Alcohol is weird. People are happy to pay three times more than they need to, simply to have the right words printed on the bottle. In blind tests, most can’t even taste the difference between one beer and another. I pitched for an alcohol brand recently, we produced film where the public were asked their opinions after tasting various whiskies. What they didn’t know was that all the prices that were showed on the various bottles were lies. Not surprisingly,Read more
Month: February 2014
PENHALIGON’S: The joy of reference.
After twenty top ten hits ’58 and ’62, Neil Sedaka’s hits dried up. His publisher gave him one last shot. Neil, anxious, sweaty, his weave starting to unravel, decided to order in every No. 1 record from around the globe. He played them over and over, analysing every detail. He then borrowed, or as we say in Advertising ‘was inspired by’ the melody from one, the hook from another a guitar sound from another and so on and soRead more
Hands up who’s heard of TOM McELLIGOTT?
It’s crazy, he should be better known. He ushered in a new, sassier way of talking. His work felt like it was written by a very smart lawyer with a wicked sense of humour. He influenced a generation. But there’s almost no evidence of his existence on the internet. In a Stalinesque style purge, Lurzer’s Archive have retouched the Fallon McElligott work to read Fallon. Even the publishers of Luke Sullivan’s great book ‘Hey Whipple’ seem not to know him: I can’t find a lot ofRead more
FINDUS FROZEN FISH: Copying is good.
I wanted to do that ad. Everybody who saw it laughed. Why the hell didn’t I do it? It was so bloody annoying. I wanted to create something effected people it had effected me. Basically, make them laugh. So whenever I’d get a brief I’d do something in that style, something that felt like it was from that world: funny models of animals making a single product point. Then, over at BBH, Chris Palmer and Mark Denton started producing adsRead more
SHORT FILM FESTIVAL: Ideas ruined.
‘Can you do me an ad for Rushes Short Film Festival? it’s to go in my Gongs magazine, it’s an opportunity!’ – Mark Denton. DISSOLVE TO THE FOLLOWING YEAR. ‘Can you do me a campaign for my Short Film Festival? it’s to go in my Gongs magazine, it’s an opportunity!’ – Mark Denton. (The Therapy Short Film Festival was one of a number of ideas Mark has had over the years to redistribute money he’s built up in his savings account.) LookingRead more