Costa

Christmas is pretty much a huge marketing campaign in itself, with companies re-branding and coming up with creative festive themed ideas for the holiday. One example is the Coffee shop Costa who have created christmas themed cardboard cups for their drinks. The idea is simple and the perfect way to celebrate the holiday whilst promoting themselves.

Innocent Juice

I recently came across this interesting packaging used on Innocent tropical juice. The side of the label has a random image of an animal(s) in a comical situation. The packaging defiantly grabs your attention and intrigues you due to the randomness. I think it's an original idea too which gives it a a certain je ne sais quoi.

Recipeace

D&AD's inaugural White Pencil award has been won by Leo Burnett Chicago for Recipeace, a project that aims to bring people together over a shared meal in support of the Peace One Day initiative

The White Pencil was launched last year, with the support of Unilever, to mark D&AD's 50th anniversary with the aim of rewarding 'an idea that has a genuine social impact'. D&AD teamed up with Peace One Day, the movement begun by filmmaker Jeremy Gilley with the aim of instituting Peace Day, a global ceasefire on September 21 each year. Entrants to the White Pencil award were asked for ideas which would 'grow awareness of and engagement with Peace Day'. Those ideas had to actually run this year, rather than just be concepts.
The winner, announced at D&AD's White Pencil Symposium last night, describes itself as 'a social movement that brings people together over food. The intent is to build awareness for Peace Day on a global scale, while inspiring peaceful action on an individual level'.
Some examples of the winning work:

I think this is a great creative idea, I particularly like the use of the Portmanteau in the name, combining recipe with peace. The imagery used is well thought out and portrays a powerful message by contrasting weapons we associate with war, along side everyday foods. The design looks simply yet works very effectively. 

Shop Displays

I love visiting the Trafford Centre in Manchester during this time of year as the place is amazingly decorated, from fairy lights on palm trees to neon reindeers. During a recent visit I spotted an interesting, alternative take on a Christmas themed shop window display. The shop in question is the designer store Ted Baker, who have an animated inflatable snowman wearing a thong that dances in the window, their stores across the world all feature the same snowman. After researching their display I also discovered that they are renowned for this kind of display at christmas and previously had a similar idea, with a inflatable santa wearing stockings. 
I think the concept is great and very entertaining, the window defiantly caught bystanders attention and gives people something to look and laugh at. It also beats a bit of tinsel around a mannequin. 

Patchwork Polo

Members of a patchwork and quilting group based in New Milton, Hampshire have designed and created a quilt for the Volkswagen Polo. The quilt was created for their annual ‘Quilt, flower and music festival’ in New Milton. I think this is a great quirky idea and adds a whole new aspect to patchwork and quilting design, the quilt also appeals to a much wider audience than a standard patchwork blanket would. I also think its great how proceeds raised from the quilt were donated to various charities across the UK.

UK's Last Typewritter

The company 'Brothers' have produced the UK's last ever typewriter, Brother said it had stopped making typewriters in the UK because demand had fallen sharply in this country and that it still had significant sales in the US but its factory in the Far East produces enough typewriters to serve this market. 
When I first heard this news I think I was more surprised that people still used typewriters as they have never been commonly used in my generation and have become a piece of dying technology. However before all our modern technology typewriters were essential to businesses and were widely regarded as being instrumental in helping many women to enter paid work for the first time.
The last typewriter to be built in the UK was produced at a north Wales factory and has been donated to London's Science Museum who said the piece represented the end of a technology which had been "important to so many lives"

Guerrilla Advertising

As part of my London Brief I looked at Guerrilla Advertising, a lost cost advertising strategy that covers various mediums such as graffiti, stickers, flash mobs etc. During my research I found a news article which talks about a new craze to hit the London Underground, in which people have been using this form of advertising to create humorous stickers. The stickers were placed across the underground covering up or replacing signs. Some people argued that it was vandalism or a hazard, however I think it's quite an entertaining fun idea and defiantly would brighten up peoples commutes into work etc. 
Some examples of the stickers:

4GEE

This new Ad for '4GEE' the UK's first 4G network, uses a popular viral youtube hit, namely Fenton the dog, and remakes it into an advertisement for their network. During the ad you hear the original voice clip of Fentons owner calling his name as the dog runs loose into a field containing wild deer and chasing them, the already humorous video is edited so that more animals appear in the chase, including some bizarre ones such as a hedgehog and even a dinosaur.
The Advert is funny and I think by adding a funny twist to a viral video that people are already familiar with creates a good memory for consumers to associate with the brand. The company used other popular viral videos to promote themselves, such as 'the sneezing panda' in which a panda is caught on tape sneezing scaring its baby.

The Smiths + Penguins

Manchester artist/illustrator Chris Thornley aka “Raid71“ has created a series of book covers that each use song lyrics/titles from the 80s alternative rock band The Smiths and resemble the classic look and style of retro Penguin paperback books. Each of the covers are based upon a different song by the iconic Mancunian band whilst emulating the style of the classic Penguin book covers from the 50's-60's, which also relates well to the influences use on The Smiths album covers. This work was published and can be seen in exhibitions all over the globe.

