Absolutely winning at Facebook

Absolut Vodka is a dream client for me. They’re not that big into human truths or insights they just like to make pretty stuff. I honestly believe that that is what they say on the briefs they give to their agencies “Make me something pa-retty”. They’re print ads normally hold as much sustenance as an episode of the Kardashians, but they are B-E-A-utiful. Their latest campaign by Native, Absolut ZA, is no exception.

Their goal was to establish themselves online and they’ve done this through a campaign on Facebook. They took four artists and got them to design beaded sheaths for the Absolut bottle and then invited designers to submit their design for the fifth bottle on Facebook.

To launch the campaign the four artists they chose to all launched a short Youtube video explaining who they are and their designs. Obviously the Cape Town artist, Athi, was the most lovable creature describing his work as “high camp”. These videos are all short and well edited and they make for some nice quick viewing. The artists that they’ve chosen all come off really well on camera, laughing and joking. They also chose relatable artists from different areas so everyone has their sort of “area ambassador”.

The Facebook page where you can submit your own designs has a great layout. Very easy to use and stylish, which is nice to see as Facebook pages are normally bog standard boring. They also have a design tool which works exclusively on Google Chrome. This is the one area that this campaign falls flat for me. Google Chrome? Come on! I am not going to go and download a new browser just to enter a competition. The act of actually entering a competition has to be incredibly easy (this is why “share and like” competitions are all over Facebook). There is such a fine line between what we will and won’t do to win something. If you actually have Chrome the app is incredible. So much fun! You upload your photo and it then “beads it” and gives you effects to customize it. A procrastinators dream. It’s also incredibly easy to use which means everyone can use it.

The agency behind this campaign, Native, focuses on online work and their portfolio is very impressive. They’ve expanded the online platforms of Isuzu and Jamesons both in an innovative way. They preach, “brands are co-owned by their customers” on their website. They are definitely bringing that mentality into their work. Thoroughly looking forward to what they do next.

Greek Mythology meets Multivitamins

I’ve got a super awesome insight for everyone: Feedings kids things that taste horrible is hard. Wow. Genius. Tricking the children makes them eat the yucky healthy thing. What?! Yes, it’s true.

Hopefully you managed to gather my intensely sarcastic tone there. Vital multivitamins for kids have decided to use one the most obvious insight ever and the take an equally obvious metaphors for their latest campaign. The Trojan horse. Only they’ve taken this ancient Greek story and applied it to what looks like medieval England. Very, very strange.

“Why have they applied it to medieval England?” you might ask. “Why not Greece?” I literally have no idea. It could be an art direction choice, what with castles being better looking buildings. It’s also possible that the advert was just misnamed. Admittedly if I had seen it without its name I might have just assumed it was catapult or something, and then the advert would make absolutely no sense.

Maybe over analyzing it is what has ruined this advert. It is very pretty with a wonderful illustration and on first glance it kind of makes sense. Page flip and done for most people. For me, who has squinted trying to understand this thing for close on ten minutes, it is the most jumbled mash of nonsense I’ve ever seen.

Apart from the visual, I really struggle to understand the copy. To me “delicious gets the good in” is just a random selection of words strung together. I understand how it makes sense in the case of the sweetie-vitamins but as a general statement it’s just wrong. 99.999999% of the time delicious gets the bad in. When linking it to the visual it still makes no sense. I may be going too far into the metaphor here but are they saying that the soldiers inside the horse are “the good”? Because that is just historically wrong.  I guess in some sense the vitamins are sneaky soldiers but “good” is just the wrong word.

I don’t expect lyrical genius from a company whose tagline is “Good Health is Vital”; I just expect it to somehow stick to basic sentence structure.

Over all this is one of the most confusing adverts I have seen in a very long time. None of the elements are working together or explaining anything. As I have said however, at a quick glance this could be very cute and memorable.

Omo vs Super Soft

Here’s a bit of an awesome claim to fame. I was a child model. Oh yes. I may look awkward and yoda-esq now but I was one flipping cute child. My biggest and most demanding role was when I played kid-in-corner and had to hopscotch for 5 hours. Tiring as hell. But that critically acclaimed performance of mine may be why I always have, and always will, love Omo. That’s right folks, I was one of the first “dirt is good” kids. (Queue applause).

