the-ad-pit

Ad Pit Review of the Decade - Part 1 - Music

2009-12-30T22:26:00.012Z

We shall start the big load of decade end chartage with the other topic that I love along side that in which I work... Music!

(Note that these aren't necessarily the "best" songs/albums per se, but are the ones that meant most to me or impacted my view of music)

Top Ten Songs of the Decade

System of a Down - Chop Suey
Only once have I ever heard people singing drown out a huge club PA. This was the song.

Rhianna - Umbrella
Any song in which Jay-Z is the weakest part has to be good. This track is so brilliantly produced as to wholeheartedly straddle any line between pop and 'real' music you could ever draw.

Idlewild - Roseability
I often state this as my favourite song of all time. My lists of this kind always change about but this will always be in my top ten songs ever.

Asobi Seksu - Nefi and Girly
A beautiful song that makes owning a cat seem like the most natural and joyful thing in the world. Loud and noisy yet angelic. Stunning in every sense of the word.

The Blood Brothers - Ambulance vs Ambulance
Do I understand a word they say? Not really, but it's magnificent nonetheless.

Killswitch Engage - My Last Serenade
Brutally heavy yet wonderfully melodic.

Skindred - Nobody
Heard Reggae-metal before? You should. One of the best live bands in the world with a song that inspires mayhem.

Ladytron - Destroy Everything You Touch
I love their first two albums, but this song takes everything good about Ladytron and dials it up.

Atreyu - The Theft
Award for the best cheesy backup vocals goes to this one, but it is still a magnificent track.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Maps
I think this is easily the most heartfelt song of the decade, beautiful but with a guitar hook to die for.

Top Ten Albums of the Decade

Asobi Seksu - Citrus

I saw Asobi Seksu supporting Ladytron last year and was so amazed I bought this album. It took me a while to get into it, but eventually I found a masterpiece that manages to be unbelievably beautiful yet powerfully noisy. Imagine My Bloody Valentine fronted by an angel. An album that you could (and I have) easily get lost in for days.

Green Day - American Idiot

It may not be a choice of so called musical purists. But let's look at the facts: A major label release with that title, an aggresive and political concept album that works both as it's concept and as a collection of songs, returning a band most people thought were dead to centre stage in world music. A brave, well crafted piece of genius. Anyone who thinks it isn't punk spirited isn't looking hard enough.

System of a Down - Toxicity
If you want justification that the nu-metal wave of metal was worth it's place in history look no further than this (and the album below). Every song is loud and heavy and aggressive yet it packs melodies and hooks that pop writers would die for.

Deftones - White Pony
To my mind the best rock/metal album I have ever bought. Complex, creepy, dark and brooding. Most of my first year of university was spent with this at ear shattering volume. It's worth the deafness.

Idlewild - 100 Broken Windows
A band with punkish origins add a bit more melody and make an album that defined several years of my life. That I have a signed cd copy makes it even better. I wrote to them and waited to hear back, about 2 years later I get an envelope with marker pen scrawled on the front saying "Sorry this is so so very late, hope you still want it." I did.

M.I.A - Kala
Defining the term 'world music' in one album. Sounds like little else yet takes a huge mesh of influences and makes them work like a musical box of Celebrations. I played it again the other week and was blown away again.

My Chemical Romance - Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge
Incredible live, this may have been the soundtrack to plenty of so called emo tantrums; but please don't let that spoil a wonderful album.

Late of the Pier - Fantasy Black Channel
You can hear the influences, you can hear the mixed up sound, but by god you can hear some brilliant songs.

Crystal Castles - Crystal Castles
Hyped for years, I finally saw them live and was thoroughly disappointed. I nearly didn't buy this. I did, and I am so glad. A journey through electronic sound. Weird and noisy but full of hooks. So good that Timberland stole from them.

Oh My Word! - The Best Album in The World Ever (apart from KLF's The White Room)
You won't have heard this, and that is sad. A silly leap through the now departed Sheffield legends' magical brand of silliness.

