Displaying 1189 - 1224 of 1492 results
Christmas is rather a competitive activity, isn't it? From those rather ghastly households attempting to out-decorate their neighbours by festooning their brickwork with flashing reindeer, to the restaurants fighting to see who can charge the most...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
As I sit down to write my blog today, I’m a bit anxious. You see, we moved on Saturday. But this was no ordinary move. I’ve left the creative centre of the country (and some would argue of the world) and gone to live in a place where...
Posted by: Ashley Morrison
Understandably there's been quite some fuss about the John Lewis 'Hare and Bear' Yuletide spot. Not only is it high profile and eye-catching, but the cartoon alone cost somewhere in the region of £7m. With that sort of investment, you 'd hope it...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
“That’s the power of social media” - that’s what they keep telling us. Yep, social media can indeed be harnessed and used to great effect by an enormous range of businesses - from sole traders to multinationals. For some of...
Posted by: Ashley Morrison
In the early days of television, a journalist asked the British Prime Minister whether he had anything he wanted to say to the nation. Eden paused for a moment, then said - "No." This exchange has passed into history as an example of a considerably...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
So, you think you know your social media? What's the biggest social network in the world, then? Right, Facebook. Even my Auntie Janet knows it's Facebook - and I don't have an Auntie Janet. Okay, which social network is the second biggest? Twitter,...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
Unless you’ve been asleep for the past week, you’ll be all too aware of Olympian Tom Daley’s announcement about his sexuality via a ‘selfie’ YouTube video. The reaction has been incredible - from the media and the public...
Posted by: Ashley Morrison
Not that I have anything against festive cheer, but for some reason, this sometimes means that good taste seems to vanish completely, and this could not be more true when it comes to Christmas songs. With videos featuring a load of scouse wigs and...
Posted by: Creativepool
I've written before on the clumsiness and general lack of bite of the ASA (Advertising Standards Authority) and this week sees them back in action, in hot pursuit of Spotify. It seems the music streaming site recently threw out an email to selected...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
Until recently, I can't say I was overly familiar with the nu-metal band Lostprophets. Now I don't think I'll ever forget them. The crimes to which their former singer has admitted are so monstrous, they leave even the most jaded person reeling and...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
"All branding is about setting yourself apart and trying to be clear to your audience or customers that you stand for this set of values.” Absolutely spot on…and so it should be, because those words of wisdom come from Martin Lambie-Nairn...
Posted by: Ashley Morrison
Had it not been for an internship, I wouldn't be a copywriter. Once I'd completed my training, my tutor arranged for a series of placements at various agencies. It was called 'work experience' then, and each placement lasted a few days. It was a...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
These days, we’re by no means strangers to the phenomenon that is reality TV. It permeates every channel, every genre and every demographic. We laugh at the modern Victorian freak show that is X Factor, with their hopelessly deluded, fragile...
Posted by: Ashley Morrison
I'm no statistician, but I can be fairly sure fewer people are watching movies at the cinema with every passing month. Netflix, Sky Movies, Film 4, downloads and DVDs are all conspiring to keep film buffs glued to the sofa and away from the big...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
As a kid, I was very fond of the word 'wacky' - largely because it featured in the title of my favourite TV shows 'Wacky Races' (if you're too young to remember it - find it on the web, you'll be glad you did). As an adult, I'm less keen. It has some...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
Could they have been the most expensive two minutes in advertising history? Well, if they weren’t, they certainly weren’t far off. Last Saturday during X Factor - and therefore requiring the sign-off from pop mogul Simon Cowell himself -...
Posted by: Ashley Morrison
Say what you like about Tesco, but they know how to create a fuss. A couple of days ago, the digital, broadcast and print media fell on a story about the retail giant and its latest advertising wheeze. As a plethora of reports rushed to tell us,...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
In the laptop market, competition is fierce. So many brands, designs and features - manufacturers are constantly looking for innovative ways to make their kit more attractive. Interestingly, none of them has ever released a machine emitting the...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
Yes, it seems that, whatever transport-based analogy one cares to make, blunder-prone Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary can turn anything into a bad joke. While other businesses are harnessing the power of social media to promote their brand and...
