Who Speaks Russian? … or Bulgarian

In the last two days, I’ve got a load of hits from one site in particular…I click through and it’s all in Russian, so I don’t have a clue why or if they are linking through to me.

capital.bg/showblog.php?storyid=50152…

That’s the place ^ who are you? Come say hi …

Best TV ads of 2008 so far?

Can an advert for Waitrose be my favourite TV ad of the year so far?

This goes close, but something in it just loses me for a bit, some of the bursts, I don’t know maybe they don’t look real, or it switches about too much

And also in contention, the Budweiser jam ads. I think these are a love/hate campaign. I know some people really don’t like ‘em, but I’m into ‘em. Though I’m sure I saw one with a different song which I really liked!

What’s yours? What have I missed?

Sebastien Tellier

To make up for my ignorance…

The French Eurovision entry was by Sebastien Tellier, this first youtube clip is the official vid for his Eurovision song. Lovely it is too.

BUT, when I searched for more on him, I found this…Possibly one of the best songs I’ve ever heard. Genuinely. Play it. Soak it up. (I’m sure it’s been sampled too).

I now want to see him live! And possibly to mimmick his beard/sunglasses combo.

Eurovision

Bloody hell, the French song was one of the best songs ever!

Ever.

Graffiti / Street Art Idea

Had an interesting chat at work today about graffiti/street art. If anyone reading this is involved or has friends involved in the UK in particular, with graffiti, then I’d really like to hear your comments.

Basically, one of our clients is looking at sponsoring an exhibition of street art. Although graffiti comes from a background of anti-establishment and would traditionally frown on commercial ventures, I think the landscape that graffiti operates in has changed massively.

It is very much recognised as an art form nowadays. When your mam knows who Banksy is, then you know it’s fairly mainstream. Writers are making a living from doing it, in various ways. Which is why I think writers, and their audience wouldn’t really frown on this exhibition. It’s something which will really promote graffiti and it’s purveyors as an art form, showing it in a completely positive light. Allowing people to get up close to this type of art and experience it, in a way they maybe haven’t before.

What I want to ask is this:

If you’re a writer, if you love graffiti, if you’ve got friends involved in it etc…would you

a) like to see an exhibition of work by top graffiti writers, in a setting it may not have been viewed before

b) like to see a group of top writers discussing who they think is really worth their paint, in terms of up-coming artists. So, maybe like a one-off blog set up for a week or two specially for a debate/Q&A/discussion on the state of street art, who’s hot, who’s making statements etc.

Ultimately it’d be something aiming to promote young talent. Maybe this ‘panel’ of writers would vote on who is the next Banksy or whatever and then we’d get this artist some exposure. Maybe get them involved in the exhibition somehow with some world renowned writers.

What do you reckon? Anyone?

My Entry For Scamp’s Competition

His photo comp, based on the word ‘advertising’. Thought it was quite apt. No sign of it getting shown though. Shucks. (Click on Scamp on blogroll for more info).

Found on a lamp post just round the corner from my abode. Obviously whoever made it, has a particular perspective on adverts. But I thought it was quite nice ‘cos it also states what adverts should do. Anyhow…

Getting lots of lil jobs in at the moment. Sort of 1 or 2 day turn around type things. The odd headline here, a new strapline there. Some I’ve been involved in from the off, some I’ve just been asked to do have a quick look at. I prefer to get involved in things right from the off, so you have a better feel for what you’re writing about. But all part of the day to day agency grind I guess.

What else has been going on? Hmm. Bloody apostrophes they’ve been going on. I’ll admit I’m not a master of the grammatical aspect of English. Something I need to brush up on. ‘Cos mistakes really matter now, don’t want to look like an amateur or a nob for that matter putting some work in front of clients, with errors all over it.

Not that I have. But I’ve got to pay more attention to detail. On my blog, yeah fuck it, doesn’t matter that much to me…though good habits and all that. Anyway, I only mention it because I had a tussle with some possessive apostrophes today. Horrible. It doesn’t help that English is such a bastardised language. It’s ever changing. I always viewed English language as something liquid, something open to interpretation and essentially open to change. Maybe that’s why I ended up in the creative industry.

I remember refusing to spell Therefore with the ‘e’ on the end in College. Why? Well, it doesn’t look right. It doesn’t really need to be there. What’s the point in it? I was a very stubborn teenager and well I still think the same to be honest.

So back to apostrophes. Because English is so bastardised if you type in any given word that you want to check the apostrophe placement on, you’ll get different versions of it. When doing this I found out that Denmark (if I remember correctly) don’t use apostrophes. They deem them unnecessary. Much as I did the ‘e’ on therefore. I gotta say, sometimes I do wish we could simplify things a bit with English. Not to the point of vomit inducing txt speak, but well…

Personalising Your Desk

The desk I’ve been stationed to was seemingly used for the placement people, as such there was a selection of junk to clear off it. Nothing really good, just scrap. But now my desk is pretty bare and it makes me sad. People have lots of cool random things on there desks, whereas I’m redundant even just of a measly pen holder. The one thing I seem to have collected is a Sunderland FC sticker (Panini style, but not). Well, that’s no good to me being a Boro fan.

