Probably not the most plannerly argument on earth, but, hey, it's Friday...

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from icanread via ffffound

"The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled." -Plutarch 

Don't bombard your creative teams with dense piles of facts and large uncut logs of research reports, especially at the initial brief.

Rather, give them some highly flammable insights and then work with them to gently fan the flames.

See also

image credit: notoriousJEN

As a Kiwi, I find it bloody hard to lavish praise upon anything that comes from 'The West Island', but this VB spot from Droga5 is a cracker.

The endline is just on the right side of the "fine line between clever and stupid" (D. St. Hubbins). It fulfills the dictum that 'great ads transcend target markets'. It doesn't hold with all that beautiful-cold-frosted-glass hero shot nonsense. And it feels like the start of something much bigger (go take a look at the website).

But what really does it for me is the lack of artifice and bullshit advertising pretence. It feels real, authentic and inclusive, and, to this planner at least, this has never been more important. Not just "perceived authenticity" (ie well-acted spots with a patina of realness to them) but real, genuine authenticity. Real insights into real people delivered with real (non-addy) humour.

From my own experience, we have seen the benefits that "Dance" and "Singalong" have had on the T-Mobile brand, transforming it from a.n.other purveyor of vibrating air into a brand which consumers have a genuine affinity for, a brand that doesn't just advertise its brand promise ('Life's for sharing') but which actually lives and breathes it by bringing it to life for people in the real world.

We need to be in the business of forming relationships between brands and consumers. And how much easier is to form a relationship with a brand that across as human and real and honest and understanding? While many brand owners still believe that "their" brand belongs to be up on a pedestal, their more successful colleagues have figured out that a) it isn't "their" brand at all, and b) it is far, far better to be down rubbing shoulders with your customers.

from Flo Heiss via ffffound

Thanks to Lee for the heads-up

A superb quote for planners (or, indeed, creatives) from someone who always managed to find something new and unusual.

We are never going to find fresh, new, exciting & original ways of doing things if we keep doing the same old routine.

So mix it up. Take a new route home. Listen to music that is outside your current taste. Don't just visit museums and galleries to see exhibitions that you know you'll like -wander aimlessly and allow yourself to explore and discover. Stumble across some of your unknown unknowns.

image via i can read

In the chair today we have the new Virgin Trains offering (awfully titled "Success Express") from MCBD:



Now, there is much that we could say about this ad. That it simply isn't very funny. That it is an over-earnest pastiche of those pastiche ads that Mother used to do (usually with Traktor, who shot this ad). That it is shouty and patronising, and makes zero attempt to engage the potential customer in anything resembling a meaningful conversation. That I feel sorry for my former colleagues at RKCR, who lost this account in a pitch only to see the client buy this bollocks... (do feel free to add your own).

But the gravest sin of all is that the thieving bastards knicked the idea wholesale from an infinitely superior  US Starbucks spot from several years back:



Shame on you.

Meme Huffer would like to thank Dave Trott for unearthing this (and many more) in last week's Campaign Private View (oddly, not online). I've been shamelessly stealing that McLuhan line for years, but had forgotten the source.

Photo courtesy: Sr. Arrastrao

Regular readers will know that we have a fondness for Ballard up here in Huffer Towers, and we mourn his passing over this past weekend. The world has lost one of its true visionaries, a man who was unafraid to examine that which scuttles back into the darkness when the rocks of our civilisation (or should that be "civilisation"?) are overturned.

We'll leave you with a selection of thoughts and quotes from the man himelf:

From here via ffffound

Now, you'd think that landing a brief for sex products (sexessories?) would inspire agencies and creatives to giddy heights of originality, but it seems that the opposite is true. Last year we saw DDB ripping off a Seat/Playboy cover wrap for a Philips dildo press ad and now we see McCann Erickson shamelessly stealing a much-awarded Coco De Mer concept for their client Durex.

Here's Durex's new spot for Play O pleasure enhancing lubricant:

And here are a few of the Coco De Mer spots from 2001 which, famously, were shots of people at their actual moment of orgasm:

 

So far, so plagiaristic.

But what is particularly stunning about this theft is that Durex's arch-rivals Trojan had already stolen this exact same idea for a press campaign in 2004: