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So apprentely the Leo Burnett thing I ranted about was a spoof.
Well done – very funny – though I’d be somewhat alarmed that people the World over thought this was the sort of stunt you were actually capable of pulling for real.
Anyway, following Age’s admission that he is duty bound to wear a suit [but no tie] to work each day … and because I’ve been mean and nasty to McCann’s in the past [though what do they expect when their website has a link entitled, “King Of The Jingle“] I thought I’d take LB’s ‘joke poster’ and adapt it for McCann’s FREE OF CHARGE!
Sure it would have been better if it had gone through their DEMAND process, but hey – it’s an olive branch so I hope they treat it with the respect it deserves, ha!
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The delightfully vulgar George Parker wrote about this on his weapon of mass cusstruction, but I just had to post on it as well because it single-handily shows what’s wrong with corporate adland and Leo Burnett’s in particular.
I should say now that I’ve always had an irrational dislike of that agency …
I admit that I’ve never worked for them … I admit they’ve done some lovely work … and I admit they have loads and loads of clever and lovely people who work there quite happily … however the mere mention of their name is guaranteed to make my face resemble a bulldog licking urine off a stinging nettle and I have no idea of why that is the case at all.
Well, apart from the fact I’m an arse!
Anyway back to the post …
What’s the betting the board member who decided on this move is someone walks around saying, “We’ve lost our place in the boardroom”?
Well the fact is they have but if he/she thinks a pair of fucking dress shoes [whatever they are, but I can sure as hell bet they’re not Birkies!] will get their place back, they’re even more fucked than I thought they were.
George [mine, not Parker] has this theory that one of the reasons clients don’t respect agencies so much anymore is because they’ve all become too much like them.
Their dress code, their business approach, their language – it’s all so bloody ‘corporate’ so clients no longer see them as a bunch of guys who can take them to new and interesting places …they see them as ‘suppliers’ and as such, treat they with about as much respect as they do their night-shift. In other words: SOD ALL!
If what Leo Burnett’s are implying is true – and an agency will win clients based purely on their dresscode, then my response is [1] they’re a fucked client [2] They’ll never win Apple or Virgin [3] I’m going to be bankrupt …
Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate how appearances are important but this industry has already adopted style over substance in most of it’s output and if they’re going to start that behaviour in their day-to-day practices, then it’s not just corporate suicide, it’s the end of an agency that used to fight for what it believed rather than sat there all passively hoping not to offend anyone because these days they’ll take any client they can get.
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It’s been a while, but she’s at it again …
[How ironic this post is above one entitled ‘If You’ve Forgotten What Love Feels Like’ ha!]
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… then you need to have a look at this …
How gorgeous is that eh?
I tell you, if the little boy’s face didn’t melt your heart when he found out who his girlfriend was, then you’re dead or someone who has gone through too many divorces.
Andy.
Ahem.
Anyway, it’s so nice to see an ad that has real emotion in it … of course that’s because the film is a slice of real life, not the usual contrived advertising shite … but it shows that in the battle for the consumers heart, mind and wallet – human emotion can be far more powerful than any Hollywood blockbuster style of commercial.
As Lee Hill said, agencies shouldn’t just focus on eye candy they should be looking for heart candy as well.
With that in mind, here’s one of my favourite ads EVER …
Yes it’s for Leukaemia and is ‘staged’ rather than real life … but it’s just so beautifully done that it gets to me everytime I watch it, and let me tell you I’ve watched it a hell of a lot of times over the years.
OK so as we all know I’m a sucker for triumph over adversity [though tragically the little boy in the ad died afterwards] however what I like about it – and why I think it works so well – is because of what Andy calls, ‘pace and grace’.
You see the current trend in advertising seems to be about creating either ‘shock & awe’ or ‘sponsored joke’ however with this commercial you get a story – one with a beginning, middle and end – so the end result is that you’ve felt you’ve gone on a journey and ended up sharing something important rather than just the feeling a brand is trying to get more money out of you.
Don’t get me wrong, I know it’s still just a television ad … but when 60 seconds of film can create that amount of emotion [both within the commercial and from the viewer] you realise television advertising isn’t dead, just the art of creating it is.
[And I know some people will say things like SONY Foam [the best of all Fallon’s SONY ads], Schweppes Balloon or even SONY HD are still keeping the ‘craft’ of television advertising alive … but I don’t necessarily agree because whilst I think they’re great ads [I would say that though wouldn’t I!] they still seem to be more of a visual idea stretched over 30-60 seconds rather than a story that you end up learning/taking something away from. Actually that isn’t quite what I meant, but it’s late – I’m tired – so I’m hoping you know what I mean or someone can tell me what I actually was trying to say. Ta]
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It’s a public holiday here tomorrow so even though I pre-write my blog posts by about 3 months, tomorrow there’ll be nothing to see, which means it’ll probably be the most interesting thing you’ve read here in months.
Oh, and if you’re stuck for something to do, make sure you visit lovely [but swear-a-lot] Lauren’s Abracadaver exhibition – I’ve been following her preparation for it and it’s bloody brill – but then what do you expect from her eh? Talented bitch 🙂