(Thanks, P.)

I don’t think anyone’s done this with an ad before: taken a brilliant commercial and extended it by adding scenes both during and at the end. So now we know where the moustachioed Andy Williams fan was heading:

I know it’s only Monday, but the vernal equinox meant that I didn’t do a SFTW last week, and I have a bunch of shit in my inbox that needs curling out onto the blogosphere.

First is this excellent promo from MIA. If you are of the ginger persuasion it might strike a chord deep in your heart (thanks, D).

Then there are a couple of blogs you might want to check out:

Steve Paskin’s art-directionally based round up of interesting visual stuff.

And then Diccon and Al’s snogdogfrog. Wider subject matter but with no less depth.

Last, I should point out that Kate Moss, the one who ruined many an ad blog with her foul musings, is now on Twitter. Don’t Follow – you’ll only encourage her.

Why is this good?

Well, I might be at the appropriate time of life, and I absolutely love the brand and company of John Lewis, so I can’t help but get a warm fuzzy feeling about this.

But that kind of reaction is rare for me, and I think it has a lot to do with the craft. The direction is perfect (as Andy Gray would say, take a bow Dougal Wilson) and the track is a thing of beauty. The casting is great and the scenarios are compelling and recognisable without feeling cliched.

The technique feels somewhat familiar (I think that one-take thingie has been done a few times, but I can’t think of specific examples right now. Thank you Mr Gin and Mrs Tonic) but I don’t really care. I think originality can be overrated, and I’d definitely rather have something excellent and mildly familiar than something shite and ragingly original.

Well done, people involved.

Have a lovely weekend x

(Thanks, K.)

This week’s death of Guru (do you know that near the end things were so bad he required a Daily Operation?) made me think about the incredible concentration of quality that hip-hop gave us in the early nineties.

Before that time I wasn’t much of a rap fan, although living with a brother who was meant that I experienced the best of what the eighties had to offer (Grandmaster Flash, Public Enemy, Run DMC, NWA, Erik B and Rakim etc. I remember loving ‘White Lines’ at the age of ten and my mum asking me if I knew what it was about. I had no idea, so she told me. I’ve been addicted to cocaine ever since). But whatever happened around the turn of the decade, there did seem to be a non-stop surge of new and brilliant work that has yet to be matched.

First, I could mention the great artists who produced their best work at that time: Dr Dre’s The Chronic; Nas’s Illmatic; Snoop’s Doggystyle; Death Certificate and Amerikkka’s Most Wanted by Ice Cube; Paul’s Boutique by The Beastie Boys; Don’t Sweat The Technique by Eric B and Rakim; The Low End Theory and Midnight Marauders by A Tribe Called Quest; Daily Operation and Step In The Arena by Gang Starr

Then there’s the 80s MCs who brought out excellent new tracks that matched the best of what they had done before: New Jack Hustler by Ice T; What’s It All About and Down With The King by Run DMC; Juice (Know The Ledge) by Eric B and Rakim; Always Into Something by NWA; Mama Said Knock You Out by LL Cool J; Summertime by DJ Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince; Headbanger by EPMD; Duck Down and Sound Of Da Police by KRS 1 and So What ‘Cha Want by The Beastie Boys

We also had the breakthroughs of such artists as Pete Rock and CL Smooth, Redman, The Wu-Tang Clan, A Tribe Called Quest, Digital Underground, 3rd Bass, Main Source, 2Pac, OutKast, Common, The Pharcyde, The Geto Boys, Cypress Hill, Naughty By Nature and Notorious BIG.

And the One-Hit Wonders: Slam by Onyx; Rebirth of Slick (Cool Like Dat) by Digable Planets; Let It All Hang Out by A.D.O.R; Fuck Compton by Tim Dogg; I Gotta Man by Positive K; Gangsta Bitch by Apache; Jump Around by House of Pain; Chief Rocka by Lords of the Underground; 93 Til Infinity by Souls of Mischief; Regulate by Warren G; One To Grow On by UMC’s; Flavor Of The Month by Black Sheep; Mistadobalina by Del The Funkee Homosapien, Sometimes I Rhyme Slow by Nice And Smooth etc.

Obviously there are many others that I haven’t mentioned, but for me this era was to hip-hop as the late sixties/early seventies were to rock.

And I don’t think I’m the only one who believes this. When I went to see Fish Tank last year, the main character was a sixteen-year-old girl who practices dancing in an empty council flat. Oddly enough, the only music she dances to is early nineties hip-hop.

I hope you enjoy some of the above tracks.

I know I did.

(Thanks, S.)

It’s funny because it’s true. Integrated campaign films are so often packed with bullshit that I’ve stopped caring.

In other ‘news’, hats off to D&AD for popping their 2010 pre-pencil results online here.

Also, you’ve probably noticed that the vast majority of people think the Orange Cinema ads should now die. Please let it be so.

Perhaps by the time you’ve read this I will have thought of another poll.

Never mind David Cameron, I just think it’s about time the British public shoved a rolled up copy of The Sun back into the ageing, puckered anus of Rupert Sodding Murdoch.

With that in mind…

Thanks to Naughty Creative for pointing this out (oddly, I got the Twitter alert from Media Guardian and, despite a general propensity to watch any old crap to kill a minute or two, I just thought, ‘Oh, that sounds like rubbish,’ and ignored it).

It can be seen here.

I think my instinct was right. It’s one of those boring old ads where a city of people becomes amazed at something. They start smiling and snapping it with their camera phones – you know the drill. This time they’re watching really large banks of Samsung 3D TVs that show some 3D stuff that’s is, quite frankly, dull. This time, however, it also has the indeterminate gloss of pan-Euro nothingness that makes its (apparently) genuine ‘thrills’ look fake.

NC also pointed out that the credit for ad goes not to any creatives from the agency (CHI), but the Marketing Director:

‘Samsung’s campaign has been masterminded by the electronics manufacturer’s marketing director, Mikah Martin-Cruz, the executive behind the famous “Paint” and “Play-Doh” commercials for Sony’s Bravia TV.

“The campaign really captures the spirit of 3D TV and brings to life the amazing experience the technology can deliver,” said Martin-Cruz.’

I wonder what he did to mastermind it. Perhaps he wrote this piece of shit. Congrats, Mr. Martin-Cruz, you’ve made a vanilla blancmange of an ad. You may be ‘the executive behind the famous “Paint” and “Play-Doh” commercials for Sony’s Bravia TV,’ but that smacks of those movie trailers that say, ‘From the Executive Producer of Bridget Jones’s Diary’. Why would this connection cause you to give a shit? And anyway, weren’t there other clients behind ‘Paint’ and Play-Doh’? And didn’t Juan Cabral chip in with a few suggestions?

To be honest, all this article does is make Mr. Martin-Cruz look like a bit of a desperate twat, a little toddler jumping around with his hands in the air because he’s done a really smashing poo.

Well, congrats, Mr. M-C, a poo has been done and now we all know who’s responsible.

(Via The Grumpy Brit.)

Why do people make these things? Really? I have no idea why people would willingly, enthusiastically want to look like giant, grade-A, 24-carat, nailed on fuckwits. Isn’t life hard enough without going out of your way to make people across the word look at you and think, ‘What a humongous bell-end. I’d sooner eat a crack baby than spend a millisecond in the company of that utter prat’?

If any of you are gearing up to make one of these for the summer, or perhaps you’re thinking ahead to Christmas, just remember that you are exactly what Bill Hicks had in mind:

By the way, if anyone here is in marketing or advertising…kill yourself. Thank you. Just planting seeds, planting seeds is all I’m doing. No joke here, really. Seriously, kill yourself, you have no rationalisation for what you do, you are Satan’s little helpers. Kill yourself, kill yourself, kill yourself now. Now, back to the show. Seriously, I know the marketing people: ‘There’s gonna be a joke comin’ up.’ There’s no fuckin’ joke. Suck a tail pipe, hang yourself…borrow a pistol from an NRA buddy, do something…rid the world of your evil fuckin’ presence.