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Tuesday 29 September 2009

Sober? Then piss in a straight line!



Brilliant Romanian anti-drinking and driving advert by Mercury 360. These ads were placed in the busiest mens' rooms in Bucharest. My only comment is that surely men can never piss straight. Otherwise they must be peeing all over the seat and floor on purpose! Men! Is that true? Or are all the men I know pissed all the time? Well, in any case Romanian Police say that most of you are unfit to drive.

Big up to Copyranter for finding this ad.

Illustrator extraordinaire

Recently I have been referencing the work of Serge Seidlitz a hell of a lot. It's weird, funny and colourful and deserves a post on my blog. Wow. Bet that's the highest accolade he's ever got, he's gonna be doing little leaps of joy and thanking his mother! (not)
Anyway here is a video of his brilliantly strange bumpers for MTV.

Friday 25 September 2009

Truly awful stuff from Microsoft

This week my office have been marveling at the truly awful attempts that Microsoft have made in the past to launch versions of windows. I actually wanted to throw up when I saw the first one. Preferably on all the actors pretending to be normal people holding a fun party. Actually, if I could find the client (I'm guessing that is where an idea like this would come from) who came up with this pile of shit, I would be better throwing up all over them instead. So where are ya? I'm ready. I've been feeling dizzy all week!

Here's the first. Don't cha wish you were having a Windows 7 Party?



Here's the second. This one's for Windows 386. Ok this one is even more mind baffling. Maybe it is such genius that I just am not getting it. Maybe it's a brilliant spoof. I want to believe this is true. Please, someone tell me it's true! Half way through it turns into a rap video. By the world's worst rapper.

Monday 21 September 2009

Taking the rough with the rough.

Some times it feels like nothing is going right. Now is one of those times. My family are mental. Not in a good way. I try to sort them out and end up being the one everyone is having a go at. Work is stressful and busy and there's not enough resource for me to get involved in the really fun bits that make it all worth while. I've missed out on two shoots in a row. The clients keep coming back with never ending changes and, when I'm not looking, account management decide to write copy themselves. The opticians messed up my weekend appointment. My phone isn't working properly. I owe the bank £300. A test has come back from the doctors saying I have to go for a hospital examination. Today I cut my hand open with a bread knife. And to top it all off my favourite program, 'Strictly Come Dancing', have replaced judge Arlene Phillips with Alesha Dixon. Life is generally shit.

So now, in posts like this, I have to come up with a life lesson, a pithy maxim that makes sense of all this. Hmmmm. I'm totally lacking inspiration. If anyone can think of one please send me a message. It's nice to have some words of wisdom from kind strangers sometimes.

Well, until i can think of something better I am going to pick myself up and enjoy the small things. Left-over home cooked stew. A bath and a book. Maybe an episode of Eastenders (at least my life is better than theirs).

Wednesday 16 September 2009

Marmite, I love it!

Of all the ad campaigns out there I have two favourites. Honda's "hate something, change something" and Marmite's "You either love it or you hate it". I think both campaigns are brave, truthful and deeply creative. Honda's admit that they weren't happy with their engines, that there are still problems with cars to be solved. Marmite admits that they will always be hated by some people. But they embrace it. So brave. I am always trying to get brands to do a Marmite. Come on, admit your faults! It makes people trust you. It makes them admire your honesty and when you do tell them that something is great, people will actually believe you. I have enjoyed all the Marmite ads since the campaign started. But Paddington bear was my favourite:







Now the campaign has continued on to promoting marmite to mums and kids with children's story telling. Horrid Henry and Perfect Peter sabotage grown up adverts. The tag line is ‘The growing up spread you never grow out of’. Here is their website:
http://www.marmite.co.uk/

Monday 14 September 2009

Taylor Swift v Kanye

I really shouldn't be blogging right now as I am so stacked at work but caught a look at a clip of the MTV music awards and say Kanye West ruining poor Taylor Swift's moment. How rude. How disrespectful. How childish. What a dick head. I think three things have come out of the incident:

1) People will realize Kanye West is a nob.
2) Beyonce is a truly lovely person for giving her spot in the limelight to Taylor.
3) It makes me like Taylor Swift even more for not retaliating. How sweet and sad did she look?

Here is a link to the video on the Guardian website:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/video/2009/sep/14/kanye-west-taylor-swift-mtv

And if you're feeling lazy here are the clip on youtube:



Wednesday 2 September 2009

Blog ideas.

I have a number of ideas for my blog. I want it to become more organized with features like a magazine. Some of my ideas include:

1) Clever people I know - showcasing all the things that people I know have made or done. Illustrators, car designers, painters, photographers, journalists, home-builders, song writers, jewelry makers, blog writers, creatives. There's a lot of talent among my work, friendship and family groups.

2) Guest spot by Mental Aunty. I need to work on her this weekend. She's almost up for it.

3) Song of the week. Since discovering Spotify I have discovered a load of lovely songs and ones that make me smile too. They might be old hat to music junkies but you never know.

4) List of the week. My list of uncool went down very well and list writing is one of my secret uncool hobbies.

5) What I did next - I want to start drawing more. When I was little I drew for hours every day. In fact I thought watching TV was boring if I couldn't draw at the same time. I am very rusty now. Life is hectic! So every week if I know I have to post something I have drawn it will be an incentive. Please be kind. Don't slate my work too much!

I am not sure I will implement these plans and when there is a pitch on they will def fall by the wayside. But I'm a creative aren't I. Full of grand ideas, which generally don't go anywhere.

My friend Michael Harvey has won an award

Hooray! Isn't it totally lovely when lovely people win awards? I worked with Michael Harvey on a portrait project for an ad campaign way back last year. At the end of the shoot he was so enthused by the whole thing that he insisted on shooting my creative partner and I too. His wonderful assistant photographer Emma kindly retouched our faces, and now our portraits are in our office's glass cabinet, wowing everyone with our freakishly perfect mole-less complexions.

Last time I saw Emma she was trying to convince me to pose nude. I would have but I needed to go to the gym for a month first so in the end I declined.

Here is some of Michael's work. You can see more at www.michaelharveyphoto.com






And here are Michael and Emma in action on the AXA shoot:

Dorian Gray: the premiere

After blogging about my excitement about the release of the new adaptation of Dorian Gray for the cinema screens my friend Lisa invited me to go to the premiere with her! It was last Wednesday in Leicester Square's Odeon (think it was wednesday?). I got very excited thinking that I might be able to meet Colin Firth. Then he might fall in love with me. Of course I would have to turn him down because my heart belongs to another (my boyfriend reads this blog). Anyway no such luck. We did however get a special premiere ticket and a booklet of film information. The film wasn't introduced by the director but by a lady who warned us that cameras were watching us and if we tried any funny business then we would be shot in the eyeballs with a semi automatic shotgun. Well almost.

The film was more like a BBC production. I think it would have made a very good two part drama. As a film however I thought it was somewhat lacking. Dorian could have been far more shocking. Far more evil and his sexual perversions far more wicked. He just looked like a randy bugger most of the time. The unveiling of the portrait, the moment of horror, was also slightly disappointing for an audience hardened to Hollywood horror. Saying that both Lisa and I couldn't look at certain points and they did build up to a good finale. The acting was good. I particularly liked Colin Firth (surprise surprise) as Harry. Ben Barnes did a good job of Dorian and the supporting cast worked well. We did (being shallow girls) note that none of the women Dorian seduced were particularly pretty. You'd think he'd have pulled a real fitty at least once wouldn't you.

All in all I'd give it an 8 out of 10. An extra point for being a British film with home grown talent.