Sweden & Miami Ad Schools clean up at D&AD Student Awards

Tonight was a great night for foreign colleges at the D&AD Student Awards. An amazing standard of work as usual judged by the industry’s best. Few would disagree that this is probably one of the worse years you could graduate with few if any jobs, but the mood was positive and upbeat.

One the big winners was Sweden’s Berghs School of Communication, based in Stockholm. The college has a two year ad course with just over 50 students on it, yet they were winning awards all over the categories. Recently the school was named World’s Best Ad School at Cannes and collected a One Show Grand Slam, 4 golds, 2 silvers and 3 bronzes and a Gold Medal at the global Clio’s. Seems Stockholm is the new creative generator, whatever they are doing there they are doing it right. Must be all that Omega 3 in the fish.

The Miami Ad Schools did very well too with US, Germany (Hamburg) winning awards but Spain (Madrid) doing exceptionally well. I for one have always rated the Spanish, they are brilliant designers, perfectionists, very visual and that Latin sensitivity means their work always has a passion about it. Their weakness is being self publicists.

Another American based school, Creative Circus, found an inventive way to pay for their trip to London and one that’s generated a lot or chat about them. They set up a website called The London Project and invited agencies to help ‘pack our bags for London’ to sponsor their trip. In exchange they’d take any object (the odder the better) over to the UK send them back a photo of it in any London location they wanted. The six young creatives managed to get agencies on board, despite the recession, and all made it to the ceremony to pick up their award.

There were the usual British colleges winning, St Martins (28 finalists), Buckinghamshire New university (10), Kingston (10), Northumbria (10), Chelsea (9) and Middlesex (8) but the foreign colleges stole the show. Miami Ad Schools got 30 shortlisted, Berghs got 11 and there were many other over sea colleges getting nominations too. Ironically we can’t dominate theirs as few allow us to enter their country’s ad awards.

My favourite UK entry was from Chester University, an amusing film of a kid lost in his mobile for Blyk. As he walks along his journey he is oblivious to things happening around him, all those things being references to ads – drumming gorilla, kid with Hovis, coloured balls, 118 118 runners, Tango Man, iPod. It makes a simple point, kids these days don’t notice traditional ads so you need to reach them via mobiles. Very funny. Check out the link below.

Judging the student awards is very different from the normal D&AD awards. As one of the speakers said, “normal D&AD is like going into a diamond dealer, you expect to see beautiful diamonds. But with the student awards you see the unexpected.”

I think this year there was a notable lack of traditional advertising style work but a notable number of brilliant ideas. I think it marks a turning point for our industry. There is a new order and the younger generation think in a very different way. Like music, styles change and we are seeing a transformation from the traditional approach of 40 years to a more technology influenced approach. I also think that foreign students are less influenced by the English style and are exploring pushing the boundaries more.

Students are also producing more business savvy ideas too. The ebay brief produced a very clever idea, ‘Find it’ created by students at Berghs. The concept is simple, you see something you want, you take a picture of it and post it on Find It on ebay and they try and find it for you. The ideas received a special award.

Between the awards they ran a few short films about collaborative projects like City Brand, Shellsuitzombie and Onedotzero. The common factor was bringing together kids from different disciplines. Not something many agencies have risked doing but personally I’ve found it highly effective as I believe Mother and W&K have too. One of my favourite ideas was an urban design project for street furniture (City Brand) where the item looks like it’s been peeled from the pavement, hard to describe but an awesome idea.

Even though job hunting will be tough (we’ve had over 500 people from 11 countries apply to us at Creative Orchestra since we launched in March) there is a lot of great talent out there. Recession or not, I’d urge every agency to take on at least one team as an investment in future talent, because without it we’ll just become a manufacturing industry rather than a creative one.

And finally, congratulations and high praise to all those at D&AD who worked so hard to make this event possible. It’s an important event, more so than the main D&AD Awards I believe because it’s cultivating the industry’s future supply of creative talent.

And well done to all those that got nominated, you are this industry’s future.

French EDF hijacks British flag and uses Ecotricity’s idea for Green Britain Day

It’s one thing for a French energy company to hijack the Union Jack for greenwash purposes but to take the ad campaign (or something very much like it) of a genuine green electricity company, Ecotricity, has really inflamed green minded consumers.

EDF’s sponsored Green Britain Day is taking place on Friday, July 10th and has been positioned as “a community aimed at harnessing the power of collective action”. Seems they have created another community aimed at harnessing the power of collective action - true greens are organisisng a boycott and calling it the EDF ‘Greenwash Britain Day’ and are urging politicians, musicians, sportsmen and the public not to be taken in and to 'unplug EDF'.

Those in the green space have already started a campaign against EDF (Electricite de France), check out GREEN BRITAIN DAY group on Facebook, and are urging people to complain to the ASA about EDF’s claims.

When I saw the posters, a green Union Jack, I was a bit shocked. The original green Union Jack ad was created by Robin Smith of Host Universal (a specialist ethical agency) for Dale Vince’s Ecotricity back in 2007 and is well known in green circles, though obvious not by creatives at EDF’s agency. Had Ecotricity given it to EDF or had EDF just nicked it? Seems the latter, though they’ll blame the agency I am sure. If so I’d ask for the fee back and maybe EDF would be ethical enough to pay it to Smith instead.

Of course it’s not the first time EDF have recycled someone else’s idea. Their TV ad made from recycled ads was actually a copy of St Luke’s Ecover ad, which was ironically created by Smith’s wife Kiki Kendrick. Wow, that’s a double hit. So watch out everyone who has ever done any award winning eco-ethical ads, EDF may well be eyeing it up for the next campaign. Think I’ll copyright my environmental Asthma glue poster as fast as I can.

The Green Britain Day involves many partners including the Eden Project and the legendary musician Paul Weller, who will be playing a gig there. In principle the idea is great, engaging people to make a difference, no one can argue with that. It’s the corporation’s motives behind it and it’s marketing that is causing concern.

EDF claim to be the first sustainability partner of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Vincent de Rivaz, Chief Executive of EDF, said:
“Climate change is one of the biggest challenges facing us. As an energy company, EDF Energy has a responsibility to be at the heart of the solution to climate change….” Nice speech.

EDF Energy also claim to be the largest producer of low-carbon electricity in the UK. Well of course they are because they are 85% Nuclear energy, hence their claims that by 2020 they plan to be totally carbon neutral (nuclear is carbon neutral). Nuclear has certainly split the green lobby, some back it others reject it. However, as it’s carbon neutral it’s been a gift for greenwash.

EDF states the obvious, “Climate change is one of the biggest challenges facing us and EDF Energy believes that we can only tackle the issues we face by ensuring that all of us act together now.” True but in the world of eco-ethical marketing do they you define acting together as taking other people’s ideas?

EDF’s marketing to the British public is designed to make them think they are a company that has real green values, this has annoyed the green community.
To support their sponsorship of the 1012 Olympic Games and Green Britain Day EDF have even set up a .org website (makes it look more caring) and are using the term ‘Team Great Britain’ – err, but EDF are French? Is this some kind of invasion? They even have added ‘the big idea’ to the URL, who ever said the French can be arrogant?

To put you in the picture, there are only really three genuine green energy companies in the UK, Good Energy, Ecotricity and GreenEnergy UK (who have the greenest tariff of all of them). The next best is Scottish & Southern who operate a lot of hydro electric power stations. So if you want to be even slightly green there’s your choice. After that the rest are large corporations with one mission, make profit. And let us not forget British Gas, who despite making many green claims conveniently forgets that gas is as unsustainable as you can get.

All the big energy companies are required by the government to supply a degree of green source energy and it is this small percentage that they are using to spin to try and make themselves look green. One energy company I have spoken with (one of the big boys) admitted to me that they found it really hard to sell a green tariff as consumers don’t trust them and if they had the choice they’d drop it. Big surprise.

Now I’m all for embracing big corporates into changing the world, after all McDonalds, Starbucks and a few are making a significant difference, especially in the are of Fairtrade and ethically sourced coffee. Even Wal-Mart have turned over a new leaf. As for oil companies and energy companies… well they have a long way to go to convince the green minded consumer they have changed their ways.

The big issue comes down to the triple bottom line – people, planet, profit. If Profit is at the heart of your ethos, and it is for energy companies, people and planet will always take a second place.

The new guide for green marketers, Ethical Marketing & the New Consumer is published at the end of July by Wiley’s (pre orderable on Amazon) and I’d recommend that EDF and many others read it. It’ll enlighten them as to why they are wasting their money on their current greenwash campaigns and how they could become more ethical and actually spend their money more wisely.

In the short term I’d advise them to consult the people they appropriate ideas off as they run one of the UK’s specialist ethical agencies (Host), as hiring an ethical specialists (instead of big agencies) would start to make people believe they are genuine.


 

Is art better than advertising?

Rape, HIV and abuse of women are serious subjects. But ActionAid rather than try and shock us (unlike the Banardo’s approach) has found a very engaging way to raise awareness. Not through advertising but art. 2876 women around the world contract HIV every day.

A girl in South Africa has a higher chance of being raped than of learning to read. Violence and rape against girls are a major factor in these women getting AIDS. 15 million women are already infected with the virus. The PUT YOUR FOOT DOWN campaign has been designed to put a stop to this alarming fact.

So was the solution a shocking press ad? A distressing viral? Or a shock horror TV commercial? No, they turned to YCN and discovered Finish artist Ritta Ikonen. Ritta is an amazing artist and mind. I’ve known her for a number of years since she worked with us in one ad agency. Everyday she’d come in with a different name badge on. She carried a small box with micro models of figures in. Her work – a figure on an eyelash – was one featured on a series of Beck’s art themed bottles.

I think she found the way we work rather odd. What is interesting working with people who don’t have the same background as most of us in advertising is they think different and think we all think the same. They probably have a point. I have an interesting mix of creatives in my department at the moment, a fashion designer, architect, product designer, illustrator and a film maker.

Give them an ad brief and the outcome is challenging in the sense they challenge us. Personally I think all agency creative departments (we have over 20 people) should employ 20% non ad people. Just over a year ago I went to an exhibition at the RCA based around environmentalism. Ritta’s piece, The Last Snowflake, was a very thought provoking piece.

Born out of the thought that one day, thanks to global warming, there’ll be no more snow. Many other pieces by other artists stimulated debate and discussion. What really made us think was the power of the art to communicate, far better than the formulaic ad method (picture and pun) we often adopt. We discussed the concept of ‘ideas’, a term used in the ad industry. “What’s the idea in any great art?” was one comment. “Art emotionally engages people, that’s why it works. Surely good ads emotionally engage people. The ‘idea’ is just an attempt to rationalise it.”

You have to agree. This should lead us to question if now is the time to review our communications methods? Have we become too formulaic? The oddest brief I’ve recently been set was to redesign/decorate a piano for Boris Johnson’s London summer festival (for Sing London). After many hours of work our creatives produced the Soho themed piano – covered in black PVC and with a silver zipper made from piano hammers.

It’s sexy and looks amazing and already it’s getting publicity. People love art. They like things that are different, imaginative and engaging. How many ads do that these days? ActionAid embracing art and Rtitta is a brave move but then they are one of the few charities that take risks and aren’t afraid to explore new ideas. Good on them. Thousands of people, besides signing the petition, sent Action Aid a real shoe.

Ritta then used the shoes to capture the essence of the campaign and create a talking point. Each one displayed as part of a big installation told an individual’s story. Given that social networking is such a buzz word at the moment this campaign delivers against it big time. To see a charity use art to convey a serious message is different. Sure we’ve seen art projects before but not for serious messages that result in serious change.

Forget Green advertising, think Blue if you want to win over consumers.

It’s a shocking fact that green ads are less trusted than normal advertising. So now is a good time to take a different view and follow the Americans and move from green to blue.

With a wise public who see through the spin why do we keep seeing new greenwash ads daily? It seems some marketing directors (or maybe it’s the agencies) don’t take responsibility for their budgets, wasting it on pointless green waffle. And in these recession times that’s just as shocking as MP’s wasting public money on dubious expenses. Spending precious company cash on ads that don’t work, or worse actually alienate consumers, is plain stupid.

I could write a list of brands but I won’t (naming and shaming isn’t the game), making people think is.

Adam Werbach, a highly controversial environmentalism guru in America, is the man behind the Blue movement. He was founder of Act Now (which Saatchi’s in the US bought and renamed Saatchi S). He believes that green tokenism isn’t enough and in many cases bad as it allowing consumers to do token things, which means they think they are making a difference when they really aren’t. It’s like putting a pound in a charity box and thinking you’ve cured cancer, or saved a nation from poverty. As he says, “most people say they care but few really act.”

Werbach, like other wiser ethical driven visionaries have discovered that green is a narrow form or ethicalism and that people are just as important as the planet, if not more so. Don’t just think planet think people and planet (this is a big theme of my book Ethical Marketing & the New Consumer).

Werbach lists 4 elements of Blue as: social, cultural, economic and environmental. This is pretty much the triple bottom line (people, planet, profit). He believes that the real challenge is to get people to change their view of the world, not use small token acts as a form of salvation. You can imagine the scene at the gates of Heaven as St Paul asks why each should deserve to be in Heaven. “I recycled my bottles, bought Fairtrade tea, organic vegetables and took the bus rather than the car to work.”

Putting environmentalism aside, we have a number of serious social issues that are also cultural ones as well. Health and obesity, alcohol abuse and a loss of social values. Here’s a real shocking fact, 826 million people in the world go hungry (UN figures) while over 1.6 million people are suffering health problems from eating badly or over eating. Over 1 million people in the UK are clinically suffering from malnutrition due to poor diet (fast food, snacks and ready meals). 50% of healthcare costs in the US are linked to bad diet and lifestyle.

The challenge is that consumers are time poor, now cash poor and junk food is an easy option. As much as they will tell surveys that they care about the environment, society and their health, the reality is very different (which is why I think most green surveys are wishful thinking).

The problem isn’t trying to sell the consumer an organic or a Fairtrade carrot instead of a normal carrot but getting them to consider a carrot over a fatty, sugar enhanced snack or a bag of crisps.

The left wing green lobby has done a great job of making people and brands think that green is what it’s all about but it isn’t. Consumers care but they don’t want to compromise their indulgent, affluent lifestyles unless they get some benefit. Cost savings make installing low wattage lights desirable. Better quality food makes organic desirable. Feeling less guilty makes Fairtrade desirable. Doing anything that makes the Jone’s respect you more is very desirable.

I’ve developed a number of different consumer segmentations to help brands understand the different purchasing dynamics of consumers. The most interesting group are the suburban off-setters. The biggest spenders they love the illusion of being eco-ethical and see it as a way to off-set their indulgent lifestyles. They can fly long haul by paying to plant a tree. The 4X4 is offset by the wife’s Prius. And so on…

For some it’s about being an evangelist, having a purpose or cause. We’ve all met that classic middleclass eco-evangelist at dinner parties who preach their ethics (though usually know few real facts). They spread guilt and try to force feed their beliefs upon others. At my local climbing centre they have banned Coca-Cola, Walkers and a group of other products from the café for some very dubious reasons (many inaccurate) whilst still selling pasties, sausage rolls, non Fairtrade coffee and a range of snack and organic sodas loaded with calories. Eco-ignorants do little for the real cause.

Werbach is a man who follows common sense rather than common opinion or emotional obsessions, which is why he managed to upset a lot of followers when he signed up to advising Wal-Mart. Many followers thought this was like the Pope advising the devil. But Werbach points out that the average American shopper spends an hour a day shopping and lot of dollars. Wal-Mart is one the biggest buyers from China, one of the world’s largest corporations. It employs 1.4 million people, 89% of Americans visit one at least once a year and spend over $125 a week there.

Werbach is very smart, and has balls, he knows if you want to change the world you need power and using the most powerful retailer, and the biggest customer base, the difference he can make is dramatic. Running an organic fruit stall at Borough Market may be very ethical but it’ll make bugger all difference to the world. He also knows that Wal.Mart had woken up to ethics as a business need, the really wanted to have zero waste, use renewable energy and sell greener, more ethical products. When someone as big as Wal-Mart wants help to reform only a fool would say no.

One of the great things Werbach has introduced to their employees is the Personal Sustainability Projects (PSP), these are acts that each employee agree to do that will make a difference. When over a million people do this the difference is dramatic.

Big brands like Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Unilever, P&G  and McDonalds may be demonised by the green left but in reality their eco-ethical activities are making significant differences.

(A little experiment. Many PR agencies claim to monitor blogs so lets put it to the test. I’ve written (on Creative Orchestra letterhead) to the UK heads of Coca-Cola, Pepsi Co, Unilever, P&G, McDonalds and Wal-Mart (Asda) asking them if their PR companies pick when they get blogged on Brand Republic. I’ll let you know the results next week. With over 600,000 members it’s one of the biggest platforms for brands so you’d though they’d be monitoring.)

Finally, as I listen to Passion the Planet (great radio station) and scan various eco websites I came across this gem. Something that makes for a very odd marketing positioning - a square toilet roll. Yep, that’s the USP of a new eco product that claims that having a square tube in the centre is more eco friendly. If that’s not enough, you can get a toilet roll holder that makes a noise when you try to take too much. What next!?



Links:
http://www.saatchis.com/birthofblue/

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ethical-Marketing-New-Consumer-Economy/dp/0470743026/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1243128516&sr=8-1

Ad agencies unite against road safety campaign pitch fiasco.

Seems we in the UK aren’t the only ones to get exploited when it comes to mass pitching. The Spanish government’s equivalent of the Department of Transport, DGT, has just held a pitch involving 18 of Spain’s top agencies and managed to upset 17 of them.

 

Now 18 seems extreme, Publicis has successfully handled the account for the two previous years, so why a review is questionable. Given that a pitch can cost the average agency £10k - £20k, that’s a lot of money being wasted in a recession, and probably a lot of jobs going as a consequence in the loosing ones.

 

There really isn’t any argument that supports mass pitches other than indecision. Any good marketing director can see how good an agency is from the work they’ve done for others. A chemistry meeting, a proposal and a trial period is what it takes. It’s also no coincidence that the bigger the pitch the shorter the lifespan of the account. We all know that pitches are the equivalent of asking a good chef to knock up a quick meal to evaluate them for a future banquet. Often pointless and certainly unreasonable expense in a recession.

 

But what the DGT has done is not only managed to anger the advertising community - some call it a “massacre” - but unite it against this kind of unprofessional behaviour. I doubt the government will be able to get some of Spain’s top agencies to pitch for other accounts as a consequence, it’s just not worth the pain. It takes guts to speak out against this kind of fiasco for fear of reprisals but unlike us modest Brits, Latin people say what they think and don’t stand for this kind of thing. Rafa Anton, Executive Creative Director of Leo Burnett and president of CdelC (similar to our D&AD) has done just that. Good on him.

 

The real point that has upset the professional agencies, and Spain has some very creative shops that produce work just as creative as many London agencies, is the scoring system. Typically civil servant in style, they scored the agencies out of 60, not uncommon in beurocratic pitches, but you don’t then publish the results with an arrogance reserved usually for agencies rather than civil servants. The winning agency got 42 points, the rest (all 17) got just 3 or 4 points.

 

That’s not only condemning but insulting. It also suggests a bias. Quite rightly, the ad industry are questioning the professionalism and competence of the panel. To give top professional agencies just a few points suggest that those judging are totally inexperienced and unable to judge marketing campaigns, which questions if they have the capability to plan and run a publicly funded road safety campaign well. Anton has written an open letter to the Spanish ad press, Anuncios (the Spanish equivalent to Campaign & Marketing) asking for an explanation and payment for the pitch, quite right too.

 

This opens up a similar moral debate over here, should pitches be paid for? There’s a cost and someone has to pay that cost, there’s no such thing as a free pitch. Trying to unite an industry in good practice has proved unsuccessful over the years, both the IPA and DMA have not managed it yet because there are too many agencies who will break ranks. Yet in one piece of research many clients were open to the discussion, so why don’t more agencies ask the question, who pays? With increasing procurement involvement and lengthy RFIs (request for information) chasing business is getting expensive, especially for small businesses.

 

And if there’s more than 4 on a pitch list, financially too high risk (if only the best agency did win every time). It’s important to be aware as a client that a pitch is a financial investment by the agency, real money gets paid out. Surely that cost should at worse be shared and at best covered by the client. Even when you do win the pitch that cost comes out of the bottom line, so you’ll see little return on the business for at least 3 months. But it’s not just the ad agencies, pitches often involve media planners, printers and data planners, all expected to donate their expertise and time. I know of one story where an agency gained documentation that revealed a pitch was a show only, the client had already decided who was getting the business.

 

The agency demanded their costs back – they threatened the client with fraud based on the documentation. This is a real issue, fake pitches could well end up with a client in court one day. The last mass pitch fiasco was in 2001 when over 38 agencies were asked to pitch on video for a well known client at a cost of over £600,000 to the industry. The real joke was that the pitch was conducted by procurement, without even consulting marketing. Both agencies, marketing departments and trade bodies were incensed. Discussions were had about legal action. It fell upon me do what Anton has done and to be the lone voice that actually got up and spoke publicly about the situation.

 

As a consequence, changes and promises were made. In these times of recession it must be tempting to throw briefs about to hungry and even desperate agencies but a recession is no excuses for a lack of morals or honesty, because when it ends people will remember those that abuse others, and remember great men like Anton who made a stand. Pitches are not the most ideal way to judge agencies but they sadly are the current way of the industry. The only way forward is a cooperative approach involving all aspects of the business. There is a better way, we just need to work towards it.

‘A New Deal of the Mind’ puts creative at centre of economic recovery

In January this year an article by Martin Bright in the New Statesmen started a new movement, ‘A New Deal of the Mind’. Its aim is to boost employment in Britain's creative sector - for the good of the entire nation. This quickly resulted in a gathering of top names (none from advertising though) at 11 Downing Street in late March. The agenda was to discuss how cultivating creative talent and investing in the creative industries would help Britain get out of recession and build a stronger economy.

This may sounds like the pipe dreams of a bunch of artists and designers, but far from it. Some of the most respected names in the creative and associated industries attending and debated the issues with politicians. Alan Yentob (BBC Creative Director), Adam Thorpe (Creative Director, St Martin’s Design Against Crime Research Centre), Jude Kelly (Artistic Director, Southbank Centre), Peter Cleg (architect) and Michael Wolff (Wolff Olins) were a few creative names. This impressive meeting of minds is a plethora of initiatives aiming to stimulate employment in the creative industries.

The theory is not fantasy, but based on historic experience. The New Deal of the Mind is inspired by the cultural programmes of President Roosevelt’s 1930s Works Progress Administration (WPA), which employed artists such as Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko and Willem de Kooning and writers such as Saul Bellow, John Cheever and Ralph Ellison. Economic evidence shows that investing in the creative industries grows economy, manufacturing is a black hole by comparison. As for banking ...well the less said the better.

What started out as an article and a gathering has snowballed into a coalition of like minds with a powerful agenda and a lot of political support. It has captured the imaginations of many writers, artists, designers, musicians, film makers, innovators, inventors, entrepreneurs and teachers.

Having met Martin Bright, we share the same views and philosophy, he is passionate and not surprisingly very bright (well he was editor of the New Statesmen). I have little doubt that this movement will enter the history books and really deliver change.

Having recently taken this same thinking – that we need to cultivate creativity – and put it into action in Creative Orchestra, I certainly welcome this movement. At the moment there’s little to no government money that’s easily accessible to start up creative ventures. What monies are available will require an army of clerics to fill out the forms. Sadly, given the fact the government spends billions across the creative industries none goes into startups.

In fact you need three years of accounts to get on any roster. Ironically, it should be the other way, if the government invested in new creative businesses it’d not only get more talent for it’s money (younger companies tend to be more creative) but most would grow the economy. Throwing money at established businesses is good for them but adds less to the economy than to shareholders, many who live abroad. With the growing preference for social enterprises (pushed by Ed Miliband), even the government is starting to look at where their money goes long term. Companies delivering big bucks to shareholders could find themselves on the wrong side, while Social Enterprise could be best placed to pick up government spending.

Given the current recession within the creative industries, I think we all know victims of recent redundancies, it’s a fair point to ask exactly what our industry is doing to cultivate future talent and help the current thousands of young creatives grads get jobs? “Not a lot” most would say. Unlike the design industry who has picked this up quickly and is running already with ideas.

The words of the Works Progress Administration founder Harry Hopkins has become a rallying cry for NDM. “Give a man a dole, and you save his body and destroy his spirit. Give him a job and you save both body and spirit.”

In a time when we are putting people out of work we need to ask the moral question, “it’s not what the recession is doing to us but what we can do to beat the recession”. Cultivating creativity seems to be the answer.

Pigeons, politics and people who watch porn. It's all fun isn't it?

So we had a good laugh, Pigeon media got best read news story of the day and everyone was amused. Except the man from Croydon. He rang up the offices of Creative Orchestra and asked for a media pack. Now you may well think I’m stretching an April Fool too far but this is for real, there really are people out there who are that stupid. So we plan to send him a mock pack. By pigeon of course.

After we did our creative lounge event on the Circle Line we managed to get two complaints. TfL complained we’d bastardised their logo by turning it into a Creative Line logo. CBS media wrote us a nasty letter and claimed we were breaking the law. We did get lots of positive emails from the nice public we met and gave a limited edition badge to. I do love legal departments, they are so detached from the real world and take life far too seriously. Think I’ll send them a little present and a badge by pigeon. I’ve put the Creative Orchestra teams on it.

Many people have asked if Mother sent us a present in response to our fun anti-aging mailer? No. Nothing. Not a thing. Zilch. Come on guys, loosen up, join the fun, address is on the website – www.creativeorchestra.com.

The other question has been are we targeting other agencies. You bet. Unless they get us first. Isn’t it time we put some fun back into the business? I remember when Trevor's lot at TBWA  redecorated the front of our hording at Saatchi (we were redoing our reception) with a slogan, 'if you want real creativity, walk around the corner (or something like that).  Half the board were furious, lawers were called, the other just wanted to play. Whatever happened to that saying “the most fun you can have with your trousers on”? I want everyone to put the fun back – umm, think I’ll set up a Facebook group, Funvertising. Wonder how many ad industry related ones there are? Media Monkeys is one.

So Mrs Smith’s husband has a porn channel, well if you lived in anywhere but England that wouldn’t be news. Just how Victorian are we? Europeans and Scandinavians are so relaxed about sex and porn yet in the UK we seem to be dominated by nun reading Daily Mail moralists. Having worked on many sexual health campaigns over the years it seems as soon as you mention the word condom a bunch of nuns are protesting outside your door. When we put up a poster with CONDOM on (for Femidom) in Birmingham a bunch of mums from the local Catholic school complained that “this poster is disgusting, we’re having to explain to our kids what a condom is.” And we wonder why we have the highest teen pregnancy rate in Europe. Blame the do goody moral right I say. Of course the issue of politicians (all parties) claiming expenses for their family’s back rooms isn’t ethical.

In the US a designer called Benjamin Edgar has launched a water in a tetrapack titled BOXED WATER IS BETTER FOR THE EARTH. His idea is doing the rounds of ethical blogs and is excellent. Of course this is a good idea except that as one blogger points out, tetrapaks, like coffee cups, are impregnated with a plastic to make them waterproof so they don’t rot in landfill. Still a good idea though and nice packaging.

Every year we throw away 400 billion paper coffee cups that sit in landfill for over 100 years! If you visit the Channel 4 Battlefront website you’ll be able to see the campaign Aimee Nathan is doing. She wants us all to take our own cups into Starbucks rather than buy a paper one. Starbucks are the only coffee chain that offers a discount if you bring in your own cup. Another campaigner, Alex Rose, wants to tackle gun and knife crime. His idea was to make a key pedant out of old guns and to get people to wear it as a symbol to reject weapons. Simply brilliant! Check out the others.

As Twitter is the new trend I’ve joined the bandwagon but really can’t do with writing trash like ‘having a cup of coffee…standing at bus stops…looking out of window’. Some Twitters are so dull, why do people read them? So I decided to have some fun and launch ecoSuperMan. eSM has to face the reality of balancing real life (shopping, cleaning, ironing, feeding the cat, doing a job) with being a super hero and being an eco-evangelist. Check it out.

Are we about to suffer another bad batch of vox pop ads?

I think vox pops have a place in research and for new business presentations but I hate them as ads. Especially when they are used as cheap ads. I haven’t seen the new KFC ads that are shot in store but I’d guess as they are BBH they’ll look great. But those NatWest ads are like a bad corporate video. As a long time NatWest customer they even put me off (and most of my friends). The ads are full of salesmen suited up and just waiting to cross sell. The ads certainly don’t make me feel like I want to be with them. By contrast my bank manager is really sweet and doesn’t look like an insurance salesman. If they are trying to make the band look friendly it doesn’t work for me.

I think clients think that real people ads make ads look honest. The problem is they always look like actors or idiots. And both leave you feeling sold at. It’s true that people buy from people but as soon as people appear in ads they seem untrustworthy. Research in the States gave advertising a trust factor of just 17%. More shocking are green ads that came in at just 14%.

Over the last few nights I’ve noticed more and more cheap looking ads. There may be  a recession on but cutting corner on your ad is a false economy. These kind of ads just make brands look bad. Is it any wonder people watch less TV ads? It seems the best ads about are the spoof ones. Check out a brilliant Australian series called the Gruen Transfer on YouTube. It’s a big hit in Oz and makes Tarrant on TV look mild. One of my favourite is selling the positive side of climate change and another, invade New Zealand is brilliant.

I read a forum on Brand Republic on how one agency was facing a big legal claim for nicking an idea (it’s since been settled out of court). The issue of who owns an idea is a serious one for our industry as there are plenty of people who want to make a few bucks out of us. Of course art, music and design has always borrowed and adapted what’s gone before. Where would Oasis be without the Beatles? But it’s unethical to just steal an idea and claim it as yours. An issue I took up with D&AD many years ago when I suggested that ‘adapted ideas’ should always credit the original author, at the time endless gags from comedy programmes were ending up as TV ads.

Creative Orchestra is only two weeks old and one of the first campaigns presented to one of our clients, an amazing dyslexia charity called Xtraordinary People, uses an adaption of a well know ad campaign. It’s one of those ideas that takes a brilliant idea another stage on. If it runs and wins awards then I would automatically credit the original authors. It’s the same as taking a famous song and even though you re-record it in a new musical style you’d always credit the original writers.

I fear that YouTube has made some people lazy and rather than invent new ideas they search for them online. There’s one legal case going on where one young team did just that. Made the commercial, got another job and left the agency with a big legal bill. I’ve watched several YouTube films recently that were used for ads. But what YouTube does prove is that the general public can be just as creative as us, and sometimes even more creative?

This week for a bit of fun and as an exercise in getting back to the streets Creative Orchestra set up a mobile creative lounge (complete with carpets and cushions) on the Circle Line – renamed the Creative Line for that day. Engaging with real people is something I recommend. While some of the creatives worked on a brief for Channel 4 others challenged the public to think creative. A simple exercise using 4 pieces of wire that you have to turn into six had even a surveyor who declared he was uncreative soon cracking it (trick is to get them to visualise six). The joy of seeing people be creative is very rewarding. But equally amazing was the fact they managed to go around the circle line so many times with no security throwing them off.

The joy of creativity was the theme of a talk I gave at a gathering of the Ideas Foundation on Monday evening at Engine to new mentors. The IF is a brilliant venture that helps encourage school kids to be more creative and discover the creative industries. If you haven’t discovered it find the website and read up on and if you want to be a mentor contact them. And if you are in the mentor frame of mind, the School of communication Arts will be relaunching next year thanks to Marc Lewis.

As a sign off, despite the recession, as an industry I believe we have to invest in the next generation of talent and as agencies encourage clients to value talent rather than time. The recession will challenge us to change, which can be a good thing. This quote from Einstein I think is very relevant.

“Let's not pretend that things will change if we keep doing the same things. A crisis can be a real blessing to any person, to any nation. For all crises bring progress. Creativity is born from anguish, just like the day is born form the dark night. It's in crisis that inventive is born, as well as discoveries, and big strategies. Who overcomes crisis, overcomes himself, without getting overcome. Who blames his failure to a crisis neglects his own talent, and is more respectful to problems than to solutions. Incompetence is the true crisis.
The greatest inconvenience of people and nations is the laziness with which they attempt to find the solutions to their problems. There's no challenge without a crisis. Without challenges, life becomes a routine, a slow agony. There’s no merit without crisis. It's in the crisis where we can show the very best in us. Without a crisis, any wind becomes a tender touch. To speak about a crisis is to promote it. Not to speak about it is to exalt conformism. Let us work hard instead. Let us stop, once and for all, the menacing crisis that represents the tragedy of not being willing to overcome it.”

Albert Einstein.

Was Brand Republic the victim of the first online flash mobbing?

Last Friday the creative ‘new kids on the block’ agency Creative Orchestra flash mobbed Brand Republic, posting replies to news articles, forums and blogs, including Dave Trott’s, each plugging their new agency. Some may criticise them for blatant self promotion but isn’t that just good marketing? Make a noise and get noticed and be prepared to risk upsetting a few people. Probably not a conventional way agencies market themselves but then CO has an average age of 24, so unexpected and technology based thinking is more normal in this age group.

Recently I was dipping into the IPA website and came across the 2008 Agency Census which puts the average age of employees in creative agencies as 34.4 years, which surprised me, though I can think of several agency creative departments who are probably nearer 44.4. For an industry that outsiders perceive as very youthful, this isn’t. Ok, it isn’t old either but you know what I mean.

At a number of recent awards I’ve been to I’ve noted that the vast majority of people picking up the gongs were probably at least 34.4 and well above. What’s happened to the young ones?

I’ve always hired on talent never age. We can all think of many great creatives who have picked up just as many golds in their mature years as in their youth. Wasn’t Picasso producing just as great work in his later years as his early ones? But I know many older teams job hunting who on the mention of age doors close.
Some have accused our industry of ageism, the assumption being that just older people are victimised. Older creatives do suffer from being expensive. Others because of their lack of punch, having become so conditioned by years of submission and the need to pay the mortgage and school fees they stop pushing. It’s not a criticism but a reality.

But young talent is also victimised. Fresh, broad thinking, challenging, not as disciplined, less predictable and less willing to do what the client wants - not every agency wants a team of mavericks in house shaking up the place. But that’s exactly what I love about them.

