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I recently took a trip to London to see the Hockney landscapes exhibition at the Royal Academy and the Lucien Freud portraits at the National Portrait Gallery. I felt very grown up.

Sadly, Freud was sold out, but I’d reserved tickets for Hockney a month earlier and the show more than made up for it. I’m a huge Hockney fan and had a good idea of what to expect. But the reality far exceeded my expectations. Most of the work is from the last ten years – landscapes of his place of birth in Yorkshire. Some of the larger ones take up entire walls in these huge rooms, others are placed together in grids of nine, eighteen or twenty four. The oils are incredibly vibrant in colour, the iPad paintings strange and thought-provoking, the charcoal sketches beautifully elegant. You’re left reeling as you and hundreds of others are finally burped out through a large door into the shop.

And it’s just then, with these inspiring images still burning on your retina, that the whole experience is suddenly and cruelly stripped of its awesome power as you’re faced with a labyrinth of Hockney-flavoured tat.

This is nothing new, of course. Merchandising is a key part of any large show and a good earner for the galleries. But here, the ante had been upped somewhat and consequently, the experience cheapened – literally reduced to the status of novelty items.

Alongside the obvious books, posters, postcards, keyrings, mugs, pencils and notebooks there were a bizarre and varied array of tacky goods on offer – bags, wallets, hats, trays, scarves, iPad covers and glass dishes to name but a few offending items.

I was left wondering what Hockney himself thought of all this? He’s obviously bought into it – it’s part of the deal – but seriously, WTF?

My mood was realigned when that night at a North London pub, I told a particularly flamboyant friend I was over to see Hockney. He threw his arms up and exclaimed, ‘How wonderful! Where are you meeting him?’

We got a lovely surprise this week when we received an email from an artist called Gillian.

Gillian liked the BMW ad we created so much she was inspired to paint this scene in oil called ‘First Step’.

Thanks Gillian

Even if you don’t like Star Wars, VW’s ‘The Force’ was generally considered to be very effective on the ‘is it cute or is it annoying? talkability scale and ultimately a great brand ad for VW. But the car – ‘Was it for the Passat?’ – was in the end a little over shadowed.

(As a side note The Darth Vader kid actually looked like Luke Skywalker and was apparently quite annoying…)

So I was pretty excited about what they had in store when the teaser ‘The Bark Side’ was released mid January – there were loads of dogs and loads of possibilities for where the final ad could end up.

I eagerly started my computer this morning only to be greeted with disappointment– a fat dog losing weight – why? – Where are all the other nice dogs gone and why have they just slapped the Star Wars reference on the end?

You can see this and all the other Superbowl ads that you might actually be talking about for the next year here..

Also Twitter released that there was 10,000 tweets sent per second in the last three minutes of the game – WTF

So it was surprising to see two of the biggest and most high-end brands in the car market – if not the world – engage in a public tit-for-tat via their outdoor ads in Santa Monica, California. It started with a straightforward dig from Audi at BMW, but when BMW retaliated, it was like, so on. So back came Audi with something bigger and cleverer, and then back came BMW with…a blimp.

In fairness, it’s been very cleverly done. But at the end of the day, will either brand really win?

And I thought I was great using Century Gothic…

Chemistry is currently recruiting for a planner.
Ideally, candidates will have a minimum of 5 years experience and be motivated by the ultimate goal of producing strong creative work which engages audiences and delivers on our Clients’ objectives.
If you think you would be interested in working at Chemistry get in contact and drop me a line at sinead.cosgrove@chemistry.ie or call me on the Chemistry landline 49888 00

What a sweet idea. Developed by Berg London, it’s a little thermal printer that acts like your own ticker tape. You set up subscriptions via your smartphone, and the Little Printer creates a ‘mini-newspaper’ that’s delivered to you whenever you want. Matt Jones, principal of Berg, spoke last week at an event organised by It’s Nice That, where he described it as being a ‘Cloud companion species’. That’s because the ’publications’ which Little Printer accesses on your behalf are created in Berg’s cloud on the Web. I’m not exactly sure what that means, but as you can see in the video, it allows you to print small pictures of dogs, which can only be a good thing. Launching in 2012, they already have Nike, Foursquare, The Guardian, and Google as partners.

coming to a gym/tanning salon near you soon

It had to happen, but did it have to happen here? The answer, of course, is yes. Welcome to Tallafornia. With the success of Jersey Shore, Made in Chelsea, Geordie Shore, TOWIE etc., an Irish version was sure to follow. After all, no one nation on Earth could hope to monopolise idiocy. The free movement of the lack of ideas, increased multi-lateral trade in insults, and the relaxation of border controls on importing dumbness has meant that stupidity has gone global. If a world flag was to be created, it might consist of an image of Snooki wearing a ‘Meatball Power’ T-shirt, with the word ‘FAIL’ in large letters over her head.

