David Ogilvy

It's all happening on BBC4 at the moment. Not only with the excellent Mad Men, but also with a series of cracking documentaries about various aspects of advertising. The most recent programme was a biopic of the great David Ogilvy that, while focusing a little too much on his colourful private life, was a fascinating insight into one of the true giants of the business.

And here, from 1977, is an entertaining and illuminating interview with the man himself. It's almost an hour long - so make sure you're sitting comfortably.

Do The Test

From Transport For London, a thought-provoking ad and awareness test. How many passes can you count?

Smoke and Fire

Anti-smoking types are always a worry. Even after significant victories (such as banning smoking in public places and casting smokers as society's biggest pariahs - at just a notch below child molesters) they refuse to let things lie. Fanaticism of any kind is disturbing, but these lot are in a league of their own.

Take the ad below. No doubt there are those who would applaud its audacity and make all sorts of claims for its creativity. But they'd be wrong to do so. What are we supposed to take from it? That while innocent people being murdered is all very tragic, it's much more tragic that people die from indulging in a habit that they, by and large, choose to indulge in? The only comparison between the two is that dead people are involved.

The line at the bottom reads: "Terrorism-related deaths since 2001: 11,377. Tobacco-related deaths since 2001: 30,000,000."

But maybe it's fine to make these kinds of fatuous comparisons. How about the chimneys of Auschwitz made to look like giant cigarettes with the line: "6 million dead? Nothing compared to the many millions who have died since 1945 from smoking." Or a picture of Pol Pot (or Stalin or Mao) tugging on a cigar while standing in front of a huge pile of human skulls. And why stop at genocide and murder? They could have a huge photograph of starving African children and make the point that more people die from smoking every year. Why not? If the people who died in 9/11 are considered fair game, then so should everyone else. And look how easy it is to achieve as a campaign - it could run for years making those kinds of comparisons.

Of course, the agency responsible would probably argue that it's just about numbers, about making people think about the sheer amount of deaths from smoking. If that's the case, state it. Don't go using the deaths of other people (who have got nothing to do with your cause) as part of your cause. Otherwise it just comes across as cheap, and easy, sensationalism.

Brick Brains

This wonderful Lego campaign does exactly what ads are supposed to do: tap right into the minds (and hearts) of the target audience. Or, in this case, the target audiences (not just the kids but also their parents who would themselves, I'm sure, had similar experiences with Lego). It's a deceptively simple campaign that plays to the strengths of a very strong brand at the same time as managing to capture the wide-eyed wonder of childhood. And all without the use of a single word.

Hats off to Blattner Brunner, the agency behind it.

Poster Perfection

I'm always a bit weary of nostalgia, particularly when it's used to offer 'proof' of how much better things were in the past - because, by and large, things weren't better in the past. We really have never had it so good.

Of course, that doesn't mean that some things weren't better. Poster design was better, for a start. As perfectly illustrated on this aptly titled site: Totally Amazing Posters!

Big Leggy

Monster have quite a nice history of producing funny ads, particularly with their earlier radio spots. Their new TV ad, Monster Legs, gets just about everything right. Not only is it very funny and very sweet, it's also on brief. A great idea that's almost perfectly executed. I say 'almost' because my only complaint would be that it comes a little too close to Stella territory - a surreal Euopean setting peopled by a whole host of rough and ready eccentrics. Surely it's enough that the fella's walking round with giant legs and doing a very odd job, without padding it out with quirky architecture, old generals, lamas and etc? Really, these ad folk should put away their (now very old) copies of Delicatessen.

That said, it's still a great ad - created by BBDO New York:

Colman's Comedy

From Laurel and Hardy's short film Blotto (1930), an early example of product placement as Stan's wife (played by the fantastically vampish Anita Garvin) reaches for various ingredients with which to include in the liquor bottle she's just filled with cold tea. Among those ingredients is a tin of Colman's mustard. Y'know, as in the Colman's mustard that comes from round these parts.



Of course, that's not the only link between Stan and Ollie and Norwich - they were here in 1954, playing at the old Hippodrome Theatre. In fact, there's a blue plaque - stuck on the wall of the St Giles multi-storey car park - that commemorates the event. Go pay homage the next time you're up that way.

More about Laurel and Hardy's Norwich visit can be found here - which also includes choice quotes from my old university professor, Charles Barr. See, everything's connected....

Lose Pounds!

Ah, if only all advertising could be like this. And a coupon too!