All about the crit...

The return?..

2008-12-27T21:30:00.002Z

Well, just briefly.

We're still at The Union, its all going well (as far as we know) and we're getting work out there, cracking briefs and scoring extra business.

Its great fun. We love it. Bring on 2009.

The suspense....

2008-09-05T11:23:00.006+01:00

From the comments, you all seem to want to know where we're going...

For the month of November we will be residing in The Union, Edinburgh.

Set in an amazing building, with talented people within and work of great quality, we are really looking forward to working with the people at The Union.

For those who may not be familiar with them...

The zoo...

2008-09-03T19:10:00.004+01:00

We went to the zoo... fun!

The congratulations...

2008-09-02T20:15:00.003+01:00

Well we've given ourselves a pat on the back.

You may have noticed a lack of updates over the last few weeks. Thats what hard work does to you!

We had a trip, and a few meetings and we were given a fantastic oppurtunity to prove ourselves. Have fun. Yep you heard it.

So we had fun pushed that direction into our book and the reward came. WE HAVE A PLACEMENT! Its not for a little while but thats ok, its letting us relax a bit more in the safe knowledge that we are going somewhere.

For the first time in our work, our strategies were apparently stronger than our executions. It used to be the other way round! Great!

It was quite a strange day. 1st meeting: very good and positive feedback but they are doing some changes in the next few months and we might be involved.
2nd Meeting: OK more advice but next time we go we'll see the CD
3rd Meeting: Started quite strange, they said we had the basics but needed to inject some fun into our work. But told if we make changes we'll get a placement. We did (It was a bloody fun weekend)

So we'll keep you informed. Another trip next week. Fun Fun Fun!

The Peter Saville Sportswear...

2008-08-27T19:32:00.003+01:00

I recieved a pair of trainers today and theyre a few years old but thankfully are only going to be worn by me in their lifetime! The reason I'm putting them on here is because they've been designed by Peter Saville.

He recieved the brief and of course, thinking differently and thinking simply, Peter Saville went back to basics and got rid of all the adidas branding and added some quirky, intriguing comments on the laces. With the trainers they gave you 5 different pairs of laces and the brief that Saville had to work from.

Here he is talking about them. (He mentions his friend Malcolm Garett in the video, he was our external examiner on our degree!)

The clash...

2008-08-20T17:57:00.002+01:00

Ok, In trying to be environmentally friendly British Gas thought they would send out four free lightbulbs to all their customers (yay free stuff!) We wont mention their catastophic prices though...

Anyway... the other day we got one of those post office 'come and get your parcel' notes. I hadn't ordered anything and my mum couldn't think of anything they ordered so we were rather curious. Then the post person turned up again on the off chance that we had come back. We had.

And it was the lightbulbs. So the 'energy saving' lightbulbs that we were given for free were too big to fit through the letter box and would have required us to drive down to the post office collection center wasting petrol and emitting CO2 into the atmosphere....

p.s haven't a clue who the people are in the picture...it was the only picture available!

The stella stuff...

2008-08-19T10:28:00.004+01:00

With the resigning of Stella, I thought I would post this that Direct Daily wrote about.

Australia wanted to push the sales of Stella to more Bars and restaurants and instead of sending a few brochures they thought a free PSP would be more productive....

Of course it was full of selling material and the wi-fi allowed up-to-date information, but I think it might have spent more time in use for playing games on rather than selling beer.

The Amiga Advertising...

2008-08-13T11:16:00.002+01:00

I was cleaning out some things in the loft last night and found the Old Amiga still up there. Generations of computers have gone by since then, all the way back in 1990.

After the recent release of the ipint from BMB for the iphone/itouch I was quite amused that advertising had sneaked in there. Then when I came across the Amiga last night I suddenly remebered that advertising as a main part of a game had been going on since the Amiga!

Pushover: A small ant arranging coloured tiles in order for them to fall smoothly for him to pass onto the next level. I have no idea what this had to do with crisps but Curly (the big dog character) featured in the opening sequence and as I vaguely remember you picked up packets of Quavers along the way!

Cool Spot: Now I remember this mostly for Virgin advertising but it was actually promoting 7up.
The little red spot running all over levels picking up more spots!

What made me think however, is that advertising doesn't happen like this in more modern games!

The return...

2008-08-12T20:28:00.002+01:00

Scamps back! Apparently he got closed down because people started talking about sex with midgets. Mystery solved!

The Powerade visuals (revised)...

2008-08-12T13:30:00.005+01:00

Well following the theme of things missing today... Scamps blog going missing, Calvin Klein ads being banned and now these beautifully shot Powerade visuals from Mother.

Powerade is the official sponsor of the bejing olympics and even though I don't know what the strategy is yet you can almost tell what it will be just from the visuals.

The Banned Calvin Klein ad...

2008-08-12T12:04:00.003+01:00

This was banned the other day... For a nipple that you see for less than a second....

This happened about 10 years ago on something like a nivea shower cream ad. Are we not past this yet? As long as it goes on after the watershed, whats the problem?

The lack of Scamp....

2008-08-12T11:40:00.003+01:00

Im sure you've all noticed that Scamps blog is being investigated by Blogger. Not good.

But what happened?

Did scowling AD press a wrong button?
Did someone get sick of all the slagging off going on about certain ads and put a complaint in to blogger?
Did Blogger get it wrong?

It happened to Liam at the biscuit barrel, as soon as he started up blogger turned him off for being spam, but they were wrong.

So anyone else got any thoughts on what might have happened over there?

The symmetry...

2008-08-11T13:21:00.006+01:00

A bit late but the Bejing olympic games opening ceremony was something to behold.

Some of the images captured look like the work of M.C Escher or something out of Magic eye.

Beautiful. Thanks to Barry and Troy for pointing this out.

The best use of a saying ever.....

2008-08-11T12:27:00.008+01:00

Good things come to those who wait. One of my favourite campaigns of all time.

Surfer

Dreamer

Tipping point

Fast hands

Evolution

And the one that started it all.... Did I miss any?

The new blogs...

2008-08-10T23:29:00.003+01:00

Happy thought has been blogging for a while but for some reason its taken me all this time to find it. He writes a very good post about whether Juniors should be blogging or not, career beneficial or career suicide?

And the forum for junior ad creatives, something tells me this might not stay this way for long but Ronnie Blogsville has his head screwed on and has some great advice for budding creatives.

The oopsie/ the names Cabral. Juan Cabral

2008-08-09T18:21:00.007+01:00

the combination of bad Internet and my meddling with posts led to the deletion of the Fallon post!

If you missed it, basically I said that even though I haven't been a fan of the latest fallon work, I'm quite excited for what their going to do with Sony's new ad featuring Daniel Craig.

The guys an amazing actor no doubt they'll have a great location and a good script, so this one can't really go wrong. Or can it?

The only thing is, of late Fallon have been focusing on brand status rather than products. What does the latest orange ad tell us about their network? What amazing deal can they offer me? I don't know all I know is that I am what I am because of everyone around me.

The moving on...

2008-08-08T12:05:00.002+01:00

Dave Birss has always been extremely helpful in showing us the error of our ways in our book and we've thoroughly enjoyed our chats with him.

Today however he has announced that he is leaving POKE and concentrating on his Unchained project. Best of luck Dave.

The Dark Knight...

2008-08-07T10:20:00.003+01:00

Yesterday, Debbie and I finally got round to going to see The Dark Knight.

After yelling at two little underage muppets near us to shut the hell up and sit down, we weren't disappointed. Despite what we heard from other sources, this movie is fantastic, having so many lead characters usually a movie would lose quality but this has high quality acting, action and twists all the way through.

Heath Ledger does steal the show, he is incredible as the joker, you are actually freaked out by this character, the portrayal is unbelievable and had us turning away at one stage.

His disappearing pencil trick is rather good too.

We were right when we posted that image a long time ago of the new two-face, it is that graphic and very well done.

There is nothing I can fault with the movie except the rating, this movie is not a 12A no-where near.

The thanks...

2008-08-07T09:51:00.002+01:00

Some fantastic help from ckny, has enabled us to find a perfect line for our Tetleys ad, Thankyou its a fantastic line and will really improve this piece of work.

Pour it all out. Tetleys

The landmark...

2008-08-06T19:06:00.002+01:00

Well we started blogging in March this year and today we finally got to 10,000 hits on the blog!

thanks for visiting us!

The new poll...

2008-08-05T21:38:00.002+01:00

Tetleys, with suggestions of making the line warmer, I have thought of an alternative.

Let me know what you think!

The quick idea...

2008-08-05T14:55:00.005+01:00

Here's an idea I've thought of today, quickly threw it together, is it worth pursuing?

opinions please?

The steady stream...

2008-08-05T13:03:00.002+01:00

Of things being released today!

However, although I appreciate the effort of trying to pursuade me T5 is ok now, does it really need that extra paragraph to clarify where, when and how they came to the bigger statement?

The Newsflash!: Noah takes over Fallon!

2008-08-05T12:00:00.003+01:00

Well I'd assume so because everything is coming in twos...

first they released Foam City and dedication on the same day,

and now they've released ASDA and the new Orange ad "together we can do more"

Look out for the lions and tigers guys,

The ASDA advert I've been wondering about...

2008-08-04T22:04:00.005+01:00

Made by Fallon, reviewed by many but could I find it? No. Well someone kindly found it for me and here it is for everyone to see!

Directed by Shane Meadows.

The longest week...

2008-08-04T16:54:00.003+01:00

We are awaiting a decision, and seriously, I hate waiting for decisions.

The end of this week can't come soon enough.

New book should be finished round about then too.

The commercial Breakdown...

2008-08-03T22:55:00.004+01:00

Ok I thought Tarrant on TV was brilliant when it showed you those ads from abroad, in amongst all that other tv stuff. Jimmy Carr with much better humour has his own show on a sunday night about 10.20 ish on BBC1 devoted to ripping it out of adverts. Brilliant.

This is just a couple that stood out for me.

The drawing interaction...

2008-08-03T12:57:00.002+01:00

Two Ads both very similar in style, very different products. Whats the sudden fascination with picking up and moving drawn lines?

Very nice but if all adverts are doing the same, is that a good thing?

The drenching...

2008-08-02T19:06:00.002+01:00

Well, its seems that Drench didn't want to stop at a TV ad

They've now opened a "brain gym" in London. People can go along and train their brain for the week ahead. Not sure whether it would do much use but good brand expansion.

Watch the news report here:

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/itn/20080802/video/ven-brain-gym-cf04a8a.html

The fun of wordle...

2008-08-02T15:48:00.002+01:00

Some fun I've been having on Wordle using the commonly used words from this blog...

Wordle fun here.

The car breakdown...

2008-08-02T12:46:00.003+01:00

Car ads, possibly the best sector in advertising.

Mercedes: Beautiful and thought provoking

Audi: smooth, well made and functional

BMW: strong, hard selling and fact based

Honda: Its Honda, need I say more?

Yes these brands get beautiful ads but the automotive sector has one major flaw... The small car.

The last great small car campaign I can remember is Renault Clio's Nicole and Papa.
(Bringing Theirry Henry into the mix just makes me think football not cars.)

You could say that VW's golf has good ads, but the price and size has kinda pulled it out of that area now, polo/fox/lupo yes, golf no.

Smart car constantly bangs on about how small it is, actually come to think of it all small cars only play on that point. There must be something else other than "I'm small" but it doesn't matter how many new "small" cars come out the advertising is rather... uninspiring.

Example: The suzuki swift: Really really bad advertising in my opinion, which got mildly better when they added wall.e to it (but im an animation freak so that doesn't really count), however I still want one. The advertising has done nothing for me but the reviews of the cars performance have. How can all this great stuff in a small package lead to such bland advertising?

We've tried to make small car ads, its hard. Really hard. We understand how difficult it is.

Its probably going to end up as one of my aims in life: make a good small car ad.

Surprisingly the only people recently who have done everything right with small (ish) cars is Skoda. If you had asked me which brand could put out a good small car ad it wouldn't have been them, obviously its going to be hard to follow but it reinvented the brand and sales have gone through the roof.

