Trendy planes and brand placement

CO2 kills

Turned out this was a campaign with 300 gas guzzlers tagged along the King's Road.

theartschool

Just had a really great workshop with M&C "Nothing is Impossible" Saatchi superman Graham Fink. Running it through his production company thefinktank it gave a little insight into the advertising industry in a head flipped kind of way. Oh and did I mention it all took place in the Grand Committee Room in the Houses of Parliament?

To begin with we had a guided tour from Damian Morris MP. In the members chamber are statues of four prime ministers. Churchill standing next to the House of Lords had a shiny toe resulting from being touched by anyone who believes it brings good luck.

The workshop began with Graham standing everyone up to hum middle C. Middle C apparently runs through the universe. When done you feel your entire head vibrating. We learnt a little about Parliament from Damian Collins, every word is recorded, and the system carried out in the Houses is an archaic and physical one.

Anyway, following that a showreel was shown of bits of killer advertising:

Cosmopolitan 'Can't remember the line but it was damn good' -

Dunlop 'You'll be surprised how much you miss Dunlop' - This showed the level of humour in tv ads at the time. A good example of really preparing what you need, especially as this was pre-post production.

The Samaritans 'Yes' - The idea for this ad came when listening to Pink Floyd's Wall in the car on the way to work. It was the music that struck a chord and the visual followed. They did not think they would be able to use the music itself but a serious of fortunate events made it all possible.

Intercity - All about being able to relax. This one is also nice.
Youth Opportunities - 'Help them help themselves' Using an emotional metaphor, this shamlessly manipulative ad creates an emotional response to a complex issue. Drowning students with potential employers looking over and watching. Just employ them!

XXXX 'Australians wouldn't give a XXXX for anything else' - the strength of a good campaign is when it can go on and on with the killer endline.

Pilkington - watch it before reading. This is an example of why you should always be the last person in the office. The brief came through on Christmas Eve and Simon picked up the brief. He said whenever he had an idea he would stand up and speak it. If embarrassed to hear it yourself you know when it is a bad idea.

Prince Charles...summarised in two columns - a copy ad. that has the text sitting in between two old columns. Lovely little idea

BA - The ad from 1987 came from the time before post production. Graham suggested using meditation if ideas are not following. "I looked at the carpet and thought of it in 2 seconds." He also recommends being a real pain in the arse if you want your ideas to happen

BT - keep the world talking featuring Stephen Hawking. Stephen agreed to this ad on two conditions. 1. There was a bursey for a stand out student. 2. He got given a really hot curry. Rumour has it astro physicists eat hot curries to get the juices following up in the mind.

Dixons

Curry's - an example of Nothing is Impossible. The Star Wars idea could have been ditched, however it was followed through and it happened.

I will finish this later

Off Piste on Huck

I had a mention on the Huck magazine blog. If you 'like it' and 'tweet it' I'll be very happy. It is on the Creative Review feed here.

Drawing on books

I went along to the Bolingbroke book store to see Grandad sign a couple of his decade books. Jolly nice evening.

Snow more days!

A couple of days ago I was thinking about the snow, as most people are. But it has now been three years that we have seen snow stop everyone in their tracks. Surely the UK is going to have to start some kind of 'get people into work' system that works.. and don't call me Shirley.

This link popped up on bbc yesterday - Why do schools shut when it snows?

Essentially I guess it asks the same question, why do things close when it is snowing? Unfortunately when it snowed once every 8 years and there was a killer Snow Day to be had by all. As it has become an annual 'thing' the whole idea of a Snow Day might eventually be lost.