Virgin’s ‘never take your dongle out again’ ad had me laughing a bit on the bus into town one of these days and I must say finally there’s some added value to being on a train in the UK. While CrossCountry trains have been horrible for a couple of years now with not enough coaches on the right routes (and by ‘right’ routes I don’t mean the ones I am on although it would be terrific, but the busiest commuter ones), I think I want nothing to do with other train operators, and this is frankly very exciting to me.
It’s an addition that’ll make me read less probably, or do more with the iStuff which I know I shouldn’t but it’s fun. Take away the Wi-fi, the tables, and trains are these very boring things we’d want nothing to do with. Sitting on one would be a chore.
People will most likely start complaining if it doesn’t work (everything’s amazing, nobody’s happy) but then that’s the price Virgin will have to pay. At least they’re trying and don’t care very much if they fail right now. Am I the only one excited by this?
The AdAge article about Coca Cola’s facebook fan page (where they say it wasn’t built by them initially and all that) has these interesting numbers:
I’m thinking Facebook will have had a drop in popularity by now with the latest update, but nevertheless. Portrait of today’s man/woman: believes in Barack Obama, shoves a pizza in the oven when home from work, eats Nutella to cure that sugar craving, watches Man United, gets overjoyed by Kinder eggs because they remind them of childhood, wastes time on Facebook and MSN and cries during Monsters Inc.
There’s a very interesting set on flickr from an illustrator passionate about UK things. Looking through his list I realise I have a fair amount of “UK things” and I wonder how many the average person owns. We’re probably the easiest to persuade into buying ‘British’ or local, at least that’d be my guess.
At the time of writing I own about 20 out of his 103 items but have consumed a lot more in the past, probably bringing the number to 50. Half sounds about right, doesn’t it?
Rob wrote something about an ad that puzzles me to this day, and that’s Gillette’s Fusion Power Phenom with Thierry Henry, Tiger Woods and Roger Federer. Being ‘on top of the game’ is obviously a very important aspect here, along with the five blades and such. I wish I had worked more on men’s brands to understand shaving but I find myself at a bit of a loss here as I don’t shave and have no idea what it’s like; nevertheless there’s something about shaving and what a friend said about ‘The Firm’ with Tom Cruise and Gene Hackman when their characters both get ready to go out: one of them says ‘I look just as good as you but it takes me longer to get ready’ – which I’ve always thought was something razors could work on. But as I’m not familiar with their ads and whether it’s been done before, I’m not the one to speak.
It does make me think about RBS who splurged about £200m on celebrity endorsement before being bailed out if you’ve picked up on the news from the last few days. All this while a week ago or so they were rationalising giving out bonuses: 500 of 177,000 employees were responsible for the disaster, so the rest of the ‘best’ need to be kept within the bank but one wonders where the hell they’d go anyway in these times. £200m, on the other hand, just for using celebrity images for a bank…as Charlie Brooker would say it, RBS would make a great feature as one of the 10 biggest cocks in advertising.
If you know CP+B and have heard a bit about the rumour spread by digicynic that Alex Bogusky asked his creatives to write press releases and not scripts, then you’ll probably think the new Whopper Virgins campaign is an enormous hit.
I think it’s not, and that’s not just my cynical, negative view on things, there’s actually some reasoning and thinking behind all this!
Video #1 is about some Romanian villagers.
Video #2 is about some Thai villagers.
If you think they’re controversial and also condescending you’re probably right. If you think of it in terms of “it gets people talking” you’re probably also right to believe in its…sheer brilliance. Why I now think CP+B are idiots and I’m not in their target audience according to them in this AdAge Article (yes I know there’s no point but isn’t that what advertising criticism is? Pissing in an ocean of piss?):
If you can’t do controversial and cool in one you shouldn’t attempt it. Listen to more Simian Mobile Disco and practice zen meditation.
If you live in Britain “warrior mums” are in the target audience or were in June 2008 at least according to this press release. What gives? If your restaurants are operated in a franchise system then who dictates your advertising worldwide?
“The premise behind the push sparked a backlash among nutritionists, anthropologists and parents, with critics claiming Burger King is exploiting poverty-stricken regions for marketing.” = FAIL
“We thought they came here to help us, not mock us. We haven’t got anything here. We haven’t got running water. We can’t even bathe,” a local said. “We are poor people, but we are still people.”
If you’re even worse with history, even more of a reason to keep quiet, stupid.
”A strange phenomenon of collective psychology was the strong and enduring belief that the West and above all the USA would pull Romania from beneath the Soviet boot. ‘Vin americanii’ (tr. ‘The Americans are coming!’) was an expression that summarized a political attitude but also a state of mind. These resisted all proof of disinterest in Western capitals toward the countries left behind the ‘Iron Curtain‘ and only after the crushing of the Hungarian revolution by the Red Army in 1956, beneath the passive gaze of the West, did Eastern Europeans, among them Romanians, begin to abandon their hopes and face reality”. People turned to different ways of coping: flight, or the hope of flight; mental escape (Western music, yoga, bridge); and adopting Western lifestyles, to the extent this was possible.”
I will laugh my ass off if Romania makes a comeback with a spoof called ‘Geography Virgins’ in which they go to any American state and ask the Burger King super fans if they ever heard of Romania (and not Budapest) to start with. Then the joke’s on them and Romanians get to hide behind the “it’s not cultural insensitivity” phrase when they say people in the United States don’t know geography, for instance. It’s just…in any international business book really.
So some planner tell me wherein lies the strategic brilliance? Since when does sloppy research account for awesomeness? I thought arrogance had to be earned. Or I might be wrong.
A while ago I was slagging off Ugg boots but sort of ended wanting a pair of pretentious £100 boots when I could just buy any other boot for possibly less and with more practical uses. Like not getting them wet to start with. My heart is still torn between the £100 Ugg boots and other pairs of shoes just as interesting, pretty or expensive that might not be as much of a fad but as ugly as they are, they’re amazing because you can fit the thickest sock you can think of in them. Which is a big plus for me as my circulation is particularly bad in both my hands and feet so imagine the kick I get when I dry my hands in a public toilet.
But I’m still sat here thinking £100 for some boots that’ll only keep me warm but not dry…and one day I thought well, that’s it, I’ll buy them and that’s that. What’s the worst that could happen? First store I went into had a rather discouraging ‘Uggs back in stock today‘ message on the front window. If you ever wanted something really, really hyped you’ll know that ‘back in stock’ (get them quick) can only mean a lot of other people are also desperate for them. Not so good. In front of me a tiny Asian girl who wanted a pair size three or four but was out of luck gave me shivers thinking oh, they really are that popular! She was almost disappointed and irritated with her tiny feet when my size five was available but I could see her gloating when the sales assistant said it was the last pair and they had been reserved for someone. But I could try them on!
At first I thought she must be joking me so I had to ask if it was true and apparently it was but the natural assumption was that she was lying. Either way, next shop(s) were just as useless if you were after this particular model as I was. Obviously I could have just walked back home to buy them online but shipping from Australia or anywhere else meant at least two-three weeks of waiting that I’m not fond of when my feet are freezing. The Ugg idea was brutally murdered after a few seconds (“I didn’t really want them anyway”) so having resigned, walking back home I popped into a few other shops and was almost in shock and awe.
What’s the strangest thing you can think of when thinking of Ugg boots? Apart from short or tall boots that look like brown tubes, I saw a guy wearing them in an outdoor store. Sales assistant looks at him, looks at me and we both start laughing when he’s not looking. As much as I understand fashion but despite the fact that Ugg boots went mainstream and aren’t just a pair of shoes you walk your dog in when it’s cold outside, I don’t quite get men wearing Uggs. Just when I thought he was alone in his endeavour, the second case manifested itself in the form of a rather fit bloke wearing a tracksuit bottom and a very tight tshirt showing the muscles and six-pack sporting a pair of short Uggs. The man Uggs. One can’t think but… ew.
Knowing myself it’ll probably take me another year to get used to this but seriously…men in Uggs?
I’ve been getting worse and worse with introductions lately. So I’ll let a few quotes slip in:
“I hope to get more work. But I’m very picky. I take my time and I just want to enjoy what I’m doing. In life I can keep a certain distance from people. I’m rather reserved, and people might think that I’m very haughty and impassive. But it’s just a mask of protection. It’s just as an actor – especially as a woman – you have to be careful. I haven’t proved a lot yet, so I don’t want to be perceived as a bimbo.”
“I meant that hunger for life, that thing that kept me up all night, that made it impossible for me to ever sleep. I’m never comfortable or settled. As much as I love my work, and I love life-sometimes you feel the madness is killing you. But it’s also the thing that keeps you alive.”
“Vesper is the first girl James Bond really falls in love with, and also the first girl to make him feel betrayed. Vesper is a very complex woman. She has lots of secrets. I think this is what attracts Bond to her: she’s not transparent and he can’t quite figure her out. She’s mysterious right to the end! [...]
I drink Baileys. In fact I love Baileys (yes, sorry Nathan) but I wish I could be blind to their comms strategy over the years. It’s given me the feeling that they wanted too many things at once while trying to remain constant.
A while ago some lady was touching herself to suggest to this guy she wanted Baileys from the bar as he was being thick.
Before that people were taking sips and having sex in a posh lift at a posh party. Evening gowns were swapped for cocktail dresses. Then there were molecules and people floating in the air, touching them and licking them, like Heineken meets zero gravity or Star Trek.
Then some pretty lady who wanted a drop of Baileys from the bartender but some guy put his glass in the way.
For once, I’ve ignored anythin I knew about advertising and erased it from my memory. Baileys is one of those statement drinks – when someone stranger comes up to you and asks if you want a drink, whatever you order will tell him a bit about who you are. Do you take the pint of Stella? Do you have a Martini? Extra olives? Cosmopolitan? Do you take a vodka? Johnnie Walker? Mojito? Sangria?
Everything says something. Stella is the “wife beater” with high alcohol levels. Martini with extra olives says you’re trying hard to lose that weight and starve yourself. Olives in alcohol don’t make up for meals (if you don’t know why, you’re not a woman or you’ll just never understand). Cosmopolitan says you’re in a new phase of your life because you weren’t very satisfied with the last one. Sangria says ’safe’. Perhaps idyllic.
What if you ordered a Baileys now? According to some ads from the past, you’d be a bit easy. That upsets me. Every little detail in previous ads said that. The curls in one lady’s hair, the hair colour of the other, the colour of her dress. No, no, no, no. Whoever worked on it should go out this Friday or ask more women out. Practice makes perfect and you enhance your sex life while actually discovering something relevant about your brand. The ladies who look like the ads have portrayed them do not drink Baileys. Sad discovery. Women love drinks that get them drunk but don’t make them look like slags. Another sad discovery perhaps. It’s like buying cheap chocolate and hiding it – serves a purpose but you wouldn’t want people to notice that you don’t want to spend more on an indulgence.
Baileys also isn’t Maltesers or the other way around:
Today I had a very fascinating discovery with a guy about women and what they drink. If some lady is going to order something expensive (like Baileys) she’s either unapproachable or faking it. The latter, he said, you could find out very fast. Second drink is almost never a Baileys. By that time you switch from rationality to emotion – as someone said, rationality leads to conclusions and emotion leads to action. You’re slipping into the less rational side of drinking. Too much Baileys suggests you take ages to put up and that drives people away.
Dear whoever makes ads for Baileys and Diageo,
I like Baileys. I love Baileys. I hate your ads.
Before you turn it into the new Lambrini, please note: You do not have a sensual drink for posh girls with a bit of a naughty side. If Baileys is that then what’s Absolut in fancy packaging? See, lips, droplets and opening your mouth means you’re waiting for something delicious and if you also think porn you’re a bit screwed. Soundtrack reminds me of 50s and 60s dancehalls
Male wisdom says you should void any beautiful girl who wears ugly glasses. She thinks she’s in a romantic comedy for teens. And any girl with a bad haircut. She spends enormous amounts of time and money on her hair and if it is still fucked, she’s incurable. Avoid any girl who cries when she’s drunk. Her self-pity will destroy you.
The woman who drinks Baileys because she genuinely likes it might end up alone when she goes out on the town. But that’s alright for her – it acts as a filter.
I think of her as a kind of Sphinx. She has many different sides to her character – she’s a bright spirit, she’s very intelligent, she’s cheeky and funny but she’s also vulnerable. There’s an instant chemistry between them. They understand each other without ever possessing each other.“
I’d love to see the woman who drinks Baileys as someone passively superior. You know it’s there and her superiority is effortless. She doesn’t have to try this hard. There will always be something missing because she’s a perfectionist who knows perfection doesn’t exist but figuring her out is like putting pieces of a puzzle together, it gets easier once you get a few but the surprise obviously comes when you’ve put the whole of it together- the pieces with the most important graphical details are missing.
And I think itt’s a shame because you have a drink that can do that and you’re not doing it.
Boo to you.
I wish I still worked in the creative department sometimes, I’d come up with more than just a direction that’s not great but isn’t as bad as what I’m seeing. Thank God Baileys tastes good because it sure isn’t an emotional attachment..or brand personality. It doesn’t have one.
A while ago, I was babbling about packaging, a subject quite dear to my heart (or should I say eye first) because I’m one of those people that like things aesthetically pleasing to the eye. In a sea of people that love clutter, I’ll be looking at ways to get rid of it, reading swissmiss, trendir, and adding random pictures with feature ingenious solutions on flickr (although lately it’s been mostly about food).
I like innovative packaging and I like seeing that something I consume has changed the way it looks, whether it’s just a font, a slight facelift, rearranging the boxes on the orange juice carton . Heck, a while ago someone claimed that the default font size should increase because it’s too tiny so I’d imagine all the ingredients, storage, nutrition and whatnot boxes have had to be moved.
Last beer client I’ve dealt with had a very big issue with the look of the bottle – you see, in Romania the way your bottle looks shows off your status when ordering a drink in a bar. There are no pubs, there’s no fish and chip shop, there is no such thing as a ‘high street’, there’s no deli store because anything you can find in a deli store you can find in a supermarket and generally people are far more preoccupied with getting ahead rather than settling in a suburban or even countryside house. They’re not yet tired of advertising and they’re not yet tired of being subjects to all sorts of programmes advertisers might come up with. Simply put because they’ve not had enough of it.
Beck’s, the culprits that came up with fancy labels for their imported lager, promoted a very mundane kind of campaign in a few countries I can think of – most of the time involving choices and reminding everyone they’re the no. 1 German lager in the World. While we don’t know if this is true or not and while most don’t care about the fact that the best beer comes from Belgium (as some of my readers from Belgium will want to point out, obviously) they appeared to be quite a posh beer with a decent price compared to other stuff out there.
In the UK, I’ve not been given a bottle of anything as of late, more like a pint in a glass. But the Beck’s Canvas idea was more than generous with the artists that showcased their art on Beck’s bottles (Riitta Ikonen who created some herring costume and went for a dive in the Baltic Sea, Tom Price who does sculpture, Charlotte Bracegirdle who has curious paintings of people with no heads or hands, and Simon Cunningham).
Last time I got a bottle, I was very disappointed I didn’t get the one with the duck on it.
And now I realised – it had to have something to do with the Becksperience gigs going on this summer with Massive Attack, only to end with the Beck’s Fusions event in Manchester this weekend. The one in Bucharest was a hit by the way but halfway into the show all the regular Beck’s had been drank and no one dared touch the Green Lemon flavour. Oh, and to spoil it, Massive Attack have new tracks.
I’ve been so slow catching up with the news, JWT’s Vimeo channel posted videos from the ‘Planning Starts at 40′ thing and I must say, Jon Steel’s speech was very sensibly written and had some valid points that seem to be ever so true, at least with the economical disaster the world has gotten itself into.
He talks about the fact that planning used to be about setting the right objectives and that we should be celebrating 40 years of planning, not planners. Planning itself should be about doing the right thing and nowadays, we should be angry that planners are being asked to give the right solutions to the wrong problems, that money talks and it talks loudest unfortunately. And that we should fight against the idea of ’short term’ and accountability mindsets that consider things need to be completely measurable in order for them to be successful. And that we should be angry because of a general lack of interest. That planning is not about looking cool and hanging out with the creatives, but about rigorous work and discipline, which is something rare nowadays.
I'm Andrea, but you probably know me better as a banana on twitter, depending on how you ended up here.
Currently living in sunny Manchester (UK), future adgrad from Man Met Business School (2010). Prior to landing on an advertising and brand management course I worked in adland for about two years, out of which a great deal of time was spent in the creative department of Leo Burnett Romania.
I am absolutely rubbish with 'about' stuff as I can't find anything that really defines me apart from being horribly fickle (stick around and you'll notice) but you can go into details here or entertain yourself with my tumblr blog.
* Oh, and please don't ask me about the blog name. I know you will, but it's just a name I gave a game character a while ago. I hope you're happy!!1
What I say here is what I think, which is mostly rude but in a refined form. This is not what the people I may or may not work for (sometimes) think so all the crap I say is not their responsibility. Gracias.
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