The Musings Of An Opinionated Sod [Help Me Grow!]

But it’s not.

It’s part of a well known tagline by UK hardware giants, B&Q.

Originally the whole expression was ‘Don’t just do it, B&Q it’ however it’s recently had an evolution … which is my excuse for talking about their new ad campaign.

A campaign by – in my opinion – the best agency in the UK right now and one of the best in the World.

Uncommon.

I’ve written about how much I love them – and Nils in particular – and this campaign is another reason for that.

DIY often gets promoted by ‘salt of the earth men and women’ making, fixing or changing stuff.

Or ‘cheeky chappy’, blue-collar cliches … having a giggle as they saw some wood.

It’s all very practical, rational and very before/after.

But Uncommon have done something different.

For a start they are trying to bring more people into the DIY world rather than just appeal to the people already there. It’s smart, because with COVID, we’re having to rely more and more on our own abilities than those of a specialist.

But they’ve done something more than that.

They’ve tapped into the emotions of what DIY does for us.

Not in the terms of a new shelf or a better shed … but in terms of crafting the place we live and turning it into our home.

A place that reflects us not just shelters us.

The quirks, the tweaks, the creativity, the failures.

The stuff we will always remember when we see it.

The stuff that makes it OURS.

The stuff we built … literally and figuretavely.

And it’s this premise that Uncommon tapped into with the thought, “you don’t buy a life, you build one”.

It’s always been true, but in these times where we try to outsource everything for a generic perfection, it is even more pertinent.

Doesn’t matter what you make.

Doesn’t matter how good you are.

The idea. The craft. The writing.

I love that they’ve evolved the line from ‘Don’t just do it’ to ‘You can do it’.

It’s the right thing to do.

Not just because it is more inclusive, emotional and personal … but because it has a positive, encouraging energy to it. Something that conveys confidence for whatever you’re going to do rather than judgement and doubt.

But one thing I like in particular is the poster campaign.

As I wrote previously, Uncommon are seemingly single-handedly bringing the beauty and value of posters back into the ad world.

The work they’ve done for B&Q is a perfect example of that.

Simple. Clear. And each expressing a different attribute of the brand idea.

No bought in stock shots with some throwaway, meaningless copy dropped on it …, oh no … they’re all individually and beautiful art directed to within an inch of their life.

This is what advertising can be. Should be.

This is how we build the industry again.