Whats even more surprising is that it hasn't translated into the larger end, the Octavia and Superb. My family are a fan of the new Skoda's and I can tell you they're damn good cars. (Bought before "favourite things" so not a product of the advertising.)

Im ranting, and to be honest I'm not quite sure what my point (except the fact that I really want a car at the moment) is but I suppose the first line said it all.

Car ads, possibly the best sector in advertising.

The OOOooooooooOOOoooooo moment...

2008-08-01T15:01:00.002+01:00

Well maybe not that much of an oooo. We had a bit of a facelift. I got bored last night.

So new title panel but thats about it. For now.

The shock...

2008-08-01T13:08:00.002+01:00

Another one bites the dust... Pisspoorenglish went and got a job and so the blog had to give way.

But today comes sad news. Lunar BBDO has decided to stop blogging.

Well I say that, other people do occasionally blog but the majority was done by Ben and he's decided he doesn't want to anymore.

Sad day people. Sad day for blogging.

The curse?...

2008-07-29T20:05:00.003+01:00

Ok whats going on? first Brian goes from Saatchis and now my sources tell me that Nikki and Simon have left VCCP. What the heck is going on? We only saw them a couple of weeks ago!

Ok stop the musical chairs Adland, can we have some stability please I need to know my contacts will still be there when I need them! Lol.

The new BBH website...

2008-07-29T15:40:00.001+01:00

Is B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L. Very smooth and the attention to detail is stunning. (the sheep at the bottom of the page is soooooo good.) Much better than the old site.

www.bbh.co.uk

just in case you didn't know.

The anticipation of photoshop access...

2008-07-29T11:59:00.004+01:00

Ok, So we've been sorting work out, old and new, improved some stuff and reinvented some stuff.

This list is what should be in our new book. Its a pretty good range of products/stores so stay tuned, because I should be getting the evil laptop back and new work can commence!

TKMaxx
Pampers
Expedia.com
Hobnobs
Scholl
GAP
Slim Fast

The augmented reality ads....

2008-07-28T15:37:00.002+01:00

Carbfreecreativity and Adrian and Mike have both recently posted articles on 3D mapping software that allows 2D images to be projected into 3d models on screen, of course I was captivated and it took me a while but \I found some more info and a piece of advertising where it actually has been used:

Welcome to augmented reality....

Now just to get my hands on the software...

The second incident...

2008-07-28T12:41:00.007+01:00

Well its happened again, another ad banned for its homosexual issues, and again from AMV BBDO. I was quite hyped up about the heinz one as that one seemed completely unrational but this one... I just don't get whats going on with it. The phrasing of "being a real man" just makes it a bit unnecessary.

Even though, I do think its all going a little bit too far, everything has to be completely politically correct and to be honest... Its all a little boring.

http://www.brandrepublic.com/campaign/News/834570/Mars-withdraws-homophobic-Snickers-ad-complaints/

The little update...

2008-07-25T16:16:00.003+01:00

Taking the advice of those who kindly commented, all charity efforts have been binned!

The poll for IKEA resulted in an overwhelming majority for the option of "you make it". However that was trumped by the group that thought both were shit.

Some more thinking required on that one.

Some thinking on strategies:

GAP: Worn out.

Colmans: Just add food (I have an inkling this has been done somewhere before so those in the know please tell me if it has! Ta.)

Scholl: Sore feet just aren't sexy.

Pampers: Lets babies go wherever they want to.

Expedia.com: You can't fit experience into a frame (adjustment on the previous see the bigger picture.)

Opinions are welcome. As always.

The monkey business...

2008-07-25T12:53:00.003+01:00

Well I thought this would have been mentioned somewhere on the blogs today but im mistaken maybe its not as interesting as i thought it was.

Damon Albarn doing his bit for the olympics last night advertising it through a cartoon on BBC. For me it was much better than I expect the olympics will be, if we can see any of it through the smog that is.

Check out the advert/cartoon bits here...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/olympics/monkey/default.stm

The new work list...

2008-07-21T15:24:00.004+01:00

Well the products we're working our socks off on now are:

Sure Deoderant
Pampers Nappies
Hidden Hurt (Domestic Violence)
GAP
WWF (world wide fund for nature not wrestling...)
Ikea

Some digital bits for: Play Doh
Next Directory
Scholl Party Feet (maybe a bit of print too...)

The new boys...

2008-07-21T14:25:00.003+01:00

They're not new in the sense of new to the business cos theyre not, they've just nearly finished a placement at JWT (read the post on their blog and you'll see what I mean.) and theyre quite a good team!

They're in the blog roll so get clicking. Mike & Phil.

The hokey cokey....

2008-07-21T14:05:00.001+01:00

In, out, in , out they shake it all about...

You know the rest, but Lunar predicted right, Craig Davis of JWT is leaving to go back to Australia. We were told that staff within agencies change alot and people shouldn't stay in the same place for very long to move up the ladder, but these last few weeks its all been a bit of musical chairs!

Crazy days eh.

The latest work...

2008-07-17T13:20:00.003+01:00

We've added a link to our latest portfolio on the side bar if you want a look.

The first poll...

2008-07-17T12:12:00.004+01:00

We've never done a poll before so heres the first,

IKEA. Two ideas for the strapline, but same strategy.

The furnitures bland and basic but its the personality of the consumer that makes it.

So what will it be?

IKEA. Personality not included.

IKEA. You make it.

We know theres quite a few of you checking the blog so please vote and help us out!

The credit crunch?..

2008-07-16T17:38:00.003+01:00

Well yesterday Debbie and I were off to see VCCP.

Nikki and Simon were really great help, great advice and Ideas and gave us a great list of products to attack and think up ideas for.

Its given us two campaigns that are definate keepers for our book now so thats good.

The horrible thing we heard though, (and what the title relates to) is the redundancy of Brian Connolly. We went and saw Brian at Saatchi's many a time and really respected his opinion. And apparantly he's not the only one to be shown the door.

Whats going on? I know that money's a big issue right now but Saatchi's making people redundant?

Plus with fiscal situation as it is, it doesnt bode well for new talent who are hoping for paid placements, whichever agency they go to.

The thing microsoft got wrong...

2008-07-14T11:41:00.002+01:00

A severely bad system that is WAY too easily destroyed by viruses. My laptop has got one. AGAIN. Its had it one like this before and its not an easily rectifiable situation. When you load it up you get to the main screen and....it cuts out. Every single time. So I can't save any documents and I'm not sure if I'm gonna be able to get them back. The computer shop is trying.

So I may not be able to blog too much as stealing the other laptop off my dad ain't easy.

I hate viruses.

(Yes I did have a virus checker. Obviously it wasn't good enough. Yes I did back up my work about a month ago. Anything new has gone. :( )

The thing apple got right....

2008-07-13T12:26:00.002+01:00

Well I'm suitably impressed! After long long long hours of attempting to download the new software update for my Ipod Touch, I managed it and started downloading applications all over the place.

I didn't expect anything amazing but I am really wowed by what they've come up with!

The 'accelerator' function is incredible. I don't know how it works but when you can get games like Crash Bandicoot racing where you have to control the cart by actually turning the ipod and monkey ball by doing the same its brilliant! (difficult getting a good balance but thats half the fun!)

And small kudos has to go to BMB... First in there with an advertising based game. Carling's Ipint is really gimicky but really quite funny. A realistic looking pint is poured into the screen of your pod and as you tip the pod, it pours out. cute. Plus a cool game where you have to slide a pint along the bar to your mate waiting at the end of it!

Its free so you cant moan. Crash and Monkey ball aren't free but its worth the money. Psp style games for a fraction of the price and on a much more usable level. Im happily playing around with all the different apps, some useful some fun and some are useless but well done apple.

The funny thing about Cannes....

2008-07-11T22:40:00.001+01:00

Someone obviously thought I needed cheering up and sent me this...

See if you can recognise anyone you know?

SMILE....

The depression...

2008-07-11T21:43:00.000+01:00

I think Adland is going through a depression...

UK's print work didn't exactly shine at cannes.

The good work is getting ripped from viewing pleasure. (Heinz)

Lunar BBDO went very deep and philosophical today, questioning the meaning of advertising altogether.

Every piece of new work I start working on I'm doubting. I just can't figure out whats good enough anymore.

(yes I know that I was talking about job offers and placements below but they're nowhere near certain and I still can't figure out what it will take to get us that great placement.)

The hypothetical question....

2008-07-11T13:35:00.003+01:00

Ok what if...

An award acclaimed agency are starting a placement thing in September and want you involved, well located and paid but not a definate job offer at the end.

But...

A lesser known agency offer you a JOB possibly in the next couple of weeks but far away from home.

Help please, nothings written in stone for either of these but theres a possibility it could be happening and I would LOVE to know what other peoples opinions would be.

What would you do?

The CV thing...

2008-07-07T21:05:00.002+01:00

Ok, I know the title says "all about the crit" and thats what I thought it was about.

I've applied for a few online roles (the few junior creative roles there are...) and all of them want a CV.

Now don't get me wrong, I can write a cv.

But is it really necessary? In this industry isn't it all about the work? The ideas? Does it matter what we got where and where we worked in the past (In our instance that list isn't very long.)

You still have to send your portfolio over but I just don't get the CV bit.

The ow factor...

2008-07-06T18:21:00.003+01:00

Found this and I believe it must be an international poster as I've never seen it in this country and I think we'd have known if it was. Headache city!

The ABBA fever...

2008-07-05T21:33:00.003+01:00

You may all laugh, but I am really looking forward to seeing the Mamma Mia movie. Despite the ABBA connections, if we had never heard of them I still think the movie would be amazing. All the stars involved its a guaranteed hit.

However, I do have one worry. I want to go WATCH the movie and despite it being very tempting I don't want to end up being at a bad kareoke night.

I envision the cinema errupting in spontaneous singing renditions both quite funny and really annoying as the guy sat behind you who cant sing, knowing every word to 'the winner takes it all'.

I know english cinema is alot more restrained than american cinema where people yell at the cinema screen and get quite worked up during a movie. Abba is a classic and obviously those who go will love the songs and will know the words.

Is a singalong inevitable? Could the cinemas play on this? a special night where all these people go along and have a big sing-a-long? Mamma Mia Mania...

The break...

2008-07-03T21:00:00.004+01:00

I took a break. Well, thats if you can call crawling out from tonnes of bags and boxes a break. I never realised how much stuff I had stashed away at Uni!

On one hand though it did give me an idea for a campaign lol.

Anyways can't speak for Debs but I've not been up to much we're still working on a few campaign ideas, trying to get those strategies right.

Still watching a few placement opportunities that might be working out for us soon...

Things are looking up.

The happy thing to come out of this week....

2008-06-27T23:40:00.001+01:00

ISOBEL WON BERNARD MATTHEWS!!!

So chuffed for them, we know how hard they worked on it (well from what they told us anyway!) Up against Publicis it must have been a toughie but they got there and its certainly well deserved!

WELL DONE AND CONGRATS!!!

The lighter note...

2008-06-25T19:06:00.002+01:00

Still rather angry about heinz. But hey these stupid things happen.

We went to see Rob at Isobel the other week. He (and David) challenged us to come up with some new strategies and then email them over to him and he'll give us an opinion (again). I know we say this nearly every time but I think we're nearly there. Sitting in Euston station last night (we are spending wayyyyy too much time in that station.) we went through our new products/stratergies (no-ones seen these even though we had crits yesterday except one that we mentioned to Daryl from Lunar. He liked it.) and each one had at least one of the:

I would buy it because of that.
I'm learning something new about that.
It interests me about that.

Maybe all these opinions we've been getting are finally sinking in! Quite a few people said right at the beginning that when you think about ads day in day out, your brain becomes trained in the art of stratergies and creative thinking in terms of advertising. Maybe our brains have finally come round to adlands way of thinking.

we'll have to wait and see what everyone else thinks of them eh?

P.s Yes something exciting is happening from our degree show but no we can't tell you yet.

THE ANGER!

2008-06-25T13:09:00.005+01:00

Apparently, Heinz don't like gay people. No sorry shall I get that right, they don't like it if their customers don't like it. Im furious that this ad has been pulled. There's nothing wrong with it.

I like this ad, it made me laugh so much when I first saw it and though it was brilliant.

And now they're pulling it. Pathetic.

Hollyoaks shows every night homosexual storylines involving a teenager and a priest. They get praised no end for approaching subjects affecting young people everyday. Nobody bats an eyelid. Adland however gets up and does the same and its a slap round the face saying:

"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOUR DOING PUTTING THAT ON TV?"

I'm not impressed.

The little bit of luxury...

2008-06-21T23:26:00.004+01:00

This is something that has recently appeared on the Hermes website:

And although I appreciate the gesture of allowing me to make a paper replica of a multi thousand pound bag I'll never be able to afford, I was making these back on my foundation course 4 yrs ago of some of my own bags. It would be better if I could find the photos of them but photos from 4yrs ago are hard to find in my collection!

The new website...oh so we think it is...

2008-06-21T22:48:00.004+01:00

We're fans of Isobel and one day Debbie stumbled across what we thought was the new website.

And then we had a great time going through it all looking in all the nooks and crannys, and then logged out and went home.

Next time we tried to find it however.... we couldn't. You type isobel into google and you get

www.isobel.com

which gives you this site:

However (we managed to track it down...) if you type in www.isobel.com/main.htm you get this site:

Which we think is alot more fun, you get to go in different rooms and see fun things but now we're questioning; which is the new site? and if its the latter how on earth are you meant to find it?

The thing I forgot to mention...

2008-06-21T22:20:00.003+01:00

OH YEAH! lol sorry but as of thursday we are officially not students any more. We are now what they call unemployed.

Oh joy.

Both Debbie and I recieved 2:1's but like that means anything in this industry.

However its typical that the one day that neither of us go into Uni to look after the show someone turns up to look at your stuff.... Thank god they left us a note!

Shall update if anything interesting happens from it!

The flogos...

2008-06-18T23:20:00.004+01:00

Oh my god... Think the shapes of lucky charms cereal, think the foam party of fallon and mix in a bit of brand marketing and what do you get? FLOGOS....

The popular ones/ The new home office binge drinking ads...

2008-06-18T22:59:00.005+01:00

Well aren't we popular this week, emails for this emails for that!

We got invited to a press launch this week (OOOOOOOOHHHHHHH!!!) lol but unfortunately, our schedules clashed which meant we couldn't attend (Booooooo!) but our friend Chris Quigley thankfully sent them over to us for us to have a gander. you might have seen them already its the new home office ads for binge drinking if not, here you go...

This is also accompanied by a lovely viral...

We are loving the song featured in the boy vid, im trying to find out what it is as we speak, and i know thats not the point and its meant to have a really strong message that they're trying to get across but a good soundtrack adds interest!

I like these ads, a bit icky in some parts but its a different approach, however I do have to wonder how much effect it will have on binge drinking. As much as I like the concept it didn't make me go "oh my god i'm not doing that anymore" but i'm not a big drinker anyway!

Opinions from the drinking public anyone?

UPDATE: We found the song. Its Eightlegs: These grey days.

The direction...

2008-06-17T21:35:00.005+01:00

I recieved this email today...

we have just put together this book. I nearly deleted at that stage. Anyway carrying on it was revealed that this was a book about surfing. Now I have never surfed, I have had many a holiday down in devon and cornwall watching people go into the water time after time after time trying to catch a wave, it did fascinate me and at some stage i did want to have a go but i had no tuition and felt a bit of a dumbass.

Debbies much more of a surfer chick than I am, Living in wales she has more of the geographical advantage in having a go.

This book looks like it has some fantastic imagery and some great illustrations. I'm not sure how many people in the ad industry enjoy surfing but if you are it might be worth a look!

Of course surfing has been used in adverts before noting the amazing guinness ad and the poor in comparison vauxhall surfing car ad.

Anyway this little apitiser was filmed by Martin Morrison, who's directed Channel 4 programmes, including Grand designs.

The creative cattle market...

2008-06-17T15:13:00.002+01:00

If only i had the time to make a farm based viral for this...

Yep the time has come for all those loose creatives to get rounded up in Earls Court to be flaunted in-front of the top directors in the hope of being adopted and taken back to a warm agency stable where they can chew the cud and produce useful products until they become old and useless and get sent out for pasture...

Way too many farm analogies there but hey, D&AD New blood is opening on Monday. You have to be a "VIP" to go on monday night, So sign up if you want to go. We'll be there stood on the MMU stand. Tuesday and Wednesday are anybodies days so go and have a look!

The creative talent show

Brompton Hall, Earls Court, Warwick Road, London, SW5 9TA

Private view:

D&AD New Blood 2008 - Private view Monday 23 June 2008, 6.30pm – 10pm Brompton Hall, Earls Court, Warwick Road, London, SW5 9TA

Exhibition:

D&AD New Blood 2008 - Exhibition Day 1 Tuesday 24 June 2008, 10am – 9.30pm;

D&AD New Blood 2008 - Exhibition Day 2 Wednesday 25 June 2008, 10am – 4pm

The very wrong decision...

2008-06-16T12:15:00.004+01:00

http://www.brandrepublic.com/news/816981/harry-potter-star-emma-watson-face-chanel/

Seriously, this girl is featured in a kids movie. Chanel is and expensive, upmarket, sophisticated, sexy brand. Who made the decision that she would be right? I am baffled. Yes she is pretty but no-one knows her through anything other than Harry Potter. Its a bit too kiddy porn for my liking....

UPDATE: Well, apparently she isn't now. According to Elle UK the person who released their story, got it wrong. Thank god for that!

The hush hush...

2008-06-13T23:06:00.003+01:00

Debbie and I are full of secrets at the moment and well we know where a certain creative is going to move to soon but can't say and we know what the next cadbury's ads are going to be about but we don't know if we can say or not!

That aside, it was our degree show tonight and it went pretty well lots of friends and family hanging around looking at work and the odd industry person sneeking a look at what had been produced. To be honest free booze did not help matters but we got approached by head hunters and the typical thing you get at these shows and we aslo managed to meet someone who we've known for quite a long time now but had never actually met! Adam Richardson was on the course a year previous to us and it was really nice to meet him in person and find out what hes getting along with. He's enjoying himself and thats all that matters. Read his blog here.

Yesterday however, we were in london again, you know if railways did railmiles like airways did we've had racked up shit loads by now.

We went to see Iris, they expressed interest in us after we appeared in campaign magazine and requested a book crit. Overall we surprised them (Neale and Leigh. great blokes, easy to talk to and understood where we were coming from) they said our work in book was a lot better than the PDF we sent them ( on a side note I hate PDF's i prefer showing the book in person but if thats what you wanna see i'll send it to you!) and they loved some of our wider thinking ideas. our print ads were kinda standard but to be honest I think they all are these days. There hasn't been a taxing print ad for me since silk cut. But our ambient and 'other' ideas were the best things in our book. We secretly knew this, but its a long way into the future that print/billboard ads die into the past and are never seen again. Someone has to make them, boring or not.

Its not worth our while doing a placement at the moment as were not quite there yet and can't challenge what they're already producing but one day we will.

Then we went of and saw one of our favourite people in the industry Rob Fletcher. Over at Isobel they've just finished pitching for a rather important client (we wish them the best of luck its a biggy) and Rob kindly took the time out to talk to us about our book. He was surprised that no-one had offered us a placement yet but in a way once he'd seen the book he knew why. The strategies just aren't there. We know what we have to do but getting that stratergy and knowing if its good is our downfall. Were getting there, everything else is fine, we can execute, we can write and we can PR ourselves to the point of no return but slowly but surely the stratergies are improving. Unfortunaltely its the one thing that will get us the jobs.

We'll get there sooner rather than later...

The most annoying advert at the momment...

2008-06-11T16:20:00.002+01:00

Paula the ****ing cow from Dr.Oetker.

This sodding advert does my head in. WHY OH WHY do they make these adverts in another country and think that its perfectly ok to shove an english soundtrack over the top even though the words dont match the movement of the mouths! ITS SOOOOO BAD!

please ignore the idiot on the sofa in this video but its the only video with the advert i can find at the moment.

The boredom...

2008-06-09T18:23:00.003+01:00

seriously how do they do it? how do people on the dole do nothing all day for weeks/months/years at a time?

I've had a few days off and I'm starting to do my own head in. I'll be so thankful when we get a placement and i have something to work for/on.

The bad thing about widnes is...

2008-06-08T16:13:00.002+01:00

It doesn't like blogger. At all. I've been back in the sh*t hole that is Widnes for the last week and for some reason i had trouble logging into blogger, so i couldn't post. I apologise.

I'd love to say we're extremely busy at the moment, running round like headless chickens but we're not. We're waiting very impatiently to get the next two weeks out the way. We've got our degree show very soon and that has to be sorted and New blood to attend, plus something else is happening this Thursday which could be very influencial in what happens next for Debbie and I.

I'm still thinking of some ideas for campaigns but we've been told that our book should stay the same for a little while until we've had a bit more feedback (although all feedback we have had has been great.)

roll on next week...

The cool thing...

2008-06-02T15:27:00.002+01:00

Look down there... the bottom right hand corner...

see that raccoon balloon? Yep well thats all part of Oranges new interactive website, created by POKE and I love it. Theres going to be a huge balloon race taking you all over the internet chasing balloons and winning prizes and if you need more info head over to Iain Tait's blog. Its all on there.

The very sad news...

2008-06-02T15:12:00.002+01:00

http://www.brandrepublic.com/News/813412/

Sadly, the plane that was involved in the live shoot of the Honda ad crashed killing two people on board, luckily other skydivers managed to jump free.

R.I.P

This was a separate event to anything Honda and is no way releated to Honda C4 Or W+K.

The Directed Honda Ad...

2008-06-01T11:22:00.002+01:00

For all those who were a bit dubious about the LIVE tv ad, well heres the one that W+K Made through lots of takes by the look of it and wow they can do some great things in the air, a bit more technical than the live one but i guess they can be when you have the time to do as many takes as you like!

The live one was great is this better?

The news...

2008-05-30T19:53:00.001+01:00

Hmmm we've had some intersting things happening in the last week of so and things are looking rather promising.... will update as soon as we hear anything definate...

The Honda Ad!

2008-05-29T20:13:00.003+01:00

Just saw the live ad.... and oh yes they did it, N was a bit of an issue nearly didn't make it but it all came good in the end. I'm very impressed.

However the real highlight was the guy with the camera who wrote hello mum on his hands.

Well done W+K, Well Done Honda you've done it again.

The show...

2008-05-28T22:34:00.003+01:00

Okay Ladies and Gentlemen...

Our show. We are graduating from Manchester Metropolitan University very soon and to celebrate were showing off our best and latest work. You of course are invited to attend, we do appreciate though that some of you who are further away may not be able to come and see us, but we do understand.

The Campaign article...

2008-05-28T08:06:00.003+01:00

There we go.... (click to make bigger...)

The last few days...

2008-05-27T09:03:00.001+01:00

3 to be exact, and its all going to plan...ish. Hopefully we should get it all done and dusted.

The funny thing...

2008-05-25T10:09:00.003+01:00

Who would have thought you couldn't advertise in campaign? Lol well i've finally got my campaign magazine and shall be putting up on here soon but the people at campaign decided to leave off the blog address off the article, maybe we wrote too much.

Oh well, if people want to talk to us, we're not that hard to find!

The NEWSFLASH!!!

2008-05-22T18:20:00.006+01:00

Ladies and Gentlemen of the congregation... we have just been informed that our 'secret' mission has now come to reality.

Please turn to the 24hrs with coloumn of your new campaign magazine.

There you will find mine and Debbies mugs staring back at you and our account of portfolio night.

Those of you coming to the blog from campaign, please refer to the archive sections for full accounts of the crits.

The step too far..

2008-05-20T14:57:00.005+01:00

Just saw this on brand republic....

The UK government has just started making changes to try and make this country healthier and get the obesity rate down.

Over at Burger king however... "I know lets make six burgers into one!"

http://www.brandrepublic.com/Discipline/Advertising/News/810229/Burger-King-launches-burger-six-share/

The eggy idea...

2008-05-20T14:30:00.007+01:00

Ok were doing a brief on eggs, a bit of a brand diversion and well we had a bit of a good idea...

You're stood in a supermarket and you fancy eggs for tea tonight but you know that you're not going to need loads as you're a student/single person/fussy eater that won't want eggs for quite a while after that. Either that or you're baking a cake and you only need two eggs.

So here you are: The two egg eggbox!

It made sense to us anyway!

p.s Thanks to Jim who has spent quite a while checking our spelling and grammar. You see as we're on a very tight deadline for our graduation show we aren't really paying attention to it at the moment so all help is appreciated. ;)

The best viral marketing....

2008-05-18T22:22:00.003+01:00

Most have this has already been documented by the lads over at carb free creativity. I have to agree however the viral marketing campaign for the Dark Knight is unbelievably good. It just keeps getting bigger and better!

Ive been following it but obviously these things dont translate well unless your watching the site constantly and although im a student im not that good with time atm!

anywho, I found this the other day, and this movie ain't gonna be pretty from the looks of it

(p.s i might get in trouble for this so it might just disappear. Warner bros have been hunting down this photo. hehe.)

If you want to keep up with all the dark knights promo look on....

http://batman-dark-knight.moviechronicles.com/

The WTF??? moment.

2008-05-15T22:45:00.003+01:00

I wont spoil it by telling you what its for, but god this is cringe-worthingly funny and made by farm. apparently.

The D&AD awards

2008-05-15T22:27:00.002+01:00

Well Fallon ran riot for the bunnies and got a black pencil for Gorilla. Congrats.

What im disappointed about is POKE. I really hoped they'd win a pencil for the Orange unlimited site.

Full awards can be seen here:

http://www.brandrepublic.com/News/809883/D-AD-full-results-table/

The 100th post...

2008-05-15T17:04:00.002+01:00

I missed it. Its the one below. I didn't even notice till today. whoops.

UPDATE: actually this is the 100th post, blogger miscalculated somehow so YAY mini virtual party!

the small world around us....

2008-05-14T23:04:00.006+01:00

I stumbled across this guy on Flickr and then found out that nokia are using the same technique for their promotion of bluetooth headsets.... its really strange but intriguing.

The sad thing is that I found out it had been used already. I was using a nokia handest in another campaign and saw it accidentally. :(

http://flickr.com/photos/manuperez/sets/72157594263393334

http://www.nokia.com/nonstopliving

The deadline...

2008-05-14T22:07:00.005+01:00

is may 30th which in theory gives us 16 days. Just over two weeks until our uni lives are summed up into a little pile of work. (well ours is actually gonna be a medium sized pile we've had to make extra folders for this blog and contacts.)

Usually two weeks doesn't bother us, it pushes us. This time its panicking us. Learning so much with such little time left makes us feel that we have to do new work showing these skills or else its not worth it.

So were doing 7 campaigns in these two weeks, and once again we think the works going to be much better. The strategies are there this time. We've had confirmation before we even begun pen to layout pad.

Oh and did we mention in these next 16 days we have 4 days of Rachel and Debbies part time jobs, various planning meetings for shows (which can take up to two hours each) and we have to paint the studio (its a big studio.) We know were not the only ones doing it but still its a big task. Also we have to get our section ready. We havent even got that sorted in our heads yet. Plus printing and mounting and hanging.... This is going to be a very stressful two weeks.

phew that feels better.....

But I guess now is a better time than any to start juggling jobs, time and working to short deadlines eh?

The thunderbirds are go....

2008-05-13T21:33:00.004+01:00

Adlands certainly got alot of stuff for me tonight... just saw this ad for drench water...

Thunderbirds are really getting used and abused lately, they were used for specsavers only a month or so ago... Brains is better by a mile tho.

The congrats...

2008-05-13T21:01:00.002+01:00

such alot to say today...

Pisspoorenglish got a job! yay and well deserved aswell might I say, I hope the workload doesn't take over his blogging to a point we dont hear from him again....

see. stunts do work. as long as their done well....

The spoof...

2008-05-13T20:10:00.002+01:00

Sacla... it had to happen sometime....

The thing ive been trying to figure out for ages....

2008-05-13T14:32:00.005+01:00

Lol ages ago i used to play these games at the height of boredom and ive been trying to hunt them out so that everyone can see. This guy produces these small flash games that produce different endings depending on what order you choose things. Highly enjoyable and annoying if you cant figue them out! anyway enjoy....

http://www.eyezmaze.com/

p.s I recommend grow nano series, grow cube and grow island.

The ad from last night...

2008-05-13T14:23:00.004+01:00

Not the honda one, but the one that previously got me interested...

Alien and predator playing football to promote their film going to dvd. It just doesn't seem right. Apparently its to do with the FA cup that they've done a special.

something tells me that the guy who was put in charge of promoting its is either a cardiff or pompey fan...

http://www.avp2dvd.co.uk/

The new one....

2008-05-12T23:11:00.005+01:00

Oh my, what you find watching late night TV eh. quick spot during 'The fast and the furious' of people practising synchronised sky diving with the end line "difficultisworthdoing.com!" of course I'm already near my comp and curiosity gets the better of me. I was already interested by the alien vs. predator football ad but anyway back to this 'difficult' spot...

Honda are doing something really interesting. W+K what have you thought up this time?

http://difficultisworthdoing.com/

I'm intrigued.

The challenge...

2008-05-12T21:34:00.003+01:00

We've been set one... and its a doosy. Seriously though if we can do these (and well) ill be amazed. but were never one to back down from a challenge!

Here goes:

British Airways T5
Bernard Matthews
Cilit Bang.

ouch.

The question...

2008-05-10T21:33:00.010+01:00

Ok opinions please...

Mercedes-Benz - Inspired by women since 1900.
McVities HobNobs- They can take the heat.
Rachel's organic milk- Big on the benefits
Flybe- The low impact airline.
Expedia.com- See the bigger picture.
Nestle's After Eights - Who said we meant the evening?