You can probably understand why now I’m a bit pissed that my legacy has been ruined by their latest print campaign. Bad advert. Creepy advert. And from such an awesome agency. I’m not sure if I 100% get it to be honest. I feel like it definitely needs come copy to explain the concept.

These print adverts feature photos of clothes lingering over a window watching kids plays. What I take from this, after much consideration, is that the clothes are jealous because they can’t play in the mud. On first view all I could think of were creepy ghost children or just clothes that had come alive. It doesn’t help that in one of the adverts the clothes look like they would be suited to an adult male. They just have a haunting, creepy aspect that doesn’t convey the Omo philosophy properly.

I just feel that the emotions attached to Omo and the positive connotations that the brand displays aren’t shown in this advert. When I think of Omo my immediate reaction words are dirty, fun and learning. Not what this advert displays at all.

On the other side of the fabric-cleaning universe you have Stay soft and their ass-kicking latest campaign. They have taken badass icons like Chuck Norris and Hulk Hogan and created their faces out of fabric. The headline “Softens even the toughest” next to their baby faced pack shot just has a lovely fun contrast.  A fun and simple campaign which manages to show the benefit but in an unexpected way.

This simple campaign is exactly what we like to see. Good design, funny concept and good execution. It may not stay true to the brands normal style and theme but that’s what makes it even better. People like looking at an advert and getting it, which is my main issue with the Omo advert. Stay Soft also shows the power of copy in an advert. With a bit of copy the Omo advert could have been easily understandable and possible relatable.

Dassies and the Water

Warning: If you are from Johannesburg: stop reading this right now, just stop. Everything you ever hated about Capetonians is about to come true. You will leave this thinking of us as dumb hippies. Stop reading. I’m about to talk about the sea and the ocean. It’s happening. Look away now.

This TV advert for the National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) is more of an ode to Cape Town than an advert with its panoramic scenes of the characters and landscapes of the Mother City. The grey sea in the early morning, the mountain behind mist, the surfers and the fishermen all captured perfectly. It makes your heart balloon with pride when you see the city like that. The poem by John Masefield read in a wise, husky voice with a slow banging drum all encapsulate the sound of the ocean. And the tagline “because you love being out there we’re always there”, yoh! That tagline! Whoa. They got it.

Work like this is what makes me understand why I love advertising. Why I am not the spawn of commercialism and enthusiastic voice-overs. Ogilvy aren’t scaring the pants off me, they’re protecting me and making me slightly more aware. They’re also giving me a very fun game I now like to play called “guess the beach”, seriously, if you’re from Cape Town watch this advert and try not to play it. So far I have Dalebrook, St James, Kalk Bay Harbour and Boulders.

You often find that some of the best work in agencies is made probono. What tends to happen is that the advertising agency gives the brief to the younger people in the agency and they, desperate for some great portfolio work and with a fresh perspective and naivety hard to find in old hands, create something spectacular like this. And that’s where the magic lies in this advert, the fantastically edited shots of the sea, the gentle personality shots. It flows so well that it stinks of hard work.

Some real credit needs to be given to this voice over artist; you can almost smell the old tobacco and feel his strong arms over your shoulders when you hear him read. It makes me crave old leather and dusty books. When he reads the opening line “I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky” I got shivers. Ogilvy have managed to take that little feeling we keep in our fingertips and eyelashes, that tiny tingle that makes us love the freezing cold water and crunchy sand and they’ve physically manifested it. It takes a big group of people with a deep love of this city to make an advert like this.

They haven’t focused on a human truth or insight as much as an understanding of Capetonians. They’ve shown that they understand the raw emotion and bond, which is why they will protect us and that is what makes this advert so magical.

I think I can safely speak for everyone and say I am very excited for Ogilvy Cape Town to have work back on our TV screens and off our laptops for a while. While their nontraditional stuff is exciting, nothing can make you feel quite like a good old’ fashioned video.

Smile or I'll make you

Like many people in this world I am a complete and utter sucker for an awkward dance. I cringed in Napoleon Dynamite, I swooned in 10 things I hate about you and I shook my groovethang in The Inbetweeners.  It just gets your heart racing and smacks a smile on your face.

