New Stella Artois Advert

Stella Artois' have launched a new Christmas campaign named 'Ice Lounge' to promote Stella as a drink for Christmas. The agency Mother have the account and have created an advert that evokes a very festive mood. It shows an ice sculpture competition somewhere in Europe (I presume Belgium) that shows three competitors chipping away at blocks of ice to win over the judges, one of which is very attractive woman. They all create impressive works, the first of which is a christmas tree with presents under it which the competitor gives to the female judge. However, the winner creates a full lounge out of ice complete with a grand piano, full couch with mink coat and tables and glasses. But the thing that wins her over is when the handsome gentleman pours two glasses of Stella Artois, which is the ends the advert with him taking the first prize and a drink with the woman. There is also an element of humour as one of the losing contenders angrily kicks the leg of the ice piano and sets fire to a part of it.
With the strap line 'Originally crafted for Christmas', it is clearly pushing the drink for Christmas, and I think is a typically classy and successful idea for Stella Artois and it stays firmly within the tone of voice of the brand. I certainly believe they have met their aim for the advert and the brand will do well over the Christmas period as a result of it.

click here to see it...

Scents of the Seventies

We all know that vintage is huge at the moment. We can see it everywhere we look in the music, colours, styles and textures used in fashion and design today. I myself happen to own a number of retro inspired items, and I'm quite happy with the way fashion and style is going at the moment. With brands such as Lyle & Scott, Fila, Biba, Levi's and Adidas to name a few all bringing back vintage lines in fashion, I suppose it shouldn't really come as a massive surprise to learn that aftershaves from the seventies are making a comeback too. But with owning a small bottle of Brut my dad gave me about 10 years ago, and being all too familiar with its formidable aroma I for one was.
It seems that in an effort to continue embracing the latest trend of all things retro, people are even wishing to smell like people did in the seventies. Shops like Superdrug have recently been stocking fragrances like Brut, Old Spice and Charlie to keep up with demand from consumers who are requesting them. There has even recently been a rather tongue-in-cheek campaign launched, promoting Old Spice to a modern audience, and I'm pretty sure Brut have started advertising again in magazines and an updated webpage.
I'm all for the latest vintage styles and trends and I will continue to buy clothes and accessories derived from these days gone by. But I think the nostril burning musks of the past, are definitely better off staying there.

Click here for link....

England; Why I don't bother anymore.

After the World Cup I vowed to boycott watching England until I could see some real changes in the way that our national team is run. When I did this I was fairly confident that by being so embarrassingly piss poor in the biggest tournament in World football, the England players and manager might think it was time to pick up the slack and improve themselves. How sad that I am being proven wrong.
Straight after returning so early from South Africa, you might have thought that the players would be so disappointed and solemn faced that they may just want to go home and stay out of the public eye for a bit. Instead, most of them saw it the ideal opportunity to go on a bender of epic proportions in what I can only imagine was an attempt to drown their sorrows. After catastrophically dashing the nations hopes and apparently not being particularly abashed about spending so lavishly on their return party (even in the middle of a recession), Ashley Cole saw it an ideal opportunity to really try and spit in the faces of the English fans. The phrase "I hate England and the people" may have been slightly fabricated by the media, but for me I believe it wasn't too far from the truth. I remember thinking to myself that after seeing such disregard and a complete lack of passion and discipline in the squad, surely Fabio Capello and the hopeless, bumbling idiots that run the F.A would decide that it was time for a shake up?

Fast forward 5 months and I find myself sitting here, more disillusioned with English football than I thought was possible. The epitaph this time being England 1, France 2. The french team was the only bigger joke than us in South Africa; a manager who looks like Sam the eagle from the muppets and picks his team according to the stars(!?!), and a squad that on paper should walk the finals but crashes out in the first round. Clearly though, after such a soul destroying World Cup they have managed to turn themselves round a bit. England on the other hand haven't quite done the same, and I think I saw this one coming. Capello apparently picks his squad on a rating system of first team games played, current form, etc. regardless of who they play for. Sounds brilliant. But when I saw that he had picked the likes of Kieran Gibbs, Jay Bothroyd and Chris Smalling over people like Matty Etherington, Kevin Davies and other possibly more deserving players at the moment, I could immediately see that nothing is changing. Its still the case (with the exception of Jay Bothroyd) that some players are overlooked, seemingly just beacause they play for more glamorous teams like Manchester United. Maybe I'm just being biased and typically derogatory in the way I view the way things are in English football at the moment. But can you really fault me?

Rant over.

Campaign Site & Blogs

Found a quality webpage for anyone interested in advertising called Campaign. I've been going on it quite a bit recently and have found it really up to date and informative about the whole advertising industry. It includes news about whats going on in the agencies at the moment, jobs and opportunities in the industry and blogs from people working in advertising at the moment. In particular I find Steve Henry's blog very inciteful as a creative with huge experience in the industry.

Take a look for yourself....click here

Santa's Strong Character

There was a recent story in the telegraph about a Catholic group in Gremany, who want to ban Santa Claus this Christmas because they see him as "an invention of the advertising industry designed to boost sales". They instead want the reintroduction of the traditional St. Nicholas, who the group describe as "a helper in need who reminds us to be kind, help our neighbours and to give the gift of happiness". I think that they have a fair point (if not a little bit of an over-reaction however); Christmas has been for a long time a massively commercialised event and the true values and meanings of it as a Christian festival have been forgotten,and it is a shame that the figure of Santa Claus does stand at the heart of this. However, what is interesting is that the modern depiction of Santa Claus as a fat, jolly man in a red suit that is recognised all over the world began as part of an advertising campaign for Coca-Cola in the 1920's to promote the drink as a beverage for all seasons. But it was from 1931 onwards that a man from the D'Arcy Advertising Agency named Haddon Sundbloom began to work with the image of Santa Claus. Over the following 33 years, these adverts had become so iconic and popular that the only remaining perception people had of Santa was from these images.
I am certain that if there is ever to be an example of the power of advertising, then this would be it. Just think about the impact that it has had on not just for the Coca-Cola Company, but on the whole festive season as a whole. From it's humble beginnings in the 1920's of an advert with the simple intention of promoting Coca-Cola as a drink for winter and not just summer, to near single-handedly shaping the whole way people celebrate a religous festival is actually quite frightening concept...but hugley impressive.

Partridge Returns

I've just read some fantastic news for anyone like me who is a fan of Alan Partridge. Apparently the Fosters Company are funding the production of 12, 11 minute long episodes as part of a new comedy based initiative to promote the brand.
For anyone who doesn't know who Alan Partridge is, he is a fictional character played by Steve Coogan that has appeared in various series of episodes from the beginning of the early 90's up until 2002. Alan started off as a television presenter on The Day Today, and the series that follow document the trials and tribulations of his hilarious, pompous and sometimes sad existence.
The new set of short episodes, (written by Armando Iannucci) will see Partridge played by Coogan and feature him presenting his new programme called "Mid Morning Matters". The episodes will maintain the Foster's branding throughout and will be produced by Naked Communications. They start on the 5th of November and I for one cannot wait to see what they are like, and I don't care how sad that sounds!
I've posted a link to give you all an essence of the Partridge phenomenon....http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yW4yAPpEwT0