Scambient
Here are a few ‘classic’ ambient ads from the book ‘Long Live Advertising’ that make me want to puke:
Complete bullshit from South Africa. Imagine what would happen when the next cases came through the hatch. Squashed fucking eggs, that's what. So I'd have thought this was taken on a non-moving conveyor with some of the creatives' suitcases and friends. Many awards, mucho bullshit.
A great example of the 'people looking at our brilliant ambient idea' shot. Multicultural and both genders. Hooray. But Nike have fucked up the running track. Oh no. Maybe those runners are thinking, 'What a bunch of cunts Nike are, fucking up our running track.
'She eats light mayonnaise'. Who? That bit of hair, of course. This even has the dog doing the mandatory looking. Unfortunately he's wondering if it's a blonde rat or something he can hump.
Some T-shirt that makes you like your arse is hanging out. Not sure why, but the real bullshit here is in the description, where it says that the pictures were turned into ads in 'party magazines'. I read several party magazines. All of them existing only in my imagination.
I know these won a lot of awards, but they're just complete and utter bollocks. Plastic hands poking through drains made to look like jails? First off it looks like the people are trapped down the drains, then they have to crassly write 'wrong opinion' on the fingers, then you're supposed to give a shit. But what's it really saying? Something about the ubiquity of wrongful imprisonment? But wrongful imprisonment isn't really ubiquitous. If it were, we'd know about it, negating the need for these scammy examples of award-whoring bullshit, I mean ambient ads.
I always enjoy trying to find the creatives in the photos of ambient work. It’s like watching a Hitchcock film.
This all relates to your previous post on why awards just aren’t respected that much anymore.Especially by a younger generation. Oldies seem obsessed.
That obsession, young shaver-me-lad, is what made the work better and created a cult of creativity that made the wages higher.
Obsession gone=work shit=low respect for creativity=obsession gone etc.
economist
know what’s round the corner?
complete with hitchcockian appearance
that nike ambient ad has axe chocolate man in it. nice one.
The art direction bit of the annual was mainly just ads for stuff like nabs and other ad agency type things, which in my eyes is cheating.
yes, it did look good, but go and make a paying clients ads look good. instead of the shite that gets produced at the minute.
i think you’ve just just chosen some shit examples.
i think we all need these to keep us a bit sane.
yes, it’s annoying, when the creatives and their friends are admiring their own work.
but it’s the ‘just go out there and do it’ bit they i admire.
have you never done any, ben?
digital is the new ambient.
“But what’s it really saying? Something about the ubiquity of wrongful imprisonment? But wrongful imprisonment isn’t really ubiquitous. If it were, we’d know about it […]”
yes.
it depends on the size of the frame. while wrongful imprisonment for a “wrong opinion” might not be ubiquitous in, say, the uk at the moment, it definitely is if you look at the world as a whole. that holistic view shit, you know.
i think the amnesty work is really great. i could go on for hours why, but i spare you this.
I have seen that amnesty international one before but I never realised what a great idea it is until today!!
Having “wrong” and “opinion” tattooed there is a great added bonus when you flip someone the double middle finger.
Good point but Benjamin, but what I mean is that obsession crossed and line and led to scam. Neil French and his place in Singapore winning awards for beer clients that didn’t even exist. And did he get rewarded. Yep ! He came back from exile in Singapore to be Creative Director of WPP. Leading to plenty of others from that region following in his footsteps and leading to a culture of scam, more at the very top, rather than the bottom of our industry. I mean awards are still being handed out for Scrabble ads and GreenPeace ads.Until Fiat and Dunlop, Kit Kat and BA are winning them again creativity won’t be respected, because what we’re rewarding isn’t creative- it’s just scam.
There was a wooden sign that said Baby Bio or something in the Book a few years ago.
And according to some photographs the pole got taller and taller as time passed by.
Except when you looked at the markings on the wood you could tell that they started with the tall pole and then sawed it down for the ‘earlier’ shots.
How the fuck can juries be so gullible?
As long as juries keep awarding this shite with metal people will keep doing them. Many clients see this work and justifiably think we are a pack of award obsessed cock knuckles.
That’s what you are, obviously.
erm, righto, whatever you say genius.
Darling, genius here. Don’t you think it is a weensy bit ridiculous to see awards as a benchmark of quality and the metal as something aspirational if what gets awarded is, as you say, shite? Are awards a sign of insecurity – looking for approval amongst your peers? Or are they a sign of obsessive-compulsive disorder? What does it say about the jurors who reign supreme on their pedestals? Who the fuck knows.