Awkward high-fives (thanks, JM).
Hitchcock’s definition of happiness (thanks, B):
Movies as code (thanks, P).
Best website ever? (Thanks, W.)
Starburst themed seizure? (Thanks, J.)
Twitter in the shitter (thanks, J).
Casually racist ad from the 1970s (thanks, A):
Worst album covers of all time (thanks, JM).
Best Facebook photo comments of all time (thanks, JM).
Obama is sexy and he knows it (thanks, B):
It’s one of those ones where the script is beautifully simple and the direction so good that you can just sit back and enjoy it.
Creatives: Martin and Martin (interest declared: friends).
Director: Vince Squibb (interest declared: I don’t know him that well, but we’ve met a few times and I found him to be a throughly nice bloke).
If you want to be an advertising creative there are many ways in, but by far the easiest and most efficient is through the colleges.
The biggest two are Watford and St Martins, followed by Bucks, but there is another one you might be less aware of that’s producing some very good prospects.
A few weeks ago I did a Skype crit with Lincoln (read all about it) and the results were excellent. Being somewhat skeptical and a bit of an arsehole, I wasn’t expecting much, but the overall standard was very good. In fact, one idea was so wonderful that I’m going to get it made. That’s right: made, as in produced, and I didn’t even have to come up with it because Chloe Middleton and Matt Parsons did it for me. Ka-Booom!
Thanks, guys.
Some more facts about Lincoln:
– past grads work at BBH; JWT; Ogilvy, DLKW Lowe; Karmarama; Dare; DDB; Albion; VCCP; Creature; Saint etc.
– consistently successful D&AD and YCN student competitions (won D&AD Student Awards Advertising category last year)
– past visiting speakers include Rory Sutherland; Dave Morris; Alex Taylor; Mandy Wheeler; John Hegarty; Tony Davidson; Martin Lambie Nairn.
So go there.
Or give someone from there a crit. Or a placement. Or a job.
I don’t know much about the motivational speaker Tony Robbins, but I do know this is a great story.
(Thanks, coach.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkpK_dZY-bc
Lovely touches (fnarr fnarr!).
Last year I was freelancing at Saatchis in the office opposite the lovely chaps who made this. How many times did we hear a somewhat slutty voice say the words ‘slam in the lamb’, Adam? Lots and lots and lots.
Just finished watching Plan B’s TED Talk:
It’s slow to get going but there’s a really good track at the halfway mark then Mr. Drew starts getting to his point.
The man behind the Nicolas Cage mask (thanks, J):
Numbers in films (thanks, P):
Draw the Shitler (thanks, J).
Movie: The Movie:
All the broken glass in Total Recall (thanks, J):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpRVW63mCww&feature=youtu.be
Will the real Mitt Romney please stand up? (Thanks, P):
Bad missed Craigslist Connections (thanks, J).
Celebrities who look like mattresses (thanks, K).
Would anyone care if you tried to steal a bike in NY? (Thanks, P):
Celebrities read Tweets about themselves (thanks, J):
WTF:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3tG1X5ewAg&feature=BFa&list=PL795B7876304AC9D4&lf=mh_lolz
A scene of utter crapitude to inspire us all (thanks, J):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=q7Q6DGOfp6k
On “Inside the Actors Studio” you were asked to give young actors advice, and you said, “You have nothing to lose, so make it as personal as you can.” What did you mean by that?
What I meant was if you’re going for a reading and you got nothing to lose because so many things are stacked against you — there’s a lot of competition out there — so when you read, the only thing you have is your own uniqueness. So, you don’t need to be afraid to follow your instincts about what you think the character is doing. Just go with it, because if nothing else, the people watching you, the director, the casting people, whatever, will be impressed by what you’ve done and they’ll take notice. You have to try and be courageous. Don’t hold back … Just go with it. And sometimes it’s easier because you know where to go with the character, and sometimes it’s harder. But in general, just follow your instincts — even if you know you’re going to fail. If you don’t take that risk, you’re probably not going to make an impression.
That was a quote from this fascinating interview.
In case you missed it, Saturday’s Guardian had an interesting interview with the double Booker-winning author Peter Carey.
Here are his thoughts on his time as a board member of Grey Sydney:
Instead, he moved to Sydney and joined a small advertising firm, where his real education began. It was the era of Mad Men, but the series makes him laugh in derision; Sydney in those days was a long way from Madison Avenue and he and his colleagues were not exactly Don Draper types. The alcohol consumption was insane, he says; they had that in common. But, “[The Americans] were so straight. We were not straight. When someone comes into the office and is walking around and the floor is absolutely sticky, and says, ‘What’s wrong with the floor?’ ‘Dunno,’ and it was because we’d been smoking dope and spraying the air with adhesive spray to kill the smell! It was a different world. I liked that.”
Even when he was on the board of Grey’s Advertising in Sydney, there was still no real pressure to conform. Carey was living in a hippy community at the time, and came in for a meeting with some American executives dressed in flip-flops, pyjama trousers and a secondhand Hawaiian shirt. “And I was a board member!” he says. “And my friend said to me once, ‘You don’t know how you look. You have no idea.'”
Carey wasn’t exactly playing at hippydom – the lifestyle suited him, he says, and he assumed, as he does in most situations, that it would go on for ever. On the other hand, “It was a very privileged position. You know, you’re pretending to be radical, with a credit card.” The main thing was, the advertising work was relatively undemanding and paid well enough to free him up to write most days a week. He is grateful for those years, but is still half embarrassed at having been a hack copywriter. He primly refuses to repeat any of the slogans he wrote, won’t allow for the possibility that copywriting influenced his style as a fiction writer, and is still smarting from the reaction he got in some quarters when he first won the Booker, in 1988, for Oscar And Lucinda: Ad-Man Wins Booker Prize. “You know? Fuck you, too.”
And yet, “Advertising really was like a huge arts council grant.”
Mixed feelings then – like a bloke who’s gone out with a girl who let him do some rather questionable things to her, but now he’s moved on to Polly Prissy Pants he feels he must disown the lady of easy virtue.
Or something.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=4OxGn0HSN2Q
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=5_XdPFxULzM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=fLzsKm7sEG0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=eTPu3TkDUh4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=X7qRw3wo_G4
Very well directed, nicely written, and a bright spot in a campaign that has become a bit hit-and-miss in the last few years.
Well done.