Displaying 109 - 144 of 234 results
The other day, a friend asked me to proofread their covering letter for a job they were going for. And before you go all Stephen Fry on me and ask who the hell I am to proofread other people’s work when I end a sentence with a preposition,...
Posted by: Ashley Morrison
I'm going to let you into a secret. Not a massive one, like I know that Pop Idol was fixed back in 2002 and Gareth Gates should have beaten Will Young into second place. No, I'm talking about something really, really insignificant. My minimum word...
Posted by: Ashley Morrison
Recently I’ve been catching up on a lot of DVDs. All those TV shows that people told me I had to watch but I just never found the time for them: 24, The Wire, The Killing. Lots of death - lovely. Part of the reason for this is that I am pretty...
Posted by: Ashley Morrison
I recently read that if the average person was lucky enough to be granted three wishes by a genie, the number one choice was actually “world peace” rather than “a massive amount of money”. Presumably “an infinite number...
Posted by: Ashley Morrison
Today sees the start of my favourite time of year: Wimbledon fortnight. And with Andy Murray defending his title and the intrigue surrounding his appointment of 2006 Ladies Champion, Amélie Mauresmo, there's a lot to be excited about. What does...
Posted by: Ashley Morrison
Last week, I wrote a blog post entitled, Why on earth do I need a copywriter? I speak English and own a computer. As I'd hoped, the blog caught the attention of a lot of you - but not just copywriters, as it turned out. From designers to marketing...
Posted by: Ashley Morrison
I'm busy. Very busy. And that's a good thing in the world of any freelancer. If there's one part of the “job” I find arduous, it's the touting for work. I don't mind the networking, as long as there's a nice finger buffet and a reasonable...
Posted by: Ashley Morrison
"Oh that's shit, that's shit!" No, not a line from a rap song or a complaint from some disaffected yoof that they're misunderstood...or even Charlie Brooker commenting on something or other that actually does demand a bit of snorty ridicule. No, the...
Posted by: Ashley Morrison
Last week, Jeremy Clarkson was forced to apologise for having said a bad thing. A very bad thing. It is the only word in the whole English language that I can think of that is 100%, totally and utterly off limits. The word is “n****r”....
Posted by: Ashley Morrison
Taking a primetime advertising spot last Saturday night during Britain’s Got Talent, the new television commercial celebrating John Lewis’ 150th anniversary was revealed. Created by Adam & Eve/DDB, the ad is called Never Standing Still,...
Posted by: Ashley Morrison
In my own naïve way, when wandering around art galleries, I've often stood with hands clasped behind my back, looking up at some impressive bronze statue or other and thought... “What if the sculptor made a mistake?” That's more or...
Posted by: Ashley Morrison
Finally, after many years of procrastination, I'm writing a novel. A lot of people apparently feel that they “have a novel in them”, but I've taken the plunge and I'm actually doing it. Yay, me. Mind you, as I say, it took me a long...
Posted by: Ashley Morrison
I may be preaching to the converted here, but you’ve gotta love London. A lot of people - and certainly the majority of Creativepoolers - would say it’s the centre of the creative industry, and not just in the UK. But even leaving the...
Posted by: Ashley Morrison
Yet another reality show came to an end last week, with Jermain Jackman being crowned king on The Voice. But these public competitions - from singing to cooking to interior designing to baking to skating - are nothing new. Did you know, for instance,...
Posted by: Ashley Morrison
Naming their children Apple and Moses would be reason enough for a lot of people to mock Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin: a slightly bizarre melange of Hollywood new age tree hugger and artiste-who-takes-himself-a-bit-too-seriously. As if those same...
Posted by: Ashley Morrison
If you’re anything like me, you’ll belong to quite a lot of LinkedIn groups that are relevant to your area of work. For me, a lot of these are copywriting-specific groups, but I also belong to others to do with subjects like SEO, social...
Posted by: Ashley Morrison
I don’t want to jinx it or anything, but hasn’t the weather been glorious over the past few days? Warm enough to potter around the garden in a t-shirt, I even slapped on some factor 10 sun cream, being the pasty ginge that I am. And...
Posted by: Ashley Morrison
‘Have you ever noticed how, in Hollywood movies, all the villains are played by Brits?’ asks a dinner-jacketed Sir Ben Kingsley in the commercial for the new Jaguar F-Type Coupe. Entitled ‘Rendezvous’ and aired at the Super...
Posted by: Ashley Morrison
Contrary to popular urban myth, I am not a member of the Apostrophe Protection Society. Yes, I did write a blog about Waterstone’s and the decision from their powers that be to get rid of the apostrophe in 2012. My blog did, incidentally,...
Posted by: Ashley Morrison
So yeah, the Brits happened. David Bowie cleaned up, blah blah blah. Oooh, yes, there was that controversial bit at the end of his speech about Scottish independence. But the fact that that was the most newsworthy aspect of the night doesn’t...
Posted by: Ashley Morrison
I remember when all this were fields. And young people had respect for their elders. And dash it all, people spoke English PROPERLY in my day! Yes, I’m sure we’ve all heard the same old rant - if not from grandparents then from the old...
Posted by: Ashley Morrison
Call me naïve, but I think we in the UK are pretty inclusive; more so than other nations. Granted, discrimination in the workplace does still exist on various levels - and much more in some industries than others. Banking, I hear, is one of...
Posted by: Ashley Morrison
This weekend, I learned a valuable lesson. Content isn’t king. Or at least, to be more accurate, content isn’t always king. Copy does have to be top-notch to have an impact and to inspire people to buy, sell, share, offer, sign up,...
Posted by: Ashley Morrison
So, Justin Bieber’s in the news. Yes, that craaaaazy 19-year-old superstar is at it again. The over-exposed victim of his own success was caught racing down a Miami street in his bright yellow Lamborghini at 4am. Apparently he’d had some...
Posted by: Ashley Morrison
If I started a blog by telling you that I was thinking about buying a treadmill, you may well click away in anticipated boredom. But the fact remains, I’m seriously considering buying a treadmill. There, I said it. So what? Well, quite. Of...
Posted by: Ashley Morrison
Growing up in the '80s, there were only four TV channels. Consequently, when we got to school, it was a pretty safe bet that we had all watched the same telly as everyone else the night before. So in the playground of a morning, we would all run...
Posted by: Ashley Morrison
Happy new year to all you Creativepoolers. Hope you had a blast - and not necessarily of reality. Lord knows we have enough of that for the rest of the year, so I hope you had a day off from the doom. I wonder how many of you went down to the Thames...
Posted by: Ashley Morrison
When I blogged about the John Lewis Christmas ad a few weeks ago - the one featuring the hare and the bear…and the despair of the rather wet Lily Allen cover of Keane’s ‘Somewhere Only We Know’ - a lot of people balked at the...
Posted by: Ashley Morrison
Most people would probably agree that, these days, we are a much more touchy-feely nation than ever before. Or much more “politically correct”, if you want to be more politically correct about the label. But advertising is still one of...
Posted by: Ashley Morrison
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
“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
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
"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
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
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