Daily
Holy Shit, If This Isn't A Self-Fulfilling Prophecy!
We’re all for great billboards, and this one certainly has an impact. Auckland ad agency Colenso BBDO created three roadside billboards in the area in an attempt to slow people down in New Zealand’s rainy season. And the campaign won a Bronze Lion at Cannes last week.
But picture this: You’re driving along and the rain starts coming down. You turn on your wipers, whistle a happy tune and then come across a 10ft child bleeding profusely from the eyes, nose and mouth. Do you think “fuck me, I should be careful?” or do you stop paying attention, slam into another drive on the road and cause one huge sodding car wreck? And possibly kill a few of those kids in the process? These, while creative, may suffer from the same problems that Wonderbra ads have in the past.
Via AdFreak
Clogged Straw Guerilla For Ministry Of Health
As we always say, over and over, good guerilla is all about context. Here’s a great example of it. The Ministry Of Health secretly placed clogged straws in fast-food restaurants. The result: people couldn’t suck up their artery-clogging shakes or other crappy fast-food drinks. Great attention getter.
Advertising Agency: Fischer, Lisbon, Portugal
Creative Director: Diogo Mello
Art Director: Fabiano Bomfim
Copywriter: Sandro Porto
Photographer: Claus Stellfeld
Producer: Sonia Saldanha
Released: March 2009
Remembering The Days When Advertisers Didn't Give A Shit
RetroComedy.com features a collection of ads that would be a lawyer’s wet dream these days. Everything from child abuse to sexism and fat bashing are thrown in there. You may also spot a classic ad from Ogilvy. Would it pass muster today? Doubtful. See the rest right here.
Via Retrocomedy.com
Promising New Apparel Line Launches Locally
ARE Apparel is a new clothing line born and bred here in Denver and described as ‘Street meets West then makes eco-consious love.’ (Told you it’s promising.) Heather Arellano, the brand’s creator, utilizes used (read: pre-loved) western shirts, organic hoodies, organic jackets and organic t-shirts, as well as her own photography, to create one-of-a-kind pieces. Getyourselfsome.
Get on Illustrator Shaw Nielsen's Mailing List, Now
Out of the blue last week, we discovered a small package inside our mailbox stamped with the artwork of Denver illustrator Shaw Nielsen. Upon opening it, we found the entire presentation had been intricately prepared. A small piece of craft paper, again featuring Shaw’s work, wrapped around a box containing a note about the promotion—with a unique wooden puzzle being its centerpiece.
If you hire illustrators, be sure to get on Shaw’s list to be sent one of these thoughtful packages along with his future mailings. It’s absolutely worth a minute of your time.
New Denver Design Blog: Design Litmus
Found some pretty good advice on this new site created by Chris Arnold, Denver print and web designer at Limber Creative, and Matt Crest who runs communication design studio, Artletic. Go visit.
New Poll: What Would You Ask The Architects of Boulder's New Digital School? >>
This school is a very big deal for Colorado. What do you want to know from its creators?
2 days ago / / Link
The Most Important New Book On Creativity Since "Hey Whipple, Squeeze This."
It’s been a while since a great book on advertising and creativity has been published. Then, last week, a copy of “How To Do Better Creative Work” by Steve Harrison came to our attention. And holy shit is it good.
Steve Harrison is described as the “Bill Bernbach of British direct marketing” and “the greatest direct marketing creative of this generation.” And the book gets glowing reviews from the likes of Jon Steel (Truth, Lies and Advertising) and Paul Ferrailolo (President of Rolls Royce no less). After diving into it, we know why.
The book starts out by refuting the claims of the great Seth Godin (Purple Cow, Permission Marketing), insisting that disruptive advertising is not the enemy, it just needs to be done well. And that’s something all of us will agree with.
From there, we are taken on a journey through the many disciplines needed to create outstanding creative work across every area of advertising and design. Some of the topics covered include:
What it means to be a creative
How to build a creative culture
How to use “relevant abruption” to produce big, creative ideas
How to simultaneously build a brand and get response
How to sell your work
How to run a creative department
Unlike Luke Sullivan’s bite-sized approach, Steve has a more in-depth style. But the book is never a tough read, and Steve’s approach is just as witty and enjoyable. Full of wisdom from a man who trained under David Ogilvy and Drayton Bird, Steve’s direct marketing background may initially put you off until you see just how important his approach to advertising is. The man knows creativity inside-out, but he also knows how to sell. And as Ogilvy said many times, “It’s not creative unless it sells.”
The book is hard to find, as it was published in Britain, where Steve reigned supreme as a Creative Director for many years. But, if you want a copy (and we suggest that you pick one up as soon as you can) you can buy it here at Amazon, or from Alibris books here.
“How To Do Better Creative Work” is an insightful breath of fresh air in the stale world of advertising advice. It reminds us all how to do what we know we should be doing, but often don’t. And it also makes us wish for a world where every Creative Director had the same level of understanding, enthusiasm and common sense as Steve Harrison. This is an essential book for anyone working in advertising or marketing.
For a few extracts from the book, check out the Campaign series:
Steve Harrison New Book – Extract One
Steve Harrison New Book – Extract Two
Are Monkeys Working for the Zoo?
A FODE (Friend of Denver Egotist) sent us these pics of a couple outdoor boards for the Denver Zoo that are up around town right now—one at Cherokee and Alameda behind a tree, and the other one on W Custer Place between Lipan and Jason.
Notice anything missing here? Oh yeah, the logo for the zoo, so that the ads actually make sense. There’s no way these are teasers with the payoff to come, right? Grande waste of money if they are. See what happens when a proper shop like McClain Finlon goes down? The stuff they worked on goes right down with it.
Now Hiring: Web Administrator
VISIT DENVER, The Convention & Visitors Bureau, is searching for a Web Administrator. Job details here.
3 days ago / / Link
New Microsoft Commercials Sink To New Lows
Gawker recently featured a few of the new ads for Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 8, and they are as tacky as they come. Clearly an attempt to go viral, they use sophomoric humor and awful scripting to get the message across (whatever that is). Poor old Dean Cain used to be Superman, now he’s in supershit commercials.
And before anyone asks, no, these are not done by CP&B. We did a little digging and found out they come from an Indianapolis agency called Bradley And Montgomery; the same agency responsible for last year’s Mojave spots. The F.O.M.S. is bad, but the first spot with the projectile vomiting is terrible. Oh, and these new spots were directed by Bobcat “I was in the Police Academy Movies as the guy who screamed every sad line” Goldthwait. So yes, we think they suck.
O.M.G.I.G.P.
F.O.M.S.
Via Gawker
Crispin Porter + Bogusky Drops Its New Site
For all the people complaining about CP+B’s outdated website, well, you got your wish. Today, the Boulder/Miami/London/Whereverelse ‘Advertising & Design Factory’ just released its new site, still in Beta.
In concept, it’s nearly identical to Modernista’s site—feeding content about the agency and its clients from anywhere and everywhere across the dub dub dub. In design, it’s a bit more structured—offering buckets of client news/work from CP+B itself, a Twitter feed, news from traditional sources and from blogs.
In all honesty, they seem rather late to jump on this bandwagon—so the news is so-so exciting to us. For an agency that prides itself on its own PR, however, it’ll be a great way to get the word out and to follow what’s happening inside that giant circus tent.
Your thoughts?
Air New Zealand Takes Advice From Seth Godin's Purple Cow
Most of you will know the premise of “Purple Cow” by Seth Godin (and if you don’t, beat yourself up and then buy a copy pronto). Anyway, Air New Zealand have used this idea of being remarkable to great effect, in an industry that is incredibly difficult to market. And they did it by painting the staff’s naked bodies.
But it’s not the ad that stands out. No, it’s the three-and-a-half minute airline safety video that again has the airline staff in their painted birthday suits. As one commenter pointed out, it’s the only safety video he every watched from start to finish. Great.
L&M Printing, The Latest Colorado Printer to Fall
Details are still scant at this hour, but we heard from an insider that the Colorado Department of Revenue shut down Denver’s L&M Printing last Wednesday afternoon. Between Hirschfeld, Spectro and now L&M, Denver’s printing infrastructure seems to be grinding to a halt.
If there’s any good news, we hear Lettracraft—the new printer from Sean Bermingham that sprang for Spectro’s ashes—is cranking at full-tilt. 303.574.0100 if someone else left you hanging during all this disruption.
UPDATE: The Colorado Department of Revenue seized L&M Pressworks for nonpayment of taxes. More details at The Denver Post.
Denver Agencies and the Art of Outdoor
The work of two Denver agencies, Sukle Advertising & Design and Barnhart, has made its way into AdAge’s ‘Art of Outdoor’ – a 2009 Special Report.
Sukle’s Denver Water / Use Only What You Need outdoor from last summer graced the pub’s pages, rightfully so.
Credits:
Creative Director: Mike Sukle
Art Directors: Andy Dutlinger, Jeff Euteneur
Illustrator: Matt Carpenter
Copywriter: Jim Glynn
Campaign: Denver Water / Use Only What You Need
Barnhart’s outdoor boards for Wyoming Tourism in Chicago were also recognized. The campaign was designed to introduce Wyoming as a vacation destination. We positioned Wyoming’s icons (Yellowstone, the Grand Tetons and Devils Tower) against Chicago’s famous landmarks (Buckingham Fountain, the Chicago skyline and Sears Tower).
The campaign is more than pretty pictures and witty copy, making a real impact in a tough tourism market. For the first time, Chicago led in Wyoming’s overall guide order requests, even surpassing long-time leader, Minneapolis. Visits to WyomingTourism.org were up 15 percent with Chicagoans leading the way. Nearly 80 percent of those Chicago visitors were completely new to the site.
Credits:
Creative Director: John Bellina
Art Director: Darren Brickel
Copywriters: John Bellina, Darren Brickel, Jim Glynn
Retouch: Mando-matic
Production: Teresa Brown, Jim Hargreaves
Account Director: John Ricks
Account Manager: Heather Loader
Try Getting Away With This In Uncle Sam
An ad for McDonald’s that’s fun, simple and takes one hell of a chance with an iconic logo. Wonder how many people would be outraged at the McDonald’s Saggy Tits billboard here in the U.S. Or, for that matter, turning any corporate logo into something that looks like a melon in a sock. And they say the Brits are reserved. Yeah, right.
(By the way, OAP stands for Old Aged Pensioner.)
Advertising Agency: The Allotment, United Kingdom
Creative Director: Giles Mosley
Allergies! iPhone App
Sometime Egotist-contributor and commentator Pieratt launches his first iPhone App: “Allergies!“ It’s a handsome beast, go spend some dough.
Starz Asks You To "See What You're Missing" In New HD Campaign
Many of you may not know that the head offices of Starz, unlike HBO and Showtime, actually reside here in Colorado; Englewood in fact. And their in-house creative department, along with Kirshenbaum Bond & Partners (who also worked on their re-branding effort last year), have ramped up the channel’s HD presence with a new multi-million dollar ad campaign.
Media includes ad buys in Entertainment Weekly and Rolling Stone, alongside national cinema spots, bus wraps and a digital billboard in New York Times Square. Looks like Starz is taking on the role of challenger brand to HBO and Showtime. What do you guys think?
Agency: Starz In-House/Kirshenbaum Bond & Partners
Creative Director: Kirk Dalton
Art Director: Kirk Dalton
Copywriter: Greg Cotten
Graphics House: Motion 504
The Integer Group Chosen as Best Place to Work For
Each year, The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) and the Great Places to Work Institute (GPTW) compile a list of the 50 best small- and medium-sized companies to work for in America. For the fifth year in a row, The Integer Group, with offices in Denver, Dallas, and Des Moines, landed on the list. Integer is the 9th best medium-sized company to work for in America. Pretty damn impressive, folks.
Anthony Cozzi's Fresh Deck
Here’s a juicy piece of artistry from Colorado-based illustrator Anthony Cozzi, aka ‘Snowblinded.’ This 100% Canadian maple limited-edition deck will run you 80 bones ($65.00 + $15.00 shipping for US orders). Grab one.
Cannes On Crack
Did you see Fred & Farid’s nonsense ‘We Are Animals’ Wrangler campaign that landed them the Grand Prix for Press at Cannes last week? Holy shit, bet that’s hard to swallow for every single person who entered besides them. Apparently, we aren’t the only ones who think it’s ridiculous.
Via AgencySpy
Boulder Soupworks Packaging Via Greenhouse Partners
Spotted this packaging for Boulder Soupworks from Boulder design firm Greenhouse Partners over on The Dieline. Here’s what Greenhouse Partners had to say about it:
“The Colorado-based company takes pride in their use of minimal, organic, and truly fresh ingredients in all five of their soups. The simple design utilizes an iconic, wooden soup spoon on each container top, while illustrated veggies give a sampling to what’s inside. The goal was to let the soup speak for itself.”
What’s your impression of the work?
Thanks, Zach
Michael Jackson by the Twitter Collective
It’s unlikely that the MJ-specific news, tweets and apps are going to slow down anytime too soon; but we’re okay with it as long as people innovate within his sphere of influence. Check out Billie Tweets, a tribute to the singer’s great tune that utilizes…well, you’ll just have to see.
The Denver Egotist: Denver's Top Blog in 5280
The Editors of 5280 picked some liberal political rag as their Best Blog in this year’s Top of the Town issue. But you, dear readers, made the correct choice—selecting The Denver Egotist as Denver’s Best Blog for the second year in a row. It feels good to know we’ve carved out such a cozy spot inside your hearts. Thank you.
