The reception at Mother London. Those words also make sense the other way around; advertising can be graffiti. No one epitomised that more than the 1980’s agency Kirshenbaum Bond. I first came across about them here, in Campaign. From a few thousand miles away, boy they looked cool. So Noo Yawk! First; they had a ‘baum’ in their name, (sounds New Yorky to me). Second; just look at their work, it’s as aggressive and in your face as the cityRead more
Month: August 2014
ADNAMS: Words.
Agencies and clients generally shack up together after a single blind date, (or a pitch, to give it its technical name.) As a result, the relationship is a marriage of convenience; ‘‘Do you, Least Bad Agency In The Process, take you, Client Who Needs To Look Like They’re Shaking Things Up?’’ But when an ‘old flame’ comes back the dynamic is different, you feel you have to do everything you can to justify their decision. Or at least I did when this happened back in 2009.Read more
Easy as abc?
It’s sometimes tough to argue the obvious. When you have teams of people analysing, strategising and theorising it’s difficult to sound like the dumbest guy in the room. Take ABC, someone must have had to pitch the idea ‘How about we say tv is good?’ ‘‘TV is good? Duh!’’ It doesn’t sound very creative or intelligent, but it’s right. It’s not the kind of idea that’s greeted with joy; ‘Shouldn’t we be saying people need tv in their lives? OrRead more
Hands up who’s heard of JEAN PAUL GOUDE?
When you start a job with the title ‘Creative’ you feel compelled to be very creative. It’s easy to confuse being described as ‘creative with with being ‘nuts’, ‘bonkers’ or ‘out there’. Consequently, you tend to emulate or simply copy people who appear very weird. In 1987 I attempted to Jean Paul Goude. I can’t recall whether it was of lack of money, poor script or the fact that it was for one of the least cool brands in the world,Read more