Japan's 2020 Olympics Kimonos

Ever since reading Memoirs of a Geisha when I was 16, I have always loved Kimonos. They are a beautiful art pieces as well as unique elements of Japan's culture and history. So what better way to celebrate and welcome all the countries taking part in the 2020 Olympics in Japan than to design each country a Kimono. The Japanese international outreach association Imagine Oneworld started Project Kimono in 2017 and the result is a stunning online exhibition. 

One of the things I really like about this project is that the makers looked for the beauty in each country. No matter if that country was going through war or international dispute each is represented in its best light in these Kimonos - with their beautiful flowers and landscapes, seas and peaceful dunes, impressive buildings and so on. These Kimonos are a real celebration of the variety and difference of cultures. This is at heart in harmony with what the Olympic games is all about - understanding, tolerance, acceptance, inclusiveness. 

There is also great democracy here. No country appears more important to the designer than another - small and poorer nations have equally beautiful kimonos. 

Here are a few of my favourites below:

The United Kingdom

I was pleased to see our iconic flag represented but also as a nation of flowers and style.

Ireland. 

This one is gorgeous with green and clovers and orange but also famous names and faces. 

Poland 

One of the most stunning in my mind. Who knew Poland was a country with such natural beauty.

Phillippines 

I love the overlapping fronds of this Kimono suggesting peaceful sunny scenes and rippling water. 

Norway 

The country of the Vikings, snow, water and Christmas jumpers. Are these bubbles pouring down from a waterfall or baubles on a Christmas scene?

New Zealand. 

The country of the All Blacks, with green green mountains and unspoilt nature. 

Afghanistan

This is a beautiful Kimono that reminds us what Afghanistan should be. Where Islam is a gentle peaceful religion where women and men have equal roles. I do hope in my life time this will be the Afghanistan we will find again. 

Chile 

I love this one. To me it looks like a landscape of passion - tumultuous seas, volcanic mountains and dramatic weather systems. Am I right? I know very little about Chile. 

To see the complete project with all the Kimonos visit Kimono Project. 

Coronavirus: a cynical advertising approach

My advertising agency have just sent around a note to all staff saying they should prepare for the possibility that the office may at some point have to close due to Coronavirus. Weirdly I find emergencies exciting. I know there is the possibility of death but I can't help it. I'm like "oooh how will we survive! What weird things could I try eating from my garden if food runs out?" I could eat nettles! And sage! I've got a lot of sage". Here I run out of ideas since my garden doesn't have much that's edible in it.

The other things that I've been thinking of are, "I bet Corona larger are PISSED OFF!" Turns out I'm right. Apparently sales in China have plummeted costing the company £132 million in losses. 

How to solve this problem? Well Corona could put capitalise on the publicity? They could do "Wasn't us gov" campaign although the difficulty is the some will think making light of the situation is heartless. It's a PR nightmare. 

The other thing I'm thinking is why are we running out of masks? Everyone should be getting in on the act. Etsy should be full of hand-made eco alternatives, Goop should be making very overpriced crystal ones and Boots should be owning this. 

There are plenty of ways companies could be capitalising on Coronavirus. 

Grocery delivery companies could capitalise with special "Isolation packs" - full of healthy food to get you better quicker with special biohazard suit delivery men. 

Then there's hand sanitiser brands. NOW IS YOUR TIME! Sell Coronavirus hand gel outside Tube stations. Set up booths at public events. Theme the hand gel for the occasion. We all need more hand gel!

Fashion could get in on the act with Fashionable masks. Imagine black leather ones with studs - Oooh la la so chic! 

Then there's packs of tissues especially coated to stop the spread and strong enough to trap the germs. It doesn't matter if they are just normal tissues - this is a branding exercise. You do know that the shampoo for fine hair is the same as the one for thick hair right?

The pet market shouldn't feel left out. Special Coronavirus mats to place under your cat flap could trap germs so Tiddles doesn't trail in a nasty bug. 

Then there's the luxury market. Private coronavirus escapes fly you to a remote island to wait out the virus's end.

Guys, Coronavirus will hit the economy hard. But there's always cynical advertising silver linings. 

Eric Cantona goes to Space to prove Kronenbourg is the Universe's Taste Supreme.

I don't ever talk about my work on this blog but I have just finished a campaign I am really proud of. So sod it...I'm gonna write about it. 

Kronenbourg's spokesperson is footballing legend Eric Cantona. 

For my American readers benefit - Eric played for France and Manchester United and became famous not just for his astounding feats on the pitch, but also for his fiery personality and humour. 

Back in 2015 Eric Cantona promised to Swim the English Channel if the public said that Kronenbourg was Le Taste Supreme. Now Kronenbourg wanted the next big campaign push. 

What would Cantona do this time?

We decided to send him to Space! Everyone knows that Kronenbourg is the world's Taste Supreme. Now we wanted to prove it was the best tasting beer in the Universe! We shot 5 films as Eric made his press announcement and started his training. Then it was time for the big reveal! 

Take a watch and see what happened. 

Links here: 

https://vimeo.com/344082111

https://vimeo.com/344063110

https://vimeo.com/344064055

https://vimeo.com/344063340

https://vimeo.com/382655380

This campaign was made possible with the efforts of so many people. 

We had the amazing director Neil Harris on board with the brilliant production house Smuggler. 

Smoke and Mirrors and Big Buoy gave us their time to polish it all up and make it look fab. 

Marshall Street did a great job getting countless edits done. 

Wave did an amazing job on sound which was so important especially in our last film.

Our photographer Todd was amazing for getting stuck in and making sets out of discarded bits and pieces. 

We also had to get agreement from Space night club in Ibiza - props to our hard working Producer Ruth Darsow for that one. 

We had some amazing clients who were as excited about the job as we were - Caitlin and Richard were a real pleasure. 

Thank you to my CD Gerry Human who spotted a good idea and worked very closely with me on this from start to finish. 

And thank you to my original collaborator and art director Andy Amadeo for helping me develop the idea and get it all sold in with his brilliant impressions of Eric Cantona. 

Thank you to our amazing planner Charlotte Walters and to our amazing Account Director Jo Heywood and Account manager Charlotte Black to working so hard to get this made and to keep everything on track.

I love you all. 

Like owner like dog

They say that you pick a pet who is like you in some way. That must mean I am an overweight hairy person who likes to sleep a lot and hits people who annoy me. But certainly it does seem that there is a slight correlation between owners and pets. Maybe it's like people picking romantic partners who look a bit like them. 

Pets looking like their owners is the topic photographer Krister Soerboe picked for her series of photographs "Like Owner, Like Dog" to enter into the Sony World Photography Awards. The likenesses are certainly striking and make a really funny set. Enjoy.

Taylor Swift goes all political and I love it.

I've watched a lot of Ru Paul recently. It's got all of what you want from a reality show - bitchiness, falls from grace, funny tasks but it's got something more meaningful too. It's real mission is to make Drag Queens and the wider gay community more accepted by celebrating their creativity and bravery. 

So I was primed to love Taylor Swift's new video "You need to calm down". The song is a statement of support for the LGBT community and the people who need to calm down are the right wing redneck bigots. 

In Swifts video the bigots are the unbeautiful ones failing to see that if they just calmed down they too could be having fun and friendship. 

And Swift makes this clear by inviting her once rival Katy Perry, who's first hit was I Kissed a Girl, to join her dressed as a Big Mac. We go together like a burger and fries she shows us and it's kinda heartwarming. 

Many of Swifts other friends make cameos. On her YouTube page they are listed in alphabetical order - a nice equalitarian touch to match the message of her song. They are: 

A'keria Davenport

Adam Lambert

Adam Rippon

Adore Delano

Antoni Porowski

Billy Porter

Bobby Berk

Chester Lockhart

Ciara

Delta Work

Dexter Mayfield

Ellen Degeneres

Hannah Hart

Hayley Kiyoko

Jade Jolie

Jesse Tyler Ferguson

Jonathan Van Ness

Justin Mikita

Karamo Brown

Katy Perry

Laverne Cox

Riley Knoxx

Rupaul

Ryan Reynolds

Tan France

Tatianna

Todrick Hall

Trinity K Bonet

Trinity Taylor

Watch the full video here:

I actually really like the song too.

Good artists copy; great artists steal.

Steve Jobs once said "good artists copy, great artists steal", a phrase he stole from Picasso, or perhaps TS Eliot who said: 

"Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal; bad poets deface what they take, and good poets make it into something better, or at least something different".

Apparently TS Eliot may have stolen this idea from another writer. The point is that even the greatest artists steal. 

In order to be creative you must collect influences from everywhere. If you try to work in a vacuum - try to create something that's never been done before in every single way then you are bound to spend a lot of time with writer's block, or staring at a white canvas. 

This is the message of Austin Kleon's TED talk which you can watch here:

I learnt this lesson on my first placement in an advertising agency. The Creative Director handed me a bunch of DVDs (this was 13 years ago after all) with the words "steal something from these". They were director reels from production houses. What he meant was not that we would copy them. Stealing is far more sophisticated a process (as any successful cat burglar will tell you). Instead you use the material as a jumping block to create something different.

This is what this blog is actually made for. Its a way for me to remember all the great ideas I find. By writing about them I add them to my brain's catalogue. When I need them they pop up in my head and I know where to find them. 

Of course there is no honour in literally ripping someone off and it could land you in legal problems. So when you discover someone else's idea/ visual style/ phrase that can perfectly sum up you brand's message, you've only won half the battle. Now you must make sure that what you do adds value and new meaning. 

Copying is actually not really my problem in this business. It's actually the fact that I often come up with what I think is a completely new thought only to discover that it has already been done brilliantly by another brand. The other day I was working on a sports brand when I said to my boss, "what if we had grown adults running around playing children's games, like catch or kiss chase?" My boss replied, "That was done by Nike but well done you just came up with a Cannes winning idea". Damn it. 

Like remakes of films, some of the of the best ads are stolen from the work of designers, musicians and artists.

But if you want to see some examples of blatant "copying" here's a whole blog about it:  

https://www.joelapompe.net/

The Best music videos of 2018...I think.

I miss MTV.
Not MTV of today - filled with reality shows. No. I miss the pure MTV music video channel of my youth.
I miss having the time to just sit and watch it too.

You can learn a lot from music videos - cultural trends, fashion, new art directional styles, editing techniques, scene transitions and pure wacky ways of seeing the world. They also have their fingers on the pulse far more than any TV show or newspaper. 

So, with Christmas providing a much needed lull I decided to see what was happening out there in 2018. 

And here are my picks. 

1. Janelle Monae - Make Me feel. 

This is so Prince isn't it? And the style is very iPod. I just love he fashion as well. I would wear those see through embroidered trousers if I had the guts. Apparently this video is about Janelle's bi-sexuality - running from man to woman unable to choose. 



2. John Mayer - New Light

This is so shit it's kinda genius. Apparently John Mayer asked some guy in LA who specialises in making bat mitzvah videos.

It also reminds me of my favourite show "Glow" - there is a great episode where they spent the whole episode showing the recorded TV show complete with tacky scene transitions and bad acting. That's what this is like. 



3. Travis Scott: “SICKO MODE” [ft. Drake]

Directed by Dave Meyers and Travis Scott.

There is so much going on in this video. Really interesting camera techniques and trickery, some neon paint, coloured smoke, singing murals, very jiggly butts (like how does that butt actually move like that?) and Drake sounding super cool. 



4. Drake - Nice for What.

Sorry for another Drake but this guy is on it with his video game. For "Nice for what" Drake gave the camera to 22-year-old director Karena Evans. She shot scenes of powerful women celebrating their worth and doing their thing. The result is a video that's joyful and strong - nice one Drake, nice one Evans. 



5. The Carters: “APESHIT”

Probably the most talked about video of the year. Beyonce and Jay Z in the Louvre and some amazing modern dance. New, pop and cool meets classic high brow art. The meeting is mesmerising and you need not delve into anything deeper than that. But if you do then the message is about blackness, its relationship to Western colonialism and about black capitalism as act of radical subversion. Deep man.



Oh and if you are not viewing this on a public screen you may wanna check out the video for Duck Duck Goose by Cupcakke. She is not shy. 

Creative Makeup

I have figured out what I love so much about Halloween. It's not the parties, or the trick or treat kids or the spookiness.
No.
It's transforming myself into someone else.
And for me the most exciting bit of the whole costume, is the makeup.

Doing makeup for a Halloween event is basically like creating a painting on your face. Watching yourself transform as you apply colours and lines to your face is hugely satisfying.

But stage makeup is a real art form. I am but a mere amateur when you look at those who have studied it.

Here is the amazing Mirjana Kika Milosevic's spring in a box toy makeup.




And another - because she is so good - The Copse Bride.



And here's some of the Prosethetic work by Amazing School Jur.

But makeup isn't just for Halloween or movies. It's also got more serious applications, helping to support governments and protecting us from terrorism. 

Yep, I'm not kidding. It's an important part of undercover operations by the CIA.

Also how cool is the job title Former Chief of Disguise? The coolest!

Blood is normal.

I always hated tampon and sanitary towel adverts. All those rollerskating women. Why was it strange to be able to roller-skate when you were bleeding? It never occurred to me that it would be a problem.

But the thing that annoyed me the most was why was period blood always blue? Who would we be offending if it was the colour it really was: pink, bright red,  dark red, sometimes rusty brown, but never blue. Surely we wouldn't be upsetting women. We see our own blood every month, we're made of stronger stuff.

So it must be for men. Adverts for women written with men in mind.

I longed to write a TV advert that featured red blood.

And now there is one.

And seeing it made me cry.

These are real periods. Ones that make you feel hormonal and cry easily for no good reason and knot your tummy in pain. Ones that come with the relief of knowing you're not pregnant. Ones where you have to stick your sanitary pad up your jumper to carry it surreptitiously to the loos. Period sex with the less squeamish of your boyfriends. Real stuff. It touched a chord.

After watching it I feel more proud to be a woman. I'm not sure why. But perhaps its like finding acceptance to something that you've hidden because the world suggested it was dirty. 

But it's not dirty. 

It's normal. 

No fat may pass!

Hey, long time no see. So long in fact that my domain got cancelled and I didn't even notice. I am a bad blogger. I can only plead an insane work load.

But I did, whilst on the hunt for a Cannes winning idea, come across this brilliant ad by McCann Worldgroup, Bangkok for a slimming pill that I wanted to share.

Enjoy.

Balls to this

Balls.
Nutsacks.
Meat and two veg.

I am currently researching how men shave their balls.
Advertising has led me to develop some funny areas of special knowledge in the past but I must say that this one tops them all.

The difficulties of men have never weighed so heavily on my mind. Shaving a ball sack seems like a mission and a half - all that wrinkled saggy skin just begs for nicks and cuts.

Whilst researching the way men deal with such issues I found this really amusing advert for men's pants. I'd love to write something like this. Maybe one day I too can imagine what it's like to be a ball.

Enjoy.

Paint, soap, oil - galaxies, emotions and beauty.

I'm feeling a little emotional this morning. Freelance has been wonderful so far but the prospect of leaving a placement I've loved is always hard. Maybe that's why I found these beautiful paint, oil and soap films actually quite meaningful and emotional.