Top Brand Tips No1 - Learn from your Estate Agent

2009-12-23T13:26:00.005Z

As much as some people like to think that we in the advertising business are subversive subliminal deviant mischief makers; we pale in comparison to the triumph of technicality that are estate agents.

Here are some handy hints for brands I have learnt from my current estate agent:

1. Customers are the most important thing in the world, until they have signed their contract.

2. Customers are an expensive waste of your time (if they have already signed). Anything you can do to get out of speaking to them is worth your while. Try these golden ideas:

- Your staff should take long holidays with no cover, especially if they are involved in customer maintenance, refunds or complaints

- Always offer to call customers back, and never do

- When a customer complains you don't call back. Promise to look into it, and never do.

3. When the customer owes you money, always call back.

4. People are mostly decent and reasonable, you can use this to ensure you never need give refunds. See also 5.

5. Use vague details when you sell something. Then look in microscopic detail at returns. You can get away with this by vastly underselling the importance of said details when signing contracts.

6. If customers need urgent assistance, take your time. They can always wait, it's their money not yours (yet). See also 7.

7. People are stupid:

- If you have no idea what is going on, pretend you do
- If something needs doing, say the person on holiday/who is ill is in charge of it
- If you get back from holiday and find you have to do something, see points 2 and 6

If things don't pick up soon I shall be naming the estate agent in question.

The Ad Pit Xmas Review 2009

2009-12-10T13:45:00.003Z

It's that time of year again when I get irritated by the countless clips of red and white frivolity that pass by our screens.

So let's see what's out there...

Argos - Gifts

There's nothing here we haven't seen before in a Xmas ad, but it's done in a nice way. The tone is nice and it makes a good example of how to do traditional Christmas advertising.

Specsavers - Kitty

The usual joke with a reasonable punch line. Problem is it feels cheap, unlike the good TV work this feels custom made for the web, with a 1999 web budget to match.

Sony Centre - Xmas

Apart from the fact that without the VAIO and PSP branding it as Sony, this could easily be a fallout of the Toshiba ad from earlier in the year... only less cool and with cheaper graphics.

That sounds harsh I guess. Its nice, doesn't blast jolly old seasonal cliche's and is very watchable.

Maccy D's - Xmas menu

Not quite up to the standard of the excellent poem ad, but there is something joyful in the ripping of old panto traditions... and who doesn't enjoy comedy involving cranky old ladies? Oh. Never mind.

John Lewis - Sweet child O mine

As I mentioned previously, this is just wonderful. Would you Adam and Eve it, great ads at Xmas?!

DFS - All I Want for Xmas

ARGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Northern Meetup Nominations so far

2009-12-07T13:07:00.003Z

Please let me know your suggestions soon, I will put up a poll to choose a winner in a few days!

Northern Soul
Hit the North
Beer Evenings
Pie Chips and Advertising
Northern Lights
North Stars
North Fest
Northern Hootenanny
Sup North

"Turn that damn thing off!!!"

2009-12-01T22:12:00.003Z

I posted a irritable comment on twitter the other day, and was quickly replied to with a very intelligent observation. I thought about it some more and here is the summation of that thought. Credit to Rikesh for this thought and making me think about something I took as given.

On the way home from work some 16 year old kid was blasting shitty faux-rnb from their phone, and having had a busy day it really pissed me off. I felt like shouting 'get some headphones!'

Indeed when I got home I went on twitter and enquired why no one under the age of 17 gets what headphones are.

Rikesh responded by reminding me of something very true. Those 14-18 year olds are the generation that has grown through childhood with the ringtone and mobile speakers as part of their everyday experience.

That got me thinking. What if they subscribe to a completely different viewpoint. What if instead of just being used to speaker music, their whole perception of being rude is different.

We see headphones as polite, as a way of avoiding disturbing other passengers and passers by. A way of keeping our noise to ourselves.

What if these kids see it the other way. That headphones are rude because they exclude you, it's you shutting other people out, being self absorbed instead of sharing with others. It might be a long shot but its a possibility, if you are always with your friends why would you listen to music on your own? I wouldn't put headphones on if I was at the pub, maybe that logic applies when you are always hanging out with your mates.

Or they could just be annoying brats...

Rob on Planning

2009-11-30T01:41:00.003Z

[Please note: It's late and I may edit this majorly tomorrow]

A lot of advertising's ills are often placed at the foot of planning. We get accused of being against or stifling creativity, of being account men in disguise, of wanting to please the client not make better work.

Well that's not my idea of planning.

Planning to me is exactly the opposite of limiting creativity, it's about finding information and making great briefs (whether written or verbal, that's another debate) to create better work.

I know a lot of planners are frustrated creatives, and maybe that's true to some extent. But that's exactly why I wanted to be a planner. I know I am unlikely to ever make world beating creative, but I know that I can help others to make it. Or help make sure that world beating creative also creates world beating reactions or world beating sales.

I am not the sort of person who thinks they know everything, I won't sit there thinking I know better; I just try my hardest and say what I think is right. But also, I am not here to make up the numbers. I truly believe if I keep learning and keep working hard I can make a difference to our industry. It might be a small difference, but It's there for the taking.

There are truly great people in this industry that inspire me every day. Some planners, some creatives, some even (ha) account suits. Some I work with, some I just know (and hope to work with), and some I've never met (and hope to work with). It's those people who give me faith that not only can we make better work than we do now, but we can do it whilst producing better results for clients AND making ads that people enjoy and appreciate instead of hating.

Ad land is there for improving, I hope I can eventually help out.

Window on Joy

2009-11-26T14:20:00.003Z

Wonderful ad for Dairy Milk by Cadburys in Australia.
This so perfectly captures the joy that was missing in the post-Gorilla work over here (latest ad excluded somewhat).

via Gemma

Loofer! Loofer! Loofer!

2009-11-20T14:33:00.002Z

Wonderful bit of work here for Method by Droga5.
Makes the point in a funny and engaging way, but really makes you look at what you define as 'clean'.

Loofer! Loofer!

Hit the North

2009-11-18T13:09:00.002Z

After all these Northern Planning meetings, which became Sheffield/Leeds Northern Ad meetings, which then became Manchester Ad meetings; I think it's time to actually create some kind of semi-formal group to put them all together.

Not just a facebook group, but a proper mini-identity that allows us to group together properly as opposed to the informal word of mouth system that operates at the moment.

I'd be interested to know your thoughts on this, particularly Gemma, Northern, Simon, David, Andrea, Rebecca, etc who have been to a fair few; and those who were new to the last one, Adam and Dan.

Good name suggestions more than welcome too!

Ad North is a starter I like.

Never Knowingly Underproduced

2009-11-17T13:54:00.002Z

After last year's wonderful Christmas ads I was surprised to see John Lewis move their agency. Yet having viewed the new ad I must agree it wasn't entirely a bad decision.

Like last year the ad creates a wonderfully festive atmosphere without resorting to filling the screen with red and white, without overused seasonal hits, and without the sappy over saturated sense of ocassion we are force fed for three months from mid October.

Where this one goes one better to me is that despite avoiding the cloying artificial taste of the event, they have produced something that is wonderfully sweet, amusing, and warrants multiple viewings without wanting to hurl a plastic santa at the screen.

Add to that a brilliant brilliant song choice. No Shaky, no slade, no Cliff, no one hit wonders. A proper year round track that captures the IDEA not the season.

Adam and Eve I could kiss you. Or at least buy you a lovely present.

Don't Forget...

2009-11-11T13:05:00.001Z

The next Northern Ad Meet is tomorrow:

Thursday November 12th
Common Bar in Manchester
6.30pm start

We welcome planning, suits, creatives, marketing folk, pr folk, digital folk, grads, etc etc.Reply here or email me at rob ( at ) ad-pit ( dot co dot uk ) for more info or if you have any questions.