I think this is a great idea and the overall outcome worked well, the bright blocks of colour and well thought out illustrations represents both the band and classic book covers well to create an amazing piece of juxtaposition work. 

"Holidays are coming!"

Probably one of the greatest christmas campaigns of all time is created by the infamous soft drinks company, Coca-Cola. The world wide brand has created such a successful advertisement that became so iconic they run the same one every year, along side more modern adverts, and people can automatically associate it with the brand.

The popular commercial features a train of red delivery trucks decorated with Christmas lights, driving through a snowy landscape and causing everything that they pass to light up and bring christmas spirit to towns they pass through. For many people this advert marks the beginning of the festive period, and many Facebook pages were created such as 'You know christmas is coming when you see the iconic Coca Cola advert on TV.'

I think campaigns like this one really show the power of advertising and how great marketing can really sell a brand.

John Lewis

It's that time of year again when Christmas Ads start appearing on the TV, this new one from John Lewis recently launched on our screens. Entitled The Journey and set to a cover of Frankie Goes to Hollywood's The Power of Love, the 90-second, £6m ad tells the story of a snowman who scales mountains, crosses rivers and braves blizzards in order to get to the city to bring back a present – for the snow-woman who stands with him in the garden. It was shot in New Zealand to take advantage of that country's July snow.

The Ad was created by the agency Adam@EveDDB who will be hoping this years ad is as successful as last years which went viral on the internet receiving over 4 million hits on youtube alone. I think the Ad puts a unique twist on standard christmas TV ads, the song really fits the atmosphere in the beautifully shot video. It's not instantly clear what the ad is about however the end makes it very clear.

The Printer Orchestra

To celebrate the launch of Print 3.0, Brother’s new range of state-of-the-art next generation printers, Grey London has created ‘The Printer Orchestra’. ‘The Printer Orchestra’ is a full-scale orchestra made entirely out of old, battered, reengineered machines. Printers, scanners, copiers, fax machines, hard drives, modems, and even huge dot-matrix printers – 97 dated, dusty machines, hardwired and programmed to perform an Orchestral version of Bob Dylan’s ‘The Times They Are a-Changin’’.

I think the Advert is extremely clever and works well considering how printers generally create annoying sounds. The Ad isn't unique however and the technique has been used before, for example in the Ford Focus "Beautifully Arranged" advert from 2008. The effort and thought process that went in to this advert really stands out and will get people talking.

Dr Pepper

Dr Pepper recently launched a new Ad campaign based on the theory of evolution in which we see an ape progressing to a human whilst drinking Dr Pepper. The Ad is just one of many parodies of the now infamous scientific illustration of evolution from 1965 called "March of Progress." However this Ad has caused controversy amongst many people, particularly christians who believe the ad shows support for the scientific theory of evolution, and even threaten to boycott the company. The reality is, the Dr Pepper ad is the latest in a long line of food ads that offend various groups of religious people. Burger King offended Hindus by seating a goddess on top of a hamburger. McDonald's took a hit from Muslims when it released a Power Ranger with squiggly designs on the base that look like the Arabic word for Muhammad to some people.
This makes you question whether negative feedback on an Ad is really all that bad considering the publicity it receives and it gets people talking, which is what the Ad initially aimed to do. 
Overall I think this was a clever idea by Dr Pepper in which the majority of people will see the humorous side, and although I don't think they intended to cause so much controversy I think it definitely worked in there favor.

US Election.

Yestersay was a big day for Americans as they take to the polls to elect their president for the next term. A massive part of the elections is Advertising campaigns and billions of dollars are spent to try to tempt voters on TV and other mediums of advertising. The power of advertising plays a big part in promoting the candidates and many strategies are used. 

One popular strategy used is to show their rivals in a negative light, highlighting their bad points to make them a more liable choice. 

During the 2008 presidential election artist Shepard Fairey designed the iconic Barack Obama "Hope" poster which later came to represent Obama in his official campaign. The poster consists of a stylized stencil portrait of Obama in solid red, beige and various blues, with the word "hope" below. The design was created in one day and printed first as a poster. Fairey sold 350 of the posters on the street immediately after printing them. It was then more widely distributed, both as a digital image and other paraphernalia. The image became one of the most widely recognized symbols of Obama's campaign message, spawning many variations and imitations, including some commissioned by the Obama campaign.

The infamous image also inspired many different designs and online generators were created so people could mock up their own posters. 

Roman Sakovich

London-based photographer Roman Sakovich has created a series of portraits that highlights the ‘before & after’ effects of drug use on the human body. He captures and combines the before and after images into a single photo in order to make the effects of drug abuse more visible. These are bone-chilling photo’s that let you see what the effects of drugs really do to you. 

