Displaying 145 - 180 of 278 results
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
Look around any aircraft cabin during the in-flight safety demonstration and I’d guestimate that about 20% of passengers at most are actually watching as the crew show us how a seatbelt works (“because all aircraft are...
Posted by: Ashley Morrison
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
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
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
You must be used to my moaning by now. All those tortuously bad ads that drive me potty - from Brad Pitt waxing poetical in the agonising Chanel 'inevitable' campaign, to Spotify waffling on about what music does to us (which has nothing to do with...
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
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
If you’re a freelancer who’s got a steady stream of work coming your way - either from the same loyal clients who know you and trust you, or from referrals from said loyal clients, or you’re very good at selling yourself and you...
Posted by: Ashley Morrison
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
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
Picture it: the first day of our two-week holiday in Italy. My wife pulls out a map from the depths of her bag and inadvertently pulls out her iPhone, which is caught in one of its folds, at the same time. In one of those slo-mo “noooo!”...
Posted by: Ashley Morrison
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
Just do it. Yes, that’s one of my top tips for today - or for any day when the creative juices aren’t running maybe quite as freely as you would like them to. Because no matter how creative we are, no matter what gems of genius...
Posted by: Ashley Morrison
There’s nothing we like more than a nice bit of 3D and Virtual Reality. That is, if our trips to the cinema are anything to go by. There was a time not so long ago when watching a film in 3D was a bit of a treat. Now the technology is arguably...
Posted by: Ashley Morrison
When I was young, the most advanced hand-held computer game on offer was probably Space Invaders. A massive, chunky black device about the size of a hardback novel, requiring six AA batteries and with a dodgy red display which made it virtually...
Posted by: Ashley Morrison
“Normal or diet?” The standard question you ask when you’re going to the bar and someone orders a Coke. I haven’t counted, but in my experience, I would guestimate that eight times out of ten, the answer will be diet...
Posted by: Ashley Morrison
Big is beautiful but small can also be mightily impressive - including when it comes to design, illustration or animation on a tiny scale. And I'm not talking about those people on Brighton Pier who write your name on a grain of rice. No, I'm talking...
Posted by: Ashley Morrison
Earlier this month, there was widespread consternation and outrage that the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) is going to exclude the 'crafts' as a category under the banner of 'creative industries'. Having done some work on a...
Posted by: Creativepool
I didn't wake up this morning thinking, “oooh, today is a significant day.” Nor do I have a beer-fuelled celebration planned for this afternoon in the balmy bank holiday sunshine - or even a rosé-fuelled celebration planned for later...
Posted by: Creativepool
That’s right - the most life changing, communication changing, perhaps economy changing, and even world changing thing since email. I’ll be blunt. I’m going to say nothing online can come close to email in any of these stakes. Not...
Posted by: Creativepool
Controversial to the last, the funeral of Margaret Thatcher last week continued to divide the nation. Millions of pounds down the drain, or a fitting farewell to one whom many called the greatest Prime Minister since Churchill? Whatever one’s...
Posted by: Creativepool
This year sees the 150th anniversary of London Underground, and the exhibition at the London Transport Museum in Covent Garden celebrates the event in all its glory with a fantastic poster exhibition. With an archive of over 3,000, 150 have been...
Posted by: Creativepool
I'll be the first to admit it: from time to time, my blog posts can border on the vitriolic. But I flatter myself that, when I do let loose and turn the air puce, I'm only saying what quite a lot of people are already thinking. Such was the case a...
Posted by: Creativepool
28 March 2013 was a big day for the British creative industries. It was the day that saw the birth of an important new national initiative - Create Britain - to promote and celebrate homegrown creative talent in all its original and talented...
Posted by: Creativepool
By Ashley Morrison Considering that words and the effective use of them takes up pretty much my whole working life, I don’t read enough of them. No, cancel that - I do read enough of them, just not the right ones. Last night, I found a largely...
Posted by: Creativepool
Today sees the opening of the 6th annual Designs Of The Year exhibition and awards at London's Design Museum. Following in the footsteps of previous winners such as Barber Oserby's Olympic Torch and Shepard Fairie's Obama painting, 90 nominees have...
Posted by: Creativepool
by Ashley Morrison. I love comedy. I love the craft of it. I love how a skilled performer can take you one way, only to throw you in a completely opposite direction - which is the one that gets the bigger laugh. Being a successful stand-up comedian...
Posted by: Creativepool
by Ashley Morrison Last week, I was watching some film or other on TV with a few friends. Naturally, we engaged in some pseudo hoity-toity rah-rah intellectual badinage about such-and-such a character’s motivation during the ad breaks. That...
Posted by: Creativepool