Posted by: Ashley Morrison
The other day, somebody accused me of being “such a copywriter” about something or other. I think I’d used the word “malapropism” and nobody else in the room knew what it meant. My being called “such a...
Posted by: Ashley Morrison
We’ve all had fantasies about various ways of quitting our jobs. In fact, some of you out there may even have turned freelance because you just couldn’t take the permanent life any more - either because of your boss or the work itself....
Posted by: Ashley Morrison
Do you own a website? More to the point, do you own a bespoke domain name? I only ask because the City of London Police's brand new 'Intellectual Property Crime Unit' is hoping to get off to a flying start by attempting seize control of domains they...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
You have just under two weeks to get down to the Serpentine Gallery in London’s Kensington Gardens to see this year’s Pavilion, designed by multi award-winning Japanese architect Sou Fujimoto. Over the years, the Serpentine Gallery has...
Posted by: Ashley Morrison
Last week, I wrote about the key differences between copywriting and 'writing'. And while I attempted to make the challenges inherent in copywriting clear, I wouldn't say the profession is in crisis. Unlike the art of writing comedy. Quite when the...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
So, tell me honestly, does that title offend you? It's a serious question - I put it there deliberately. The reason being that, last week, Asda paid £25,000 to mental health charity Mind for advertising what was deemed to be a completely...
Posted by: Ashley Morrison
As prizes go, having your own pub built is quite a nice thing to win. But so it was when McCann Manchester was voted global agency of the year across all of McCann Worldgroup. Having won the award this year, the Manchester-based communications...
Posted by: Ashley Morrison
I used to live at the Elephant & Castle in south London. Surprisingly, given its rather 'gritty' character, this made people somewhat envious. Not because of the bright pink shopping centre, but because my flat was just a street away from the...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
The World Wide Web, it's a wonderful thing to be sure. You've got your social media for endless moaning and pictures of your holidays. You've got your YouTube for Little Mix videos and footage of other people's pets. And you've got your online...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
Over the summer, I was working for a client in southeast London. I’ll be honest: the travel was a pain in the butt. We were in that ridiculously hot stretch of the summer where it was hotter in London than in most of Europe. The tube was...
Posted by: Ashley Morrison
There can be few things more cringey than a big corporation “trying to be yer mate”. (I'm taking the whole dads-dancing-at-weddings thing as read, obviously.) And yet, time and time again, they try to make out that they value me, you and...
Posted by: Ashley Morrison
When the Kevin Bacon EE 4G mobile network commercials first came out at the cinema, the auditoriums (or at least the ones I sat in) were awash with laughter. Tightly scripted, informative and amusing to boot, they were a breath of fresh air and just...
Posted by: Ashley Morrison
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
One Minute Briefs is a concept borne out of the minds of Nick Entwistle and James Clancy who run The Bank Of Creativity. It's designed to change the way people think about advertising, change the way in which creatives work and also provoke a lot of...
Posted by: Jessica Hazel
You've got a little less than a week to get yourself down to the Royal Academy to marvel at the wonders of the Summer Exhibition. Or do I mean wonder at the marvels? Or neither? Do I mean marvel at the lack of talent - or the extraordinary choices of...
Posted by: Ashley Morrison
When I first starting out as a junior copywriter I went along to the D&AD workshops that were being held in various London ad agencies. These evenings were great for anyone who wanted to start out as a copywriter or art director because you could...
Posted by: John Fountain
by Ashley Morrison It's a wet Sunday afternoon (no, not in summer 2013, obviously; that would be a sweltering Sunday afternoon), and there isn't much to keep the family occupied. Well, apart from the 200-odd TV channels now available. Or a DVD. Or...
Posted by: Ashley Morrison