Banksy is Britain’s, if not the world’s, foremost underground graffiti artist.

Having managed to break free from the very talented, yet very generic, group of British graffiti artists that exploded in the late 80s, over the last 10 years he has managed to forge his own style and voice to the extent that his work is now coveted by the rich and famous.

This has now culminated in the the release of his directorial debut “Exit Through The Gift Shop”

But even with all this success and notoriety his biggest achievement in the last 10 years has to have been his ability to keep his anonymity intact in this ever increasingly media soaked era.

So the question has to be asked:

Is he a true original lone gunman?

Or a media construct put together by a group of faceless opportunists?

What’s your opinion?

The Gate has created the new online trailer for rising star of British crime fiction Tony Black.

The release marks the launch of the fourth in Tony Black’s series of ‘Gus Dury’ novels “Long Time Dead” published by Random House. These dark tales feature the ‘enthusiastic alkie and reluctant private eye’ in pursuit of crime and corruption and self-destruction.

He’s back on the case, and back on the drink. This time Dury is investigating the ritual murder of an Edinburgh University student – coupling his quest for self-destruction with a relentless thirst for the truth.

As writer Tony Black says, Edinburgh creates the perfect backdrop for crime fiction. “You’ve got your rich Edinburgh and your poor Edinburgh – the ornate buildings and the sink estates. When these two worlds collide, it’s perfect fodder for a crime writer.”

Tony’s work has been garnering praise from all corners with modern literary legend Irvine Welsh rating Black as ‘my favourite British crime writer’.

The trailer by the advertising agency will be featured exclusively on Amazon.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Any time, any place, any where… the great line from the great Martini advertising campaign from the late 1970’s early 1980’s.  When I was young it was the one drink you were allowed at family gatherings. In the grand scheme of other drinks from that era, Warniks Advocat, Babysham or Bezique (affectionately known as be-seek) none of them have lasted the ‘taste of time’.

The early ads featured the late Leonard Rossiter and a very young Joan Collins, who incidentally, doesn’t look any older nowadays, and poor Joanie always ended up with a drink being poured over her.

In the later years, the ads became much more ‘cool’ and it became apparent that you could only drink Martini on a beach in Nice served by the waiter wading into the sea…

… or indeed the boardroom of an office block in down town L.A. served by a very young Nicollette Sheridan on roller boots!

These ads came from an era when Milk Tray chocolates were delivered by a man all dressed in black ski-ing down a mountain and would leave his calling card – probably not advertising the fact that he was a double glazing salesman or that he had a wife and 3 kids at home!!!

Martini is even more popular now with the many cocktail variations it comes in – who hasn’t tasted a French Martini?  Even James Bond made it super cool with his famous “Vodka Martini, shaken not stirred” pulling line from the best of his movies.

With the new “Sex and the City” film being released, I think we should all sit back and relax with our cocktail Martini’s in hand, just make sure you don’t tip it over the person sitting next to you by mistake!!!

Image via katcolorado

Austrian designer and typographer Stefan Sagmeister is renowned for his creative and often radical ideas but when he decided to close his New York studio, for a year long sabbatical, was it agency suicide or his best idea yet?

What do you think? Can you see this idea working for any Scottish or UK-based advertising, design or marketing agencies?

(She asked hopefully.)

Image via here

When we woke up to the uncertainty of a hung parliament a couple of weeks ago – I was glued to the 24 hour uninterrupted news coverage of it.

Not since spending 3 tedious days of a rainy Spanish holiday stuck in a hotel room – have I been so transfixed to BBC News 24 and Sky News. I am not entirely sure whether it was actually the outcome that I was interested in, or whether it was the creative ways that the news-casters came up with to help them fill until the time we actually got a decision.

You had to hand it to them, there is a point that people in suits running between a car and party headquarters isn’t interesting, and nothing can make it seem so. It must be stressful, especially if the people you are having to interview are politicians and you can’t remember the last time you actually went to sleep.

In classic form, Alastair Campbell manages to wind up a tired and emotional Adam Boulton from Sky News who lets it all get too much for him…

Click here to view the embedded video.

Image via London Evening Standard