Good initial ideas? (and I emphasise initial)

The aftermath...

2008-05-09T21:47:00.006+01:00

Well after that day, its another book in the bin another new start. but thats not new for us except this time we are going to spend a little longer on it only because were exhausted. However products are already getting researched and ideas are in the pipeline but as our Uni life is coming to an end we need to get our work together for that so london will have to wait for a couple of months lol. we were slightly disallusioned and exhausted but actually once we analysed it all we realised it wasnt as bad as we'd imagined and theres so much we can get from this.

What doesnt kill us only makes us stronger....

Oh yeah and that secret thing thats happening soon...still going to happen.

The massacre (Portfolio Night Bit)

2008-05-09T21:17:00.003+01:00

Ok we were a bit harsh, it wasnt that bad and it was all good fun

3 sessions of 45 mins moving through table after table of CD's and people in the know.

Rachel 1: Iain Tait: YES! was really happy to see Iain, we love poke, they really have a thing about work involving experiences and we like that sort of thing too. We nearly didnt get through the book though too much chatting oops! He thought Nandos was a good laugh and liked you nandos needs you and the lemmings (everyone loves lemmings) Liked Euro 08 and the big british ball game, some good things could come out of that. Get rid of the cameras on lonely planet and he thought that slim fast was really funny. sick but funny.

Debbie 1: Mark from JWT IQ: good product but misses the mark. Euro 08 get rid of the strapline more reasons like its a shame that noth germany and croatia cant both lose. The big british ball game has been done too much before (has it????) Fed ex: Fun Nandos: needs a clearer line and needs a funnier premise than suicide. Suicide isnt funny. but we respect chickens who make the choice of dying for their future in nandos. lol.

Rachel 2: Russell Ramsey: I really wanted to see this guy so I was in awe. and really didnt care that he hated everything in the book and that he said it was too flippant and to gag filled. Still in awe of the guy.

Debbie 2: Al Campbell Head of copy Agency republic. : IQ one dimentional and it woouldnt run. (we get told to put things in that wouldnt necessarily run! oh well.) Euro 08 all good but runs out in a couple of months and then its outdated. Fed ex is sick he liked that. but stick with the famous side of things. Nandos too sick for this book our book is sick to the point of bullimic lol. Ditch nandos. Lonely planet has a lovely thought behind it and needs working again.

Rachel 3: Miles Bingham JWT Cool guy said our book should be portrait OR landscape choose or die lol. Euro 08 is too niche for a book. we need more everyday products. Fedex line should be shorter whenever whatever? and needs to be cleverer overall get to the 4th step of it. Nandos: when he understood it he loved it! Lonely planet didnt seem that interested it was ok. Said we should write a list of truths then work from that lonely planet...could have something to do with perfect crime. Slim fast made him laugh but its too sick and its not right.

Debbie 4: Graham Fink, Less said about this the better. Debbie is traumatised/furious. He hated it.

Later we saw Paul silburn after a small misunderstanding and he agreed to see our book.

IQ liked the no restrictions idea but it needs to go more left field (it is. the left field bin. Sorry.)
Euro 08' Its more reasons than excuses and he quite likes it the thought needs to be expanded further, poking fun at english players? (its easy enough)

Fedex. Its too fedex when we should be thinking fresher and newer.
Nandos is way too done. but theres something in burning chickens
Lonely planet and slimfast are way overdone by students. we didnt know that.

Need better less advertised products. thinking beyond the typical, events and the promotion associated with the event.

Then we went home to bed. and Cried. No actually we didnt cry we were too exhausted. Sincere thanks to everyone who saw our book and took time out to see us and everyone at portfolio night. Did you get all that? we didnt it took me three times reading the notes to remember what happened!

The massacre...(Saatchi & Saatchi bit 2)

2008-05-09T21:05:00.004+01:00

Back to charlotte street for the umpteenth time and were seeing Brian. Brians individual opinions on our work really stand out against everyone else and gives us inspiration to chuck things we once thought were fantastic...

IQ still confusing and if were gonna carry on with it we really need to find something individual about it. (Answer: were not. Its going in the bin. theres nothing individual about this car we've decided.)
Euro 08 Didnt get the first billboard initially but he likes what were trying to say, but it needs more. much more.
Fedex. He didnt love it. But he didnt hate it either. Its ok.
Nandos Difficult. Hes seen it so many times now he doesnt know what to think anymore. Fair enough cos we're getting sick of the sight of chickens now.
Lonely planet: theres so much better stuff we could do for this. He didnt like it.
Slim fast: Didnt like this but the gorgeous execution might have something to it. It works on a whole but personally he didnt like it.
Grand national he did like.

Ok so all that over we were feeling good and upbeat and enthusiastic for the night ahead....oh we were in for a shock....

The massacre... (Lunar BBDO Bit)

2008-05-09T20:51:00.004+01:00

Well this was eagerly anticipated and it lived up to itself.

The Lunar BBDO bloggers Ben and Daryl were able to see us and whilst they flicked through our book we flicked through the new circle annual and what a nice book that was. We didnt want to put that one down!

IQ was missing a bit of truth and by this point i think debbie and I had already decided it was going in the bin but the stratergy may survive somewhere for a later date.
Euro 08 was a hit but they said get rid of the strapline and just use the logo it speaks for themselves but maybe it should be a bit more secret so that wives arent prepared for the excuses?
Fed ex They liked the mugabe execution but not the others
Nandos they kinda liked but they wanted it sicker, get really involved. 9/11? London bombings? Maybe, maybe not. Nandos may not survive this book....
Lonely planet they didn't understand, there isnt much truth to it but they did like the see more stratergy however we should be showing more benefits of the book. Fair enough.
Slim fast they liked and it had a real truth but think it should be kept to magazines rather than billboards.

They liked the fact that we look at other media, actually we prefer other media, that stuff is so much more fun! In all we need more TRUTH in our book. This was such and inspiring crit for us. We really enjoyed it we also had a quick chat about Ben's three year old picture in campaign last week....

So outside sat in the sun we wondered if Brian (saatchi & saatchi) was back in the office after getting his chair delivered. So we rang him and arranged a crit for an hour later...