Saw this fantastic poster in a soon-to-be-closed shop in the charming town of Lymington this weekend just gone…
I’ll let it speak for its self. Rumour has it that Spoons is taking over the lease.
140 years after the shop opened and it loses to Spoons. Kinda reflects the disease of our times in a way doesn’t it.

To be honest, there have been far too many ads slowly destroying my childhood memories by crowbarring the Star Wars brand into their advertising. Credit to Volkswagen for their initial Star Wars ad, we loved that, but then they carried it on into this year’s Superbowl with their pre-ad ad, and Vodafone have stolen Yoda to advertise their callback feature.

Can you please stop now! Lucas already did enough damage releasing The Phantom Menace.

As much as I moan though, I did like this ad from Advance in Copenhagen for Danish Toys’R'Us in support of The Phantom Menace 3D. It’s got a shaky cam style, the initial reference is suitably subtle and it kicks in with some nostalgic sound effects and a Tie Fighter.

So, even though I say it begrudgingly, I quite like this ad!

Well, this little piece of comedy gold from Crispin Porter + Bogusky for Paddy Power lasted all of four days before being pulled. I wonder why?

To be honest, when I first saw the ad I just thought it was taking a dig at sectors of  society in a way that translates easily to the betting market by framing it around the Cheltenham racing festival.

Turns out, a gent on the Paddy Power Facebook page commented that he didn’t want Cheltenham ruined in the same way Ascot was, and that in turn led to the creation of this ad. Which makes it infinitely better in my opinion.

I love the fact the Crispin have reacted to something they’ve seen on a brand social media channel and created an ad out of it. Well played chaps. I wonder how much more frequently we’ll start seeing ads based on user generated ideas, comments and content?

Anyhow, here’s the ad, apologies if you can’t view, it’s age restricted and uncensored due to a bit of bum cheek on show (for what it’s worth it doesn’t really require any NSFW warnings)

In addition, the campaign is nicely integrated with Facebook through a chav or chav-not game that offers up Cheltenham VIP tickets and ipads as an incentive. If only they removed the like gate and focused on engaging content on their wall.

As a footnote, Paddy Power are one of those rare brands that I actually advocate multiple postings on a Facebook wall – giving out race previews and results seems a sensible use of the channel for this brand.

Disclaimer: I’ve had to leave aside all personal opinions for this article and remove myself from the fact that such a blatent attack on a certain (percieved or real – you can decide) sector of society is considered a viable and acceptable way of advertising.

I got all excited when I saw this come up for a million reasons, but most of all the text-heavy element to the assets.

Words just aren’t sexy anymore, not like they used to be in any case. This is a travesty of the modern day obsession with rich media because words are the window to the soul. Words said or spoken plug into ideas and concepts of the world that can only bed reached bereft of other distraction. The raw creativity and imagination that is still inside every one of us. These ads show you that all over again.

It is a bold move in such a distracted world, but one that I’m glad they went with. These are perfect as they are and possibly the best use of creative copy in a print ad that i’ve seen recently.

The coup d’etat is the yellow brick picture. Words themselves couldn’t do it justice

This quick (and quirky) one comes courtesy of topcultured.com, who have spotted some rather nifty advertising on Google Maps. In this example, a clever chap has decided to use the 16 acres of land he has for sale, to advertise the fact.

Very simple, but I hesitate to say effective because you’re relying on a lot of specific factors to use this to produce a sale (being on maps, looking at this area and wanting to buy the land). Anyhow, gubbins below:

I think there’s an opportunity for brands with big surface areas to get creative with this and it’s also reminded me of www.mapofstrange.com – A brilliant time killer. How would you utilise Google Maps as an advertising platform/creative space?

I saw this pop up recently (I think it was @missrachelle who found it) and had to put it on here. While it’s not strictly marketing / advertising focused, it is definitely brand focused (something I’m equally as interested in, but regrettably doesn’t get much coverage here). I think sometimes we forget that we came from a place of innocence and blissful ignorance, and to revisit that within the frameworks of what we live and breathe as professionals is largely impossible. Something that Adam Ladd, a dude from the states with his own design co. did, however, was to get his 5-year old daughter to check out some famous brands and give her thoughts on them. It’s a touching video and very clever – just makes you think about the whole journey that we go through as people I guess.

So for all this awesomeness I’m going to give Adam and his daughter a massive shout out… Awesome stuff indeed.

You can check Adam out at the following places – I’m not averse to giving a few links out where they are warranted!

Linkedin | Twitter | YouTube | Website | LogoLance

I know this ad is mad old, but it came to my attention in my feed (thanks Carla / @digital_diva and Monique / @celluloid_mo <– follow these girls, they’re wicked) and wanted to pop it up here. Also if you’re going to have something to say about the fact that my using this as an argument that print ads aren’t dying when it was made in a time before now then leave quietly please.

For the rest of you check the video below. This is stuff of brilliant minds…

The SOPA / PIPA fiasco is a contentious issue no doubt. One that I, with many others, am whole-heartedly against. I believe there are better and more effective ways of dealing with the problem, but perhaps that is another post all together.

While it may seem a bit counter-intuitive to shut down or reduce a service on the web in protest I think it’s actually a brilliant way of bringing the issue to the average, normally blissfully ignorant consumer and making them take notice. This kind of attempted infringement on the way things are could have serious consequences. The internet is a haven of free speech, chaos and creativity. It is far bigger than you or I and to let it be attacked in the way the man is trying to do is unacceptable. With that said below are some pictures of the various SOPA/PIPA ‘blackouts’ being staged by various sited on the web.

Wikipedia/wikimedia

Google:

Mojang / minecraft

Dinosaur comics

Destructoid

The oatmeal

The huffingt0n post

Reddit

Redstonehost

Mozilla

Twitpic

WordPress.org/com

REALLY love what Flickr have done with their ‘opt in to darken your photo’ thing:

Boing Boing

Great site from Greenpeace (interactive)

TOR Network

O’Reilly media

Icanhascheezburger network (don’t forget they were one of the catalysts that forced GoDaddy to pull their support for the bill - http://techcrunch.com/2011/12/23/godaddy-no-longer-supports-sopa/)

Love this new awareness campaign from the British Heart Foundation telling people how to do chest compression on someone whats gone and done a myocardial infarction (silly sausage). They’ve hit the mustard on the nail with using Vinnie Jones I reckon – a great way of giving the campaign some voice (I expect someone will be nominated for some award no doubt?).

The campaign comes with a campaign site and mobile app and it’s a brilliant piece of comms work – an excellent reframing of this kind of situation. I love how they’ve gone hell-for-leather on the use of social media here too – Soundcloud to record Vinnie’s soundbytes a-la-FAQ style (here) as well as pushing the hashtag and using YouTube (obviously) to host the video. Lovely job!

I saw this come in across the normal ad-blog channels the other day and some were flaming it. First up I think it’s obvious (to me at least) that this isn’t sanctioned by Purell, although that’s not to say that it shouldn’t be – I love the cinematography and it’s got class stamped all over it.

I guess I can imagine that it would be a scary thought to tie your brand in with the act of killing someone, cutting them up and disposing of their body in a bin (or a dumpster as our friends over the pond call it) but in this day and age, the ads that make an impact are the ones that go against the grain.

Dirty Hands from Joshua Wagner on Vimeo.

+Mad props for clubbed to death – love that track!