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TURNING STORIES INTO ADS: LWT. By Dave Trott & Paul Grubb.

I’ve written previous posts on ‘turning stories into ads’, The Guardian, the BBC’s Panorama and GQ. I wrote them because it struck me that although the brands were very different, what they wanted was exactly the same; An appropriate visual style to hold ideas about any subject under the sun. Take The Guardian, the ads I worked on ranged from the trial of mass murderer Fred West to the fact that footballer Jurgen Klinsmann couldn’t stay upright if their was another footballer within a circumferenceRead more
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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
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NIKE: There is no finishing deadline.

Simons Palmer was the home of the Nike poster, they produced endless great posters which produced endless awards. So getting a brief for one, even a little 6 sheet for the Rugby World Cup, was like getting a ticket to the ball. When I first got there I was handed this approved line written by my shiny new writer Mark Goodwin. I didn’t really get it to be honest, I’m still not sure whether I’m missing something? But I toiledRead more

TURNING STORIES INTO ADS: G.Q.

Something struck me upon finding this little batch of GQ ads; What magazines would run 48 sheet posters today, just to promote the August issue?My writer, Tony Barry and I had three stories to turn into posters. a) 101 things to do before you’re 30. b) Foreign women reveal all about British lovers. c) Mick Jagger at 50. It’s easy to see why these two were rejected, it’s never good business to start ‘outing’ Royals and pop stars. This was theRead more