Monday 6 July 2009

Woolworths?????

Woolworths... Is the classical chain store back? After seeing Britain plastered with the Woolworths 'Now Playing campaign' I was left confused. I thought this chain store had died during the recession and the 100 years it stood for had ceased? Was this billboard a one off?

Apparently not. I have since seen it everywhere. On TV, magazines, newspapers and billboards around every corner… it has been resurrected. They are undergoing an online renaissance of the high street world under shop direct. So essentially, Shop Direct has taken a strong brand, which could not be saved during the recession and have applied it to their own ideas and concepts of shopping.

Shop direct bought Woolworth’s in February. They boast that over 100,000 people visited in its first 24 hours. Who are you trying to convince Woolies? Most of those visitors were probably drawn in by the same confusion that I was. The collapse of Woolies was front page news, making the brand’s comeback a significant relevance.

The advertisement below is an attempt to grab these news hungry folk, so the simple and confusing advert cleverly works the confusion element. The marketing department obviously want to make front page news again by gripping the audience by the throat.


The cheerful, glowing typography is eye-catching playful and childlike. It represents the party product range and is used to reflect the fanfare associated with the revival of a much loved UK retail icon. The TV advert (link below) Closely follows this new brand identity.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqhJfry_ifU&feature=player_embedded


So, with closer inspection… Woolies has died and then been reborn into the digital era, forced to live its next century on the internet. But don’t worry, you can still by your pick’n’mix although you cant sneak a few freebies and its now called Click’n’mix.


Saturday 4 July 2009

The Urbis exhibition, Manchester


Earlier in the year, I visited a photography exhibition at the Urbis Manchester. Its not very often I go to photography exhibitions and on top of that not very often I am blown away by the works. At my first viewing of the group known as 'Urban explorers' and their photography work I was hooked. The exhibition layout was cleverly completed using back-lit plastic frames to make the photos 'glow'.


The visually attractive, highly contrasted, wide-angled photography was stunning. What I was most impressed by was the concept. Such a stunning concept; to explore the hidden parts of a seemingly well-known city such as Manchester.



On my recent trip to London it got me thinking about the same project being executed in London. There are many underground tube stations which were closed during the war due to damage and to find and photograph these could produce visually interesting results!

Brompton Road is one of these abandoned platforms situated between Knightsbridge and South Kensington stations. It started service in 1906 when the Finsbury Park to Hammersmith stretch of the Piccadilly Line was opened. It was decided it wasn't needed as there were larger stations nearby and closed on 29th July 1934. It is situated on the Piccadilly line and tubes still pass through but how many people know they are passing through an unused tube station? The station is still lit and remains exactly how it did when it was built in 1906. It still has cinema screens and wartime materials down there from when it was used as a shelter in the war. Since its closure 2 people have accidently fell down the lift shaft and have died, proving how dangerous these unused shafts can be. I wish the Urban explorers could have photographed this station before it was bricked up, unlike the photographer below.