Dumbass behaviour, an obsession with tanning, a borderline addiction to bodybuilding, and a desire to exhibit all three seem to have swept the planet as a sort of airborne toxic event – close the airports now before we get Desperate Scousewives – and we in Ireland couldn’t inoculate everyone in time. Seven Irish people – Cormac, Kelly, Jay, Dave, Nikita, Phi,l and Natalie received possibly fatal doses, and are now confined to a house in Tallafornia where they all live/shout/ride/exist together. That’s the idea. That’s what we watch – that’s all there is to it. This means we get to sit and gape in awe at their talents – the ability to enter, and exit, rooms. The ability to provide a valid, mostly upright frame for a range of clothing, from bikinis to singlets. And the ability to follow each other around the house, reacting to stimuli like bedspreads, hot tubs, food etc.in a protozoan fashion.

Now, we’re an advertising agency, so there’s no point in getting too sniffy about the existence of these shows. They are very successful. Plus, they are created with an audience in mind – like most of our work. And there’s no point thinking that TV will ever go back to these days. Pity. But do these shows have to be so dumb? Surely there’s something they could do to make them less numbing. Maybe include subtitles – in Irish, say, or a useful foreign language like French, or German. That way, at least viewers could learn how to say ‘getting my creep on’ should they meet members of the ECB in Coppers. Or how to ask locals ‘Could you direct me to the World Benchpress Championships?’ on a visit to Berlin. A little bit of Spanish works very well in Dora the Explorer. Perhaps she never made it as far as the Belgard Road.

Credits:
Stars: Rachel & Adrian
Original Screenplay: Rachel
DOP/Director: Rob
Production Manager: Kerrie
Tech Manager: Eva
With Thanks To: Nicole (for tolerating the shoot)

No, no children. Santa is in fact a “a Concept, not an idea. It’s an Emotion, not a feeling. It’s both Yesterday and Today. And it’s Tomorrow as well.”

For your marketing in-joke pleasure, some excerpts from the Santa brand guidelines.
Link to the full document below.

http://www.quietroom.co.uk/santa_brandbook/

All well and good. But it’s nice when a big brand like Harvey Nichols breaks the mould and has a bit of fun. Taking the legendarily grotty Walk of Shame and using it to advertise a very upmarket department store is a brave move, but it’s been wonderfully pulled off with just the right amount of realism to ensure a smile. And not, y’know, a complete reconsideration of your drinking habits.

(BTW if these girls were in Ireland they’d have totally nicked your man’s coat. I’m told.)

For some, it is a source of great joy. The heralding of Christmas parties, days off and misguided girls in sexy Santa suits. For others, it’s a form of aural torture. So why, you might ask, would anyone in their right mind ADD JUSTIN BIEBER TO IT!? But good Lord, they have. In this tinsel-draped Oedipal nightmare of a video, we see Bieber crushing on a clearly deranged and unaware she’s middle-aged Mariah – dressed, of course, in an aforementioned sexy Santa suit. Bieber’s screeching is just lamped over the original vocals – Mariah just doesn’t have the notes in her any more, bless – creating an overall impression of bad karaoke.

It wrecks it for those who love it, makes it more unbearable for those who can’t bear it, and creates another platform on which Justin Bieber can exist. And on that note, enjoy!

(promise we’ll blog about good Christmas songs later! But the world needs to see this)

The first ad, from the excellent Duval Guillaume agency in Brussels (anyone can have a bad day at the office) would be described as deeply sexist if it weren’t for the fact that it is impossible to consider it as anything other than stupidly misguided. It appears to be based on a belief that the only way to a man’s heart / other transplantable organs is via his penis.  (A theme which has recurred…see blog post below: Men’s health ads – what does it take? 21 October 2011.)

 
The second ad, from Lowe Bull in Cape Town is as beautiful as it is motivating. It will also be effective where the first ad will not. Because, unlike the first ad, the emotion it evokes is appropriate to the action it seeks to prompt. And, by successfully communicating a brave and intelligent proposition that if you don’t have an organ donor card, you will take someone else with you when you die, it deserves to be richly awarded.

http://www.referendum2011.ie/

The premise sounds great: Warwick Davis, an out-of-work-down-on-his-luck dwarf actor, attempts to revive his career by taking part in a documentary about his life. The actor plays himself, frequently referring to past glories in movies such as Willow, Return of the Jedi (in which he played an Ewok) and Harry Potter. This is not the only post modern touch – the creators of the show also appear as themselves, playing Davis’ reluctant agents (they even reposition their office bell just out of his reach).

So, is it any good? Aside from the obvious and boring accusations of offensive, un-PC writing thrown at Gervais by the aforementioned haters, regretfully, the show feels like a tired amalgam of Gervais’ greatest hits. The biggest problem shouts at you from the moment Davis first opens his mouth: he is David Brent. As a dwarf. It seems Gervais’ ego can’t cope with the fact he hasn’t written the main part for himself, so compensates by bizarrely transferring his / Brent’s personality traits and ticks into the body of the unfortunate Davis.

