Nerds Today, Bosses Tomorrow.

This weeks blog post is purely just to show my love for this anti-bullying advert I came across this morning – I’m sure many of you will come across it shortly as it’s making its way round the web virally. As I am already a big fan of Saatchi & Saatchi, this possibly made me love them that little bit more.

This advert shows the typical school nerds getting bullied whilst singing their hearts out to the tune of “I Will Survive”. The lyrics in the song and the message of the advert is an unseen twist to usual anti-bullying campaigns (you know, the ones which make you want to jump into your TV and give the bully victims a hug?!) It gives the bully victims power and hope, and quite probably a realistic message to the bullies for the future – these clever nerds at school could well be your future bosses!

Genuis. I love Saatchi & Saatchi!!

 

Until Next Year, Easter

After a weekend of gorging on chocolate and indulging in alcohol (for most people anyway), the Easter period is now over unfortunately, and today it’s the first day back to work. Whilst trying to look for inspiration for this blog post I decided to look through this years best and worst Easter campaigns. In my opinion there has been definitely more bad campaigns than good – far too many ads have been very similar. (I mean, really, how long did it take you to think of using an Easter Bunny?)

Here’s a list of a few of my favourite Easter print adverts that I have come across:

I know, I know – this joke it very old but it still manages to make me laugh?! Classic and simple but I do think the message is clear.

Another simple and clear advert, this time from Subaru. Even though the image is simple and so is the message, as Subaru is known for being a maker of fast cars, I think it sets a positive brand image for promoting safe travels. It also helps that the bunny ears made from the logo looks very cute. A+

This campaign included the advert above and two others; one showing the same woman with a chocolate egg as a ring and another wearing them as earrings – and ALL of them actually look smart! At first glance I didn’t realise it was a chocolate advert, until I looked closer. I like the play-on with a high end fashion advert, it just works.

Although this is a lot more serious than the previous adverts I have shown, the message is probably the most important. As we treat the bank holiday weekend as an excuse to drink and party, we all need to stay safe whilst doing so. I think the message is strong and is the perfect time to promote the message that drink driving kills.

And the winner is… TBWA. Not surprising though really, is it? If anyone is going to create a fantastic Easter advert then the chances are it’s going to be one of the top advertising agencies. I found this hilarious, I have never seen anything similar to this before, it is a truly an original and clever piece of creative work. Whilst everyone else focuses their campaigns around chocolate, eggs, or bunnies, this is a completely different way of looking at/joking about Easter. From the font to the colours and the picnic, I love all of it. A* for TBWA

Three Advert Rocks #SingItKitty

I don’t know about you but I didn’t think anything could beat #DancePonyDance, but I think they have actually managed to do it. With there new advert rocking the hashtag #SingItKitty they have come up with a unique and funny concept yet again. Each time I see it on TV it entertains me equally as much as it did the time before (surely this means it’s a pretty good advert?), it’s a nice change from seeing Go Compare adverts which I try my hardest to ignore.

If it wasn’t good enough with the little girl with more confidence than Beyonce, the little diva cat in the basket is her perfect sidekick. The advert concept itself is great but with poor music it could have been ruined, however this well known track that sticks in all of our heads for hours after it couldn’t have been a more perfect match.

Even though I adore Three’s adverts I still don’t think they have been totally successful – but in my case I don’t think they could ever be? I love them as a brand in terms of the adverts they produce, they are creative and memorable and get a lot of publicity but their service still remains the same. Realistically they put money into their advertising to hopefully get money out of it by gaining new customers, the idea being people will remember Three when they are coming up to renewing or starting a new mobile contract and will want to go with Three but is this really going to happen? As said earlier I love their adverts and like them as a brand but I still know if I’m renewing my mobile contract I’ll never ever go with them as, believe it or not, I actually like my phone having signal (I know, it’s crazy isn’t it?!). If many others are still aware that Three are known for their customers having poor signal, will a good advert really sort that out?

Oh well, I don’t mind either way, I’m sure I’ll love the next advert just as much and I’m sure I’ll blog about that one too! For those of you who haven’t seen the advert until now, you’re welcome.

 

#FirstWorldProblems

I’m sure many of you are all aware of the hashtag #FirstWorldProblems, and if you are not, let me explain…

First world problems are problems that many of us will complain about in day to day life, many get broadcasted on Twitter or Facebook. Here’s a few first world problems that I have just found on Twitter…

“Can’t decide between Jamie or Nigella roast potatoes #FirstWorldProblems”

“I’m so hungry, but I’m too lazy to go downstairs #FirstWorldProblems”

“So many shoes…so little luggage space #FirstWorldProblems”

“When your phone charger doesn’t reach you in bed #FirstWorldProblems”

“All the tech in the world and still bored #FirstWorldProblems“

Get the picture?

They’re all silly things and I bet we’ve all been guilty at one time or another of thinking/saying/complaining about something similar to these. At first, I found the hashtag quite amusing, and guilty, I have used it once or twice on Twitter. I found it rather amusing when I first heard about it, but now I’m rather reluctant to use it.

So here’s some food for thought… whilst we are here pulling our hair out because we’ve gone to bed then realised the phone charger is downstairs and we have to go allllllllll the way back down the stairs to get it, or Tesco has ran out of our favourite flavour of Ben & Jerry’s (which are all clearly #FirstWorldProblems), what would third world problems look like?

I have no water to drink and I haven’t had any for days #ThirdWorldProblems

We have no food to feed our family tonight #ThirdWorldProblems

This YouTube advert really puts into perspective how ridiculous the things we say actually are. It cleverly jumped on the back of the first world problems trend and was able to turn it around to raise awareness of their charity…

The aim of this blog post is to realise how ridiculous many of the things we complain about actually are. Since it’s Christmas time we need to look at the things we own and the people who are around us and be grateful of every single thing because there are millions of people who can only wish for the things what we have. Yes, it may be annoying if your phone dies and you haven’t finished editing your selfie for Instagram but be grateful that you even have a phone, be grateful that your house has electricity. It may only happen in the first world but it isn’t a problem. Realise how lucky you really are.

Merry Christmas,

Love Jo.

A Crash Course To Shine

Take a look at the fabulous Nikkie, who is well known on YouTube for her make up tutorials. She has (at this particular moment in time) 347,391 subscribers on YouTube, all who can’t wait to learn her next trick of the trade. However, the following crash course probably shocked the majority of the 1,588,991 viewers…

Did you think it was a normal make up tutorial? So did I. Such a creative campaign from Volkswagen, the shock factor definitely grabs the audiences attention and gets the message across, in my opinion, of course.

“500,000 crashes are caused by women drivers applying make-up.”

This was published in YouTube on 5th April 2012, so although it went viral at the time, it didn’t manage to reach me. Instead I came across this video in a lecture at University and thought it was definitely worth a blog post, a clever advert that needed to be shared. However, I’m sure this goes without saying but the message is infact very serious and if failed to be taken seriously can result in a fatal disaster. Although the creativity of it deserves a lot of credit that doesn’t take away from the seriousness of the message. I’m sure young women can learn a valuable lesson from this advert, and it may reveal to them the possibilities of what could happen by doing something which they may think is so minor, such as putting on lipstick whilst driving. Also by plotting the advert into social media, somewhere where people would least expect to see an advert makes it all the more effective. It also is aimed at the exact target audience. I wish I had seen this advert sooner!

Creativity and originality wins every time!

As An Advertising Student, This Offends Me…

What is the point in people studying advertising, or putting money into creating an advert to showcase your brand or product if the advert itself is absolutely shocking?! This morning, as I’m minding my own business trying to get on with uni work (coincidentally Advertising Management work), I have ITV on in the background watching This Morning, and BAM, there I see this horrific advert during the break. This is the offensive Kitty Bingo advert…

Is it me or is it just terrible? I understand that these two women are probably what you would stereotype “crazy cat ladies”, however would it even appeal to others who are stereotyped the same? I can’t understand the audience or how it would even appeal to anyone. Not to mention the acting is shocking.

I can’t really imagine why someone would pay for that advert to be created, even the clouds in the background look like a child’s drawing. If this is all they could of afforded then sadly I think they would have been better spending their money elsewhere. There’s no need to come up with shockingly bad adverts when there are so many different and creative ways of getting the message across.