If we are honest, there are many agencies that have become just production factories selling time not talent to feed shareholders. For young creatives to discover that all that image of adland being one big creative trip was sales talk as they sit down with a brief to sell discount sofas or car insurance. Not exactly the dream job some young creatives had in mind. Worse, there probably isn’t  a job at the end of it. I have heard some terrible stories of abuse.

If feedback from the many interviews of young creatives I’ve done recently, a lot of highly talented creatives grads aren’t finding even a slight glimmer of a job, and there’s a hell of a lot of them going about the circuit.  That’s a lot of great talent going to waste. We’ve had over 200 queuing for interviews and the emails come hourly as word spreads. The average junior is taking up to 2 years to get a job, some longer.

There’s little real structure training within agencies to incubate their talent (account handlers get a better deal) so most go from one unpaid placement to another. Some of the stories I’ve heard are depressing. Juniors left in small offices, with no real contact with experienced creatives, given bad briefs and just used to do the crap briefs. It hardly shows respect for talent and shows any willingness to invest in what we should be selling. If you do respect talent you don’t make them work in the post room, sweep floors or fetch your dry cleaning – this isn’t the Victorian times.

Employment wise, the word is that juniors are out, a safe pair of hands are in, reducing the opportunities even further. Understandable if you want to lock down the hatches and weather the recession, but the last time we did this as an industry we had a massive talent vacuum a few years later.

Having conducted a survey around 100 clients (mainly for the book on Ethical Marketing) some of the feedback may come as no surprise to some. What many clients I spoke to want to buy from agencies is talent. They see agencies as having that creative magic they can’t do themselves. Yet many felt they were getting poor value from agencies due to too much of their fees going on anything but the creative bit.

Worse, some complained their agencies didn’t let them meet creative at all. Why? There’s no logical reason why clients shouldn’t meet creatives, most are highly intelligent and nice people. Can you imagine a magic show performed via a third party? In my experience when a client gets involved they tend to buy the work and the creatives get a better understanding of why the client has to say no sometimes. It works for Mother, and they have one of the most impressive growth rates in the industry (and awards to go with it).

This week two of Creative Orchestra’s first clients spent the day working with the teams. Both clients (one a charity, the other a TV channel) got more and the creatives got more. I believe that as an industry we need to take away all barriers between creative departments and clients. We need to engage and interact. Clients pay for the talent so let them experience it. Far from taking away the mystery they come to appreciate just how talented creatives are.

The recession will change things, some for the better, some for the worse.  Most of all it will challenge conventional thinking. There are no rules anymore, because there are no guarantees, no predictable outcomes. Playing safe is playing dead. My view is it’s a great time to stick your neck out and push. To write new rules and discover new possibilities. Most of all, it’s a time to invest in talent.

Is it time for a new set of values for a new era of advertising?

Words can be like brands and one word that has now got the worse brand image of  all time must be 'greed'. T-shirts are already appearing in markets with a Thatcher cartoon on and the slogan "greed is good for a few and bad for the rest of us".

The recession has exposed an indefensible amount of unethical behavior by bankers who's only value has been greed. Eric Daniels, Andy Honby, Lord Stevenson and the rest may have got a good grilling by the press and politicians and stimulated a lot of public anger, but when you have been pocketing obscene bonuses for years it's a small price to pay as you sip vintage champagne on your yacht in the Maldives. Saying "sorry" and then defending bonuses as "well earned" isn't washing (Bob Diamond got paid £20m at Barclays in 2007). As the Independent on Sunday said, 'what planet are they on? A different one from the rest of us.'

Apparently, the backlash has resulted in lots of students signing up to left wing groups and anti-capitalist organizations in colleges. The next generation doesn't sound like it's going to be very ad friendly.  The recession has left almost everyone asking the question, "what is the true cost of making money?" While religious leaders are quoting "money is the root of all evil" in their Sunday sermons and most of us are starting to agree as we fear for our jobs and homes.

Money is a twin edge sword that can motivate or corrupt. One agency (that will remain nameless) discovered how bonuses brings out the bad in people. Account handlers started fiddling invoices and double billing clients to make targets and get big
bonuses. As this legendary story goes, the agency nearly ended up in court and had to pay back all fees to one client to avoid a public scandal. The simple rule I read (I think in a Peter Drucker or Tom Peters book) was, if you have to use money to motivate people to do their job properly you have the wrong people. I haven't yet met a really good creative who did better work for a bonus. Or a nurse, policeman, soldier or teachers. I've heard of lots of stories of bent traffic wardens though.

The Triple bottom line – People, Planet & Profit has been at the core of many ethical businesses but even mainstream brands must be looking to be a little more ethical given the public outcry. Could this result in a move to more ethical business models like Quaker, Puritan or even Islamic models? These all balance a businesses need to make money with making a positive effect upon society. Brands like Cadbury's built houses, schools, churches and health centres for their workers. Brands like The Body Shop and John Lewis make employees part of their business. There are many brands that prove that you can make money without abandoning basic social values or exploiting people.

Of course the ad industry is going through many changes and the big question is, is the current model  (largely based on the 60's model) right for the future? Has it become too fat in places with too much admin? Could the recession be the perfect
catalyst for a positive change, after all we are one of the last creative industries to change.

In these dubious times redundancies are so common they no longer make the pages of the news and all of us in the ad industry have got friends who have been laid off in the last few weeks. Freelancers and juniors are getting an equally negative message, "we're not hiring" or "we're cutting back on freelancers." It's a tough business and the really tough bit is to treat people fairly and with respect. I've recently heard some disgusting stories of how some agencies have been trying to get people out without decent pay offs. Cutting costs isn't the same as making money and trying to save on redundancies packages only puts us in the same hall of shame as those bankers.

Equally as concerning in these times is the pressure those still in a job are going to be put under. The work needs to be done but with less people how will this impact upon families? Will we see more stress related illnesses? Are clients aware of the outcome of paying less but demanding more?

What if the ad business turned over a new leaf and tried to be more ethical? To adopt new values? Having worked with many charities, how would it be if agencies were set up as social enterprises? This means they can't make money for shareholders but have to reinvest any profits back into the business – people, talent, training, resources, etc. This model has worked really well in other industries (especially ethical business) as it's a value based business model not a profit based one. This
forces the business to focus on its core values. Makes you think, how different would an ad agency look?

 

My book - Ethical Marketing and the New Consumer: Marketing in the New Ethical Economy

Futurism, QR codes, ethical knickers and iFood – it’s a changing world out there.

On Feb 20th it’s the 100th anniversary of the launch of Futurism (founded by the Italian Filippo Tommaso Marinetti) a movement that looked to the future and embraced new ideas, technology and challenged the old ‘museum’ way of thinking. Look forward not back was the gist of it.