I say unfortunate, not because of his physical stature and all the difficulties that go with it (the script certainly doesn’t shy away from this), but because you can’t watch him act without thinking of another, more famous actor. And, because of this distraction, the supposed star of the show becomes the least interesting thing about it.

Like Extras, each episode will feature a cameo from a bona fide mega-star. Last night it was Liam Neeson sending himself up as the ‘serious’ actor he’s perceived as. It was this scene that stole the show right in front of the nose of Davis who sat uncomfortably on the sidelines.

In the end, there simply weren’t enough laughs to make me watch again. I actually felt sad. And I’ll never get that 30 minutes back.

eMobile ‘Adele’ radio, advertising the ‘top-up to top all top-ups’.

eMobile bill pay advertisement, promoting unlimited talk & text plans for only €49 a month.

Radio advertisements for the launch of iPhone4 on the eMobile network.

(click on pictures for larger image)

There were tense scenes at Portobello’s Lower Deck pub last Thursday night as agency types gathered for the TABs Battle of the Bands.

Picture the Eurovision where the different acts huddle around small tables looking for opportunities to sabotage their closest rivals, while turning on a wide smile every time the camera is on them. Outside, it was more like Anchorman with the different agencies squaring up to each other outside Max Films on Richmond Row, muttering references to Dorothy Mantooth.

Chemistry’s two man team initially seemed diminutive compared to the six piece band put forward by Irish International only moments earlier. But as soon as art director Adrian ripped into those drums (he had some frustrations to work off) and golden-boy copywriter Rob opened his mouth to reveal some never-before-heard monstrous lungs, the crowd put down their sketch pads and got worried.

Decked out in laundry detergent garb befitting their band name (The Whiter-Than-White Stripes), the guys began with a loud and punchy twist on Tainted Love, then moved on to a punk-rock medley made up of everyone’s favourite jingles. Touching on everything from Wi-Max (a-comin-across-the-nation) to the old classic Flake (only the crumbliest flakiest chocolate), Rob and Adrian ripped up the competition.

Chris Cawley, MC, was seen rocking out back stage while front stage the Chemistry crowd went mad, with Fintan Cooney leading the way, ripping up the dancefloor.

Four agencies moved through to the final and Chemisty had another trick up their sleeves by way of female backing vocals in the form of copywriter Rachel and planner Anna who had been practicing non-stop for three weeks. The song of choice was Always find him in the Kitchen at Parties, which despite popular opinion was not written by the CEO of IKEA.

In the end, Cawley Nea TBWA’s wonderfully named Tender Documents led by edit-genius by day and rocker by night Rupert Morris nailed it with Chemistry rocking in at a very respectable second.

We’d like to take this opportunity to thank Fintan for supplying jumbo sausage rolls to the agency the following morning and to Adrian and Rob for doing Chemistry proud.

Rock on.

There’s the story about the Japanese fishermen who tweet pictures and details of their catches as soon as they’re out of the water so people can check the fish out and then order them via a hook-up with an online delivery store and have it delivered within 12 hours. (It’s interesting that the current John West TV spot centres on being able to trace where your tuna has come from by entering an on-can code into the John West website.) Two very different ways of communicating the same message and no doubt, two very different budgets.

On a different scale, Burberry disrupted fashion industry conventions when, at London Fashion Week, they tweeted pictures of models wearing next season’s range before they hit the runway. Suddenly the privilege usually reserved for the elite became the privilege of the masses and became clear that Burberry recognise the calibre of their followers on Twitter and the influence they have on brand equity.

One more story, this one my personal favourite, is that of a bookstore in the hipster haven of Portland, Oregon. When, shortly before Christmas, a son found out that his Mum’s bookstore was soon to close because of reduced trade, he sent a tweet telling anyone in Portland that if they spent $50 or more at her store before Christmas he would personally buy them a burrito. The sincerity of the tweet and the promise quickly touched the hearts of many and made multiple news stories. People wanted to know who this son was, who his Mum was and they wanted to get involved. Cut to three years later, and the bookstore is alive and well and the interim years have been the most profitable to date.

The thing about Twitter is that its personal. With that comes a lot of unnecessary information (I don’t really need to know that your kid only slept 3 hours last night – but there’s likely a network of parents who really do care.) Likewise, people in Portland weren’t on the lookout for some bookstore hero but the network connected them and by being connected they became part of a story that otherwise would never have been heard. Twitter Stories is a testimonial of the power of experimenting, listening and being open to new ways of communicating.

The second, for the same cause in the US, is called the Prostate Czech, a brilliantly awful pun, and a hilarious and worthy communications effort.

I really, really want the US version to win. Surely guys don’t need even our health warnings packaged as porn?

Unfortunately, the online views show the blokes conforming to stereotype. 1.5m views on YouTube for the raunchy UK version, compared to the Prostate Czech’s 20k…now I wonder which performed better in getting us to take action.