Market Warfare 2

2009-11-09T13:32:00.003Z

So, we are soon to see the release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, one of the most anticipated games in living memory. In honour of this several supermarkets are offering it for a bargain price of £26, less than half price.

Here is why I won't be buying.

This isn't just undercutting, this is a drastic loss leader. Selling below their purchase price in a bid to drive market share and other shopping. It's downright anti-competitive, and misleading for customers who start to expect every game to be sold at a huge loss, making real gaming shops (both big and independent alike) look like they are ripping people off.

This isn't some small retailer creating publicity to make a name for themselves, this isn't clever purchasing or out of tax cleverness; this is using market position, big bank accounts and store portfolio to get a foothold in a market in which they are usually pretty expensive (anything not brand new is rarely reduced).

Is this much different to the bus company that ran almost free buses to kill off local competition, then got rid of them and raised prices?

Happily the retailers that actually care about gamers and gaming as a pastime are too strong and have enough unique advantages to avoid being severely damaged by this ploy; but I wouldn't be surprised if it is the nail in the coffin of a few independent stores losing out on sales for the biggest game of the year.

To me it's like buying a car stereo at 75% off from some hooded 17 year old outside Halfords, you can't be that cheap and be totally trustworthy. Like paying £10 for a jacket and then complaining when it doesn't last and was made by a mistreated 3 year old in Indonesia for 12p.

Supermarkets are already killing pubs by doing this with alcohol. If we let this become the standard for games, then don't be surprised when the local stores start dying and the prices creep up.

It's NOT a Viral

2009-11-06T09:18:00.002Z

Most of us know by now, but there are still some people on both sides of the client / agency fence that haven't yet understood. For those people, there is this:

It's Not a Viral (version 1)

View more presentations from Rob Mortimer.

I have a confession

2009-11-02T14:34:00.002Z

Despite feeling like there is some interesting thought behind it, and despite being an interesting idea; I just don't feel any warmth towards the new Kingsmill campaign.

It seems like a good idea that has been lost somewhere along the way, and ended up being too long, too complex, and with quirkiness that has faded into weirdness.

It's a shame, as there is a lot of potential here to be saying something different around bread. The idea can be taken into lots of areas, they have already started doing Vox Pop versions, though a batch of B3TA style responses might affect that.

I think its just the execution here that is lacking for me.

10 Years in Advertising and Marketing

2009-11-02T13:20:00.003Z

So, we are coming to the end of the first decade of the new millenium (It doesn't feel new despite us being only 1% through it).

It has been a rollercoaster for our industry, the expansion of media types changing the way we think about planning and creative work forever.

To mark the passing of the event I would like to call for nominations for the 'Ad Pit Decade Awards' (I use the word awards loosely). If I get enough interest I will do a big feature on this nearer Xmas.

The categories are as follows, campaigns must have run between 2000 and now:

Best TV ad

Best Print ad

Best Online content (not website)

Best Website

Best Thought in a Campaign

Best PR campaign

Best Account Person

Best Planner

Best Creatives

Best Ad/Mkt/PR book

Best Industry Spokesperson

Worst Ad

Best Agency

Worst Agency (please include a brief reason so I can exclude unconstructive votes)

Please reply or send your nominations to me: rob (at) ad (dash) pit (dot) co (dot) uk

Northern Ad Meet

2009-10-29T13:18:00.003Z

The next Northern Ad Meet has been arranged (at last!):

Thursday November 12th
Common Bar in Manchester
6.30pm start

We welcome planning, suits, creatives, marketing folk, pr folk, digital folk, grads, etc etc.
Reply here or email me at rob ( at ) ad-pit ( dot co dot uk ) for more info or if you have any questions.

A New Breed of Apple

2009-10-26T14:31:00.002Z

Dear Apple.

So smug. So bloody smug.
I love apple products but the latest Mac vs PC ad just starts to creep into desperation, a step into the gleeful little bubble world that too many iphone owners are going to.