 

Don’t be afraid of the future and accept change. Ok, they did a have a few negative thoughts – war is good. However, their ideals are something we could well all benefit from in the ad industry at the moment. Instead of moaning about recession, living in the past and defending change, lets embrace it. It’s maybe ironic that a new model agency is launching on Feb 20th with a very new way of working. I’m sure Campaign will be covering it in a week’s time – there’s bugger all positive or exciting news about. at the moment

 

QR CODES TO CHANGE THE FACE OF ADVERTISING So what’s a QR code? If you don’t know (and don’t worry most Brits or sales assistants in phone shops don’t) ask any Japanese kid with a mobile. Simply put, it’s a sort of bar code (a matrix code) that a mobile phone can read. It’s square in appearance and looks like lots of pixels. So what? you may say but in Japan there are everywhere and have become the new love of all marketing directors. QR stands for ‘quick response’, when a phone scans the graphic it can decode it as text or take you direct to a web page. Forget phone numbers or urls, this is modern technology at work.

 

The downside is there look worse than telephone numbers on ads (art directors will hate them as much as packaging designers hate bar codes). They really will change the face of ads – mutilate may be a better word as they will sit on ads in a very nasty way. But as an additional marketing technique they’ll add to effectiveness.

 

What is surprising is that something so linear in thinking has been picked up by creatives and played with. Several artists have used them, Sergio Kano has made a series of images up from over 500 of them, each QR code represents a well known brand slogan. The French street artist ‘Space Invader’ has been placing tiles around the world for years, each one based on the space invaders game. Now he’s converted his mosaic style to QR codes. If you spot one of his tiles then scan it into your phone and it’ll give a message like ‘have a nice day’.

 

KINICKERS TO ETHICS More than pretty knickers have made an impressive commercial to highlight their new range of ethical pants. This is one step on from Pants for Poverty who got several hundred people to parade around St Pancras station in knickers only (one of which was a female creative director of an ad agency – I’ll mention no names to save embarrassment). The ethical knickers campaign uses a sexy catwalk commercial (directed by Verity White, ex BBC) to highlight the unethical aspects of most underwear. The commercial is excellent – take a look. Did you know that the cotton industry spends $2bn on pesticides – and uses more than any other industry? Or that sweat shop workers get less than a penny per kicker? Or that for every kg of cotton produced they use 20,000 litres of water? Makes you think.

 

iFOOD I recently suggested to one publication to set a brief to see if 3 agencies could turn a piece or marketing around to get people to pay for it. Lets be honest, if you put a price tag on most advertising would anyone (besides the client) pay for it? This opens up a new idea – what if we aimed to create marketing communications that people did pay for? Stuff they really wanted? Like the Gorilla or Sony balls ads. Like that 24 mailer or that NIKE brochure that sold on ebay for a $60. Well it seems some smart chaps at Kraft foods in the States have achieved just that. They are getting Americans to pay to get ads with food planning tools. It’s become a big hit on the iPhone and now other brands are looking to smart phone applications as the next generation of technology driven marketing.

 

ECO-VALENTINES DAY This Valentines Day you’ll have a dilemma, should you buy nice red rose from Holland or ethical ones? Which is more ethical, low carbon footprint ones or Fairtrade ones? Maybe you should just opt for chocolates. Again, should you pick the organic or Fairtrade? How about a gift instead - well you’ll have lots of ethical dilemma choices there too. The eco-ethical movement have started to hi-jack Valentines Day as an ethical expression of love – if you love someone then you’ll only buy an ethical gift. It’s a fair point but if you are finding it all too much you can always take the left wing green anti-capitalism view – Valentines Day is a capitalist attempt to generate extra consumerism – so buy nothing.

 

ETHICAL MARKETING & THE NEW CONSUMER If my regular readers are wondering why I’ve been off blog for a while it’s because I’ve been finishing off my book for the publisher’s Wileys. Ethical Marketing & the New Consumer, which can be found on Amazon (you can pre-order at half price). When it launches it’ll be one of the first multi-platform launches of a book with a website and smart phone applications. Watch this space for more updates.

Daily Mail promotion - not such a bright green idea.

In these recessionary times we are all looking for that bargain and I’m sure most of us can’t help checking out the free offers, especially on magazines and newspapers. I was struck by the promotional offer on the front page of the Daily Mail “Free bulbs for every reader”. Oh no not another free eco-bulb I thought, but no it’s not and it’s not a tulip bulb either. It’s a good old fashion 100w incandescent light bulb. • • Seems that the Daily Mail, the champion of middle England, middle aged women and conservative values hasn’t got the message about the environment. I know they and their readers hate change, muttering “things were better in the good old days” as they sip their tea from a proper cup while complaining about there being too much swearing and sex on TV. But offering their readers free incandescent light bulbs seems one dumb promotion! (Incandescent are the old energy wasting types, CFLs are the new energy saving type.) • • Now I’m all for a bit of nostalgia but incandescent bulbs are being phased out (Australia have already stopped selling them completely) because they are energy inefficient. Why the Daily Mail wants to make a stand against this must baffle anyone. OK, so the old style bulb is finally vanishing after 120 years, but to make out that this is a battle against the EU is barmy. In the light of a piece of research that the media is influencing women about their environmental behaviour, seems the Daily Mail are encouraging their readers to be anything but green. • • According to the Lighting Association, 85% of light bulbs in European homes are energy inefficient, if we all switched to lower energy bulbs (CFLs) we would save the equivalent of 10 power stations. The Energy Savings Trust reckons you’ll save £7 a year per CFL bulb, but I guess Mail readers are wealthy enough not to need the savings, or have shares in coal. • • The promotion flies in the face on energy companies who have been giving away free CFLs, the result of which is that I now have a cupboard full of eco-bulbs, alas most have the wrong fittings. British Gas, who sent me loads never asked what fittings I have. I know they sent out millions, I wonder how many ended up in landfill and think of the carbon footprint of all those deliveries. Those of us who buy at IKEA all need screw caps, so that’d be most of us in North London. • • FROM SEXY WITCH TO GREEN ACTIVIST • • The Daily Mail has shown its true anti-green colours by attacked the Heathrow expansion protest and the group Climate Rush, claiming that “One of the organisers (Marina Pepper) of a mass protest trying to shut down a Heathrow terminal is a former soft-porn model turned witch.” Worse still, she’s a Liberal Democrat town councilor! Of course the so called porn is the Sun page 3 and Playmate of the month in Playboy, hardly heavy porn by today’s more liberal standards (have the Mail writers looked at a copy of FHM or Nuts recently?). But then to the frumpy Mail readers revealing any flesh is pornographic. However, I think the fact she’s listed as a ‘sexy witch’ and has written books on witchcraft for teenagers will have the average church going Mail reader wanting to burn her at the stake. Mind you, a visit to the ‘sexy-witch.blogspot.com’ site does change your view of witches (and you can see why Mariana had a successful modeling career- Parental Warning needed here.) My own view is that what she does in her private time and in the past is not relevant to the good work she’s doing now. Maybe if a few more Mail readers would get out of their heated conservatories and woke up to climate change they’d join her. • • If you still have a few Christmas presents to buy, (a larger percentage of us are now buying the main present after Christmas to take advantage of the sales) is the OWL (check it out on Ethical Superstore). This electricity monitor tells you how much energy you are using and your CO2. It really does make you energy conscious. It’s also a great thing to check your consumption before you leave in the morning, if it’s above average you’ve probably left the iron on again! • •

Can less flatulence this Christmas save the planet?

