Slim From Sagem

Great campaign. No denying that at all. One look and everybody knows the product benefit but then, I still have a problem with the fact that all 3 ads in the campaign look like one. Does one need 3 ads or should it have been a one-off? What's your take on the whole thing?

Durex Passion!

I have always believed that the greatest way to do an ad is to talk to the customer without telling him I am an ad. That whole point of talking to him when he's least expected to be spoken to. That kind of response is simply more memorable than advertising of any other kind. This Guerilla Camapign from McCann Erickson for Durex does exactly that. Can we have more stuff like this please!

Big Wash!

Awesome work by adgeek. Adgeek is also called Johan H Ohlson and is a 28 year old art director from Budapest, Hungary. He has some really amazing work on his blog. Check it out guys. This campaign hits the nail on the head by telling people what a Samsung Washing Machine could do. Great campaign Adgeek. Keep showing us more of your brilliance. PS: The previous campaign for Siemens was also done by him!

Sex and the Selling Machine!

Well yet another mindless use of women as sex objects in this campaign done by Jung Von Matt, Germany. This campaign for matchbox (a company that sells miniature cars - like hotwheels in India) shows scantily clad women next to miniature cars.

The explanation from the agency remains that the ad is not targetted for kids who genearlly buy these cars but for adults who wish to own miniatures as collectors items. The women are supposed to represent the women and awesome car fixation! No matter whom you're selling to, I guess this campaign is absolute rubbish for me! Simply Mindless!

Shhhhhhhhhh!

Found this nice campaign for the quietest vacuum cleaner in its class : Siemens done by Scholz & Friends, Hamburg. I like the clarity in the way silence has been addressed. I can think of several other ways in which the campaign could be extended and it works very well because silence is a factor when it comes to buying a vaccum cleaner. It may not be the most important one though. But I guess these still work. Nice stuff.

Scam, Bam, Thank You Mam!

SCAM ADS:

Come December and every other creative guy like me is busy digging his head and trying to come up with that next big creative idea. Is December a month for the finest advertising or is it just an opportunity to satisfy our own creative desires and show the client the finger? Well, the debate can go on. I recently found two different points of view from two of India's greatest advertising professionals. Read on and do tell me what your opinion is, may be you have a point that can change the way we all look at things!

via: agencyfaqs.

One-offs & December ads are not Scam Ads

This issue has been debated in the industry around the world for perhaps decades now with no clear resolution ever emerging. Sometimes, even one-off ads are also categorised as Scam Ads. To my mind, it is incorrect since many ideas such as Mother's Day, World's AIDS Day are anyway one-off opportunities. And equally, every unplanned ad is not a Scam Ad. For instance, there is this case of where we (O&M) did 'Hamara Walla Blue' for Asian Paints during the cricket world cup 1996.

The very next day India lost to Sri Lanka in the semi-final. We changed the ad to say “Tumhara Walla Blue...congratulations Sri Lanka you were a shade better'. Johnson & Johnson in the 1980s did this one-off of 'Nude Models Wanted', judged the best print ad of the century in 2000. Anything that a client is willing to put his name to is not a Scam Ad. Lot of people do make ads sometimes for non-existent clients or non-advertisers, which is obviously not desirable. However, there could be a small shop that can decide to do a one-off ad - who is to decide only big- budget campaigns are on?

The other thing that people say is that December ads are Scam Ads. Again, who's to decide whether the ad needs to come out only in October and not in December? In every business, much like limited overs cricket, there is desperation, commotion at the fag-end when targets needs to be met. Marketing guys get desperate and there the proverbial 'Katori' promotion that comes along - the stocks are overloaded, does it make it a sale or a scam? A creative person is no different from any other person - he sometimes begs, borrows his client to let his great creative ideas see the light of the day.

'Great oaks from little acorns grow'. Sometimes it is beneficial for the client to try out something new in a small way. Some five-six years ago, Pidilite wasn't doing any print ad for Fevicol. One of O&M's creative person went on a train journey and came up with this idea of everyone stuck to the train. The client liked it, we ran it and it seeded the idea of the now legendary 'Fevicol Bus' television ad.

Not for a moment am I defending Scam Ads, only that it is important to differentiate. One-offs and small ideas have the right to see the light of the day, and should be done, provided there is brand-fit and appropriateness. Though youngsters in the industry must remember that they will never make a career out of doing just one-offs. Much like Tendulakar, you need to have the grandeur of your tons for you to cut loose once a while. There is hardly anyone who is someone in the global ad world who I know has just done one-offs. And equally, there is no one who is someone out there who has not done one-offs.