The latest Engen/ Wimpy advert follows quite a basic storyline. Boy sees girl, boy dances, girl smiles; boy and girl go on date. Incredibly simple and entertaining.

The act of actually advertising Engen/Wimpy quickstores seems completely pointless to me as the main selling point 90% of the time is that there’s nowhere else to go. Somehow this advert had me wanting to shake my booty on down to milkshake town and go fall in love at the Engen. Admittedly if I hung around in a petrol station with a giant milkshake I’m more likely to be arrested for loitering than courted but hey, worth a try right?

This is a great example of how a product with basically no benefits advertises well. I mean what are they saying other than get your warm fuzzies at your nearest Engen?

There are little pieces of magic that save this advert from being the complete and utter steaming turd it should be (the concept is overdone, there’s no insight, the tagline “love the journey” encourages dry heaving). That Cape Town hipster actor with his scrawny body and wispy facial hair, fantastic casting, he looks like the kind of d-bag who complains about the differences between lattes and flat whites. You can’t help but love someone like that, especially when he’s making a fool of himself. It’s that facial expression when you can tell he thinks he looks cool- sold. Then there’s the song, a George Harrison cover, such cheese so condensed. It’s just enough to tow the line between ironic and disgusting, the Rod Stewart of adverts, I love it.

On the other side of the spectrum we have another South African TV advert which is attempting to give us the warm fuzzies but in the worst kind of way Everyone is already going to be super harsh on McDonalds advertising, what with them being the beef devils that they are. Their latest adverts features “real footage” of a group of orphans going to get free McFlurrys and then taking them to an old age home to share. Urgh, too far.  You have to choose Maccy D’s: old folks or orphans, you can’t have both. And if you do have both at least give them each their own McFlurry

This visual over a (sounds like Parlotones?) cover of Forever Young had me Hulking with rage at the screen. I have nothing wrong with bad companies advertising, and I do appreciate the fact that they’re not targeting kids in this advert, but don’t pretend you’re a good guy. Or at least be more subtle about it. It’s like people that take photos of themselves doing charity work and then upload them to Facebook. It makes me feel like you’re only doing good when people are watching. And you’re not even doing that much good, I mean you gave away twenty free McFlurry’s, not even one for every person in the ad? Pfft, stingebobs. It could have been cute if they had the kids trying to balance all the McFlurrys, like the old Clicks milk advert, before they got to the old people. Having all the starving children staring down their treats and drooling on the screen- not cute, heartbreaking. Also the tagline “Everyone can do with a little happiness”, Coca Cola much?

McDonalds could take some tips from Engen. We, the consumers, love the warm fuzzies but it’s the little things that make us smile. It’s tripping, dancing, smiling all the basic actions that make me seal clap and smile with happiness. If you’re selling your product purely on an emotion it is either has to be a good simple advert or extremely clever. Both are equally as hard to achieve and very offensive watching when done wrong.

The most worrying thing is that this advert has already scooped Best of McDonald's TV for 2012/13 by some of the top McDonald's Creative Directors from around the world. I say aim higher Maccy D’s, cheap shots will get you nowhere with us.

Volkswagen? You've let me down, son.

Volkswagen. Advertising legends. Since their 1960’s Lemon campaign they have been a dream client for any advertising agency because they’re witty, they’re daring and they’re creative. They’re legendary pay off lines include “It makes your house look bigger”, “How does the snowplow driver get to his snowplow?” and “It’s unusual to drive the car you were consumed in” They do not include “Have you seen him? Your Volkswagen has”

It’s not that this is a particularly bad campaign, and trust me when I say I feel like a pushy parent saying this, but I just expect better from them.  Volkswagen is just smarter than this, more creative than this. This is the sort of shoddy behaviour I would expect from Fiat, or a lesser brand, but Volkswagen- you know better than this, son.

The advert is for their side assist, some magic technology that can detect when someone’s riding in your blind spot. Interesting product that has a lot of cool angles you could take on it. Literally displaying the benefit is possibly one of the most boring ways to show it off, and that is exactly what they have done. Must admit: there is a bit of fun in trying to scope out the person in the picture, your mind does do a bit of work. But there is no awesome “aaah-hahahahaha” moment that your normally get from a Volkswagen ad. Just squinting eyes and “hmmm” with this one.

