This Campaign Is A Real Stinker [Quite Literally]

Although this piece of Direct Marketing was probably instigated by McCanns Madrid purely to generate PR and win awards, I've got to applaud whoever it was who came up with and made happen the inspired idea of sending back "Lost Property"packages of dog shit to owners who haven't scooped up their pooch's poop.

The Spanish town of Brunete has been cracking down on foul play by employing volunteers to patrol the streets to find culprits who leave their dog's business behind. Disguising their real agenda, they would then approach the owners to make a fuss of the dog to ascertain its name. This would allow them to access Town Hall records to find out the owner's address to return the lovely package.

Apparently 147 packages were sent out during the course of one week earlier this year. According to reports there's been a 70% decrease in the amount of dog shit on Brunete's streets [I wonder how this was actually quantified?].

It would be interesting to find out what the real campaign ROE [return on excrement] was.

It would also be interesting to find out how much [if anything] McCanns were paid for this. I might be wrong but I can't see the council of a town of 10,000 residents having particularly deep pockets to satisfy the bean-counters of the Interpublic behemoth.

However at the very least it'll provide them with another shit case history.

Round, Round, Round We Go

In many respects - a lot of Advertising nowadays is like monkey greyhound racing.

Very entertaining, worthy of a 'like' and/or a 'share' - but ultimately, doing sod all for any of the parties involved.

The Call Centre

If you haven't yet seen The Call Centre on BBC3, put it at the top of your to do list. It's a wonderfully  awful programme showcasing a load of wonderfully awful people in a call centre in Wales (I'm so proud). The head of the operation is a guy called 'Nev' (The guy in the middle, not the weird call centre goblin on the right). He seems like a genuinely nice person but my god he is a boob. He is a living and breathing David Brent. The whole thing is a real life The Office. It's pure unadulterated TV filth. Watch it.

Made By Hand.

Made by Hand / No 1 The Distiller


Made by Hand / No 2 The Knife Maker


Made by Hand / No 3 The Beekeeper


Made by Hand / No 4 The Cigar Shop


Made by Hand / No 5 The Bike Maker


"Made by Hand is a short film series celebrating the people who make things by hand — sustainably, locally, and with a love for their craft."

These have been in my bookmarks for ages, I thought I'd posted them to the blog already, but it seems I haven't. So, here they are.

It's a great little collection with a lovely quiet aesthetic. Yes, I'll admit they are a bit hipster-ish and come from the hipster capital of the universe, Brooklyn (sorry Shoreditch) but in this instance I can forgive them that. With so much of the human race's craft knowledge having been lost in recent generations, it's great to have little nuggets like these to remind us that not everything is made in a machine in China.

If you have a weakness for the cardinal pleasures in life, watching the distiller & cigar ones back to back might be unwise.

You Need To Read This, Yes You

““Be original.” “Break new ground.” “Find new ways of doing things.” “Creativity.” That’s what advertising is about. It's what people with big reputations preach. It's what people with small reputations torture. It's what people in stiff agencies avoid. 

Yet it’s ironic, I know of no other business that produces so much sameness, but embraces creativity so passionately as advertising. 

The word bothers me. 

Creative is a pretentious word. Not by itself, but how it applies to advertising generally. 

I've been the Creative Director of the agency I helped co-found since we started. That was in 1962. Although that title serves the purpose of describing a long-established agency function, it nevertheless makes me feel uncomfortable at times. Particularly when I meet people who know little or nothing of advertising. Can you imagine certain job titles if the situations were reversed? “Hello, I'm Stella, Creative Anthropologist.” Or “Hi, my name's Ralph, Creative Proctology.” 

The advertising business is a business of communicating information. The wasteful part of advertising occurs when good solid information is taken and then so distorted no one understands what's being communicated. This is frequently referred to as the Creative Process. 

Creativity is too heavy a burden to place on creative people. It's unfair. Think of all the undue anxiety it causes us. I'm not even sure how you describe it. 

I'll settle for information. It's what I can understand. It's what people want. To be told something that's important to them about goods and services – specific, detailed, factual.
For example: is the construction of your radial tyre different from any other radials? Does it hold the road better or last longer? What's its performance like on wet surfaces versus biased ply tires? Is the extra cost worth the investment in terms of value, safety, peace of mind? If the departure and return of your vacation is in mid-week, will the air fare be cheaper? Where is the gas tank positioned in your car in the event of a rear-end collision? What's the nutritional value of your breakfast cereal? 

Dig for information. Ask questions. Become as expert on the product and the category as you can. Absorb. Tell the truth. If a product has bee around for any length of time, it must have some virtue. Find it. Explain it. Demonstrate it. If a product is new, why is it being introduced? To imitate other products previously launched with no particular advantage, or to produce its own special reason for being? Believe in what you do. If you don't believe it, how can you get other people to believe it? 

I'd be foolish to deny the creativity of this business. It exists certainly. In small measure certainly. 

But to my mind the real creative challenge of advertising begins before the ad is written. It's in the search, examination, and discovery of new information. Confronting the reality of things. Dealing with the controversy of things. Dismissing the anappropriate. Answering the most pertinent. And finally, deciding on what is the most persuasive and substantive statement you can make about whatever it is you're about to sell somebody.”

Amil Gargano

President/Creative Director

Ally & Gargano, Inc.

New York City

Hidden away in the preface to the 1979 American Showcase of Photography, Illustration and Graphic Design is this brilliant piece. Written by one the best admen ever, from one of the world's greatest ever ad agencies, it is a superb examination of the role of the creative person in advertising. I've written around this subject on this blog quite a bit, but Mr Gargano here nails it. 

It's amazing but true, that advertising is largely populated with creatives, even creative directors, who don't really know what their job is. Or refuse to accept it. A large number clearly see themselves as people who's job it is to jazz-up something, or to entertain, or just be creative. 

It's one of the reasons why the ad industry's output is declining in quality. It's one of the reasons why most ordinary people still see most advertising as annoying at best, offensive at worst. And it's one of the reasons why creative people rarely hold positions of power and influence in ad agencies any more. After all, who would give such responsibility to clowns? 

One Legged Football Match Punch-Up

Forget the yawnfest that is Jose Mourinho's return to Chelsea, this week's big football news is the mass brawl that caused a one legged football match to be abandoned.  No, this isn't a Monty Python sketch - it's footage from a match between a team from Belgium and a team from Holland that gets a bit tasty.  Somewhat ironically, the game was actually a charity event.  Sad to see the supporters pile in to the action at the end.  Good job Oscar Pistorius wasn't watching to accidentally pile in with a firearm.
Found on whoateallthepies.tv

No Man's Land

No Man's Land - a new body of work by photographer Mishka Henner - has gone up as a part of the Deutsche Borse Photography Prize 2013 at the Photographers Gallery. I popped along, and out of all the works in this years shortlist - this one definitely made me frown and scratch my stubble the most.

"No Man's Land represents isolated women occupying the margins of southern European environments. Shot entirely with Google Street View, Henner's method of online intelligence-gathering results in an unsettling reflection on surveillance, voyeurism and the contemporary landscape."

A nice concept and I certainly see that the google imagery, devoid of human objectivity or imposed narrative, give an objective take on a subject so fraught with emotion - however ... and the big however : are these his images to exhibit?

Google are very clear on the issue of exhibiting their imagery : http://www.google.co.uk/permissions/geoguidelines.html

From what I can see - Mishka has entered and is exhibiting 'work' that he hasn't produced - with a potential payoff of £30,000.00 if he wins the prize. Have Google ok'd this - did he approach them?

Hmmmmm, lots of questions, and certainly a very provocative choice of shortlist for such a high profile Prize. What example does this set regarding image ownership...finders keepers? 

( images + official synopsis taken from http://thephotographersgallery.org.uk ... and yes, I appreciate the irony in me screengrabbing from the internet and re-posting! )