If This Is A Blog Then What's Christmas?

Here’s the new Diesel ad:

For those of you who are very young, here’s why it’s so pisspoor:

(Thanks, L.)

Last week a representative of an internet seeding company sent me the following email:

Hi Ben,

Great blog! I am currently working on a campaign with Frosty Jack’s and think your blog, with its interest in new adverts and anything a bit different could work really well with it.

I know what you’re thinking! Frosty Jack’s is perhaps not considered the conventional choice of cider and this is precisely the theme of the campaign. Consider Frosty Jack’s for what it is. No they’re not the biggest selling cider, on the top of everyone’s list but they know what they are, and they’re proud of it!

Would you be interested in working with us on this campaign? If so, please let me know and I can send you some more details.

Many thanks,

To which I replied:

Hi XXXXXX,

Interesting email.

What would you mean by ‘working with us on this campaign’?

Thanks,

Ben

The seeder replied:

Hi Ben,

Thanks for getting back to me. We were hoping you might post a link to our video, embed it into your blog or discuss the content as it is fairly relevant to your readership. The links to the videos are:

Here

and

Here

You can also find out more about the campaign if you like on Frosty Jack’s website as:

http://www.frostyjacks.co.uk/

What do you think? Thanks again for your help.

At this point I didn’t get back to her. I think the ads are really quite poor, but my mum told me that if you can’t think of anything good to say about someone, just ignore them until they go away.

The seeder then got back to me this afternoon:

Dear Ben,

I emailed you last week about our Frosty Jack’s campaign. Apologies for writing again so soon, I just wanted to follow up on the information I sent you to see what your thoughts were on it all? Do you think you might be interested in writing about the videos or campaign? We would really love to get you involved asap as the campaign is all moving on quite quickly. Please let me know what you think.

To which I replied:

Sorry I didn’t get back to you sooner.

Having watched the ads, I didn’t really think they were that great. Would you like me to blog them anyway? I could see what my readers think of them if that’s any use.

She then replied:

Hi Ben,

It would be brilliant if you could blog them! We just want to get them seen really, then people can discuss them and make their minds up about them. All opinions are welcome! Thank you so much for your help. I look forward to seeing them on your blog

Well, there you go.

I’ve done my bit. Do you like them or did you, like me, think that they were pretty shite then swear never ever to go within a thousand miles of a single drop of Frosty Jack?

There’s a website to which I have just been alerted which might interest you.

It’s called whatareyouworth and has collected interviews with some smart thinkers including Dave Trott, Rory Sutherland and Flo Heiss.

So it’s kind of like TED, but smaller and less worthy.

It seeks to ‘prove the value of creative thinking to a changing Britain in a changing decade’, which, if I’m really honest, I don’t think it does (that is quite an ambitious ambition and I can’t imagine too many of the people who check out the site will need persuading of such a thing), but it’ll while away a few minutes and possibly provoke a few edifying thoughts.

And you can’t say fairer than that on a Tuesday night/Wednesday morning.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uco41pOKeJg

I mentioned in an earlier post about toilets and lunch that I have worked in something like 15 agencies in the last couple of years.

Because of that I’ve actually noticed a few other things unconnected with lavs and sandwiches.

For example, the number of racial minorities in agencies varies enormously. Although not particularly high anywhere, in most places it seems not-inconsistent with the proportions of the nation as a whole.

I don’t know about you, but I think that living in cosmopolitan old London has given me a somewhat skewed perception of how many people in this country are ‘white’ or ‘other’. The 92.1% of the country who have trouble dancing properly and go a fetching shade of red on holiday is actually higher than the proportions I’ve seen in some agencies, while I’m surprised that less than 5% of the country originate from the Indian subcontinent (I know most of them ‘originate’ from the UK, but you know what I mean).

Whether or not this suggests advertising is an all-encompassing industry of which Malcolm X would be proud is a matter of debate, but the next question is whether those minorities are working in the more prestigious jobs or just in the shit ones like planning.

Ha ha…but seriously folks, how does your agency stack up, mix-wise? And what about those of you that work abroad? Are Indian agencies troubled by the number of whites they employ? Are agencies in the Palestine less inclined to hire Jewish account directors? Answers on the back of a 12-inch of Ebony and Ivory please.

I’ve just finished The Fry Chronicles. It’s an entertaining read, hampered somewhat by Mr. Fry’s tendency  to go on and on and on about how crushingly insecure he felt even when he was the toast of Cambridge/The West End/Broadway etc. Yes, Stephen, we get the point: you need to be somewhat self-deprecating about your achievements, but one explanation of that would be plenty.

Anyway, as I tend to do when reading books of this kind, I marked a couple of passages (so did Stephen) that might interest you:

‘Novelty and originality do not come from the invention of new milieus, new genres or modalities. They come from the how and the who, not the what’.

Another dig at digivangelism. ‘Nuff said. But then we have a slightly more interesting point:

‘Intoxicating drinks disguised as milkshakes and soda pops exist for those whose taste buds haven’t grown up enough to enjoy the taste of alcohol. As in food so in the wider culture. Anything astringent, savoury, sharp, complex, ambiguous and difficult is ignored in favour of the colourful, the sweet, the hollow and the simple.’

Have you noticed how many ads, especially those aimed at adults, seem to be full of exactly the kind of thing Stephen is talking about? Cartoon characters, primary colours, dumbass soundtracks and fuckbrained, educationally subnormal voiceovers that seem tailor made for children or morons.

I guess people will justify this by saying that such pappy blancmange is more likely to appeal to more people, but to what extent? Darker, more polarising, more ambiguous ads are far rarer, but also far more memorable:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9HX5Eou6U8&feature=PlayList&p=8F3DCB207BB5D163&index=0

Why don’t adults who are talking to other adults produce work that is more, well, adult?

Instead of aiming for the lowest common denominator, why not try appealing to grown-ups with brains?

If movies aimed at kids can take a chance on something like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1e26efPnUY

why can’t ads aimed at grown ups?

Or, where do good ideas come from:

Video Essay on David Fincher’s title sequences.

Don’t freerun (Thanks, M.)

Video essay on the nature of theft vs inspiration, with plenty of Zeppelin.

Every year Campaign sends a questionnaire to some people that they consider to be the most significant in the land we call ad.

If you’d like to pretend you are one of them, here are this year’s questions, with one red herring that I popped in for a ‘laugh’. Can you spot it?

First name:

Last Name:

Company:

Job Title:

Work Phone:

Work e-mail:

When and where were you born:

What are your favourite media (including TV programme, newspaper, magazine, website):

What is your favourite app:

What would be your idea next job:

What’s your favourite ad campaign from this year:

When did you last snort a fucking fat line of charlie at an awards do:

Who are your three best friends in adland:

Who (in the industry) do you owe most to for your success and why:

Why do people like you:

What’s your greatest extravagance:

What (apart from children) is your greatest achievement:

What’s your idea of perfect happiness:

What do you think will be the biggest change in advertising over the next five years:

Dunno about you, but to me those seem like quite dull questions.

Do you have any better? Of course you do. That’s what the comments section is for.