Displaying 145 - 180 of 416 results
As the footer of this column will tell you, I’m a copywriter. And a blogger. I also dabble in journalism and podcasting. These are all quite enjoyable and satisfying things - at least from time-to-time - and I’m pretty lucky to do them...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
Here’s an odd thing about rock music: the more frightening it tries to be, the more hilariously ludicrous it becomes. Ozzy can bark at the moon till the end of time, but he’ll still be more golden retriever than werewolf. Ronnie James Dio...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
I don't know whether it's because I'm a writer, but when I watch a movie, the script and screenplay always take my attention. A great concept with a terrible script can really spoil things; likewise a thumping good screenplay can lift an average...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
Late last year, a picture of Cheryl Cole appeared on the internet and in various newspapers. Nothing particularly odd about that; Ms. Cole is a constant media fixture. Only this picture, which she had released herself, was of her backside, newly...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
The BBC notwithstanding, and a peppering of community outfits aside, there aren’t really any independent radio stations left in the UK. It’s all ‘networks’ - which is a rather overexcited way of saying a large corporation...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
Is there anything wrong with a writer reviewing a logo? After all, very few of us know our way around Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop, and I've never met a writer who went to design school. If then, you do think we have no business sounding off about...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
On 11 December 2008, Project Canvas was announced. A joint venture between the BBC, BT and ITV, it replaced the failed Project Kangaroo, a proposed video-on-demand service which was refused a licence on competition grounds and ended up as the SeeSaw...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
Easter, eh? Not as big as Christmas, and yet more substantial than Pancake Day. Still, a very good time to slow down and kick back. Here's what you'll need: some high-quality family members or friends, and small amounts of chocolate crafted to look...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
When it comes to the minutiae of modern life, I'm prone to getting things wrong. Go to the shop, come back with the wrong size batteries; turn up for an event on the wrong day; forget to put the clocks back - all that sort of thing, hopeless. But on...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
Getting an advertisement completely and utterly wrong is quite an art. For starters, it takes two parties who at least profess to know what they're doing: the client and the agency. Then the brief must wildly misunderstand the nature of the audience...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
In the advertising business, there's only one thing worse than the most prestigious account on the planet going horribly sour - and that's the most prestigious account on the planet going horribly sour and it all leaking out across the web. So spare...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
When the dreadful story of the mysterious disappearance of Flight MH370 dawned on the world, it was notable how many people pontificated ‘Surely all those satellites and things can track a plane anywhere.’ Some hotheads even went as far...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
Last week saw Sir John Heggarty proclaiming most modern advertising to be sh*t. Perhaps there's something in the bracing Spring air, because this week ITV's commercial boss Simon Daglish has warned brands that '90% of content is crap'. Some livewires...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
“If you look at the UK, we are suffering because we are not putting the time into the idea and there’s empirical evidence to say that the quality of our output has gone down. It’s not my opinion. Empirical evidence from the audience...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
In the UK, we have the odd instance of a fringe school pressing for the right to teach archaic or arcane ideas to children. This is usually the desire to include creationism, or other religious notions, in their science classes. In the USA it's a...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
So ridiculous, it would have been rejected as a plotline in 'The Thick Of It'. That's not (or not necessarily) my opinion, it comes from the creators of 'The Thick Of It' and it refers to the 'advertisement' placed on Twitter by Grant Shapps,...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
After hundreds of thousands of pitches, to hundreds of thousands of clients, you'd the think the creative industry would have the process off pat. Sheer statistics would suggest pitching has now reached critical mass, a point whereby every...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
Back in the eighties, I worked for a radio station which ran a campaign for a double glazing firm. This campaign never actually ended. Like those sofa sales, it just continued year in, year out. The ads were very straightforward, consisting of little...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
Right now, the SXSW music festival is in full flow in Austin Texas. What's more, I believe Creativepool's glorious leader Mike Tomes is there, doing his funky thing. Anyway, following the event on Twitter, I noticed someone reporting a bearded fellow...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
Recently, I spotted something of interest on the site of a firm of creative recruitment consultants. Clicking through to their 'contact us' page, I was pleased to notice a statement declaring their belief in common courtesy, backed with a promise to...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
On the whole, we don't tend to turn to The Sun for medical advice. Insensitive headlines about torpedoed foreign ships and prurient trivia about the borderline famous - yes, absolutely. But practical guidance on cancer prevention? Not quite so...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
'Merry Christmas' - that's how it began. On 3 December 1992, Neil Papworth from Sema Group, used his PC to send this written seasonal greeting to the phone of a Vodaphone executive. By 2010, 6.1 trillion SMS text messages were sent annually. That is...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
Do you remember Cait Reilly? She was the graduate who brought a legal case against the government after she was forced to abandon her voluntary work with a museum, and replace it with unpaid 'work experience' at Poundland. Both situations allowed her...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
You may not have noticed, but they held the Brit Awards last night. You may not have noticed because the TV coverage attracted fewer viewers than any Brits this century. Whether this is a failure of broadcasting, marketing or pop music will remain a...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
Firing a client is an unusual notion - counterintuitive even. Business norms suggest an enterprise will always welcome the presence of as many paying customers as possible. So why would anyone ever sack a client? Actually, although it would be a...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
Tomorrow is Valentine's Day. Depending on your point of view, this is the point in the year when you make a special effort to show your affection and appreciation for the significant person in your life; or a cynical exercise in consumerism, carried...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
Yesterday was 'Internet Safety Day'. Which pretty much proves the pointlessness of things having days dedicated to them. Unless the internet was substantially and provably safer for the entirety of 11th February 2014, or yesterday marked the point...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
UK cancer statistics are frightful and frightening. For every three people who read this article, one will acquire some sort of cancer in their lifetime. The disease doesn't discriminate, striking the very young and the very old, the rich, the poor...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
Most days, I take time to read the work of other writers online - and today was no exception. Prompted by a link on Twitter, I visited an article which several users were recommending. They were right - in terms of subject matter and content, it was...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
Years ago, I wrote a piece for Creativepool suggesting the confused.com logo was a prime example of branding designed by a client. Looking for all the world like the worst clip-art available from the briefest Google image search, it featured a stick...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
In 1999 a website called Napster appeared on the internet. With little in the way of its own content, and certainly no means nor intention of producing or releasing music, it set a ball rolling that in 2013 tumbled most of HMV’s high street...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
I'm in Egypt, as I write this. I've returned to Dahab on the Sinai Peninsula to see how two revolutions have changed things since I was last here. As it turns out, the Egyptians are still as warm, hospitable and helpful as ever. The Red Sea remains...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
'The Creative Industries' - it's a phrase we hear all the time, isn't it? But what exactly does it mean? Well, if you're a government statistician, it refers to : public relations and communication activities; advertising agencies ; and media...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
I've always loved advertising headlines. Long before I embarked on a copywriting career, I'd amuse myself by creating new versions of lines I saw in magazines or tube trains. Even as a kid, my mum (an English teacher) would point out headlines she...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
The post-Christmas advertising landscape is a rum old scene. The big retailers have withdrawn - some to lick their wounds, others to bathe in glory and ass's milk. This leaves the field pretty clear for other, less seasonal outfits, to pitch their...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
As the Christmas schedule proved, telly in 2013 was a very hit and miss affair. On the one hand, we had the hilarious glory of 'Gogglebox'; on the other, the clunky scripts of Matt Smith's last days in 'Doctor Who'. Still, we're a week into a new...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw