. But good advertising matters, and D&AD used to help that happen. Now it doesn’t. It just makes money and most advertising continues to spiral down the crapper.
What a shame.
Can you do anything to help?
Yep: don’t enter D&AD. No one gives a shit if you win, and you’ll only encourage them to prize cash over creativity (just like those clients you really hate).
Over my time in advertising the ‘other’ awards scheme has been many things: poor cousin to D&AD, cooler alternative, owner of many odd categories (best use of famous personality? Most encouraging change of advertising direction?), the British awards, a bit of a joke and the distributor of the best trophies in advertising.
Well, now it’s something else.
The new president, Ed Morris (along with the fine team behind the scenes) is balancing the awards side of things with a healthy dose of education:
As they put it:
Creative Circle is a literal circle.
A cycle, encompassing all the creative talent in the UK’s communications industry.
We reward the people at the top and encourage them to help the people at the bottom.
And predominantly, we do this in two ways:
First, as an awards body run and judged by creatives.
Recognising and showcasing great ideas, fresh thinking and craft.
Second, as an education body, run and developed by creatives.
With inspiring workshops, enlightening talks, and new initiatives for those starting out.
Eventually, the people at the bottom become the people at the top.
With the circle complete, the cycle continues.
Out with the old. In with the new.
Which all sounds pretty good to me. The next generation is currently being lost to more attractive, creative and lucrative careers/countries, so any efforts to prevent that should be applauded. Crafts must be appreciated and learned; people born in the nineties must be touched, moved and inspired to feel like I did back in ’96, when I would have cut off my shins with a penknife for a CC Gold.
I suppose the next stage is seeing the actions that go with these words. I want this to succeed, so I shall regard the entire enterprise with the optimism of a kid popping his letter to Jimmy Saville in the post.
By the way, for more info, there’s also a blog, and a call for entries: