…maybe it’s because I’m a fan of a nice little bit of written word, or maybe it’s because I’m a romantic (are these two things mutually exclusive- probably) but I would sooner swoon over a nice hand-written letter than an email or a text message (shudder). Call me old fashion- but it’s nice to know that you actually have a little piece of him when you’re getting a letter.

I like this advertisement. Obviously I’m a natural fan of the simple things and of simple ads, but this one just says what needs to be said. I also really like the fact that this ad looks hand-drawn (it probably isn’t), but it just reaffirms that point that is being made.

Having made that impartial judgement, I’m just going to go all subjective and admit openly that I love Mont Blanc pens. I think they’re the beeneez and the only reason I have one is because someone gave it to me as a present, otherwise I probably couldn’t justify spending that much on a pen. They’re pretty and write really nice and just feel so powerful in your hands. Was it Winston Churchill who said that the pen is more powerful than a sword? These pens most certainly make you feel powerful. Also, I think one year they had an anniversary special and that pen had a tiny glass globe at its tip that enclosing a single, suspended diamond. Now that was a beautiful pen.

The funny thing is- no one ever really knows that kind of pen was used to write something. It’s a purely selfish, aesthetic experience, and where else does love begin but with the self… right??

Agency: TEAM/Y&R, Dubai, UAE
Creative Director: Shahir Ahmed, Marc Lineveldt
Copywriter/Art Director/Illustrator/Typographer: Vincent Fichard

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It took me a while to figure out what could possibly be interesting about this ad. I even stared at the enlarged image. And then finally I saw the chips; the Pringles as the seeds of the chilli.

Well, unfortunately for the makers of this ad, this took me just that little bit too long to figure out. I mean, if I had seen it as the average viewer and not a critic, I probably would not have cared too look long enough to see anything interesting.

That is not to say I don’t give full credit for creativity. I think it is a nice concept and a pretty image, it is just unfortunate that the creative and interesting aspect to the ad is too small to see, unless you look really closely. Obviously I looked closely, but I still wonder how effective the ad may be as a billboard to the busy passer by in the street, or as a full page ad in a magazine to the reader casually flicking through. I mean, only a (seeminly) boring ad can generate attention when unfortunately midpaced, like these.

It seems to me to be a bit of a waste of a great idea, I just don’t see how enough people will look at it long enough to be able to see it’s creative element. And it just seems so simple: the chilli is too small.

Of-course, this is all based on the way I percieved the ad. I sincerely hope I am not the only person who has found the same problem.

And on the subject of chillies, here is a link to the story and video of an Indian woman attempting a Guiness World Record for chilli eating. Crazy stuff.

Advertising Agency: Grey Worldwide, Frankfurt, Germany
Creative Director: Tim Jacobs
Art Directors: Katja Klodt-Bussmann, Peter Schönwandt
Copywriter: Christoph Pfeffer
Photographer: Thomas Balzer
Other additional credits: mo postproduction GmbH, Meike Wittenstein
Published: March 2009

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I hate Marmite.

When I was growing up in my small island home there were few tethers to the real world and one of them was Marmite. My brother and my parents presented Marmite to me as some kind of link normalcy and a way in which people could really understand the world outside.

I hated it with a vengence. I used to hide bottles of the stuff when my parents bought it, just so I didn’t have to be near the smell at the table. Then we moved to Australia and there was Vegemite- which was just as bad and now I’m convinced even worse. I don’t have confirmation on this yet, but I’m pretty sure Marmite and Vegemite are the food from the devil.

I shouldn’t lump the two together. There are probably acres of difference between the two, but they both taste the same to me. Fun fact- they’re both byproducts of beer production and the gross brown-black colour is a result of the use of caramel to give them a little sweetness.

These ads are funny and apparently true. My brother and parents were obsessed with the stuff and I vomited a little in mouth every morning I watched them eat it. You hate it or you love it. There’s no middle ground. And apparently the lovers are lucrative. What a perfect choice of images to help them convey their message! It’s true for every single one of those activities/people. You hate it or you love it. Plus the use of the Marmite to draw each picture looks great and comic-esque (and to me just builds on the gross of the Marmite).

I wonder, though, I liked Mr. Beanwhen I was young, but I can’t stand him now. I wonder if one day, one poo-brown, yeasty day, I might come to love Marmite?

Agency: DDB, London
Exec Creative Director: Jeremy Craigen
Copywriter: Thierry Albert
Art Director: Damien Bellon
Photographer: Andy Rudak
Illustrator: Dermot Flynn @ Dutch Uncl

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I don’t know how long it took everyone else to figure out these advertisements, but it took me ages. In all honesty, I didn’t figure it out in the end- Google told me. In case you’re still wondering, there are a series of images of people in the act of intercourse in various, rather uncomfortable looking, positions (if you can’t see it, cross your eyes when you look at each picture).

The reason it’s so hard to see is because they pictures are made out of the packets of the condoms themselves. Nice. I also was told this by Google. Google also informed me that Durex condoms acutally do not come in all these colours and so don’t try this one at home.

This advertisement is clever, and it seems that it would have taken quite some skill to actually create the images, but I can’t help but feel a little dirty looking at them. I know this must be a challenge for an advertising company given a contract with a condom manufacturers, but each of these images are so kinky. I mean, people in stable marriages, who only ever copulate in a horizontal position, also use condoms and so do old people who don’t want to catch diseases… but I suppose those things don’t sell so well. So I suppose this is a kinky way of selling, what is essentially, sex- importantly safe sex.

Maybe that’s what they’re on about. Safe sex can still be fun sex.

I think I’ve used the word ’sex’ far too many times in this post- so final words: artistic, jovial and tasteful as far as possible.

