If This Is A Blog Then What's Christmas?

I’m sorry to mention another Amnesty ad in my series of charity ads that I don’t think do the tin-rattlers justice, but it’s a cause that I feel very strongly about.  Apart from a bloke who plays the penny whistle on the Metropolitan Line, the only deserving cause I give money to is Amnesty International.  It’s kind of a selfish thing, really: they help people in the position I’d least like to find myself in.

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On the occasions that I’ve been given a brief that mentions ‘early adopters’, I always think of these people with some degree of envy.

They’re the kind of trendy bastards who know when and where to find the super-limited-edition, obscure-Japanese-artist-designed Nike trainers; they know where the secret gigs of the tiny bands are taking place a year before they blow up on MySpace, and they went on holiday to Iceland when I thought it was made entirely of ice.

In short, they don’t really exist, but they made me feel a little insecure.

But not any more.

It might be something to do with the splurge of the internet, but it doesn’t feel like anyone’s personal taste is better or worse than anyone else’s. The received wisdom is that the long-tail fragmentation of people’s interests and its validity has meant that the superiority and inferiority of individual opinion has all but dissipated. Hooray.

But that’s not all: recent stampedes in the direction of the Next Big Thing have not necessarily resulted in a great endorsement for getting in on the ground floor.

For example, the absolute, 100%, complete fucking NEED to do the digital thing has definitely cooled. I’m certainly not saying that digital is neither cool, big, or relevant (of course, it’s all those things); it’s just that it’s not the THING YOU MUST FUCKING DO RIGHT FUCKING NOW that it was said to be a year ago. Instead, it’s seeping in gently and relentlessly like the long-term thing it’s going to be, but you can hang back and watch where it’s heading for a little while yet.

Ditto (and somewhat related) is Second Life. Does anyone know if Leo Burnett or BBH’s agencies are still offering advertising in the virtual world where men pretend to be children so that they can be ‘abused’ by virtual adults? Did any of you buy Second Life real estate, cursing your luck at not being able to secure the prime beachfront location?  How many T-shirts did you purchase with Second Life currency just so your avatar could look like a groovy prick?

And then there’s the mass exodus of cool agency life to the East End of London. The current residents are Mother, W&K and…and…I’d name a few digital shops but I can’t remember which ones are there. The East End is brilliant, stimulating and a breath of fresh air from the stagnant Central London locations of the rest of adland, but that still hasn’t tempted anyone else to make the move (Grey headed in that direction, but didn’t quite finish the journey).

So, the lesson here is go your own way. Or go the same way as everyone else. Or wait and see.

Just don’t bother adopting early. For every John Lennon, Leo Tolstoy and Malcolm X, there’s a…bunch of adoptees who have been, frankly, crap.

It’s good to see four-and-a-half minutes of well-written, well-observed, well-directed amusement advertising a department store:

Alas, though, it’s not quite funny or interesting enough to demand multiple viewings, but it’s certainly a noble attempt.

For want of a better word, ‘fresh’ is a complimentary adjective when applied to milk, early 80s hip-hop and ads.

It’s obvious, really: ads need to stand out (or maybe they don’t), so a novelty of look or feel , or freshness, must be a helpful attribute (watch it to the end*):

However, what about ads where familiarity or nostalgia are the driving force?

Of course, there are fresh elements to the style of the Courage ad, and I imagine that in 1979 it stood out like dog’s nuts, but it helps us to see that a desperate, grasping, neophilia can blind us to the benefits of comfort in what we know. Take that Levi’s ad: its soundtrack and directorial style are fresh, but it exists in the depression-era Deep South that feels familiar to us from movies like Bonnie and Clyde.

So, freshness is good, but it needs to be placed in a context where it can be anchored to something we already know.

That helps accentuate the novelty and leaves us comfortable in the parts we recognise.

*Rumour has it that this was the version entered by mistake at D&AD, costing it a black pencil.

So I love this ad:

It’s just great to see a ‘how did they do that?’ jobbie in this day and age.

At first I thought it was real, then I thought they must have posted the coloured markers in afterwards, then I had a look on the net and the general vibe is that it’s real.

A fantastic, lateral solution to the brief ‘sell Guitar Hero 4’ (in a way that will go viral).

Hats off.

“The Client,” said the Dean.  ‘The Client.  Think of that above all.  He’s the one to live in the house you build.  Your only purpose is to serve him.  You must aspire to give the proper artistic expression to his wishes.  Isn’t that all one can say on the subject?”

At the end of September I asked what the best UK ad this year was.

There’s an email doing the production company rounds that was sent by a US agency producer to a bunch of reps.  The friend who sent it removed all the names, but it’s still pretty funny. Although not as funny as the reply:

I love this ad:

Tony Kaye has shot a promo for The Hours using Damien Hirst as Art Director and Sienna Miller as whiney totty. (A word of warning: watching this will waste over 400 seconds of your life that you could spend more constructively.  How clean are your toenails? )

What’s wrong with it?

Well, for a start it is dreadfully boring. Think of all the great promos you’ve loved in the past and compare them to this dreary mess.  Fancy sitting through it again?