Italians Do It Better. Apparently.

Oh the glamourous life.....

Peroni Nastro Azzuro have released their Spring/Summer campaign into cinema's today, supported by print, outdoor and online campaigns. The ad features disgustingly beautiful, stylish Italians, frolicking in the summer sun [yadda yadda yadda]. There are bikinis, yachts, white teeth, silk panties, abs, lipstick, legs, sea-planes, heavily kohled eyes, seductive smiles, all filmed in a 'vintage-style' Bolex camera. Well.....um......wow.

I'm not sure if this is trying to off-set the recent crazed, drunken impression of pseudo-Italians that you get from Jersey Shore [can I just say I love that shit], but I think it's a bit OTT. A bit. Just a bit.

Not gonna lie, it's nice to look at, but I feel terribly depressed and lame after watching it... I almost feel like I'm not quite good enough to drink Peroni. Bullshit.

Take a watch below; you'll either find yourself craving the Italian way and thirsting over a nice cold bottle of Peroni, or wanting to hide away in a hole, drinking White-Lightning from the 2-litre bottle, whilst you dream of better times [mainly tanned, lithe and beautiful times].

Like Steve Tyler once famously said, 'nothing tastes as good as skinny feels'. Apparently, it tastes something like Peroni.

If Carlsberg made beer adverts [oh wait...], it wouldn't look like this.

Search Engine Optimisation: the 5th Element of Hip-Hop?

This is Poetic Phophet (aka Chuck) and this is a man with a lot to say about SEO (search engine optimisation, dun know). Hip-hop has always been a sphere that celebrates betterment and is, by it's very nature, a capitalist enterprise (I've debated this on so many occasions that I'm tired of it). Therefore it follows that in this day-and-age of new media and crowded music industry getting your myspace, bandcamp or website up the "Page Ranking" can be a shrewd move, and predicate the all important "hit" ratings that artists and label agonise over in equal measure.

This of course spills over into any market or industry, indeed "Chuck" does this consulting on the subject for a living. Given the turgid nature of the subject I think the big man deserves some props on making it completely accessible and, dare I say it...Interesting?

Playa

Pondering Over Posters...

[Image taken from here, thaaaaaaaanks]

Recently, TBWA's 'Hello Boys' Wonderbra billboard was voted the greatest poster advert ever created in Campaign's Outdoor Hall of Fame, held in association with the Outdoor Media Centre. Other ads that appeared in the running were the famous army recruitment poster, "Lord Kitchener Wants You" as well as 'Beanz Meanz Heinz' and the Apple iPod silhouette adverts. You can see the 100 posters that were in the running as well as the top 10 here.

While I was looking through the adverts that made the cut it got me wondering, when I think of posters not one of the examples that made the top 10 sprung to mind, in fact nothing sprung to mind. Maybe I wasn't thinking laterally enough, or long enough for that matter, it was fucking frustrating to say the least. As a normal consumer/average person living in London I'm exposed to adverts pretty much all day everyday, on top of that it's part of my job to notice and take note of them, so why couldn't I think of one I thought was great, let alone the greatest?

After a while I decided to do the thing that we always do when we're not sure of something, I went out to the network and asked a few of them the same thing. The responses I got were brilliant, as always [see below] but the same thing seemed to happen in their heads that did in mine, ummming and ahhhhing, and hmmming and haaaing. When I asked Jayga he said "there have been innumerable clever poster campaigns, I just can't think of one" and Kyle said he was "not sure, can't really remember any".

If anything this reiterates a statement we stand stoically by; kids don't think in league times, they don't think about online and offline adverts, posters and TV, they're all just conversations to them. So have them consistently, have them courteously and oh, have a read of the below.

Been a while.

Niceness.

