BLOG/NEWS

Monthly Archives: February 2012

Paddy Power: Chavs and Ladies Day

2

According to The Guardian, Paddy Power’s ‘transgendered ladies’ ad (below) has been pulled by Channel 4 and BSkyB.

Transgendered people: They look like blokes in drag! And dogs! Ha ha!

Of course, the problem with criticising something like this is that you run the risk of being labelled a humourless, free-speech bashing killjoy. By fans of Jeremy Clarkson. And Daily Mail readers. Because after all, it’s only a bit of fun, isn’t it?

I’m not in favour of banning anything. Let it run. But we should at least be allowed to state that it’s a stupid, clumsy, deliberately offensive, unfunny piece of crap that’s designed to appeal to all those idiots who think that Chris Moyles is funny and that, you know, it’s about time political correctness got a good kicking.

The problem is that there’s too much of this kind of thing out there. A kind of Little Britain-ish sneering at anyone who sits outside of the right-wing media approved norm. So it’s no surprise that Paddy Power’s other ad (below) attacks ‘Chavs’. Because we don’t do enough demonising of working-class people – those workshy, ignorant, tasteless, violent, drunk, racist pigs need shooting.

It’ll be gypsies next. And then they may as well follow in the footsteps of Frankie Boyle and have a go at disabled people.

Ha ha! People in wheelchairs with funny faces and funny voices! Ha ha!

What? It’s only a joke, what’s the matter with you?

Posted on by

A Moment in Their Shoes

Reply

I grew up with kids who lived like this, Who lived in absolute squalor and poverty, whose houses reeked of piss and booze and filth. Who lived with abusive, indifferent parents who didn’t feed or clothe them properly.

While I admire what this ad is trying to do, I don’t think it captures well enough how thoroughly frightening and depressing living like this can be. The same applies to the main image on The Children’s Panel website. The dad, slumped in his chair, is almost a comedy figure. And ‘dark place’ is too weak a term to get across what it must be like for kids like her.

Still, I assume there’s only so far they can go before they upset taste guardians and the like. Ultimately then, it’s at least a step in the right direction.

Posted on by

Fresh Start Wales

1

Health officials always do it, don’t they? They always go for a message that has little resonance with the people it’s supposed to be targeting. In this case, parents smoking in cars. As with many drink-driving campaigns, it foregrounds a scenario that most people just won’t relate to. If you’re the kind of person who smokes in the car with your children in the back seat, then you’re likely to be the kind of person who thinks that smoking – or at least second-hand smoke – isn’t as bad for you as everyone makes out. By simply being a smoker you’ve already decided to navigate your way around all the negative evidence. Toxins and chemicals and cot death and cancer and hearing problems? Nah.

If it were me, I’d have gone for a simple campaign along the lines of: “If you want everyone to know what a f**king idiot you are, carry on smoking in your car.” That’s the kind of thing that really bothers people – what other people think of them.

More from Fresh Start Wales.

 

Posted on by

Salad Days

Reply

Ah, stock photography – now perhaps the most hard-working and cost-effective member of every advertising agency. Of course, it’d be great if this wasn’t the case. It’d be great if we commissioned professional photographers to enhance every job – like we did in the old days. But let’s face it, they were very expensive. And truthfully, when you’re looking for a few postage stamp sized pics for the back of a timber merchants’ brochure, you don’t really need David Bailey on the case.

Still, I think we all lament the loss of professional snappers in agencies and agree that stock photography is mostly horrible.

But often unintentionally funny, as they are here. Click the pic to see Women Laughing Alone With Salad.

Posted on by

How To Do A Star Wars Ad

Reply

Here’s that Vodofone ad featuring Yoda. You’ve all seen it by now so I’ll refrain from mentioning how terrible it is. But it is terrible isn’t it? I think what I like least is the fact that, even given the rubbish idea of having Yoda in their ad, it’s just so lacklustre. It gives up about halfway through – the characters may as well just sit there staring at each other. If you’re going to do a Star Wars ad, at least have fun with it.

As Woolworths did below. Great set up, great use of Darth Vader and a great punchline. They even manage to get over what was good about Woolworths. But obviously not well enough…

Posted on by

Stars Who Sell. #4: Tony Hancock

2

From 1965, a series of Egg Marketing Board ads featuring Tony Hancock (with able support from Patricia Hayes).

They’re essentially mini versions of the Hancock TV and radio series, with the lad himself reprising his downtrodden, though curiously self-important, persona. As well as being funny, they also manage to get across that they’re all about eggs.

Posted on by

James Webb Young

Reply

The second of our advertising book recommendations:James Webb Young – A Technique For Producing Ideas

One of the best things about A Technique For Producing Ideas is that it’s only around 50 (very small) pages long. It can be read in less than an hour. So if you’re one of those advertising people who doesn’t like to read books, this is an excellent way to dip your illiterate toe into the vast, thrilling waters of discovery and knowledge.

Written by legendary ad man James Webb Young, and first published in the 1940s, the book delivers an almost foolproof method for generating ideas. When I first read it I was hoping to discover some kind of magical creative formula. There is a magical formula but, as it turned out, it was almost exactly the same formula I had always relied on – whether that was for advertising or the other creative thingies I’ve been involved in. What I mainly took from the book was that it was absolutely fine for me to have that (long) moment of putting things completely out of my mind and waiting for the idea to just miraculously appear. I’d always thought that was just my own combination of arrogance, laziness and wishful thinking.

The technique basically consists of the following five stages:

1. Do your research.

2. Absorb the material you’ve gathered.

3. Forget about it.

4. Experience the aha! moment.

5. Work on your idea.

Of course, if it were as easy as that you wouldn’t need to read the book. Which is just as well because it’s in the actual reading that the magic really happens. Quite simply, Young was a beautiful – and beautifully clear – writer. His words go in and they stay in.

The blurb on the back cover says: ‘Young’s unique insights will help you look inside yourself to find that big, elusive idea – and once and for all lift the mystery from the creative process.’ Well, it certainly does that. But there is a caveat – this formula won’t work if you’re not a creative person. As far as Young’s concerned (taking his cue from the theories of the Italian sociologist Pareto) there are two types of people: speculators and stockholders. So if you’re in the latter camp, you’d probably be wasting your time reading the book.

Available here – brand spanking new. If you get nothing else from it, you’ll at least discover whether you’re a speculator or a stockholder.

Posted on by

Ferris Bueller at Fifty

1

I like Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. But not enough to weep like a baby – as many of my grown men on Twitter contemporaries did – when I heard that Honda had updated it for an ad.

But then I saw the ad.

If you’re going to reference one of the most iconic, best-loved films of the eighties it’s probably a good idea to attempt to capture some its charm, energy and humour. Something this ad singularly fails to do. Broderick seems tired, slow and embarrassed. But then, maybe that’s the point: you reach fifty and… well, the Honda CR-V is the best you can hope for.

Fifty though. He doesn’t look fifty, does he?

Posted on by