If This Is A Blog Then What's Christmas?

Aren’t you always bloody amazed at the indescribable, against-the-odds occurrence of making a good ad?

You come up with a great idea and the first thing that happens is that it goes through the filter of your brain: do I want to make an ad like that? Will that keep the client happy? Will that win me an award? Will the public love it? Etc.

Then your partner has their own set of (possibly completely different) filters that might include wanting to make it closer to his or her speciality (a more visual solution for an AD; more words for a CW). They might also want to go broader with the laughs, older with the cast and more experimental with the director, so you’ll have to deal with all that – perhaps to your liking, perhaps not.

Then it’s the CD, who will have his or her own agenda about what they need to do to keep their job, stop the MD asking why they haven’t won as many awards as last year, or go home early to watch the football. They might know that someone else in the department is doing something similar and will have to choose who gets disappointed. They might have heard the international client in Beijing doesn’t like humour. They might be on the verge of a divorce and just ‘not in the mood’ to deal with your shit today.

Then there’s the account team, who have their own agenda about what they expect, what the client will expect and what will/won’t be an arse to sell.

Then the client gets to run roughshod over all the above. If your script gets to him/her unscathed (or at least in a state that isn’t a complete embarrassment) then you will have to deal with the fact that he/she will have an opinion that comes from a mind which is diametrically opposed to your own. Good luck with that. Then he might pull the entire budget, or, more annoyingly, half of it, so that you have to desperately sew together a silk purse, handbag and matching evening gown from just half a sow’s ear.

Then everyone else will chip in: the TV producer, director, editor, sound engineer etc. And, of course, any of the above might change their mind at any moment, potentially throwing your realigned perceptions into another 180-degree turn.

Then again, it’s just possible that all those little contributions could make your ad better…

You can check out the winners here.

It really confirms what I think we all suspected: last year was a pretty terrible year for UK advertising.

Obviously the British shows, such as BTAA and Creative Circle, wouldn’t show this up, but the One Show and the TV section of D&AD seem in broad agreement that we could have done better.

I wonder what Cannes and the Clios will hold.

It only seems to be showing half the picture. If you double click, you can get a much bigger image in YT.

Can someone tell me how to improve my educationally subnormal embedding skillz?

Sorry, it works because…

It’s inventive, funny, original (although I’m waiting with bated breath for the YT clip it did or didn’t rip off) and on-brand, with a great, irreverent use of the product.

Then it feels like they needed some kids having a great time because they didn’t think the quirky animal organist was crowd-pleasing enough. You see, he’s fun. What he’s doing is fun. Coke is fun.

And by God we’re going to bash you over the head with that thought even though we don’t have to.

It reminds me of that time about 9-10 years ago when agencies (particularly Mother) would set their ads in a location that was not strictly relevant to the idea just to make them a bit more interesting.

In my opinion, the tactic worked then, and works now. Britain can get really dull, and this ad is a good example of where the exact same script would not work as well if set in Droitwich or Bexley Heath.

And it’s got a giant rubber duck in it.

Like Cactus Kid (which I loved), it’s a bit hatstand for the sake of it, but what the hell; it’s an ad for orange squash (or something). Logic would kill it.

Lack of logic makes it fly.

Instead of this giant heap of unutterable bollocks:

Just to explain: this is an idea that was brought to Nike by the animator/director, James Jarvis, who says, “Rather than a marketing project inititated by Nike, the film was something proposed and produced by myself, and as such I hope represents a much more equal collaboration with a brand.”

So, is that as much of a ‘scam’ as all the ads that creatives bring to their local chip shops and clairvoyants?

Is this where ads are heading? No branding? Anyone can bring a client an ad and (presumably) get paid for it? Sounds like fun…

How big will this one get? It’s a bit gentle to compete with something like Next Level, but if it creates half the buzz for 1/100th the money, it may be worth watching.

Did this happen partly because of the current financial situation?

Did you enjoy it?

By the way, the few of you who voted in the last poll seemed to prefer Veronica.

Says a lot.

Here’s the D&AD In-Book list.

You can pick the sweetcorn out of it, but the only thing that seemed odd to me was the entry of Cadbury’s Eyebrows in 41-60 seconds.

That’s it.

One entry for what most people would consider to be the event ad of the year.

Talking of event ads, here’s a shot from this evening’s T-Mobile extravaganza:

It was a massive karaoke event hosted by Vernon Kay (no relation, although I have met him a few times and he’s really nice). I walked around as the crowd seemed to have a lovely time singing Hey Jude and Is This The Way To Amarillo.

Then I had to leave.

It was a bit rammed and they kept filming me with the second unit.

Which brings us to David Ogilvy.

Odd, really…

You can get one person to write one article about a man that says everything that needs to be said, with just words and (electronic) paper.

Or (and I never tire of watching this) you can marshall 100 members of the current iteration of the greatest civilisation the world has ever known and produce the most dismal, pathetic, foetid puddle of monkey diarrhoea ever committed to YouTube.

Anyway, I hope the above ill-thought-out gubbins passes a bit of pre-bank holiday weekend for you.

x

UPDATE:

Apparently I missed Pink singing in Trafalgar Square.

T-Mobile appears to possess a fuckload of money: