If This Is A Blog Then What's Christmas?

Fun-ish kerning game.

Are blackboards in porn correct? (SFW; thanks, J).

Adele has eaten about 200lbs of couch cushion in her lifetime (thanks, CD):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SB_AI0ZGDmI&feature=player_embedded

Brad Pitt getting run over a lot (thanks, P):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wUq8bH8wiU&feature=youtu.be

The wonderful Richard Madeley song (thanks, J):

Excellent fan-made titles for Tintin.

Get your own Liam Fox business card.

Bill Gates jumps over a chair (thanks, P):

Fascinating look behind the scenes of photojournalism.

Why you should never speak to the police (if you’re American, but it may apply to wherever you are):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8z7NC5sgik&feature=player_embedded

The beauty of the fairytale apocalypse (thanks, P).

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

It’s a bit like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7elPeGwX1nw

But not quite as good.

Here’s the new ad from the people that brought you this absolute classic:

I like it a lot. Well observed, properly made, funny…

But it reminds me of that ad for Reader’s Digest from about fifteen years ago that was made by the wonderful Lee Goulding (and was it with Chips Hardy, father of film star Tom?). It showed a bin enjoying all your winnings – going on holiday etc. – because that’s where you put your ticket for the RD prize draw. I’m sure Lee and Chips would concede that the production values are a little higher here, and I have a feeling that 2011 French creatives may not have remembered and stolen a UK ad from the nineties, but what the hey… I’m just dumping out my thoughts on the internet like so many pointless turds.

I was recently involved in a debate about whether information or entertainment was the most important thing to advertising.

I was on the side of information, but as the debate went on I realised that these are the only two essentials in any ad, in fact any piece of communication.

In its purest form, information tells you something. It might be a reminder of something you already knew or it could be a real eye-opener that changes your thinking 180 degrees. Whichever it is, there is always going to be some form of it in an ad.

There’s obtuse, abstract information that you might find here:

(Budweiser is a good drink to have with your friends or while watching a game of football.)

Or explicit information along these lines:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LApWU34o0eY

(Dyson blah blah blah suction blah blah blah etc.)

But information is always there.

However, it can’t exist without entertainment, which in its purest form is diversion: if you don’t notice something, you can’t be informed by it, so it has to catch the eye/ear/brain in some way.

You might consider the Dyson ad to be dull, but if you were ever aware of it then it entertained you to some degree (possibly a very tiny degree, but a degree nonetheless).

This balance was brought to light in the comments section of the yoghurt wars post I put up last week. Dave Trott wrote:

Ben, I appreciate this is a very old skool pov, but forget brand for a minute. Which one tells you anything about why you should put your hand in your pocket (or purse) and actually exchange cash for that (word that’s fallen out of favour) product?

to which I replied:

Dave, To answer your question: YV; Muller is simply branded entertainment.

But then I think it’s difficult to judge either of these as conduits for persuasion or information, rather than just diversion. I hear Yeo Valley’s words and accept that, as they are organic, they farm in the right way. So far, so exactly what I thought before the ad. Muller tells me nothing, but then we all know it’s low quality yoghurt with a corner of chocolate balls or jam, so I would have been insulted if they tried to suggest there was anything more to it. They have a shit product and that means they have no choice but to try to distract us from that fact. Lipstick on a pig, innit?

The odd thing for me about Yeo Valley is that they add so much ‘entertainment’ to their communication that it almost gets drowned in the bullshit. They have something good to say, but seem to feel that it’s not enough, that they must put lipstick on something that’s already very attractive.

It then struck me that in these days of homogeneity of product, multiplicity of media channels/messages and reduced attention spans, entertainment will always win out. Hardly anyone has anything worth saying, and even if they did, the need to cut through is keenly felt. So you tell people your dairy products are well made but you do it via the medium of a two minute boyband pastiche.

For better or worse I suppose that’s what we’ve come to.

(Interest declared: the CD was my my friend Cam @ Droga 5 Sydney.)

OK, here’s a proper good ad.

Does it make it to the hallowed levels of ‘great’? Not quite, but it is really fucking good:

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

Charming. Not The Slag Of All Snacks quality, but pleasantly amusing.

Which is better?

There’s only one way to find out… FIGHT! (figuratively speaking via the medium of words in the comments section of this post).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBujoJpDxo0

For what it’s worth, I prefer the enormous ambition and insanity of Muller (interest declared: it was done by my friends, Mike and Paul), but I do prefer this Yeo Valley ad to the last one.

I am utterly certain the public will love both to the same extent that the guy in my office who loves Stussy loves Stussy.