Agency: Lowe Bull, Cape Town
Creative Director: Porky Hefer, Rip
Copywriter: Rip
Art Director: Porky Hefer
Photographer: Jillian Lochner
Illustrator: Porky Hefer, Paul Hudson

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 Chocolate replacing sex? I promise you, men of the world, that women never think about this…

Okay, so I’m a liar and chocolate is delicious! Anyone who has seen the movie Chocolat knows that chocolate can’t only be used to replace sex, but also to enhance it. Although I do recommend keeping these creamy, cocoa filled moments private.

These ads are wonderful, and so very French! The illustrations are so simple and the vibrant colour that surrounds the absence of colour of the characters in each story line just extenuates the white. These women are blank slates awaiting some sort of fulfilment. It’s so sensual.

I particularly like the last one. Only because I know that I hate eating chocolate in public- while on the go. It’s just one of those things that being the chubby girl all through high-school taught me was a big no-no. It’s a mobile food and being able to eat it anywhere simply encourages you to eat more. The lady eating the chocolate in the elevator reminds me of all the times that I’ve indulged in the guilty pleasure of taking a full bite of chocolate when no one is looking and simply enjoying that sweet, melting sensation in my mouth. Really, I’m on the path to some sort of psychological problem, but for those few, private moments of delicate satisfaction I feel as wonderful as the chocolate in my mouth.

However, having said all of that, this is a very bold move for an advertising claim. One has to be pretty confidant in their product to make this claim and this confidence is infectious. I want to try some of their chocolate, you know, just in case. If it’s false then that’s okay, there’s a whole bunch of hours I would subsequently have to spend at the gym that I can spend sitting in a bar waiting to meet someone nice. If it’s true, then stuff the bar, I’m staying home tonight!

Art direction and Illustration: Geísa Borrelli
Copywriter: Daniel Coelho

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Okay, so I’ve been looking at these ads and I’ve been trying to articulate how I feel about them, and unfortunately I think that I just don’t like anything about them.

Admittedly I didn’t know anything about Pony shoes until I saw these advertisements and then I did a little ‘googling’ to help me out, so maybe it’s something in the shoes themselves that explain these advertisements that I’m not quite understanding. Then again, who should an advertisement speak to? Those who are already familiar with the brand or those (like me) who have never heard of them before. I guess that’s the fine line that all advertisers walk along.

Also, being a relatively conservative person, I always struggle with advertisements that are offensive for the sake of being offensive. It’s like watching television shows that throw in swear words every second word or so. It’s not art, it’s just offensive and my mother might be nearby and I would please like you to show some respect.

And so there’s this addition to this advertising line:

 Fred & Farid, the art directors behind the ad campaign, commented with regard to this installment:

“Black Jesus is the strongest statement we found for this “Hip-Hop” brand. It’s saying: “Why should God be always represented by a white guy?” In some ways, it’s a very politically correct ad. More shocking than this picture is the fact that most of the churches around the world still have only a white man as the representation of God. It’s also a reflection of the open-minded philosophy of the Brand. It’s even more fair considering the fact that most of the sports gods and hip-hop artists in the teenagers bedrooms are Black. This ad will run everywhere except in the US market. Some Americans are too puritans to be honest”.

So, I’m going to ignore the last couple of sentences in this comment largely because I don’t agree with it (from what little knowledge I have of the American market). I don’t know what to make of this statement- the advertisement and the comment. Obviously Jesus wasn’t ‘white’ he was from the Middle East (whether you believe in his divinity or not, this is an unavoidable truth), but he certainly wasn’t African American and I doubt he would have been caught dead in an expensive pair of gold sneakers. He’d probably have sold them and given the money to orphan children and then hugged Americans- regardless of their Puritanism or hip-hop allegiance.

I know that these ads are trying to make strong statements both for the foot and for the hip-hop culture, but to me it just seems to be trying to stir things up in a way that is non-sensical. I don’t think I want to buy these shoes, I can’t hip or hop and I most certainly do not want my mother anywhere near this store.
Developed at Goodby Silverstein, San Francisco, by creative director Rich Silverstein, art directors/copywriters Fred & Farid, agency producer Max Fallon, photographer Claude Shade. Fred & Farid, previously working with Marcel, Paris, are now at FFL (Fred Farid Lambert)

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Watch your favorite artists live today. Flight + Concert packages.

Well these guys really haven’t held back, have they? These illustrations are all pretty extreme, and I suppose some people could say offensive (especially the Paul Mcartney one), and I can’t help but think there might be more effective ways to advertise flight and concert packages.

I think there is a major flaw in these ads, and that is that they are not directed towards the people they are trying to attract. Hardcore Amy Winehouse fans probably get sick and tired of the alcoholic drug addict image we see everywhere, and I can’t imagine Paul Mcartney fans would appreciate the first illustration, featuring him about to walk into a freshly dug grave next to John and George, the Grim Reaper eagerly watching from the background.

I am not particularly offended by any of them, but I really don’t like them. The illustrations don’t appeal to me personally, and the concept doesn’t really do it for me, either. As if Britney Spears isn’t frightening enough without imagining a future such as this one. Also, I don’t think we should give this crazy guy any more reason to post on YouTube in her defence.

I suppose they are all meant to be taken light heartedly, because no advertiser sets out to intentionally offend, disgust or annoy their potential clientele. Unfortunately, though, I think they just go too far for ads about something meant to be fun and recreational.

Advertising Agency: Grey Tel-Aviv, Israel
Executive Creative Director: Yonatan Stirin
Creative Directors: Shani Gershi, Ronen Gur-Fonarov
Art Directors / Copywriters: Asaf Levi, Eran Nir
Illustrator: Gili Comforty
Account Manager: Dani Brande
Account Suervisor: Sarit Sternhell
Account Executive: Mayan David
Agency Producer: Darya Danzig

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