Displaying 109 - 144 of 268 results
Holiday Inn seem to have been quite busy recently, not only launching a brand new digital campaign, but commissioning a film to tell the true story of a double-amputee who was helped on his road to recovery by the global hotel chain. This is not the...
Posted by: Benjamin Hiorns
By way of distraction from the work I was supposed to be doing today, I clicked on a link to a piece of writing on a reputable music website. About a paragraph into the article an unexpected thing happened. The webpage was suddenly obscured by a...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
Since an art director colleague introduced me to Banksy many years ago, I’ve enjoyed his stuff enormously. In that time he has painted throughout the world, from Sydney to Camden, LA to Palestine. The art critics bemoan him - too obvious, too...
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
As part of its ongoing 'Unbelievable' campaign for Pepsi Max, AMV BBDO, OMD UK and Talon Outdoor recently took to the streets of London to surprise the locals with aliens, robots, tigers and more besides. PepsiCo rigged a London bus stop with...
Posted by: Benjamin Hiorns
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
Whilst there are hundreds of awards shows held annually in the world of advertisement, very few actually mean something to the wider world. The International Advertising Association's 'Olive Crown' awards however, is the only awards ceremony in Asia...
Posted by: Benjamin Hiorns
Soho based advertising agency The Red Brick Road, will unveil an eight-week, televised campaign for flagship digestif liqueur and global brand Jagermeister next week, during the friendly football match between England and Denmark on ITV1 on the 5th...
Posted by: Benjamin Hiorns
Leo Burnett Worldwide recently celebrated its fifth year in six as the top creative network in the annual Gunn Report's 'All Gunns Blazing' category. The report outlines the best and most innovative creative agencies in the world, distilling the...
Posted by: Benjamin Hiorns
A new campaign launched today by VisitBritain hopes to make Britain a more enticing prospect for vacationers from all over the world. The £2.5 million, extravagantly titled 'Sounds of Great Britain' campaign is headlined by an advertisement...
Posted by: Benjamin Hiorns
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
If there's one thing HM Coalition Government don't like, it's spending money on public services. Yes, they're really very adamant that nothing more than the absolute minimum needed to keep us slaving away and stumping up our taxes, is available....
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
I'm sorry for implanting a most unwelcome picture in your head, but I was taking a bath the other evening. The radio was on, I was leafing idly through a magazine and that's when I saw it - the least effective print ad of all time. In fact, it was so...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
I tried Corsodyl once. My mum had a bottle in her bathroom cabinet and, as it said it was a mouthwash, I took a liberal swig. It was very much like rinsing with floor polish and Polo mints. But it is a 'medicine' and the worse a medicine tastes, the...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
They do things differently in Russia. Almost like it's another country or something. If their government isn't enthusiastically installing homophobic laws they've borrowed from some particularly intolerant 19th century fruitcakes, their president is...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
Do I moan a bit in my Creativepool columns? Don't answer that. As a fully paid-up, grumpy old copywriter, I know I probably do. But you can relax, because today I'm discussing something I really, really like. And handily, it's an...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
Other than persuading an audience to act, a copywriter's mission is to deliver clear and concise communication. Writers claim this is an underappreciated art, so it's always useful to examine the ways in which language can be used for the opposite...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
Apple used to do great ads. The silhouettes of iPod users, offsetting the machine's white wires, were tremendously vivid, recognisable and memorable - classy and classic brand design. Then there were the dancing, multi-coloured iMacs, animated to...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
At some point, perhaps four years ago, doorstep lending ('The Tallyman', as my grandmother would have termed it) suddenly became terribly old fashioned and parochial. Recession and financial misery inflated the market for non-bank lending at a...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
Disruption has always been key to the advertising model. Very few people opt to be exposed to marketing messages, therefore effective advertising has traditionally intruded into the content the audience has chosen to consume - a TV show, a magazine...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
Over the last week, I've very much enjoyed reading a debate, prompted by one of my Creativepool columns, on LinkedIn. It's always particularly satisfying to find creative professionals reacting to a piece I've written and I'm grateful to anyone who...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
Owning a domestic animal is a trade-off. They bring you companionship, fun and a messy carpet - in return, you give them food. Lots of food. Indeed, it can feel as though the only reason they give you all the affection and comfort is because of the...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
Channel 4 is in trouble with Ofcom. Not for a programme or an advertisement, but the juxtaposition of the two. The broadcasting regulator says the station broke their code on 26th December 2012 when they ran a commercial which gave the impression it...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
The old adage asserts, 'Word of mouth is the best advertising'. And there's a lot of truth in that. When a satisfied customer recommends a product or service to a potential customer, a form of potent and cost-free advertising has taken place and it's...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
Skincare advertising isn't renowned for pushing the bounds of creativity. Indeed, the industry's campaigns tend to be as formulaic as the various unctions they peddle. Occasionally these ads drift into the realms of the ridiculous - I've mentioned...
Posted by: Creativepool
By Magnus Shaw Well, this should be fun. A column about poo (rather than one made up of it, which isn't unusual). You see, you're already wondering whether you really want to read on - and I don't blame you, who wants to read about that? Exactly....
Posted by: Creativepool
Nothing gets done faster if you let yourself get stressed, but it increases the chances of mistakes being made. Describe your work in one sentence. Creating strong brands and imagery - printed, online or broadcast What's the most important thing...
Posted by: Creativepool
by Magnus Shaw. Perhaps surprisingly, I've only ever worked on a couple of campaigns which have attracted public complaints. One was a press piece for a now defunct cable TV network. At the time, it was the only service carrying the Disney Channel...
Posted by: Creativepool
Watching the ridiculously good 'Homeland' last week, I was struck by how absorbed and tense I was - transfixed as Carrie ducked and hid to avoid her pursuers in the alleyways of Beirut. The aroma of exotic spices, heat and sandy dust almost filled my...
Posted by: Creativepool
by Magnus Shaw There is much to like about charity advertising. Freed from the constraints of pack-shots and multi-buys, agencies have the chance to show off their creative chops and tell real human stories - often quite brilliantly. One only has to...
Posted by: Creativepool
by Magnus Shaw "Like all forms of design, visual design is about problem solving, not about personal preference or unsupported opinion." Bob Baxley It's funny. Art directors and copywriters work so closely together, for so much of the time, and...
Posted by: Creativepool
by Magnus Shaw A little over a day ago, Tony Scott - the renowned film and advertisement director - jumped to his death from a bridge in Los Angeles. The details remain unclear but he may have been diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumour. Scott...
Posted by: Creativepool
by Magnus Shaw Last year I wrote a column on a brilliant campaign for Mooncup - an alternative female sanitary device. The brand's wit and frankness were refreshing and the correspondence I received suggested the gadget has many fans. And now a...
Posted by: Creativepool
by Jessica Hazel You might have noticed a vandalised Billboard featuring Go Compare's fictional opera singer Gio Compario recently and had a little chuckle to yourself. But this is not the work of a rebel with a step ladder, this is the latest...
Posted by: Creativepool
by Magnus Shaw Hello. And welcome to the Creativep ... LOUD MUSIC, SHOUTING, SOUND EFFECTS ... ool blog. I thought it would be useful to dis ... POP SONG, KIDS GIGGLING, CORNY JINGLE ... cuss how advertisers are handling broadcast ads on the inter...
Posted by: Creativepool