Piyush Pandey, chairman & national creative director, O&M India

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How long are we going to fool ourselves?

Nothing is a scam ad if we were all lawyers. Or if we were all in an artistic village. According to the legal definition, a scam is something that has a fictitious advertiser or something that has not been released even once by a non-fictitious advertiser. Till this scam of a definition is changed, of course almost no ad is a scam! How long are we going to fool ourselves?

Today, except for some fools who insert ads for fictitious advertisers, most people at least ensure that the advertiser exists. It takes nothing to get one release of an ad today. There are friendly newspapers and channels all over the place. There are understanding clients who are generally happy to lend a signature to prove authenticity as long as they are on talking terms with their agencies. It's called motivation sometimes!

I blame our award system for this stupidity. Almost every award system (Effies is something we have created to assuage our conscience) has no clue or way to differentiate, respect or glorify an agency only on the great work done for the crores and crores of rupees clients actually spend! All they have is categories! A Balbir paasha aids awareness campaign, which put the fear of god in millions of merry bonkers, is judged along with a clever, oh so clever, non-smoking ad spoofing the Marlboro man whose existence few in this country are even aware of! And it's supposed to make the universe stop smoking! Ha ha ha ha ha!

And it wins at Cannes! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! A thanda matlab Coca-Cola needs four posters and print ads that wouldn't sell 1 ml of coke to make it eligible for a multi-media campaign category or grab the attention of an ignorant western jury seeking quaint Indian slants that they can understand. We must open up our awards to all artists of the world. After all their work works to sell a product creatively as much as our legal scams! So what if they don't belong to the AAAI or are called advertising agencies? Oh shit! I forgot. It's the legal definition we are concerned about! Sorry! Sorry!

R Balakrishnan, executive creative director, Lowe India

Perri Alley Type-O-Graphy!

In India, we hardly get to see work that it is technically brilliant in terms of the finer elements of art direction like typography, great design or really bizzare art. Which is why I really like the art on this campaign for Perri Alley by Onepointsize. The campaign is a little old but still looks stunning. Great work!

Use Your Hand!

OK. Finally an ad that has no great art flip or amazing photography but still made me stop and wonder what it had to say. I still don't like the layout a lot. But maybe, it's the way it has been executed that made me stop in the first place.

Upto 10 times bigger!

This Campaign for Victory Compact Binoculars has some really cool art effects. My only doubt was whether each of these frames were randomly generated or had to do with a certain sequence. For example a giraffe, a horse and marilyn manson have no co-relation to each other. Unless I'm missing out on something more important out here.

Hair Shavings!

And staying with the series on onepointsize, here's an ad that recently picked up a few awards for its photographic brilliance. Mr. Sharad Haksar has surely done some mind blowing camera work out here. This ad is for a hair stylist named Racheal.

Telephoon Creatives

I think this ad for Lassa Tyres Call Center would also work for a retail store that home delivers tyres, isn't it? By the way watching this ad, also reminded me of the Onepointsize creative for Eatalica. An ad that talks about delivering pasta home. Which one is better? Any opinions from you guys? Personally, I love the onepointsize creative for Eatalica.

Cool or Confusing??

Does anybody here get this. It's an ad for Walls Ice Creams but what is it saying. I don't really know.

Racist Flags

Found this at Abdul Rehman. I love the way the idea has been expressed with a lottle thought process and some great art. Can we see more of these!

Flying High!

Found this ad for Air Deccan at agencyfaqs. I'm still in two minds about whether this is as great as most people think it is. What do you think?

Yet Another Tree, Animal & Human Triangle!

A few months ago, my reactions on seeing a campaign done by RMG david on the platform of killing a tree = Killing a human were the fact that this would be the core idea of all ads (atleast ninety percent of them) this year. It looks like I haven't been wrong entirely!!

Look at the numerous examples below:

A) Ad for Singapore Environmental Council by Crush, Singapore.

B) Campaign for WWF (featuring the family tree made with animals)

C) The RMG Campaign itself (you never just kill the tree)

D) And finally there is this ad. (I have no clue about the advertising agency behind this ad, does anybody know?)

Can anybody see the trend, or is it just me still nursing a hang-over from new years eve??

Red & White makes your advertising right!