I’ve come across some odd people whilst writing my book on Ethical Marketing but the one I met recently takes the biscuit. As it’s Christmas we can write more off the wall blogs.

 

It started as an innocent conversation about Christmas vegetables. Discussing everything from cabbages to onions when I mentioned I love Jerusalem artichokes at Christmas – these are like knobbly small potatoes and taste devine. “No, you shouldn’t eat those they are bad for the environment.” I was a touch puzzled, after all as part of the sunflower family they produce beautiful flowers and not oil.

 

“Don’t you know what they do?” I was trying to consider various options, some involved nuclear weapons, others guns, but hadn’t considered the obvious. “They make you fart, a lot, like pulses”. Ever been in one of those situations when your jaw really does drop down? “I’ve stopped eating Jerusalem artichokes, pulses, cabbages and sprouts as flatulence is bad for the environment.”

 

He was deadly serious. Not even trying to be slightly funny or ironic. When a man is worried about the effect upon the planet of his wind at Christmas he really needs to ask himself if he’s lost the plot. As a devout vegan, I’m sure he’ll be enjoying a lovely bag of nuts on Christmas day, something he can relate to. Me? Turkey with sprouts and my favourite knobbly vegetables.

Is it better to shock consumers or to engage them?

This years DMA awards Grand Prix winner for Friends of the Earth by CHI is a fantastically engaging idea that got almost 200,000 people taking action – now that’s effectiveness.

By contrast The Barnados ad got almost 500 complaints. That’s neither good for them or the industry. In my house we find it irritating, so on goes the mute button. Most ads on TV these days are just boring or bad, but to be irritating has to be a dubious way to market a message.

10 years ago that approach may well have worked but today we are different. Advertising is now pull not push and intrusion is the last way to engage consumers. It's a powerful ad (as you’d expect from one of the world's best creative agencies) and well meaning (along with a million other causes) but couldn't it put it's point across in an engaging way rather than one that leaves you cold?

It feels like a social issue our government and social services should be tackling (and I think there’s a topical reason it’s been run). There's also a problem with getting people to be sympathetic rather than defensive and even critical of another class of people. Is she a victim we want to help or does she reflected the decaying standards of an underclass? Far better would have been to get this idea across via a soap – Eastenders for example.

If this was part of just one episode it’d get a brilliant reaction. Tucked between two Christmas themed ads during an entertainment programme it jars, but not in a good way.

It's the equivalent of someone throwing up in a nice restaurant. There are many smarter ways Barnardos could have executed this message, and many examples of similar causes being marketed in a way that engages consumers – just look at the Saatchi work for NSPCC – cartoons. 500 complaints says the public isn’t responding in a positive way.

Don’t kid yourself that people “are talking about the ad”, it’s a negative response. And just because people talk about an ad doesn’t mean they are going to respond. I feel using a sledgehammer to crack a nut rarely has good long term results. It’s the TV equivalent of those aggressive in yer face charity workers you meet in the street who try and use guilt to get you to sign away £2 a month.

Given the message, I wasn’t sure what I should be doing or how Barnardos was going to (borrowing NSPCC’s line) STOP the cycle. You told me the problem, so what’s the solution?

As it’s Xmas this seems a far less relevant message than St Mungos, Crisis or many other charities. I think the age of shock tactics (always defended by the reality claim or we need to shake people up) is past.

‘Brand suicide’ a new term for the recession.

7p an hour – how dumb are Primnark. Tesco and Asda? Especially given the appetite for exposure, the press, charities and NGS are all looking for those who are playing dirty and exploiting people. Given all the bad publicity over the last several years over using sweat shops, you’d think that any retailer with half a brain would make sure they are clean. A prime (or maybe Primark) example of ‘brand suicide’. Primark, Asda and Tesco have been named as exploiting people in Bangladesh, according to War on Want. They are also encouraging workers to take legal action against retailers in the UK. There’s no smoke without fire and all these brands are defending themselves but the damage is done and you can’t help thinking that Primark’s prices are hardly possible without exploitation. No doubt heads will roll and their CSR department, and CSR advisors may well be getting their P45s. The public may love a discount but the growing awareness of ethics means the consumer is shopping with a conscious. And even given a recession, surveys reveal we are actually becoming more people and community focused not less. In a BBC programme looking at cotton it was revealed that a retailer buys a t-shirt for less than $1.50. The rest is profit (the average mark up is 2.5x cost). That means a £2.50 t-shirt costs the retailer less than £1. When you look at the chain, it’s shocking how little the farmer, farm worker gets, just pennies. Even more shocking when you consider there are many millions of poor people are earning less than a dollar a day. Action Aid’s brilliant WHO PAYS? campaign has been one of the most successful in recent years to challenge supermarkets about exploiting third world labour. It asked a simple question, ‘who’s paying for the discount?’ and ‘when you pick up an apple do you think about who picked it off the tree?’ The campaign forced Sainsbury’s to announce in their ads they were paying for discounts on bananas. Another example of brand suicide is the failure of some banks to pass on rate decreases. The UK's biggest lender, HBOS, will only pass on 0.25 of a percentage point. Mix this with repossessions and you have an industry that really is behaving unethically. When the recession ends those financial institutes that put their “greed before the public need” will all be paying a bigger price – mark my words. The public and press will not forgive those banks and building societies that are repossessing homes – estimated to be up to 75,000 homes next year - and being unsupporting of the public in need. A recent story that a building society sold someone’s home for half price but then told them they still owed the difference is shocking and is one reason Brown has tried to get the financial industry to behave more ethically. Brands like Northern Rock bank and Bradford & Bingley are putting people before profits and are adopting a policy of waiting six months before repossessing any of their customers who fell into arrears. Northern Rock said it normally took 15 months to repossess a home anyway. I guarantee that post recession the word ‘repossesion’ will be the one word that judges all banks and building societies and will leave some brands damaged for generations – if you doubt me, consider that students still avoid Barclays. A public body, the Public Accounts Committee (CDC Group), has come under criticism for dual standards. They are suppose to be helping to tackle poverty in developing countries, though it seems to be spending most of its money helping senior executives get rich. It’s chief executive, Richard Laing, earns almost £1m a year! It’s been criticised for awarding it’s senior people pay well above acceptable levels. Their defense that pay was performance related may well be OK if performance was linked to reducing poverty rather than making money. Sadly the organisation highlights what happens when you put profit before people and planet. My view, fire the lot and redefine its values, a profiteering ethos in the world of poverty is plain evil. On a more positive note, the government are funding a £12m campaign to raise awareness of strokes as part of a three-year £100m stroke strategy in England. Good news for the Stroke Association. The campaign focuses on how an attack affects the face, arms and speech and launches in February. Strokes are the third biggest killer in the UK, behind cancer and heart disease - responsible for over 50,000 deaths a year. One of it’s causes can be stress – something most of us in advertising need to be aware of.