If This Is A Blog Then What's Christmas?

Here’s the new VW Polo ad:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeKuFs0KxO8

I’ve been watching a lot of the Leveson enquiry, so I feel as if I ought to lean over that desk like Robert Jay QC, smile sweetly, and ask the following questions:

‘Were you aware that ads depicting someone’s life through the ages have become somewhat prevalent in recent years?’

‘Mm, and the cosily idealised middle-class warmth… Was that a tone of voice you felt that we really hadn’t seen enough of lately?’

‘And did it occur to you at any time that you could finish this ad off with any one of 473 different logos, and still have it work perfectly well?’

‘I put it to you that although the ad is beautifully crafted and firmly effective, both its tone and content could be accused of being somewhat derivative. I would further contend that its attempt to get the viewer to blub gently into his or her PG Tips is a little transparent.’

‘Don’t you think that something like this would have had a better chance of being different, memorable and, ironically, moving?’

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEVvlyHQVjs

Rod McLeod, head of marketing at Volkswagen, said: “As well as reinforcing all of the ‘small but tough’ qualities that people love about the Polo, we thought it was important to tell a story which drew people in emotionally and which viewers could connect with.”

All the small but tough qualities? You mean smallness and toughness? And where was the smallness reinforced? Maybe that reinforcement was very, very small, doubly reinforcing the smallness that people love so much.

And Rod thought it was important to tell a story which viewers could connect with. Not a story that viewers couldn’t connect with? Come on… stories that people can’t connect with are fucking great. Here’s one: A man went to the treehouse to suddenly jam sandwich a cat. Then ker-pow, ker-pow lemon ostrich chick dead of night banjo.

I think Rod is a genius.

Walt Disney’s Taxi Driver (thanks, P):

Movie style (thanks, J).

The making of Goodfellas (thanks, V):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhC5vc2U5-w&feature=related

Meet the memes.

NWA and Easy-E albums with just the swearing (thanks, A).

Beautifully animated BAFTA-winning short (thanks, P):

Maurice Sendak, RIP:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZTQib7G2Hs&feature=player_embedded

MCA, RIP (it’s been a bad week; thanks, P):

http://vimeo.com/41657911

You want to see tough? Here’s tough (thanks, F):

Anti-marijuana ad likely to induce psychosis (thanks, A):

Jack Nicholson preparing for his ‘Here’s Johnny’ scene from The Shining (thanks, A).

More funny Amazon reviews (thanks, R).

Skate Ipsum (thanks, P).

And finally, I’m organising a dads introduction to the Landmark Forum on the 21st of May. If you are a dad, or you know a dad, come along or send them along. It’ll be led by a dad, and you can talk about dad things. Or choose not to. My dad’s coming all the way from LA. to see what it’s all about. How exciting. Email me if you want to come and I’ll save you a seat (bwmkay@gmail.com).

Regular readers will know that I very rarely cover the subject of radio.

That’s because I don’t listen to the radio (except for the utterly wonderful Sirius station Classic Vinyl when in LA).

Also, almost nobody gives a shit about radio advertising.

But that’s a bit of a shame, isn’t it? After all, radio is less scrutinised by clients, and because many of your peers don’t care about it, it’s fertile territory for awards (if you’re into that kind of thing). You also get to meet very famous people and tell them what to do for an hour. Wot larks!

A couple of months back I met the lovely Clare Bowen from the RAB, who pointed me in the direction of this initiative they’ve set up with D&AD. So check it out and get inspired.

Also, news reaches me of this radio campaign for Women’s Aid. It’s rather hard-hitting (pardon the pun), but what interests me is the fact that the team used a TV director (QI’s Dominic Savage) to get the right performances from the actors (or maybe he beat the shit out of them).

I find that interesting because the best radio ads I ever did also involved getting some outside help to plump up the casting and direction. If not for the boys at Eardrum, I think the ads would never have made it into D&AD. So next time you get a radio brief, why not see if some of the best in the business can lend you a hand. You have nothing to lose but the shit ads you might have made without them.

If you’re amongst the people I follow on Twitter or one of my Facebook friends you’re bound to have seen one of the oblique online ads for Prometheus. Every time one of them comes out I see it Tweeted or posted by several people, then discussed to death on sites such as Mashable.

Here they are:

First, a fake TED talk:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7YK2uKxil8

Then an ad for the android:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaJD8cGfZCQ

Then the last of several trailers:

And the meta-website.

For those of us who are interested in film and advertising, it’s been fascinating to watch the campaign unfold. I feel as if Prometheus has barely been off my online menu for the last six months. The idea of a future TED talk is a really clever one, as is the android ad, but the really smart thing is how well they fit with the film itself. I don’t think the same approach would work for just any movie, after all, it’s quite arch and knowing, something that would probably not suit a straightforward blockbuster, such as The Avengers or The Dark Knight Rises; nor do I feel that it would fit a smaller indie – that level of marketing power and knowhow would seem at odds with the reduced ambitions of a lower-budget movie.

So as an ‘intelligent’ blockbuster its marketing mirrors the (supposed) experience of the film itself, whilst giving an intriguing taste of what we can expect when we go to see it. Then people can feel all early-adopter about spreading the stuff around the net (for free).

Sounds like a big win for RSA.

(One small point: I’m still not convinced that I want to see it. As a huge fan of Alien and Aliens, I’d have thought I’d be salivating by now, but then my BFI Imax priority booking email came through last week and I did nothing about it. The trailer has left me unconvinced, so I’m waiting for the one piece of marketing Prometheus can’t do anything about: word of mouth.)

