A long, long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, I was employed as a junior copywriter. Salary 4.5K. 1-month holiday a year. 1½ hours for lunch. I was not the only junior in the creative dept mind. There were three others and one guy in particular had some very peculiar tendencies.
Archive for the ‘TV’ Category
Heads up. The best advertising headlines in the world?
Friday, May 11th, 2012
For a jet propulsion lab brochure: “What we do isn’t rocket science. Oh, hang on …”.
For Sainsbury’s: “We say ‘hello’ to good buyers”.
A recruitment ad for security guards: “Who says you can’t have a successful career after the police? Look at Sting.”
These are some of my favourite headlines. But they never ran. It happens. An unappreciative client or account manager, a change of brief – not every great headline makes it to the target audience. Happily, many of them do. So below, allow me to present a few of the very best.
Cadbury’s Eyebrow. The top 10 YouTube remakes.
Thursday, May 10th, 2012
Back in 2009 the Cadbury’s Eyebrows spot was the third in a series for the chocolate brand that saw its advertising take the guise of entertainment rather than straightforward marketing. And while ‘Gorilla’ charmed viewers and ‘Cars’ met with mixed reviews, it was ‘Eyebrows’ that captured the imagination and took the world by storm.
Sublime / Ridiculous. How advertising is getting better and worse.
Wednesday, May 9th, 2012
When looking for the best and worst in the creative field, at least TV advertising saves time and effort. Simply pick a show, ensure it’s on a commercial channel and wait for the break. In those few, short minutes you’re more or less guaranteed to spot a minimum of one atrocity and hopefully, something quite delightful too.
And so it was last night. At a loss for anything half decent to watch (the channels seem to have abandoned bank holidays to a holding position of sheer mediocrity), I defaulted to ’10 Things I Hate About 1999′ with Robert Webb. It was actually slightly more amusing than it sounds, but what really stood out was the second commercial break. Embedded in the standard mix of forgettable plugs for anti-ageing gloop and heavily discounted couches, were two pieces of work which managed to capture all that is imaginative, crafted and classy as well as everything that is crass, glib and trite in telly advertising.
Writing ads for vampires. How HBO launched the second season of True Blood.
Monday, May 7th, 2012
When Series 2 of the hit TV series True Blood was ready to be launched across the US, the executive producer of the show asked his agency, ‘If Vampires are among us how would they be marketed to?’ The agency, Digital Kitchen, decided to stick their neck out and came back with a bloody brilliant idea.
Job Idol (Britain’s Got The CV Talent X Factor?)
Saturday, April 28th, 2012
I’m a bit of a sad case. I like American Idol. There, I’ve said it. I prefer it to the UK version of The X Factor, largely because it hasn’t got that buffoon Louis Walsh on it but also because I feel that the singing talent in America is better than in Britain. And I vaguely fancy Jennifer Lopez. That said, I quite like Simon Cowell, in fact – the TV giant and “talent guru” we love to hate. But the thing that’s wrong with most of these shows – and Cowell is in no small way responsible for this, because he puts people through who are simply good telly – is that the best people don’t always win. Or, in employment terms, the best candidate doesn’t get the job. See where this is going?
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Land of the free. Has charging for things become taboo?
Thursday, April 19th, 2012
HM Government and Tesco must have thought they’d found the Holy Grail. In an era of high unemployment and a conspicuous absence of career opportunities, the idea that the jobless could somehow be coerced into working for the ubiquitous supermarket for nothing (excepting benefits) must have caused so much hand rubbing, it’s a wonder there wasn’t a large fire.
Of course, once the giant grocer (and plenty others) realised the shocking damage slave labour would inflict on their brand, they retreated quicker than a worm from a hungry blackbird. But I can’t help thinking the whole escapade was symptomatic of a much larger trend. The closer I look, the more I notice the concept of paying for stuff being treated with contempt.
Channel 4 and it’s naughty billboards – Part 2.
Wednesday, April 11th, 2012
Channel 4 is fast becoming the most edgy and controversial TV channel us Brits have ever had. Whether it’s focusing on teenage hedonism in Skins, showing grisly private bits in Embarrassing Bodies or exposing political corruption in Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields Channel 4 have pretty much nailed it in terms of getting our bums firmly settled in our sofas.
Taboo subjects are surely helping to grow viewing figures but Channel 4 may be in danger of pushing it too far. This year they have already been in trouble with the Advertising Standards Authority twice, both in connection with billboard advertising for Big Fat Gypsy Weddings and currently, The Undateables. So where is the line between challenging people’s preconceptions and indulging in outright voyeurism?
The best opening titles to movies
Friday, April 6th, 2012
Opening titles to a movie should tell us more than simply the name of the flick. At best they should draw us in, set the scene, tantalize, wake us up, introduce us to a weird new world, make us laugh or failing all that – just simply entertain.
Dead heat. Why The Exclusives is unfair on us all.
Tuesday, May 15th, 2012(more…)
Tags: Copywriting, FHM, Heat, ITV, ITV2, magazines, Magnus Shaw, Magnus Shaw blog, television, The Exclusives, TV, writers
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