Watching the colour forms rip apart and form beautiful new patterns is like an analogy for life. So one beautiful whole ends and will be replaced by new beauty, new forms. Freelance too is full of uncertainty, ever changing and full of new beautiful experiences.

The Big Leap: Going Freelance

I spent 7 years at my last agency. Let's just think about that. That's long enough for a child to be born, learn how to walk, talk, go to nursery school and finish infants. It's also roughly the time it takes for your body to totally regenerate itself.

Perhaps that's why every 7 years you need a big change. Leaving the safe, comfy nest of my last agency was hard. I needed a push. That came in the form of widespread agency redundancies. I was offered the chance to fight for my job and I took it. But after spending an entire weekend locked in my bedroom polishing a creative pitch I began to wonder what I was doing. I was fighting to stay in a place that no longer challenged me, where my main attitude was cynicism and where many of my best friends would no longer be. The redundancy package would be the cushion I needed for my fall. I handed in my notice the next day.

Suddenly having no job was both wonderful and horrible. I went to see the Hockney exhibition in the middle of the day and then spent the rest of the day in the pub. I gardened when it was sunny and went for walks in the park. But mostly I sat at my kitchen table writing to every person I'd met who I thought could give me a lead on Freelance work. When the freelance work proved hard to secure I applied for permanent roles. Some days I worked from 9am - 10pm just emailing contacts and headhunters, applying for jobs and membership of freelance organisations and researching agencies.

I spoke to anyone who could give me advice. Once I met a guy in a bowling alley who turned out to be a Freelance creative. I asked him for advice and he told me, "Don't worry if it takes you even a week before you get a job". I almost cried. By then it had taken me a month.

I thought about packing it all in and rang my dad to talk about backup plans. Then, the next day, two big freelance opportunities landed on my plate. I was ecstatic.

Now I'm doing a stint at Ogilvy and feeling far more alive than I have in years. I don't even care that I'm editing toothbrush ads. I love to edit. I didn't even get that opportunity much where I was before. Every day is challenging and new, the day flies by and I haven't had to check any legal lines yet.

Of course there's always the possibility that when this job ends I'll have another quiet period where I doubt myself. But perhaps freelance is teaching me to live more in the "now". That's a problem for another month, one I'm not expected to have planned yet. And that is exciting too.

Google Duo ads make me well jel

These ads to promote video calling through google's Duo service make me wish I'd thought of them. They are very funny and cute. I especially like the lost sock talking to his partner.

Spike Jonze for Kenzo

The world is going crazy for this Spike Jonze directed perfume ad. And why not? It's beautiful, irreverent, weird and good fun. Perfume ads can be the most pretentious type of advertising. So t's really great to see someone making something that people actually want to watch instead.

This one reminds me of the Prada Candy adverts, directed by Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola. Here's my link to those ads: Adverts like Soap Operas

If you haven't already seen Spike's masterpiece here it is:

..

Dogs in togs

Photographer Tammy Swarek came up with a novel way of drawing people's attention to dogs in need of adoption from her local shelter, UCAPS. Photograph them in formal looking portraits wearing clothes.

I imagine this campaign must have seen adoptions rise highly with the project reported in newspapers  across the world.

Here are some of the portraits and the stories of the dogs in them.

Midnight has been at the animal shelter for five years. After five years of being overlooked Tammy says it was extremely moving to see her proudly wearing such a fabulous design. The headpiece was designed by Marentis Kelly. 

Sammy Jammer is 5 months old and was abandoned in a lumber yard by his feral mother. His eyes were infected and he was lying on the ground when spotted by some workers. One, named Sammy, took pity on him and contacted UCAPS. He was dehydrated and malnourished and with the infection they didn't hold out much hope of his survival. But survive he did! How adorable is that face?

Peggy Sue's adoption is pending but Tammy couldn't resist photographing her in this regal way. She reminds me of Elizabeth I.

Cricket's owner had to go into a retirement home. Sad for both of them I imagine. 

McKenzie and her sister Radar were abandoned and taken in by UCAPS. They spotted how clever they were and put them into their Paws in Prison program. McKenzie however looked too pit-bill and tested positive for heart worm. Her sweet personality has earned her many pats on the head but never a new home. She has been at the shelter three years now. 

If you'd like to see more of Tammy's work, and read about more of the dogs visit her website tammyswarek.com

Photography trickery by Stephen McMennamy

Everyone loves a bit of photographic trickery. Art Director Stephen McMennamy's combo photos combine two very different images to seamlessly blend them into surreal scenes where paintbrushes turn into noodles and headphones are seemingly made out of donuts. Check out some of his great images here and on his website and Instagram account.

They already make me think of ideas for adverts...

Advert for airline or holiday company perhaps?

Could be used to promote healthy eating?

Ad about how good listening to music on a particular radio station is? Or particular pair of headphones perhaps?

Perhaps ad about energy drinks making things that seem hard easy? Or one for how much meat is in a frozen food range?

Ad for how good eggs are for your brain? I'm making this shit up.

Ad for a summertime product? Maybe a clothes brand? 

Olympic Advertising Gold

Great Britain are in second place on the Olympic leaderboard at this moment. Can we just stop for a second and think about that? We are ahead of CHINA and only the USA stands ahead of us. We are in Silver medal position and compared to the size of these other top of the leaderboard countries we are a teeny tiny island.

Craziness.

Anyway to celebrate I thought I'd pull together a medal  leaderboard for some of the Olympics advertising I've seen. So, on the podium we have....

Gold in the sport of "Hero" portrait goes to this Michael Phelps spot by Droga 5. This spot was is one of the most shared spots on social media ever so it wins a Silver there.



And here's the social media Gold winner, very well deserved - Channel 4 for the Paralympics. This has to be the biggest celebration of human ability in an ad ever. I love it. Gold for being generally uplifting then.



Gold for riffing off of the Brazil theme and Gold for CGI goes to the BBC for their Rio trailer.



Gold for biggest tear jerker (can't see my keyboard right now) goes to P&G - with the message Thank you Mum - It takes someone strong to make someone strong. How true is that and what a lovely sentiment, can't see my keyboard again through the tears.



This Samsung spot deserves a medal for most interesting angle - picking to tell the story of an athlete from South Sudan who are entering the Games for the first time ever.



This Nike ad wins a Gold for most annoying Voice Over. But I like the premise so let's give it an honourable mention for that ey?



And this spot for Gillette wins the Gold for most tenuous connection to their product. Congrats Gillette.



So there we go. My leaderboard. Enjoy the Olympics everyone :)

The Queen is starring in an advert! The REAL Queen. I can't believe my eyes.

Prince Harry wants to promote the Invictus Games. So he calls on his mates to appear in an advert with him....look who he got - only the flippin' QUEEN! Oh and Obama and Michelle, but let me say this again, THE QUEEN is in it!

BOOM!

Car advertising meets the movies

When I was younger I always used to watch car commercials and wonder why they were so boring. You'd always get a car looking beautiful driving down a long winding mountain road. Sometimes, just to mix things up a little, you'd get it driving through the desert. 

Of course then Honda came along and showed us that car advertising could be so much more. It could be engines flying around animated worlds with catchy songs, or ingenious domino type set ups. Mini has had some good ones too - I really liked their game of hide and seek. 

But how come Hollywood's most beloved car scene never featured: the car chase? Cars in movies are always featured in tense and dramatic scenes where the good guy is chasing the bad guy. It's about time that car manufacturers picked up on this cliched scenes and used it in their advertising. After all, who doesn't want to feel that their car (and their amazing driving skills) could save them if a Bond villain were after them? 

Hello Audi. Their latest ad uses the car chase cliche and undercuts its drama with a normal family in an Audi complaining that our villain hasn't used his indicator. The ad features a chase and punch up with Captain America and Black Panther. I don't care about the film much but the partnership works very well in this ad. Nice one Audi.