Displaying 325 - 360 of 521 results
by Magnus Shaw Jimmy Carr is recording an episode of the sweary panel show 'Eight Out Of Ten Cats' tonight. A week ago, that news would be no more intriguing than discovering your train has a filthy lavatory. But a week is a long time in a troubled...
Posted by: Creativepool
By Jo Clarke. ABOUT JO CLARKE Jo is a candidate on Creativepool. With the help she found on the site, and one of our bloggers Magnus Shaw, she has achieved her dream of becoming a copywriter. Here she recounts her journey... "I am a...
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by Magnus Shaw Last week I wrote a piece for Creativepool (which you can read here) explaining how the rubbish customer service offered by Orange ensured I would never purchase from them again, and simultaneously wasted their advertising budget. So...
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by Magnus Shaw So we're all agreed, social media is the brave new world of PR and advertising. A year ago there was some mileage in telling clients, and anyone else prepared to listen, the game was changing and it was time to get hip to the new...
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by Magnus Shaw Earlier today I had a phone call. When you're a freelance working from home, these are exciting moments. Unfortunately it was a sales call, which took much of the excitement out of this specific moment. But I hadn't spoken to anyone...
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by Magnus Shaw Throughout this increasingly insane financial crisis I have worked as a freelance. Disadvantage: I have to find my own work and therefore income. Advantage: I can't be made redundant. However, I have faced the redundancy...
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by Magnus Shaw The internet is full of hyperbole. Social media in particular. 'The funniest video ever!', 'The best song of all time!' - in a rush to draw attention to their tiny corner of the web, users understandably become overexcited and...
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by Magnus Shaw Kentucky Fried Chicken may well be an assault on the digestion and troubling to the waistband, but it seems its advertising is also offensive to a cross section of the viewing public. The Advertising Standards Authority has announced...
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by Magnus Shaw Yahoo - that other search engine - has announced it is to axe its personalised, digital magazine Livestand, after just seven months of publication. Don't worry if you haven't heard of it, the platform was only launched in the States...
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by Magnus Shaw I'm in America. Staying in Kissimmee, Florida and genuinely delighted to see things looking a lot better. Last year I was alarmed at the number of boarded up stores and saddened by the prevalence of regular Americans soliciting money...
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by Magnus Shaw I'm easily annoyed. So it really riles me when my fellow airline passengers don't pay attention to the safety film. Indeed, I often notice travelers reaching for a magazine as soon as it starts. Presumably this is some childish...
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by Magnus Shaw When I was a kid, homosexuality bemused and troubled us. I went to a public school and, despite the stereotypes, any boy even hinting at same sex attraction would be inviting ridicule or worse. That's how stupid we were. Now in...
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by Magnus Shaw Perhaps we shouldn't expect anything more from ITV2 - after all, this is the home of Celebrity Juice, Life On Murrs and The Only Way Is Essex. But while those shows may grate and irritate, they manage to avoid devaluing and...
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by Magnus Shaw For a jet propulsion lab brochure: "What we do isn't rocket science. Oh, hang on ...". For Sainsbury's: "We say 'hello' to good buyers". A recruitment ad for security guards: "Who says you can't have a successful career after the...
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by Magnus Shaw When looking for the best and worst in the creative field, at least TV advertising saves time and effort. Simply pick a show, ensure it's on a commercial channel and wait for the break. In those few, short minutes you're more or less...
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I once worked with an Art Director who had just arrived in the UK from a stint at Leo Burnett in Venezuela. As well as alarming tales of armed guards outside his office, he told me this: when pitching, it was usual practice for the agencies involved...
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Loaded, the title from which all lads mags sprang, is to be sold for the second time in as many years. Its publisher, Vitality, was taken into administration last week, owing creditors £1m and liquidators Cooper Young have been tasked with...
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HM Government and Tesco must have thought they'd found the Holy Grail. In an era of high unemployment and a conspicuous absence of career opportunities, the idea that the jobless could somehow be coerced into working for the ubiquitous supermarket...
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Twitter can be a bear pit. As a repository for anything that crosses one's mind, it tends to attract rebuttals, rejections, replies and refutations like an old sweet attracts pocket fluff. However, with a bit of luck, a judicious following policy and...
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As you are no doubt well aware, copywriters are, of course, some of the brightest, kindest and most imaginative people walking this planet. Indeed, when God was busy spooning out the talent, he took a particular shine to the marketing wordsmith -...
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Last Sunday Facebook surprised the world. Without waiting for their market flotation later this week - and like a big shot investment banker casually ordering the 1900 Cristal Brut - the social network laid down $1b in cash and stock to acquire...
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The Great Depression aside, there has rarely been a worse time to apply for a job. And yet for anyone leaving college or school, or simply attempting to recover from the cruelty of redundancy, it has never been more essential. So with high hopes and...
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Easter's a bit confusing, isn't it? I've managed to get my head around the crucifixion being on 'Good' Friday and Easter weekend falling on different dates every year - but now I find myself befuddled by the whole egg thing. Try as I might, I simply...
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I suppose when you create the most useful invention since the Corby Trouser Press, you have the right  to outsmart your audience. And the good people at Google certainly like to take advantage of their elevated position on the first day of the...
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I'm not a classic early adopter. I don't queue outside Apple stores every time a plastic cover for the iPad is released, but I latch onto technology fairly quickly. I was online in the late nineties, had one of the first phase of free Spotify...
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In comparison with the tabloids, The Guardian uses television advertising sparingly. This may be a cost consideration, but actually ensures a rather pleasing impact when a spot does appear. In the past, the paper's TV efforts have been intriguing,...
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Last year I wrote a piece and published it from Egypt while the population was engaged in an, ultimately successful, push to overthrow its president. Now I am back and writing this from Dahab, a town on the eastern coast of the Sinai peninsula where...
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Now Hollywood is the territory of bean counters rather than creative visionaries, we should be not at all surprised when Space Chimps 4 fails to live up to its, admittedly limited, promise. However, back in the mists of time, truly great movies were...
Posted by: Creativepool Magnus Shaw - writer, blogger and broadcaster www.magnusshaw.co.uk www.creativepool.co.uk/magnusshaw
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In the eighties and nineties I lived in London and throughout that time, London Underground put buskers on a par with the small, grey, dusty mice running between the rails. That is, vermin ripe for extermination. Okay, maybe not extermination, but...
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Jeremy You know the Honey Monster? Big, funny, cuddly, kooky old rug? Cold-blooded, careerist vampire more like. Because those of us in our forties know he usurped Jeremy Bear, casting him out of his proud role as the face of Sugar Puffs; condemning...
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This week Channel 4 has attracted considerable attention. Its high-profile, much discussed ‘documentary’ strand Big Fat Gypsy Weddings has returned to a big fat viewing audience and water-cooler debate over the style merits of pineapple...
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For decades brand marketeers have worked hard to draw a direct link between a product and the possibility of success with the opposite sex (they’ve rarely been brave enough to suggest a connection with same sex relationships outside specialist...
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If you look to the left, you'll notice this is the one hundred and first column I've written for Creativepool. I must admit I let my century pass by unnoticed, which is rather typical of my lack of attention. But it does allow me the opportunity to...
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I felt sure if we waited long enough, someone would grasp the nettle and prove that the art of copywriting isn’t dead, just having a lie down. The fact that this little miracle has been achieved by one of the nation’s best known (and best...
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There are many signs that something is going wrong. The scarcity of invitations to join the staff of a particular agency; the lack of requests to pencil out dates in your diary and the distant memory of those top-dollar, overnight emergency...
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