A tribute to film noir (thanks, A):

Funny sign.

John Peel’s record collection.

Why the economy is doomed (thanks, P).

Scariest ad of all time (thanks, A):

I don’t know why anyone would be interested in this, but here’s Kate Upton dancing in a bikini for Terry Richardson:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCNGO4F9TXE&feature=player_embedded

Another great FAIL compilation (thanks, V):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=1pBseolI2HI

Very funny (and dangerous) suitcase decals.

Gifs of advertising life (thanks, P).

Charming, nicely shot…

I’m not a huge fan of dogs, so, y’know, there’s that.

But that aside… Enjoy.

I love everything about this: the clothes, the beards, the individuality, the attention to detail, the beauty, the tableware, the way it’s shot, the idea that 25 men would come together for a lunch based on what they wear…

But I have an internal tussle about the idea of clothes having any kind of importance. Once you’re warm, they’re just decoration, but then that opinion is somewhat disingenuous. Of course we imbue clothing with enormous importance; it creates a large part of our initial impression of every single person we meet. But the celebration of clothing reminds me too sharply of how much we obsess over things that have so little inherent value.

Then again, the only TV show I watch regularly is Fashion Police (if any of you think I’m joking, I am deadly serious), so I get to spend an hour a week bringing that tussle to fever pitch while listing to Joan Rivers being catty about Hollywood stars and their genitalia.

I suppose Western life has just come so many miles beyond the bottom rungs of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs that the only things that have any importance are those which don’t have any intrinsic value. Many of us just assume the basics are taken care of then continue to scrabble higher and higher up that pyramid until we’re caring about the most ridiculous nonsense available.

And if you’re shaking your head at this, wondering how anyone could be so shallow, ask yourself if you’ve ever cared about the result of a football match.

I’m reading ‘The Story of the Streets’, Mike Skinner’s autobiographical account of the rise and relative disappearance of his band.

It’s pretty interesting because Mike is perceptive, honest and incisive:

‘I think everyone who does something creative  has got some kind of flaw or insecurity that helps drive them to do what they do. As a general rule, artists value themselves quite low; that’s why they want to add value by doing things. Weaknesses often become your biggest strengths. People with no insecurities don’t tend to make very good art’

Well, he can’t speak for every great artist, but you can see where he’s coming from. Your weaknesses don’t have to involve drink, drugs or shouting, but the idea that people who strive for anything are doing so to fill a hole makes a fair bit of sense. But is it the case that the greater the weakness, the greater the striving for success? After all, if you’ve got a big hole it’s going to take more to fill it (so to speak). Makes you wonder what lies behind Charles Saatchi or John Hegarty.

‘The fundamental truth that underlies this situation (being able to get by on reputation if your work is a bit shit) is that no one can effect change independently of other people. It’s possible to trigger change – you can be the catalyst – but that change only comes about as a result of people acting according to their own free will, and no one else has any control over that. You might think governments have infinite power, but they’re pretty powerless in reality; all they can do is hope to make decisions people agree with, and then try to make it look like they should get the credit for that.’

I’d never thought of it like that. We all know that the homogenisation of politics is pretty ridiculous these days (in the first mayoral election since the riots Boris and Ken are arguing over different types of bus), but they’re all just trying to tell us what we want to hear. As much as you might disagree with many decisions the government makes, those decisions would not get by without a large chunk of the electorate approving of them. How sad.

‘The other taboo is the idea that any aspect of creativity can be taught and learnt rather than divinely decreed.’

I’ve written posts about that before: the idea that we’re all capable of acquiring 99% of anyone else’s creativity through dedication and hard work. But that doesn’t mean the opinions of planners and account people’s are necessarily worth listening to, after all, they haven’t done the work, but I’d hasten to suggest that most creatives haven’t either.

‘The success of A Grand Don’t Come For Free made me realise that there’s only one way of reaching a certain type of person, and that’s by being big. You’re just not gonna reach them by any other means… The truth is there’s a wider audience which you’ll only have a chance of connecting with once you’ve reached a certain level of recognisability. It makes no difference if what you do is perfectly calculated to appeal to them; if it doesn’t come through the right channels they won’t notice it.’

Again, not something I’d ever really thought of. Have you ever had that moment where you find a YouTube clip that’s had 600,000 views and you have no idea why or how? Or your own clip has failed to make it past 10,000 views? Well, success begets success. It’s like when there’s a surge of opinion in all the right places for the quality of an ad: that opinion then becomes the mainstream; people are less inclined to speak against it and the snowball keeps on rolling… All the way to those guys who don’t give a shit about anything until several million other people do. The world is not made of early adopters or people (like me) who can never now by Beats By Dre headphones because they are repelled by their ubiquity.

I’m only halfway through, so there may be more interesting points to come, but that’ll do for a Monday.

Read the reviews of Veet for men (thanks, S).

What happens when you don’t know how to spell Cologne? (Thanks, J.)

Thug FAIL:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ufdlOj1SbVo

Worldwide penis size map (thanks, J).

Photoshop celebrities into your party photos.

Werner Herzog’s amazing letter to his cleaning lady (thanks, C).

Gondry’s crazy cars for The Blenheim Gang (thanks, T).

The best way to get timesheets done.

Dicking around at 2500fps (thanks, D):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=lUZ-e2SkeMI#!

Fuck you, broccoli (thanks, J).

(Via @awoooooga.)

Apparently there was a Saatchi-wide presentation in front of all the Proctor and Gamble bigwigs. All the Saatchi CDs had to answer the same question. After this happened, Dave had to go to hospital to have his tongue surgically removed from his cheek.