On first view I really enjoyed the art direction. Simple and a bit interesting considering the boring concept, also a black page will always stand out to me. Basically anything clean-cut stands out from the clutter, so they’ve drawn in the viewer- well done. The longer I stared at it the more familiar it seemed though, it got uncomfortable and frustrating, like looking at a face and knowing you know them. It took me some aggressive Googling to find this. Mwa-HA. Got you.

TVN did a very similar campaign that I later found online; they took iconic still shots from films and wedged a tiny slice of advert between them. When I first saw the Kill Bill advert I loved it (I definitely have a type- oops). Very similar concept with two completely different products, interesting, got me thinking.

A bit more of a search and these damn things are apparently quite common. Wowza, I guess it finally makes sense why I’m writing these things weekly: I have now saved myself the embarrassment of not knowing a cliché. Go Team! Learn something new every day.

Back to VW though, I strongly believe in their general awesomeness. I think they might’ve just gotten ever so slightly cocky and therefore let their standards slip a little. Hopefully it just means their next campaign will be mind-shatteringly crazy good. 

CTFM Babysitter Campaign

Cape Town Fish Market, I’ve always had a bit of a soft spot for it. I appreciate a good “fancy” chain restaurant: they make a super effort on the service, only over-charge slightly and they’re generally consistent. In Cape Town, where you normally have to coax your sulky, fringed waitress off her phone to beg for a glass of wine it’s a damn godsend.

For some reason they’ve decided to ruin my lovely relationship with them by campaigning to get kids in the restaurant. Urgh, children. Nonetheless it’s actually quite an awesome campaign.

They’ve decided to play on the fear that many parents have about leaving their children with their “who knows what the babysitter is up to?” campaign. They know that most parents don’t like leaving their little precious’s with anyone, let alone someone they don’t know. In their minds sweet 14year old nieces looking for pocket money morph into demonic sex-crazed drug fiends the second they walk out the door. Instead of soothing their irrational fears the manipulative geniuses at Lowe agency Cape Town have decided to play on that fear to advertise their kids menu, mwahahahahaha!

They’ve released 6 print ads of varying degrees of originality. They’ve gone for some easy jabs: the babysitter having sexytimes, and going through your undie draw but they also have some real gems- my personal best being the one featuring a toddler playing with an Ouija board. The art direction is great, they’re all set in dimly lit rooms with definite mood lighting, they never show the evil babysitters faces but rather show the innocent children creating an interesting contrast. The contrast is apparent again with the juxtaposition of the playful font saying “who knows what the babysitter is up to?”

I love that the mood that they’ve gone for is teasing and playful rather than shocking scare tactics. Parents are well aware that when it comes to their child they’re a bit crazy, and for the most part they’re okay with it.

This isn’t the first time that Lowe and CTFM have paired up to do great work. They claim that their ideas behind their good work come from wanting to have fun with the brand. I feel that this campaign perfectly displays that, it is lighthearted, it has mild conflict but for the most part it’s just funny.

Flu-ridden friend making

As the world greatest procrastinator I have skills like few other, I justify it by saying that I work well under pressure (I don’t) and that 2am is my prime time (it’s definitely not). With all this in mind, clever me left my college assignment for the weekend before it was due and then ba-bam flu time. Horrible, sticky, sweaty, in bed flu. The assignment was to do something that we have never done and would never normally consider doing. I had intended to do something mega-badass: hanging out with the SA Police Force. An embarrassed croaky phone call from me had that cancelled. So what can I do from the comfort of my own bed? I doubt that Dexter marathons would be interesting for anyone to read about. So it’s time for me to enter that crazy, scary, world. The dark depths of the internet that I would never consider entering. Ooh yeah- it’s chat roulette time.

When Andrey Ternovsky, a Russian teenager, founded chat roulette in 2009 he had only the best intentions: to connect people across the world through video-chat. A bit like a random pen pall, you would get to know strangers with different cultural backgrounds. The nature of the internet meant that it quickly fell to disarray; with 89% of its users being male it gained a reputation for amateur porn. However many friends of mine claim to have met lovely naïve souls like themselves and had interesting philosophical discussions. One friend, a web designer, even uses it for product research.