So, gimme some inspiration – what have you got on your desk? The randomer, the better.

(ps – no comments on the word randomer, I’ve decided I like it)

Day 11: I’m In

There you have it.

I’m writing this post from work today (hope you don’t mind work!) while I have a well earned coffee. I feel like it’s been a really satisfying day. Here’s what’s happened.

Got in early. Getting used to it now, we’ve got facilities here, so it’s quite nice have breakfast at work and getting ready for the day. The CD’s were in early doors too and I got the nod to go and have a chat with them. I won’t big myself up or anything, but basically they were happy with what they’d seen in terms of enthusiasm and work produced while I’ve been here. The result being, a full time job offer.

Obviously I made them shake hands on it and got someone to cross the deal, so they can’t back out. Ever. Cue me walking round with a big fat smile all morning.

Our sports drink work went in front of the client today too. Unfortunately, we’re not 2 for 2 like I hoped we might be. The client was presented 3 routes. Loved all the work apparently. The only flaw in our campaign was that the client thought one of their competitors had a similar proposition in their identity.

Nay bother though. It was a good brief to work on and was great to get work presented alongside that of some other really good creatives from TBWA. The route that they will be going with was a copy based campaign. Similar to one I came up with actually, but certainly a bit better than what I had, when I looked at it. The writer got it more on the money with his copy. In terms of tone of voice I think. It’s good to see other people’s work as well, I think there’s certainly people I can learn from here. And it’s not an environment where it’s all closed off and secretive, people seem willing to give advice, help out and discuss.

Then this afternoon I had a brief thrown at me for a radio script. The client had wanted a re-write, some alternate versions, but we needed them asap. This is where the satisfying bit came in. I’m pretty much a virgin in regards of scripts. Done bits and bobs at uni on my writing course, but nothing ‘real’, you know. So I set about that with only a few hours to get it right. A few brews later and I had four versions ready to go.

I was happy with that. Accounts person seemed happy too. And there you go. Now I’m writing this. Feeling like I’ve earned a crust today and damn well enjoyed it.

FINALLY

Long post I know, but I’d just like to say a big thanks to everyone who’s offered me advice & feedback on the blog. Especially though to the likes of Hari from Love Creative, Vinny of The Escape Pod Agency fame, Adam who’s on a similar quest and Stan from Brand DNA, who’ve all taken time out to correspond with me via email.

I’ll carry on the blog. Not sure exactly what direction I’ll go yet. Maybe as a forum to diplay/discuss work i produce here at TBWA when it goes ‘live’ as it were. And then other random bits n bobs.

Day 10: A Quickie

This will have to be short and sweet, ‘cos I’ve got to get some grub down my neck, relax for at least 10 minutes and then work on a line I want to get right.

So…nothing sterling to report still! The CD’s were off site all day so I couldn’t do the talk. Tomorrow. I’m sure.

The client for the sports drink is in tomorrow, so we’re trying to get all our shit together for our work to go in front of them. If they like our work and want to see it MAC’d up or put into research then I’ll be well chuffed. That’ll be two for two. Hence I need to get back to this line. Come on brain, don’t fail me now.

Day 9: Drumroll Please…

So I was gonna do the whole drumroll thing…but after a busy day for all, my sit down is postponed until Monday morning.

This means I am in on Monday. So today is not my last day. In fact I have four briefs I’m working on. Two deadlines Monday. Make of that what you will. But I’m not gonna say anything official until I hear anything official!

Bit of anti-climax after the big build up I gave yesterday eh, sorry…don’t wanna jinx myself though.

What else happened today then? The sports drink we’re working on. Progress there. One of our ideas has made the cut and we’re developing it. Looks like it’s gonna go in front of the client with two other ideas from the senior teams. Just happy that we had something that stood alongside other people’s work really, and didn’t collapse in the face of the competition!

I’m also starting to see the tougher, deadline orientated side of agency life, as oppose to the loveliness of working on big fat briefs. I’ve been given two straight up copy deadlines for stuff that’s already in production. Point of sale stuff, or press ads that need tweaking, that type of thing. But it’s really quick turnover. The type of stuff that’ll help me hone my writing skills I guess…I hope!

I’ll be writing copy a lot over the weekend then. Three press ads for one product. A strap line for the same product. And I need a new strap-line for our campaign on the sports drink. The one we presented worked great, but sounded like it must have been used before. Unfortunately, it was a line used by Nissan a few years back for one of their brum-brums. So that needs tweaking.

And then I might have time for a little kip.

More news on Day 10. Probably.