Are you saying you have never broken any promises apple? That everything you make has worked 100% perfectly? That every feature you ever suggested appeared on time and completely unbreakable?

Don't make assertions that even you can't live up to.

Regards

Rob

Apple - Mac vs PC - Broken Promises - (2009) :30 (USA)

HHCL Yeah

2009-10-26T10:29:00.002Z

Great post on HHCL and the curse of being "Campaign Agency of the Decade" by the second H.

Steve Henry on Campaign's blogs

We Wish You a Merry October

2009-10-26T09:11:00.003Z

Argos have broken the Christmas hustle. Ok, so the ad isn't bad. Actually it's pretty nice for a Christmas retail ad. The problem is that it's October.

I know every brand wants to be the first in the Christmas rush, but this is getting stupid. Why can't we wait until after Guy Fawkes Night at least before we get the sleigh bells and one hit wonders out?

You don't start advertising your new year sale in November. You don't advertise Halloween in August. You don't promote your summer deals in April. Why do we think it's acceptable to shove Christmas in people's faces so damned early.

Is it any wonder people get irritated?

Now let's watch this ad again on the 6th November, when it is appropriate!

On the other hand. One ad that most certainly is not nice is the return of the spawn of musical Satan's fire laden bowels. Mariah Carey and DFS. All I want for Christmas is for them to FUCK OFF.

This is Disgusting.

2009-10-16T11:08:00.002+01:00

A shocking and dispicable slur on gay lifestyles from the Daily Mail. How can they get away with this in 2009?

Daily Mail Homophobia

McPoetry

2009-10-16T10:59:00.003+01:00

Am I alone in adland at liking both the new McDonalds ads.

They have shifted themselves slightly upmarket in their image gradually over a long period of time; and the result of this is two very different but equally pleasing ads.

The first is the breakfast ad, with people groggily starting the day. This is amusing, and whilst not too far removed from previous McD ads it has a new positivity and lacks the artificial glare of their older stuff.

The second is the frankly brilliant poem ad talking about the various types that come into the restaurant during the day. A little cheesy maybe, but it is done so well, with a visible love and attention that makes it probably the best thing they have done in a very very long time. Instilling variety and personality back into a brand that has been sterile and one dimensional (at least in image) for so long.

How Sacred Is The Brief?

2009-10-15T13:42:00.003+01:00

Here is a thought or two on a topic that I have thought about a lot since becoming a planner. Just how important is the creative brief?

Now this is more a debate than an argument, so I would love to hear people's thoughts on the subject.

The creative brief seems in some circles to be seen as this all powerful master document for the creative work that should follow. An unquestionable piece of Moses esque tabletry that defies all who doubt it. But this makes no sense, we know the point of a brief is to inspire the creatives and lead then down the right direction. Yet as is often quoted, there is rarely a right answer... simply more/less right ones.

If we do our job right then being on brief is good of course. But what if slightly off brief gives a better creative territory? What if there is an idea so good that only works with a tweaked brief. What if we discover something new part way through the process?

I had this argument in the pub with a creative who was discussing a brief where the favoured work was actually slightly off brief. My viewpoint there was (and still is) that we should always be confidence our brief work is spot on, but if creatives are to believe that we have creativity at the heart of what we do, we have to be man enough to admit when an idea (whether from creative or planning) is good enough to skip brief anality. Otherwise why should they believe us when we say the next idea is better because it's on brief.

A 8-10am analogy for this was this:

A hard punch that's 90% on target is better than a weak punch that's 100% on target.

Thoughts?

Next Gen Talent Voting

2009-10-14T15:36:00.001+01:00

If you haven't voted yet for the Next Generation Talent competition, there are just a couple of days left to vote!

Canal Boat

2009-10-14T14:21:00.000+01:00

Love this ad. Clever and silly at the same time.

When Advertising Doesn't Work...

2009-10-08T13:03:00.000+01:00

I've seen worse mind you...