Top 10 press adverts of the noughties

This is the time of the year that you get the shit TV documentries of the "Top 100 things of something you'll forget about tommorrow" featuring a handful of C-class celebrities expressing thier opinions about things that dont matter (right now the top 40 most shocking celebrity moments of 2009 is on... ground breaking). I thought a design one would be appropriate, at least we can learn from that! Campaigns alive's top 10 press ads of this decade as follows...

1. Volkswagen Polo, King Kong, DDB London, 2004

2. Land Rover, Hippos, Rainey Kelly, 2002

3. The Economist, E=iq2, AMV, 2001

4. Weetabix, Paediatrician, Lowe Lintas & Partners,2000

5. Nike, St Wayne, Wieden & Kennedy, 2006

6. Heinz Tomato Ketchup, Sliced bottle, McCann Erickson, 2007

7. Land Rover, Massai, RKCR, 2004

8. Volkswagen, Elepump, BMP DDB, 2003

9. Vogue.com, Vogue.com, M&C Saatchi, 2000

10. Golden Wonder, Ginger Boy, JWT London, 2007

The answer to our project - 5 gum??

Our recent, spruce up a mundane product using your advertising and branding skills seems to have been answered. Is this how the gum brief should have been done? If this was entered to our lecturers what grade would it receive?

The first flaw is: its target market. The market has attempted to tempt the MTV segment. In my opinion the packaging resembles your grandfather trying to be 'hip' and 'down'. Im sure with the stark black space and cool bright colors stand out to audience but does it stand out to the right one? There are 3 flavours at the moment: Cobalt, Rain and Flare, which is “cool speak” for peppermint, spearmint and cinnamon.

I can imagine Mike Sheedy saying: "Yes, its good, but what does it do?? What is this gum doing that other gum doesnt?"

Joseph Wright of Derby

Where to start? The colours, the realism, the early recording of science, the emotion, the lighting... There is nothing quite as stunning as a Joseph Wright of Derby Painting. This painting is singly the most beautiful depiction of a science I have ever seen.

The first time I stood before it in the National Portrait Gallery I was taken aback by how moving it was, that was three years ago. I am desperate to see it again. The small JPEG above gives it no justice. You have to see this in the flesh and be drawn into the scene of 'An experiment on a bird in air pump'.

Branson looses virginity

Sir Richard Branson lost his sole use of the word 'Virgin' in branding. Branson has been the only Virgin in town since he started the company in 1970. A south African company named Bodtrade was granted was allowed to use the trademark "You can't be a virgin all your life, its time".

Virgin and no-one even knows what this company does... their are spectualtions it is a shelf company. It is the ONLY time any company has won a branding idea against Branson using the word 'Virgin' except for Olive oil companies. Greedy. Now Branson will be tied up with other companies trying to tag along with Virgins brand identity as others apply to use the word. Virgin are worried that consumers will confuse these products as virgin owned, I'm not so sure.

Bodtrade hit Branson where it hurts costing the company a whopping £1,500 in legal costs.

£30,000 prize for 28 billion coin shaped Jigsaw pieces

In 2005 The Royal Mint released a competition for the public to design the coin collections. It was judged by Gordon Brown and the Queen. The coin design would win a prize of up to £30,000 and your design could be in the pockets of everyone in the UK. Can you imagine your pitch at an interview?

Interviewer: Wheres your portfolio?

Interviewee: Its in your wallet, sir.

26-year old Matthew Dent won the competition with the design above. It also recently landed him a black pencil at the D&AD awards.

His design is heraldic. The royal coat of arms represents England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales all coming together on this single design. Dent states that he wanted a jigsaw puzzle design so children, and adults alike, could play with the design. Its an absolutely beautiful concept. A coin shaped jigsaw puzzle. The pound coin was later released as the lid, the explanation and the model with which to create the puzzle itself. It ties the whole design together and provides a stunning outcome.

The only problem with the design is that, singlely, the coins are not easily recognized as this. I saw the new 20 Pence first and while not phased by the coin design I didn’t quite understand it. With uneven lines going off the edge of the coin and the complete ignorance of borders I thought… how strange, are they trying to be edgy and contemporary? However, when I understood it for the first time I was impressed. As was The Prime Minister, The Queen, D&AD and as I am sure others would be too.

I think its quite clear Britain wont be moving to the euro quite yet.

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.

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.

Transport for London - How to use campaigns to reduce waste on the underground.

I travelled to London this week and like most commuters I found the free newspapers a break from the dreary faces of unhappy passengers. Who wouldn't? They're packed with gossip, news and some even stapled so they don't fall apart.

The top free London papers are TheLondonPaper and LondonLite. They have both only been around since August 2006 but have cause a great uproar with environmentalists all aross London. In a recent NRS survey it estimated that 745,000 people read London Lite and 713,000 red thelondonpaper EACH DAY.

More than 16 tonnes of rubbish is collected from the Underground every day. After the release of these free papers, Tube Lines said the amount of paper waste being collected on the Jubilee, Northern and Piccadilly lines had risen from 3.5 tonnes to almost five tonnes a day.

Jenny Jones, Green Party member of the London Assembly called on the newspaper publishers to do more. She said: "Either people have got to be responsible by bringing them out and putting them into recycling bins or the newspaper company itself really ought to make sure there are people picking up those newspapers."

The answer produced by Space Hijackers is:"Recycling is not the answer, producing less rubbish in the first place is" Their blog provides a great answer to the problem:

http://www.spacehijackers.co.uk/html/projects/freepaper/paperwar.html

Just because its free doesn't mean its right... they collected all of the LONDON LITE newspapers and branded them LONDON LITTER. They produced the advert below and put the adverts into the papers before handing them to London consumers.

The campaign to the left was previously run in January 2009 with London Lite. These campaigns encourage their passengers to recycle the free newspapers they get at tube stations.

TFL argue that we should take the papers with us but if we remove them, then theres no for other commuters to read and they will pick up some more, market research will show a better interest in papers and EVEN more will be produced. The cycle is endless. So how can the TFL reduce waste? Obviously these campaigns are only a short term solution and INFACT offer no solution to the problem! 1.6 million newspapers are given out in London every day, so how can we reduce waste and increase recycling?

The tfl recycling campaign advertises: “Help us to recycle by taking yours with you”. Personally I thought that the TFL would recycle all of the papers left on the tube but alas! They do not. The papers represent the vast majority of waste left by passengers.

I think the Newspapers themselves have begun to understand the problems with their papers and this week, in unity with Transport For London release this advert in their publication. They have begun to place recycling bins to help consumers to reduce their waste. You have to give them credit, if you have a problem of litter the LAST thing you would think of is to put bins in the underground, and it only took them 3 years to think of it.

You Tube - expanding advertising space

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQsJedjVUkk

The new advert promoting Oatibix. The rave about it on You Tube has been quite astounding. The Lorry is back, this time our driver is joined by two friends and we follow their journey as they sing along to the classic 1979 hit 'My Sharona'. A very simple, plain advert that has proved comical to the general audience. 'Hard Sell' is definitely the word for it! Today Gavin Newsham voiced his own opinions on the advert:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2009/jun/20/oatibix-advertisement-youtube

It brings about a useful thing to consider which is the USE of YouTube in advertising. Now you can add the clips to your widgets on your mac, bookmark them, send them to your friends and enjoy them over and over. This makes word-of-mouth even easier than ever before.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQ3d3KigPQM

The T-Mobile, life is for sharing campaign, video uses a similar approach in which 12,646,911 people have SO FAR tuned in to watch. Life definitely is for sharing when it comes to sharing adverts on you tube!