1 and 2? Well, it came in at just under four hours. Tell me about it? I tried cutting it. Maybe I could’ve edited out the pre-directing bit? Lost the chat about growing up; the nine months in walled hospital room with one wall missing or the time he appeared on national tv as a puppeteer. Or cut the bits about his endless list of non-directing jobs? Maybe trim the stuff about his previous bosses? But his previous bosses areRead more
Posts tagged: #WCRS
WHAT I LIKED BEFORE I KNEW WHAT I WAS SUPPOSED TO LIKE: Richard Russell.
Before I became a Copywriter, I just liked popular ads. I didn’t know they were popular ads, of course, they were just the stuff that was visible and fun and spoke to me. The more I worked in advertising though, the more it seemed to me that the industry had a real problem with popular ads. A snobbery that mass-market work was dumbed down. And, conversely, a belief that the work without wide appeal was way cooler and cleverer, andRead more
WHAT I LIKED before I knew what I was SUPPOSED TO LIKE – Lynsey Atkin.
“It relies on me finding people who aren’t afraid to be honest and not too worried about looking cool.” This is what Dave said to me when asking if I’d like to gather together some of my favourite adverts from that distant yet golden time before I knew anyone had ‘favourite adverts’. Well Dave, you got me. Honest? Deeply uncool? Two of my top personality traits, seeing as we’re dealing in preferences here. As someone who spent their formative yearsRead more
WHAT I LIKED before I knew what I was SUPPOSED TO LIKE – Ben Kay
Finally, I’ve made it! Here I am on the prestigious Dave Dye blog, presumably with a pink circle covering my face on some random old image (however, now that I’ve written that I fully expect Dave to put the circle over the other advertising Ben Kay, the former head of planning at Y&R. Or maybe the rugby player). Dave has kindly asked me to do a post on the advertising I liked before I knew what I was supposed toRead more
PODCAST: Oli Beale.
“Hello Dave, We’ve not met before. I’m an ad creative too. I felt compelled to write and tell you how much I’m enjoying your blog. I’ve learnt loads. (Now I’ve started writing this email I feel a bit silly!) Anyway, keep pumping your stuff from the loft out into the ether. It’s wonderful. Thanks, Oli.” I got that email in 2013. I wondered where this charming young man went to college or was on placement, so I googled him: ‘PartnerRead more
Another post about radio advertising. (Sorry.)
There may even be another one, along with Paul Burke I’m trying to track down the 100 best radio ads. (If you have any send them in.) But onto this one, one of the surprising joys of doing this blog is unexpected things that turn upon my doorstep. Proofs, agency brochures, old DVDs, all manner of ephemera. (Or ‘crap’ as my wife calls it.). It’s lead me to post blogs on David Abbott’s BT Pitch, Fallon McElligott’s Rolling Stone campaignRead more
THE MOST UNFASHIONABLE FORM OF ADVERTISING?
What was the last product demo you saw? Not on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, they’re all over those, but on tv, billboards or press (does press still exist?). You just don’t see agencies doing them anymore. Odd, because, and I hope I’m not giving away any trade secrets here, the goal of most advertising is to persuade people that the product featured is good. Ideally, REALLY good. So showing it in action, performing well, seems like it might be aRead more
PODCAST: MARY WEAR
‘Remember how seriously we all took it? Not that we took ourselves seriously or that we didn’t have fun, but we just tried so, so hard to make great work. It may be chip paper to most people, but we’d really sweated every last detail. Even on the bad ads, we’d stay lat trying desperately to improve them. Like we were on a mission. It seemed so important.’ I enjoyed chatting to Mary. Although afterwards, I must confess, I wasRead more
Hands Up Who’s Heard Of MAD DOGS & ENGLISHMEN?
Remember Alessandro Volta? Douglas Engelbart? What about Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis? Thought not. Even if I asked who invented electric light, the computer mouse and social media, those names are still unlikely to come up. More likely, Thomas Edison, Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg will spring to mind. They didn’t invent those ideas, they either stole from those guys or ‘built on their thinking’.But although now virtually forgotten, their work was crucial, take away their thinking would be likeRead more
GREEN BOOKS: New Yorker Ads 4.
The Advertising Standards Council wouldn’t let that title pass. I guess it was my intent when I cello-taped it to the cover. There are a few old New Yorker ads in there, but the majority are English, from the early seventies. It’s odd collection, looking at it now is a bit like wandering through a car boot sale. There’s the finds that have famous attached, so may be worth something: 1. Illustrator/Artist Glen Baxter’s Gilbey’s Gin ads. 2. Photographer ArtRead more
PODCAST: Graham Fink. (Part 1.)
Context. It’s the word that comes to mind every time I think about writing one of these intros. What seems familiar today was once considered very left-field, risky or just plain crazy. Each pushes the peanut along for the next generation. Take the 1988 D&AD Annual, it’s hard to believe now, but all but one ad in the press and poster section had black headlines, the one that didn’t was Graham Fink’s Metropolitan Police campaign. I was a generation behindRead more
PODCAST: Peter Souter
My 7th boss. Former hitch-hiker. copywriter. Frankenstien re-animator. ECD. David Abbott replacement. D&AD President. Sitcom creator. Radio 4 drama writer. Showaddywaddy singer’s cousin. DELANEY FLETCHER DELANEY. South West Thames Regional Cancer Organisation. WOOLAMS MOIRA GASKIN O’MALLEY. Eurax. Tri-Ac. WCRS. Lunn Poly. Lego. Electricity Privatisation. ABBOTT MEAD VICKERS. R.S.P.C.A. British Telecom. The Economist. Volvo. D&AD. Pizza Hut. Sainsbury’s. Nicorette. The Queen Elizabeth Foundation For Disabled People. CREATIVE DIRECTOR. Make Poverty History. Guinness.Read more
IN-CAMERA 2: Rolph Gobits.
“To me, people are like lighthouses in a very big ocean, with wind and rain and waves trying to break them and make them go under.” – Rolph Gobits. Did you come from an arty family Rolph? I did not come from an arty family at all. Do you remember being aware of photography whist growing up in Holland? I was aware of photography at a very young age when growing up in Amsterdam. I was about five or six years old whenRead more
HANDS UP WHO’S HEARD OF: John Fuckin’ Knight?
A few years ago I needed an old beer poster for a presentation. I knew the Art Director’s name – John Knight, so headed to Google – nothing! I then searched the agency name, the year, the writer’s name, the photographer’s name – nope! Desperate, I googled every every miss-spelling I could think of – diddly squat! I eventually found it after trawling through a ton of old awards books. While leafing through all those award winning ads from theRead more