However, after ranting about everything I hate about the advert, I will actually give them some credit… the cats are cute.

“A Bad Voice Over Can Ruin An Advert”

As I study Advertising, as part of our Advertising Management Unit at Uni this year we have to create our own advert. On the weeks leading up to filming our advert our lecturer made sure that it was drilled into our heads that “a bad voice over can ruin an advert”. Some accents just won’t work, women’s voices won’t usually work, and if the person sounds dull/boring… it also just wont work. So reflecting on this idea – which my lecturer has done a good job of drilling in my head – I came across a Christmas advert this year where I think the voice just does not work.

Here’s the advert…

 

My issue is the boys voice, as he’s going doing his good deeds he’s telling us what he’s doing and why. But I just don’t think his accent works. It reminds me of the accents you hear on Coronation Street, so I’m going to guess it’s a North-West accent (could be wrong though as I am horrendous at placing accents). Anyhow, I love the idea behind the advert, ‘the joy of giving’ and all that but I can’t help but think the accent ruins it. It’s supposed to make me think “aww, isn’t that lad sweet giving presents to everyone”, however I’m left thinking that his voice is terrible and insincere (not quite what Boots were trying to do)! It annoys me every time.

Am I the only one who thinks this voice just doesn’t fit the accent? Is it a an example of how a bad voice over can ruin an advert?

P.S. If the lad who’s voice was used to make the advert just happens to stumble across this blog post for some unknown reason, no offense to you mate, it’s the advert I have an issue with, not you.

Rant over. 

Pepsi VS Coca Cola

I am slightly late in blogging about this particular subject as this post is back dated to Halloween! The latest battle between the well known coke brands, Pepsi and Coca Cola remind me why I chose to go into advertising…it’s fun! Pepsi came out fighting this October when they showed a playful print ad of a Pepsi can dressed up as Coca Cola to look scary on Halloween. Here it is…

Funny, right? Great little advert poking fun at Coca Cola and I cannot fault them for it. However the battle between them both gets better when you see Coca Cola’s response to it…

Genius! Well done Coca Cola, I personally think you won this battle. I love playful wars between brands as long as they are just that – playful. What’s the point in seriously trying to ruin a brands reputation? You lose credibility by doing that, in my opinion anyway. So banter like this, and clever banter at that I very much appreciate. Personally I prefer Coca Cola anyway, and as it is nearly Christmas I’m all over their brand from the moment I see their Christmas advert. However, Pepsi definitely deserves a lot of a credit for even having the guts to tease Coke. Thumbs up for all!

Do you have a favourite advert? Do you have a preference in the brands?

 

Here Comes The Christmas Adverts…

Hands down, the bear and the hare is my favourite Christmas advert of 2013.

This Tesco one is a nice little video to watch – don’t know how good it is in terms of advertising but it certainly makes me feel Christmassy!

And of course, the Marks and Spencer’s advert is also a winner this year – as it is almost every year!

Guinness – Made Of More

This is the latest Guinness advert which started to be shown last month (September 2013). The reason I have decided to blog about this particular advert this week is because I love the concept and the meaning of friendship and selflessness is truly shown by the people in the ad. As we see a group of young men all taking part in a game of wheelchair basketball, we’re shown an intense game and a great deal of teamwork. Then, once the game is over, all but one of the men stand up out of their wheelchair and head out – one giving the last gent, still in the wheelchair a pat on the back. The meaning behind the advert is very sweet and also portrays disability in a positive light – showing they are still normal people. After the game they head out to the pub and each celebrate with a pint of guinness.

Although I love the advert and it’s had a lot of positive press since it’s release I can’t help but wonder what the motivation behind the advert was? Does Guinness really want to change perceptions of disability? Or did they just create this advert because they knew most people would see it and think “Oh that’s a nice thing Guinness have done”?  I tried researching to see if Guinness has had any other links with disability or wheelchair based sports but wasn’t able to find one. I don’t think we’ll be seeing a similar message from Guinness again. Despite being unsure of their motive behind this advert, I won’t take it away from them that they have been very successful and have created a truly heart warming ad. The figures show it’s success as it went viral very quickly generating over 3 million views in 4 days. It’s definitely in my top 20.