Displaying 1 - 36 of 61 results
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
by Magnus Shaw In the early hours of this morning Dorset police arrested a 17-year-old boy. It's alleged he sent a tweet to Olympic diver Tom Daly which read "You let your dad down I hope you know that." Daly had finished fourth in the Men's...
Posted by: Creativepool
The ban on “harmful gender stereotypes” that can into force in the UK thanks to the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) back in 2019 is a move that, at the start at least, had its heart in the right place. In the ensuring five years,...
Posted by: Benjamin Hiorns
Cancel culture is a funny thing. It’s all well and good to declare yourself a scion of virtue and leap to the gallows with torch in hand whenever a new celebrity is outed as a sexual criminal but what happens when the source of the (in this...
Posted by: Benjamin Hiorns
This week, we’re shining our company spotlight on the London-based Documentary Production company, Candour. We spoke with Co-founder and producer Zachary Crawley on the studio’s humble beginnings and its current status as a defiantly...
Posted by: Creativepool Editorial
“We have permanently suspended the account due to the risk of further incitement of violence.” Bang. Politically liberal users on Twitter surged by 24% as news broke of Trump’s permanent ban from the platform in January...
Posted by: Creativepool Editorial
While marketing to diverse groups has always been a successful strategy for some brands in order to sell products, it’s now become a priority for all major brands who want to stay relevant. But how well do brands navigate the difficult...
Posted by: Hanover
Sexual harassment is the kind of thing that, by all rights, should have been weeded out of existence decades ago. As a species, I’d like to think we’ve evolved enough socially since the “boys club” days of the 1960s to be able...
Posted by: Benjamin Hiorns
What do you see when you look at the image above? The face of the most hated man in the world? Or a subtle protest against censorship? Maybe both. Of all the dirty tricks currently being pulled by Adolf Putin, the blatant and violent censorship of...
Posted by: Benjamin Hiorns
WARNING: CONTAINS OFFENSIVE LANGUAGE* *Unless you don’t get offended by words like ‘fuck’. In which case, the warning should read: contains language. “Daddy, when are you going to teach me how to cut with a sharp knife and...
Posted by: Matt Batten
In the UK, mental health problems affect approximately 25% of the population every year. That is nearly 17 million people every single year. If it is true that advertising can be a driver for positive change, like all things creativity, it is our...
Posted by: Antonino Lupo
Among the many fascinating terms originating from Gen Z and millennials, Cancel Culture is certainly an interesting one. It connects brands and influencers with the direct consequences of their actions, paving the way for an age of brand reputation...
Posted by: Creativepool Editorial
If your first reaction to the headline above was of pure shock amidst some confusion, clearly Martin Firrell and Clear Channel have done an amazing job. ‘Still Revolting’ is a OOH project featuring three artworks by public artist Martin...
Posted by: Creativepool Editorial
As a general rule, people don’t like rules. Especially when it’s a rule telling them not to do something. It’s our natural instinct to push the red button and rebel. Could this explain the negative reaction to the new rule against...
Posted by: Proximity London
A year or so ago I was invited to do a talk at Shillington. I wasn't sure what to say and wanted to make sure it was actually useful, rather than just showing some pretty pictures. So, I had a think about what would've been useful to me when I first...
Posted by: Mark Richardson
UK reatailer Waitrose has issued an apology after receiving customer complaints about a trio of chocolate ducklings being sold in its stores. The set of ducks included three types of chocolate that were labelled as crispy, fluffy and ugly, with the...
Posted by: Creativepool Editorial
Activists, trendsetters, mummy bloggers, Youtubers, pet influencers, unboxers and Instagrammers. Everywhere you look on social media there is someone trying to steer your choice for your next purchase, be it a snack, trainers or a new car. But what...
Posted by: ifour
Frank Kolkman's VR death machine To tackle “death anxiety” among terminally ill hospital patients, designer Frank Kolkman has created a device that simulates a near-death experience using virtual reality. Visitors to Dutch Design Week...
Posted by: Creativepool Editorial
In these supposedly enlightened times, it's rare for an ad to provoke a significant moral outcry, at least to the extent that it gets pulled from existence. It happened earlier this year, of course, with the woeful ad that saw Kendall Jenner solve a...
Posted by: Benjamin Hiorns
The 2017 Super Bowl came and went last night, with the New England Patriots coming back from the brink of defeat to score their fifth Super Bowl title. The real drama, however, appeared to be happening between the plays. Whilst Lady Gaga's half time...
Posted by: Benjamin Hiorns
People love to complain, especially about things they can't control. Maybe we're all deeply unfulfilled individuals shouting desperately into the void? Maybe we naively think our words of dissent will actually make a difference? Or maybe (more...
Posted by: Benjamin Hiorns
A new online film from J. Walter Thompson London is based around a disturbingly captivating and physically intense dance. Choreographed by Sidi Cherkaoui and backed by a haunting track by Ellie Goulding, the film lets victims of domestic abuse know...
Posted by: Creativepool Editorial
'If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all' - or so the saying goes. Of course, in the age of social media, the chances of anyone saying nothing at all is very slim indeed. One only has to scan the average street for...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
Full disclosure here; I'm not a vegetarian and have no intention of ever becoming a vegetarian. Now that doesn't mean I am unfamiliar or unsympathetic with the plight of the average vegetarian, but it does mean that some of you might assume that this...
Posted by: Benjamin Hiorns
Contrary to what Google thinks, I am not interested in dating Christians. No offence to Christians, of course - just that I’m married. So I’m getting a little annoyed that when I log on to various websites, I get more or less harangued...
Posted by: Ashley Morrison
Publicity stunts are far from an explicitly modern phenomenon, but have become more commonplace recently thanks to the immediacy of social media. With brands falling over one another to outdo each other at every step though, is it possible for them...
Posted by: Benjamin Hiorns
Transport for London, the Metropolitan Police Service, British Transport Police, City of London Police and M&C Saatchi have teamed up for a new campaign that encourages people to report any unwanted sexual behaviour (USB) they experience on public...
Posted by: Creativepool Editorial
I don't know about you, but I'm getting a bit bored of reality TV shows. If we're not biting our fingernails during Masterchef just because the soufflé hasn't risen and Mr Big Food Critic is poking at it disapprovingly, then we're waiting for...
Posted by: Ashley Morrison
By now you will almost certainly have seen the front cover of today's landmark edition of Charlie Hebdo. Indeed, it might even be your Facebook profile picture by this point. But whilst the image in question might seem a little tame given the events...
Posted by: Benjamin Hiorns
It's been reported that the Liberal Democrat party will be pledging a crackdown on 'intimate' images of people being posted online without their consent as part of their pre-election manifesto. The move arrives just a week after Apple's iCloud was...
Posted by: Benjamin Hiorns
John Hurt, Sir Neville Marriner and I walked into a bar... No, that isn't the opening of a joke; it actually happened on Saturday. (Yes, it really did.) Luckily, there was no rerun of any alien-bursting-out-of-the-stomach scene. Always a bonus. So,...
Posted by: Ashley Morrison
Following a lengthy process and an awful lot of money, we now know Andy Coulson is guilty of conspiring to intercept voice-mail messages; he is also to be retried on the remaining charges. Rebekah Brooks has been acquitted though - and this is not...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
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
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
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
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