Displaying 361 - 396 of 725 results
In my late teens, a video was doing the rounds. It was called 'Faces Of Death' and I don't think it was an official release - more a much-copied bootleg. Essentially it was a compilation of clips showing people meeting their deaths in accidents. A...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
Whether you consider it a good idea or not, thanks to the coalition government, it seems the increased involvement of private companies in the NHS is a racing certainty. And what could possibly go wrong? Just look how affordable and reliable the...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
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
If you read my column earlier this week, you'll know I'm in America. If you didn't, I'm in America. In fact, I'm now in America's oldest town, St. Augustine - on Florida's Atlantic coast. And despite the temperature being in the low eighties (which...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
I'm in the USA - in a beautiful city called Charlestown on the Atlantic coast of South Carolina. But I'm travelling, so last night I was in Cherokee which, although it sounds romantic, is actually a rather tacky casino town 300 miles north. The...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
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
I was never keen on the National Lottery. On the night it launched, I nipped to the shop for cigarettes and was confronted with a queue which reached out of the door and off down the street. I was concerned the people had been hypnotized and summoned...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
The most successful film in UK cinemas this week is 'Insidious 2'. Having seen the first 'Insidious' instalment just a couple of weeks ago, I don't think I'll bother with chapter two. The best horror movies are akin to long road trips through foreign...
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
As a technologically advanced species, we've achieved a great deal. After all, you don't see hamsters riding micro-scooters, or otters designing iPhone apps. But we do have a tendency to overcomplicate things. Recent months have seen new versions of...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
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
Sited just off Fleet Street, the very first agency for which I worked was called 'Riley' and it was great. Inevitably though, I eventually moved on (sooner than I should have, actually) and 'Riley' changed too. In a large-scale, late nineties...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
You're familiar with the notion of 'bloopers', I'm sure. 'It'll Be Alright On The Night' has been cataloguing the trips and slips of TV production for decades, while 'You've Been Framed' records disasters on the home front - usually involving elderly...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
Do you listen to the radio via the internet? Quite possibly. Radios 1, 2, 3, 4, 5Live, 6Music, Capital, Smooth - they're all there, streaming away. But, when was the last time you listened to an internet-only radio station? One that's online rather...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
'Share the love!' says a one and half foot, massive headed, dead-eyed creature in a white jump-suit. Ordinarily the shock of this vision would wake you from your nightmare. You'd slope off for a wee and crawl back into bed. But this isn't a bad...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
You know 'Mozilla', don't you? The people who make the Firefox web browser? Well, it turns out they also make a thing called 'AdBlock Plus'. And, if you're using it, you're getting right up the noses of some advertising big-wigs. For the...
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
Our friends at the ASA have announced they are investigating the Government-backed campaign which saw vans driving through London, calling on 'illegal immigrants' to leave the country or face arrest. This follows 60 complaints and, despite some...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
Peter Capaldi is to be the new Doctor and I couldn't be more delighted. Apart from the fact I consider 'The Thick Of It' to be a television comedy so accomplished is resembles high art, Capaldi just has the face and demeanour of a Time Lord. Yes, I...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
First, a bit of background. The Huffington Post is an online newspaper and it's rather successful. Actually it calls itself a 'news aggregator and blog' - but considering that is less clear than 'online newspaper', we'll stick with the latter. It was...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
Today I learned an inquest has been opened into the death of a young girl, bullied to suicide by users of social media. This dreadful story adds a terrible darkness to the storm surrounding the abusive use of the internet. And, as happened with...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
Yesterday, the front cover of The Sun featured a montage of UK landmarks. Resembling a rather corny tourist poster, it was accompanied by the headline 'This Is Our Britain'. Now, I'm quite aware The Sun is rarely shy when it comes to jingoistic,...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
In November 2011, Coronation Street made UK television history when it became the first primetime show to secure a product placement deal with an advertiser. The unbranded ATM machine in the corner shop (prop: Dev Alahan), suddenly became a...
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
Rooms devoid of humans take on a life of their own under the watchful gaze of Menno Aden's camera, situated in the same position as a lightbulb, casting light and maintaining a unique perspective on a space. Photobooths, shops, bedrooms and lifts...
Posted by: Jessica Hazel
As a copywriter, one of the first jobs I had was to write a series of scripts and headlines for Mel Smith and Griff Rhys Jones. So I was rather sad to learn of Mel's death at the weekend. Funnily enough, I was also reminded of the comedy twosome...
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
References to the 'high-street' in political and sociological debate have been frequent for well over a decade now. Sadly, mentioning a problem frequently doesn't bring solutions. Many towns are plagued by empty retail units on their central...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
Greetings from Belgrade where, for once, the soaring temperatures are marginally less soaring than those in London right now. So I can hardly use heat exhaustion as an excuse to write about Jelen - a Serbian stalwart and my favourite ever beer - the...
Posted by: Ashley Morrison
Facebook claims to have cracked its rather awkward 'ads on offensive pages' problem. This week the social network's Director of Policy announced the site has completed the task of 'narrowing down the number of pages where ads will be shown'. Which...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." Arthur C Clarke When I was a nipper, I'd watch Star Trek and pretty much take it for granted that I was seeing an accurate portrayal of the future. I'm quite an old bloke now,...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
Would your mum understand that? It's fair to say that most of us hate bureaucracy. And meaningless, wordy bureaucracy even more. I've lost count of the number of times I've received a massive epistle from Barnet council when all they really want to...
Posted by: Ashley Morrison
Here's a story so bizarre, so post-modern, that it's hard to believe Chris Morris and Armando Iannucci are not involved. They're not though, because this is something that has actually happened; it involves two major television stations attempting 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
The most surprising aspect of the Edward Snowden case and the revelations about GCHQ is that anyone is surprised. Did we really imagine our 'lords and masters' had such respect for our privacy and dignity that they would resist the temptation to...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw