Easter’s a bit confusing, isn’t it? I’ve managed to get my head around the crucifixion being on ‘Good’ Friday and Easter weekend falling on different dates every year – but now I find myself befuddled by the whole egg thing. Try as I might, I simply can’t find a reference to breakfasty ovoids in the Easter bit of The Bible. As it turns out, I’ve been looking at the wrong book and the wrong religion. The eggy stuff comes from the pagan tradition, representing new life and the emerging Spring.
Posts Tagged ‘brand’
An offer you can refuse.
Thursday, September 22nd, 2011
In the age of social engagement, double opt-in emails and viral campaigns, some vintage marketing strategies are still as popular as ever, despite their venerable age.
Take ‘the offer’. When our hunter-gatherer ancestors first started trading goats for wheat, it was probably no more than 24 hours before someone muscled in on the action, offering Buy-One-Goat-Get-One-Goat-Free (BOGGOGF).
The psychology of ‘the offer’ is of course, terribly basic: ‘choose our brand and we’ll reward you for it’. We’ll give you something, let you have two for the price of one, throw in a free gift or give you a deduction on your next purchase. Natural human lust for ‘something for nothing’ will do the rest.
The real deal. 125 years of Coca-Cola.
Thursday, May 5th, 2011
A double celebration this week. Not the wedding – that was last week. No, today we celebrate my 60th post to the Creativepool blog (a nation rejoices) and rather more significantly – 125 years of the brown, sticky, fizzy liquid that conquered the world.
I’m with stupid. Is Diesel really the home of the brave?
Thursday, April 21st, 2011
You know I’m always moaning about the trite, conservative, safe homogeny that is the creative advertising business in 2011? No? You would if you spent more than an hour in my presence. Well, as with most sweeping criticism, there are exceptions and the current campaign for Diesel would arguably be one.
If you haven’t seen or noticed it, it’s the strapline that’s causing all the fuss. It reads: ‘Be Stupid’. Another execution bears the legend ‘Home Of The Brave, Land Of The Stupid’. What’s more, this is no attempt to ridicule the uncool. The work is very definitely calling the target audience S.T.U.P.I.D.
Jack’s off. The anatomy of a banned campaign.
Thursday, April 7th, 2011
Most days, the British populace is exposed to a smorgasbord of advertisements they would happily ban. Annoying, patronising, stupid or all three – there’s no shortage of work deserving the chop. But here’s a campaign that actually has been removed from the public arena by the usually soft and frequently toothless Advertising Standards Authority (ASA).
It’s a campaign by the slightly low-profile clothing brand, Jack Wills. The label makes and sells togs in a style the Americans would call ‘preppy’. That is to say, it is influenced by the traditional garb of U.S. college students and is rather smart and utterly inoffensive. But their recent advertising has attracted complaints and ultimately an out-and-out ban for the use of under clad models depicting a ‘hedonistic university lifestyle’ – deemed unsuitable for youngsters.
Fruits of their labours – what is Apple doing in China?
Thursday, November 11th, 2010
Gazing with pride at your Mac iPad and feeling a bit trendy and cocky, you may have come across the message ‘Designed in California, built in China.’ Understandably, you’ve probably then moved on to a quick game of Angry Birds and thought no more about it. But behind that tag lies a tangled tale.
Fulfilment failure – the best way to waste a budget.
Thursday, October 28th, 2010
What’s the best way to waste an advertising budget? Perhaps hiring Wayne Rooney would do the trick. Maybe booking loads of space in the breaks in ‘72 Degrees North’ would squander that cash pretty effectively. How about a 48 sheet poster campaign at the South Pole? These options would certainly see your client’s expenditure go the way of mortal flesh, but there’s a better way and it’s happening all the time. I’ll call it ‘fulfilment failure’.
Meet Andrew Finan
Thursday, August 26th, 2010
Andrew Finan is a UK entrepreneur who has worked with games most of his life. In the nineties he ran a series of international chess events in the USA, Russia, Germany, France, the UK and Spain. They culminated in the World Chess Championship Final with Garry Kasparov at the top of the World Trade Center in New York in 1995. It was through chess he learned how games can be used to harness human intellect and ingenuity.
Who’s killing copywriting?
Thursday, November 24th, 2011(more…)
Tags: account handler, Advertising, agency, amends, brand, client, Copywriting, corrections, legal, Magnus, Magnus Shaw, Magnus Shaw blog, project, syntax, today, vocabulary
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