Thnaks to Serge for sending in these 5 pieces of brilliance in red and white. Though these are a bit old, they live up to the statement "classics never go out of style!" Each of these ads make a genuine statement about communicating to the intelligent. I love them, I hope all of you enjoy them too. Happy new year once again. Cheers!

Creatives from a land called FCB Austria

Thanks to Tolga Büyükdoganay, an Art Director from FCB Austria for sending in these 2 ads from his portfolio. The Naber Kaffe work you see a little below was also done by him. These 2 ads have won a few awards and also been featured in the Luerzers Archive recently. I think the Unicef Ad is a great idea. The credits for both these ads are as follows:

Unicef
HL: More education for girls in Islamic countries.
AD: Tolga Büyükdoganay
Copy: Patrick Partl
Eurobest 2005 Outdoor Silver, Epica 2005 Silver

Power Horse
AD: Tolga Büyükdoganay

Thank you Tolga and keep sending in more work for mortals like us to appreciate. And a very happy new year to you and everybody else! Have a blast!

Stunning!!

Sambit Mohanty from Vyas Gianetti Creative is the creative brain behind this ad that won an Abby Gold & a New York Silver recently. The ad was done while he was at Publicis. This is an absolutely amazing idea. Congrats, Sambit!

Great Art!!

Category: Public Services

Agency: Crush

Client: Singapore Environment Council

Headline: Half the world's rainforest have already died. If the rest go, so will you.

Country: Singapore

I think the art in this Ad is absolutely stunning. Kept me interested in taking a look for a second time. Super Stuff!

Prevent Polio

I don't know the agency behind this ad for Polio Prevention but it did remind me of a creative for Landmine Prevention that won a Cannes a few years back. That one featured just one slipper. Both of them are equally brilliant!

Swami meets McDonalds!

This ad for the 100% vegetarian festival at McDonalds spreads the message interestingly and works across parts of a culturally diverse country like India. Great work by Mudra.

Stuck to great ideas!

Great ideas do not get better than this one. Absolutely amazing. Creatives from Ogilvy know the meaning of great work, don't they?!

Dockers spells of McCann Magic.

This campaign done by McCann Erickson Bangalore features stunning art and an equally amazing idea to demonstrate stain free clothing. Great stuff!

Simply Hutch!

If there is one brand that is revered by almost every other advertising person in India, it has to be Hutch. Almost every single piece of communication evokes a sense of want, and every single campaign of theirs has been a "I wish I had done that" response from ad-folk all over. This campaign does the same bit once again! Ogilvy is simply brilliant with stuff like this time and again. Kudos!!

Kids & Christmas

Interesting thought that most kids on the streets need food to eat more than lego blocks, toys, books or any such stuff. Great art that supports that idea. The copy reads "This Christmas give children what they really want". The agency behind the campaign is Red Cell, Portugal.

Via: The Hidden Persuader

Did you get it??

FCB Austria is the agency behind this ad for Naber Kafee. It took me about 2 minutes to get the idea behind this ad but something tells me most people would take longer (If I am not entirely underestimating the creative thought process of the average reader) and some might not get it at all. Do you get it? (PS: look @ the shadow carefully!)

It's the Pepsi Season!

BBDO Canada has this ad for the christmas season. It reminds me of the elephant ad (the one where the trunk of the elephant reaches out for the Pepsi Can).

My personal favorite Christmas Ad is one done for Axe Deodorant. It has three words on a flat yellow background and reads... OH! OH! OH!

Merry Christmas everybody!

Sorry For The Inter-ruption!

Hey everybody! I'm sorry for being gone for almost 2 weeks. It's been a hectic time out there. Been extremely busy trying to set up a new office for my own ageny. All is going well as of today. A merry christmas to everybody and warm wishes for the holiday season.

I'm gonna post a few new ads for now. Shall try and be back very soon and get the blog back to its normal level of posting. Till then, have a great time and watch out for what Santa leaves in each of your stockings!

Cheers, Cipher.

COPYWRITING - this is it!

These ads were written by a genius named Indra Sinha during the floods in Orissa a few years ago. Work like this is never done today. A sad truth that great copy or the power of the written word has succumbed to more so called or considered important things like a visual, stunning art, great photography, amazing photoshop talent and stuff like that. Quite simply put, it is the death of copywriting in its original format. No wonder writers like me have no source of inspiration to turn towards in this day and age...