"Not sure can't really remember too many but I remember the Rooney one? Nike did? Dunno if it was a poster or not but I remember the image during the world cup" Kyle, 20, London

"I like the G Star Raw one I think it is, with the world's best chess player on it. I hate G Star Raw but it's different and stuff!" Brandon, 16, Manchester

"The Apple iPod posters circa 2004, the silhouettes with their ipods, that's a fav. And the most memorable/famous for me would be the 'Hello Boys' wonder-bra malark due to the controversy and tinggg." Tamika, 19, Essex

"Well the best poster for me was the Jordan - Wings poster. Advert though, I'm not sure." Oliver, 20, Leytonstone

"The coolest one I can remember is the old ipod ones, with the bright, bold, single colour backgrounds and a silhouette of someone dancing, but you can see the headphone cable of the ipod etc. I thought they were mint." Ben, 22, Manchester

"Limitless. Uno the one I'm talking about? Yeah, that one towers above all of them for me." Hayley, 18, Essex

"There have been innumerable clever poster campaigns. Erm... I like the Orange/T-mobile joint campaigns. It's simple, it conveys the point quickly and simply, it's jovial amd maintains brand identity while being cooperative." Jayga, 22, London

"The YSL OPium perfume advert because it is provocative and alluring and sensual without being outwardly slutty

and its so simple." Dionne, 24, London

"I like rave line-up posters because I love going to raves! :) One of my favourite raves is one that gio goi are helpin a couple of mates who have started to Dj, its bez outa happy mondays sons, its called stepping out, at moho live in manchester." Mike, 18, Glossop

Dorothy, You Took My Name.

Manchester based creative agency Dorothy has released a series of paintings that strip famous logos back to their basic graphic design, creating what they think are art pieces in their own right, in a project entitled 'You Took My Name'.

Dorothy, who call themselves "a collective of like-minded people working on unlike-minded ideas" [what!?] sell a lot of their pieces, via their website, and still rank Winning the Co-op's Under 12's drawing competition as one of their proudest moments [all together now, awww...].

I don't know what the yellow one is, but the rest are all fairly obvious. I guess they're 'nice'; I personally wouldn't have one, but I'm sure there are some 'this-is-simple-creative-art-that-nobody-else-has-done-before' lovers out there, who are willing to go in on these.

Photos politely stolen...ahem... borrowed from [here]

A Royal Appointment

Advertising agency 18 Feet & Rising have jumped on the Royal Wedding bandwagon and used it in their latest campaign for Freeview HD; The £1.8m campaign aims to encourage viewers to upgrade to HD in time for the spectacle.

The advert, which uses Corgi's [of course] travelling across Britain, to get to a TV set showing the Royal Wedding [in what we would presume is HD], has come with mixed reviews.

Some like it; it embodies the British culture, what with the Thames, the Corgi's, the Union Jack et al. Words such as cute, sweet and nice kept appearing when describing the advert.

However, some didn't get the cuteness and thought it wasn't interesting or funny and thought it would appeal to a much older audience, such as their mothers and grandmothers.

The overall feeling was that it was of an inoffensive nature, quite enjoyable and extremely easy viewing.

I personally quite enjoy it; it's not threatening at all, and almost makes light of a situation that is quickly becoming over-indulged. The puppies help as well.

Well Done Vans

Vans latest video in the Pass The Bucket series profiles BMX rider and three time US gold medalist Stephen Murray. Almost four years ago, during the BMX Dirt Finals of the Dew Actions Sport Tour in Baltimore, Murray attempted a double backflip which ended up going horribly wrong (the crash was quoted as being "one of the worst crashes seen in BMX"), paralyzing him from the neck down and instantly ending the career of this incredibly talented 27-year-old. Pass The Bucket looks at Murray's now drastically altered life, and the inspirational outlook he still has on the world, its a really touching video and is executed very well.

Pass The Bucket - Stephen Murray from Off The Wall TV on Vimeo.

Vans have done well on this one, its really interesting for a brand rooted in action sports to profile someone who may be an example of the negatives of such sporting activities but manage to portray them as a hero and an example of strength and self belief. Nice

Beck's Art Crawl : London

Beck's are celebrating 25 years of their iconic art labels by showcasing eight of their favourite labels in bars and pubs in East London.

I borrowed this photo from [here]...

Since 1874, when Beck's broke away from the standard brown bottle, they have celebrated independent thinking and continue to do so through their art labels, designed by the likes of Gilbert & George, Rachel Whiteread, and more recently, Ladyhawke and Pheonix.

Beck's will be displaying their chosen eight art labels in such bars as The Griffin, The Old Blue Last, The Owl and The Pussycat and more, shown by the map below.

Art Crawl LIVE will offer 100 pre-registered users to take part in a themed photographic event. Participants will be given cameras to use London as their backdrop to shoot and create a new art label. Submissions will be judged with the winning team receiving a limited edition print of their chosen art label.

...and this one from [here]

The Art Crawl will be on display between 11th and 28th April, with Art Crawl LIVE happening on the 16th April. Go to Beck's Facebook page for more information.

Lucozade The Wild Ones

Lucozade have enlisted the help of UK rapstar Tinie Tempah, acclaimed drummer Travis Barker and boxer Katie Taylor [ Triple World Female Champion]for their short film the Wild One's. The short film is more of a mini-music video and seems to be tied in with their "YES campaign centred around the "YES" moments in life that make your heart beat faster. The sound of the advert is pretty good, there's some amazing drumming from Travis and it's shot in a gritty yet pretty fashion. Though I must say an appearance by Tinie Tempah on another campaign does leave the questions "is he being overused?" I mean he's already the poster boy for Blackberry. Anyway after watching the adverts I decided to have a gander at Lucozades facebook page, where you're treated to some more short video pieces with spotlights on Tinie, Katie and Travis individually.

There's also a game you can play, and the date [18/04/11] which is when the YES campaign kicks off from what I can make out. The only thing if you don't check out the individual shorts and are just greeted by the date in bold its a bit of a "Oh, is that it."rather than a "YES" moment.

Robinsons Double Concentrate Commercial: Squash for All

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Award winning director Shane Meadows has directed the latest advert for Robinsons most recent product launch. 'Double Concentrate' is a new squash that only requires a tiny amount to produce a drink coining the strapline 'a lot from a drop'

The video exhibits a distinctly 'Meadows' style following a group of young children as they travel through the neighbourhood giving out free squash. A beautifully shot piece with gobby kids and a tinkly theme tune, this is heart warming stuff.

New Era - Trash Talking

I'm a fan of 30Rock and the American Office, [I can't deal with the awkwardness of the Original British version]. So Alec Baldwin and John Krasinkis banter over the blower regarding the bitter rivalry between the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox was always going to be a winner, even if John ended up taking it a bit too far.

Now where's all the good shit from New Era in the UK?

Reasons to do consumer research #1 [Sharwoods]

Image taken from here, sorry

Hopefully it's not really #1 and our blog often proves why you need to do consumer research... still, hearing about this on the radio over the weekend, I couldn't help think "yea, should've done some research there folks..." 'cos surely, bringing out a curry product range in 2003 based on the Punjabi name for 'arse' wasn't the greatest idea by Sharwoods.... Here's the Guardian's take on it, eeek etc....

So confident was Sharwoods that its new Bundh sauces would be a hit that it backed the launch with a huge £6m television advertising campaign created by Labour's advertising agency, TBWA.

What it failed to foresee was that "bundh" in Punjabi has an altogether less savoury meaning - the nearest English translation being, to put it bluntly, "arse".

After the advertising campaign launched, Sharwoods owner Centura Foods began to get calls from Punjabi speakers pointing out their gaffe.

But the company is sticking by its name, insisting it was "inspired by a traditional northern Indian 'closed pot' method of cooking which creates a deliciously rich, full of flavour dish of tender meat".

And in case you missed it the first time, yea, £6m.

Christ.

Pseudo.

TOMS: One Day Without Shoes in the UK

We all know about TOMS' One for One, and if you don't, here it is: With every pair you purchase, TOMS will give a pair of new shoes to a child in need. One for one. It's great.

5th April saw One Day Without Shoes happen in London. The event, which raises awareness of conditions of children in need, such as unsafe roads and contaminated soil, allows people to spend their day shoeless.

An event was also put on at Jaguar Shoes in Shoreditch later that evening, from noon till late, for everyone who took part during the day. At the evening event, different terrains were available to walk on, as well as Oragami TOMS. Keep an eye out for the annual event... in the meantime, you can buy TOMS here.

Insight 'Untitled'

Insight 2011 Campaign from MIKE PISCITELLI on Vimeo.

A mammoth street party in Bondi Beach, Australia marked the official launch of Insight’s equally epic 2011 campaign, ‘Untitled’. The video above captures the brands ethos pretty well and is definitely worth a watch. ‘Untitled’ champions artistic freedom and, for Insight creative director Steve Gorrow, is an act of “sticking my finger up to the industry.” The campaign is depicted through a series of installations collectively conceived in Bali by Insight’s ‘Garage Artists’ from around the world.

Click here for the full story on the campaign

Be Momentos

With the London Olympics fast approaching, expect to see an awful lot of sports-inspired tag-lines and advertisements. Mentos have come up with a nice and simple hope-enducing humorous advert. Whilst the products relevance to athletics is slightly dubious, the sweets/mints are de-bloody-licious, and I'm glad the Chicken won the race.

How To Piss In Public

Offthewall.TV show us lads how to urinate in public via, girls you 're free to have a go too, but I doubt you'd be able pull off step 5 or the step 2. But its all good.

Thanks Vans

April Fools Spoofs

Here are a few of the spoofs we came across today, that made us smile:

Supreme X Colgate via BNTL.

Google's April Fools 'Gmail Motion' is pretty amazing.

Vaseline X Marmite!

April Fools

March has been a big month for advertising fails so why not use the date to shoe-horn a few solid pars in. I think it's only just.

First up Phd displaying what might be termed in political circles as an "error or judgement" and in the Ruby Pseudo office as "really shit". I posted this at the time but it's well worth another cringe. Also a good parody here.

Next up Coke Zero's strikingly realistic and faithful portrayal of contemporary street-art-culture. Read Prince's take on this monstrosity here. Watch the evidence below.

Next up is a really rather special effort. Far be it from me to can Cancer Research but the agency that made this should be ashamed of themselves; having managed to trivialise cancer with this pean to pony. Our inboxes were going mad when this dropped and to be honest it epitomises almost everything that we asa company hate. I'm popping two ads on here the second is notable for the curve-ball served up one minute into it.

Here is what my boy Nate wrote about the next clip.

"This is Penfields attempt at a introductory film to warm us to their spring / summer collection of 2011, it's meant to create a connection between the viewer and the outdoors. Its really shit."

Quite.

Best of PWBC & Palace skate team Gangbanging at Ground Zero

PWBC stands for Palace Wayward Boys Choir, but is a pseudonym for Palace World Skateboarding News, check out the best of series one from the Tim & Barry TV vimeo page above. You can check out some of the fifty odd episodes or so over at Don't Watch That TV. RPC are of the opinion that PWBC make some of the funniest branded video content around.

Palace Skateboards recently dropped a new promotional video called 'Gangbaning at Ground Zero', a grainy skate video set to some gnarly old school hip-hop. Whilst the video may be pissing off the yanks, it's great promotional material. The Palace skate team can also be seen posing along side a few scantily clad ladies in the latest issue of GQ.

Umbro and Tattoos

Umbro created a short series on the passions of Footballers that lie outside the beautiful game. They have focused on players who are especially into Tattoos, its simple and works well. Umbro have also featured creatives, musicians and influential personalities who are particularly into body art and football on their website.

Nike Better World - Recycled Advertisement

This new advert for Nike's Better World campaign is made up off 100% recycled footage from Nike's great back catalogue of adverts. A great idea for a great campaign, if you check out the wesbite www.nikebetterworld.com you can read more about the campaign that involves making shoes out of recycled rubber, football jerseys out of old plastic bottles, a new lighter Nike shoe box and more. Nike have also set up a process called the greenXchange where by environmentally patents for product such as environmentally friendly rubber are shared with other footwear brands to help reduce their environmental footprints.

Whilst on paper this may sound like a great campaign and a worthy cause. I can't help but think about working conditions in the factories that produce Nike apparel, which have been widely reported as paying appalling labour rates to workers who work in incredibly unsafe conditions in the past. It would seem Nike have things to sort out in their own back yard before trying to make a 'Nike Better World'.