Chat roulette has a few rules: you must be over 18 (check), you may not record any conversations (don’t know how- so check), no pornographic content (I’m okay thanks- check) and the simplest - you must have a webcam (check). Covered in blanket, pink nosed, roll of loo paper by my side and I was ready to go. Which lucky stranger would win my company today?

First screen showed a topless Brazilian man, I must’ve had nerves because that was a quick skip. Don’t know how ready I am for topless Brazilian men. The next three were all naked, skip skip skip. Fourth screen: a lovely looking young American girl. Yay, chat time! I put on my least perverted smile, trying my hardest not to look like a leukemia patient, and gently croak “Hi, I’m Alex, what’s your name?” that damn bitch skipped me! Whaaaaat?! How did she not want to converse with me? Wow, what an ego blow. It might be because I look like the bad end of Tuesdays with Morrie. With this in mind I removed the giant duvet covering my shoulders and replaced it with a friendly looking jumper, I blew my nose, put the loo roll out of sight, brushed my hair and looking ever so slightly better decided to try again.

Round 2: Here we go. After once again wading through the masses of penis, I was greeted by a friendly face. Mika, yay! An olive skinned, shaggy haired (sexy as hell) Bolivian. He points at himself “I Mika” I point at myself “I Alex”. Feeling very Tarzan/ Janey, but my god this boy is gorgeous. Could I have met my future husband over chatroulette? What an awesome kooky story to tell the kids. Such dark twinkly eyes. Mika starts gesticulating wildly, the sound is going a bit funny. Don’t leave me Mika! After a while I think I start to get what he’s saying, it sounds an awful lot like “Why you not eat the cookie?” Are those dark twinkly eyes a bit red? Could Mika be stoned? He carried on shouting “Why you not eat the cookie!” It might be my penchant for bad boys, but I am finding this adorable. I am obviously not giving the right response though as Mika pulls out what appears to be a Romany cream type biscuit and smashes it within his hands and then starts laughing manically. Whatthafuuuuuuu? Ok, this has just gotten weird- skip.

Is this really what has become of people? Have we taken this wonderful tool and let it make us strange as hell. I mean, Charlie the Unicorn? A bit weird, but is this what he has spawned? Low attention span, prone to nudity, nutella obsessed and super strange. I’ve always claimed that the internet has done to our mind what starbucks has done to our coffee. I love hazelnut lattes with half soymilk, they’re super great. I also loves cats that poo rainbows, hilarious, but surely I could’ve left that part of psyche untapped? Surely I don’t need to know that about myself, the same way that semi-soy hazelnut lattes are a gateway to weird shit like chocolamochatinis - surely Nyan cat is a gateway to more intense weird internet stuff.

For the third time I persevered through the fields of sausage to try and find a friendly face. And I struck gold. For years I have dreamt of living a happy farmers life in Portugal and who do I meet on chatroulette? A fully clothed, shell-shocked middle-aged farmer named Luis. He lives just out of Vila Real, a large wine-producing region, and farms the Verdelho grape. Frikkin’ golden. I doubt that he could have found someone as interested in his work as I was. He claims to be more of a sherry man himself. We conversed with great help from Google translate about wine, Nandos, lions, and all the fantastic things that made us different. We laughed about the people we’d seen before each other on the internet, he claimed to have seen a man in a bikini (“Why, Alex? Why would the man need to cover his nipples? What is wrong with these American men?”) I told him about Mika (“the beautiful ones are always crazy”). It was great, after 30 minutes, the internet connection cut out and we went our separate ways. But now I have proof! There are wonderful people out there!

Marilyn Manson (man of wisdom that he is) once said, “The internet is the trailer park for the soul.” Now that might be true: it’s gritty, dirty and strange. But even in trailer parks there are sunrises, sunsets and double rainbows. I would go so far as to say that 95% of chatroulette is pretty damn disgusting but hey, in the end it was a happy story. I learnt something new, I met someone new and I now have a tiny bit of hope.

"Going Gay" in advertising

As a massive craft-beer enthusiast and a passionate advocate of gay rights I was quite shocked to read that Mexican brewery Minerva has just released what they are labeling “Queer Beer”. Apparently the citrus flavours appeal specifically to lesbian, gay and transgender people. Now I have yet to fully order my emotions on this. As a South African I can have the tendency to be overly politically correct so I could be getting offended over nothing, but purple bottles of beer just seems like a bit of an old stereotype to me? It is great that a country with a large gay community is openly recognising and accepting the community but it also shows the old fashioned view that people hold. I mean, “Queer Beer” are you frikkin’ kidding me? What? “Can’t have a becks, too straight, get me some of that gay beer”?

This reminded me quite a bit of an old Virgin ad that was shown on SABC around 10 years ago. It showed two men, neither attractive, engaging in typical romantic activities: molding clay, running in fields- the usual, while serenading each other with “how deep is your love”. This was before Virgin was viewed LGBT friendly and this advert came off with extremely homophobic undertones. Nationwide in South Africa we have come far since this was the norm, as has the rest of the world.

The LGBT market is seen as one of the hardest to gain, you have to show that you’re supporting the culture and community without making your flag look like a marketing scam (which let’s be honest, it often is).  Last year the gay community cheered over the progress made in America, finally. From a marketing perspective it was fascinating, with technology advancing daily brands became even more personal. Cheerios, Spec Savers and Ray Bans were amongst the many brands that were vocal in their support of gay marriage and gained a lot of respect internationally. Doritos and Millers Draft are still struggling after their perceived disregard and disrespect of the gay community.

The best support ads of last year were definitely done by United Colours of Benetton, awesome company that they are. The award winning campaign showed photoshopped images of world leaders kissing to support their Unhate campaign. The minimal copy and headline “Unhate” focused the image further. They weren’t cheesy or fashionable it was just honest and with a clear message. They didn’t use words like “love” or “care”, it wasn’t even specific to LGBT community. It just called for a general shift in attitude towards tolerance and violence.

The adverts in themselves are well executed; the surprising visuals of rival leaders draw you in straight away, grabbing the viewers attention. No-nonsense strong fonts showed the seriousness of the issue, there was no giant logo, just the UCB’s usual green tag. They weren’t obviously styled or gimmicky. A clever, eye-catching and courageous campaign that deserved all the attention and respect it received.

Four Seasons: Sweating and Grunting

Wow, new level of crazy unhealthy- I just had to Google what a health club is. Was slightly embarrassed until I realised it’s a fancy gym, now I feel nothing but pride within myself. Gyms are the devils work, just like jeggings, you go into them with so much hope and excitement and leave broken, sweaty and feeling slightly judged. Destroy them, please. I will not be associated with these evil establishments.

Super fancy hotel chain, the Four Seasons, has decided to advertise their health clubs and they’re not doing it too badly. Not great either; just a bit meh.  To be honest I’m a bit sick of these kinds of ads with this kind of font, and this kind of style, it just seems to be everywhere right now and it’s become a bit generic. Need to make something look fun and expensive? Make sure your font is curly! The more expensive, the curlier! This shit is barely legible; it’s curling and swirling all over the place.

I genuinely find this concept cool. Most people enjoy the idea of being gross, and doing it in fancy places is even better- probably why every hotel lobby smells like covered up fart. It’s a nice concept and it’s just the art direction that has me a bit confused. I don’t understand why the words seem to be on steel, why do you want me to think of metal? Is it just for aesthetic appeal? Am I supposed to be linking it with gym machinery? I have no idea. It makes me feel like there’s a joke I’m just not getting, which is not an enjoyable feeling at all.

If you can get away from the visual, the concept and the tagline are quite funny. I think the tagline is great “everything’s nicer in our health clubs” and it links up with the headline well, it gave me a bit of a giggle. I am also extremely grateful that I don’t have to look at another really perky woman standing with towels behind her neck[1]. I can see that they are trying to do something different and that is great, I just wish they could’ve taken the idea further; sweating and grunting are not even close to the grossest things that go on at gyms- have you ever been in a change room? Or a yoga class? Or swim-aerobics? Gross, hilarious places.

Admittedly these are probably the best Four Seasons adverts out there, an intense Google search reveals nothing (went all the way to page four, crazy!), so the client must have quite a reign of terror over the ad agencies “ONLY SHOW PALM TREES! MORE SMILES! NOW!!!”. What a horrible thing to do, there’s nothing worse than seeing a great product- something that could become a fantastic brand being decimated by an old fashioned attitude towards advertising. I completely agree with having to keep your style and company ethos relevant in your advertising but there are so many interesting things you could do while respecting your companies philosophy.

I feel like the team that came up with this advert was made up of a really funky, strange copywriter and a prudish boring art-director. The two styles don’t mesh well, and they’re not creating interesting contrast as much as an uncomfortable clash. All in all, fun concept bad execution.

Israir "A vacation is longer.."

If I see another picture of a palm tree beach anywhere I will start crazily massacring people. In my personal opinion they don’t make you want to go there, it’s like watching food channel on a diet. You’re just making me angry and resentful. Israir have managed to come up with an awesome campaign for their airline and they’ve done it in a cool, interesting way.

I am a serious victim of the amazing gap yah. That’s a bunch of annoying people that went traveling and now can’t shut up about how much it’s changed their life- yeeeah that’s me. This ad is just showing a small version of that, it’s showing how a tiny amount of time away can spill out into your back-to-work life, whether it’s your post-holiday tantight skin or your beautiful experience with that Indian villager/shaman that totally just like really showed you perspective. The experiences stay with you.

Many people think that when they only have a week off, going abroad is too much of a mission; I get that. Israir is trying to say that when you’re traveling, a week isn’t just a week. “A vacation is longer than just the time off”, great headline. Smart folks. They aren’t looking at other airlines as competition; they’re looking at people’s mentality towards travel. They know the “why bother” mindset we all get in after months of mind-numbing, soul-destroying work and they’re trying to draw us back, “remember how fun it was, that one time…” They’re taking the cheesy overdone “memories are moments” and making it less mushy.

I must admit understated ads appeal to me, in a giant pile of LOOK HERE NOW, BUYBUYBUY they stand out and I think this might be why I enjoyed this set of print ads so much. It’s an amazingly simple concept, based on one great insight with fantastic art direction. I love how they’ve illustrated the concept by putting it on a calendar- it simplifies the entire image while explaining the idea even further. The white border angles yours eyes making the actual reading experience more interesting, inside to out rather than left to right. It’s the little things like this that make this a great print ad.

I’m not saying these ads are faultless; there are certain things I don’t like. I feel that the hotel ad is just filling space. It’s not executed as well as the others and I mean comeon-it’sahotel, where’s the experience in that? I’m just not sure if the idea is as strong as the others but that is definitely personal opinion. I’m a backpacker’s girl. Hotel holidays don’t appeal on any level.

I really appreciate the fact that these ads aren’t pushing deals on everyone. They’re saying, “Hey, you look knackered, wanna talk about it?” They’re inviting you to investigate further rather than laying all the cards out on the table. Smart move on their side, as a brand. I’ve just finished “Hey, Whipple, Squeeze this” and a point that the author, Luke Sullivan, makes over and over again is that brands should treat meeting new consumers as if they were going to a party and making new friends. Basic rules: don’t be obnoxious, don’t talk too much about yourself and definitely don’t try to start selling stuff to them. Suggest, yeah- that’s OK- but no one invited a salesman to the party.

This isn’t the first time Israir has had a cool campaign. For a small(ish) airline, they sure are doing some fun stuff. Last year they had an outdoor campaign where they took the “You are here” on city maps and added “Too bad” with a tiny bit more writing about their plane fares.  Again, not pushy, just a little “waddup, life could be better”. I love it when I feel like I could befriend an advert or a brand (I definitely think about this a dangerous amount). Israir has left me thinking about them as the straight laced, suited guy, who loves shamrock hip-hop and has sweet moves on the dance floor. Fun, clever, quirky, trustworthy. That right there is the definition of doing a good job- making suckers like me believe in your brand.

Great Online Advertising

My father owns his own Enginering company, he holds some major contracts and does some pretty cool stuff for de Beers and the like- now this should be the point that I link you to his informative and super interesting website but no. He doesn’t have one. A lot of small companies in South Africa don’t realise how important an online presence is, no one uses the yellow pages anymore and if you’re not googlable (apparently a word now- great) you basically don’t exist on the big wide world of web.

A good website says so much about who you are as a brand. Take internet explorer an example (read more about them in my post “internet explorer: kids of the 90’s") their website browseryoulovedtohate.com is refreshing and honest, maybe not the best-design for PC viewing but really gets the message across- They know they were rubbish, they’re trying to change, give ‘em a second chance. Bos ice tea also has a great website, good music, good design- you just “get” their brand straight away, it’s kinda like if Lenny Kravitz and Mariam Makeba had an icetea baby, just cool and funky.

With big brands having a large online presence is old news, they’re well schooled in the art of tweeting, blogging, facebooking… all that, but to see a small, young brand with an interesting website, that is just wha-wow. If you’re a big wino like I am cheesecupid.com will Blow Your Mind. You go Wisconsin Cheeses! The site takes your drink of choice, with quite a varied selection of wines, beers and liquors, and matches you up with some of their cheeses. Then there’re the taste notes on the drinks and cheeses, the pronunciation and (my favourite bit by far) funny, well made short films about some of the combinations. If I’m correct it’s also voiced by the guy who does American Dad. Such a fantastic site! And in no way are they forcing a product on you, they’re just saying “hey guys, we like cheese and fancy booze and we’re not mega douches”. I want to befriend these people!

Other great websites out there stereo.nypl.org for the New York Library, allows you to make 3D gifs out of there old stereograph collection, simple and fun but in quite a serious layout: how well does that convey a library?  Blacknegative.com, a design studio, has one of the most beautiful websites I’ve seen in ages displaying their style and professionalism.

What I’m trying to say is that online presence is important. And not just a website: if someone complains about or compliments you on twitter, reply, it’s just manners.  We all want to like our brands and we want them to be nice to us. I mean, I seriously intend on finding these cheese guys and dating like… all of them.

Advertising vs Graffiti

Ok graffiti and outdoor advertising, essentially the same thing? Hear me out. Both are basically establishing yourself as a brand, both are marketing themselves in an area where they cannot be paused/muted/closed down, they are forcing their ideas on us and both, when done well, can be fantastic.

A few years ago in Cape Town, especially the southern suburbs there was a tagger called Toe who we all as sixteen year olds watched. Every time someone spotted a new tagging we’d talk about it, everyone’s alleged cousin was friends with him, it was interesting- the tags were almost always in cool places which you could stare at and just go “hooooooow?” We would look at this guy the same way we’d now watch a favourite brand, keeping an eye out for new products, talking about it –we’d essentially “following” him.  Around the same time Faith47 was HUGE, she was one of the world best female graffiti artists and her giant murals were both inspiring and culturally relevant.

Now 6years later, with Toe retired and Faith47 behaving, the Cape Town graffiti scene has gone to threads. I get the train to college every morning and it seems that every skillfully made tag is now just one OK-looking profanity. Like the horrific advertising that has been pasted all around the carriages (“Blacklisted Welcome”) it accosts my eyes every morning.  I feel the same way about outdoor right now, currently Red Bull have my favourite billboard spot in the city on the Wale/Long junction and what have the put up there? Something awesome about the skydive or action sports or long boarding down kloof? No. A nice big sign. In Black And White. That says Red Bull. Die, now.

Internationally both advertising and graffiti are constantly improving, sometimes even working together. Before the launch of film the Hangover 2 in Berlin, they spray painted stickmen vomiting on the curb of pedestrian roads with just the word “Hangover”. Yessss in a party city that’s how it works! Great idea. I personally saw them while crawling back from a two-day illegal rave at 6am. I keep on seeing this fantastic international graffiti and trying to see how you could bend that into a campaign, like this could you use that to somehow advertise petrol going further in certain cars? Or maybe this could be a specsavers ad? I mean Sony managed to capitalize on the awesome idea of unleashing bouncy balls into the street an idea which was originally done by a street artist in Rome, Sony combined it with a heartwarming Jose Gonzales track and created one of my favourite ads ever.

And this is exactly what I want in Cape Town! Our city is BEAUTIFUL, large billboards and big pieces of graffiti will always be blimps on our radar, why are they not interesting and inspiring? I know it’s a big ask, but all I want is for the next billboard in my favourite spot to be frikkin’ awesome. Please.