These photos have a great shock factor and are interesting to look at. They convey a powerful message through a single portrait photograph. 

LIA

This advertising campaign for 'Aspirina' and 'CafiAspirina', the painkillers, was created by the agency AlmapBBDO and won a gold award at the London International Awards 2012. The three ads each contain a bold statement, the ad then suggests which strength of painkiller the company would advise depending on who said the statement e.g 'your 15 year old son' or your '45 year old son' asking to borrow money.

The print Advert is really clever and witty. I think the message is clear and put across extremely well. The humor makes this ad memorable and the bold statements grab the consumers attention.

iPad Mini

Apple have recently launched their new addition to the iPad family, the iPad mini. Besides the obvious feature of it being smaller this new iPad mini isn't much different to the original and appears to be just another way for Apple to make money. I think people who already own an iPad won't be too interested in the new one, however it might inspire a lot more first time buyers into buying the new smaller design.

Apple ran a TV commercial for the iPad mini, which is a short clip which sees someone playing a piano app on the original iPad before merging over onto the smaller design. The commercial is quite a simple quirky way of sparking peoples interest.

Gin packaging

Webb deVlam has created packaging for gin brand Bombay Sapphire that illuminates when it is picked up. The packaging features an illustration by Yehrin Tong that has been produced in electroluminescent ink. The Global Travel Retail pack, which was developed by Webb deVlam with German packaging manufacturer Karl Knauer, is aimed at the travel and duty-free market.

I think the ideas quite original for this type of product and will be really popular around the festive period. However I don't think the idea will be very cost efficient and necessarily appeal to the duty free target market because if the traveller is flying for example the product could easily be damaged and lose its appeal. Overall I think the design looks great and adds a unique touch to the packaging.

Designer Pudsey 2012

Children in Need has released its Designer Pudsey 2012 collection, which sees imaginative re-workings of Pudsey Bear by fashion houses including Mulberry, Burberry and Alexander McQueen.

I think this is a great way of publicising Pudsey and Children in Need, in general. The idea gets a range of famous figures involved and is extremely creative.
Some examples of the bears:

Tom Ford

Alexander McQueen

Confused.com

Price comparison site Confused.com is launching a TV campaign featuring brand character Cara signing a Christmas spin on the song 'YMCA'.
I think the song choice was very random considering the vast amount of christmas songs they could of chose from, but oddly enough it works due to the lyrics. The animation and style of the advert is easily relatable back to previous confused.com tv ads.

Unicef Print Ad

This is a print advert created for Unicef to raise awareness of hunger problems across the world. It's advertising world food day, which was on the 16th of October 2012. The advert also has the message "Hunger kills 2.5 million children every year. Your donation nourishes: www.unicef.ch”.

I think the imagery of a fork resembling a small hand is very clever and although looks simple it conveys a very powerful message.

Space Jump

Austrian Felix Baumgartner has become the first skydiver to go faster than the speed of sound, reaching a maximum velocity of 833.9mph (1,342km/h).

In jumping out of a balloon 128,100ft (24 miles; 39km) above New Mexico, the 43-year-old also smashed the record for the highest ever freefall.

An amazing historic event that will defiantly raise awareness of RedBull (the sponsor) and also inspire ideas to somehow incorporate this event into an advertising campaign. 

Mercedes

Mercedes have launched the world’s first television advertising campaign in which the plot is
decided on Twitter. The campaign features a series of three ads by Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO that promote the car marque's new A-Class to young people.

The ads centre on a musician, played by Kane Robinson, and a professional driver, who are chased by the authorities on their way to a secret gig.At the end of the first two ads, viewers will be asked to choose what the characters should do next. They can vote on Twitter with the hashtag #youdrive. The campaign also features a hidden date, which resembles the date of the gig, by spotting the date you can win vip tickets to this exclusive event. 

I think the campaign in general is a great idea, and a really good way of hitting their target market of young people, via clever use of social media site twitter and showing the ad during the break of popular show 'X Factor'. However I don't think the target market they are trying to appeal to will have the money to spend on this type of car and although the car market is being hit hard finically they should just stick to appealing to their usual market and invest money into that.

Facebook & Chairs

Social networking site Facebook just hit its 1 billionth user and to celebrate launched their first major ad. The Advert was created by Wieden & Kennedy, the Portland, Oregon based ad agency that became famous for making Nike's powerful advertisements. The video advertisement appears on the homepage of the site.

The Ad uses chairs as a symbolic way of connecting people around the world, in the same way that Facebook does. I thought it was a weird, random but interesting concept. Wieden Creative Director Karl Lieberman explains that the company wanted its first advertising message to be humble. "Facebook wanted to speak in a significant, but humble way," Lieberman said. "We thought that starting off with chairs really did that. We don't think about chairs a lot, but you can if you want. You can spend $5 on a chair, or $5,000. They could be incredibly ordinary, or incredibly sophisticated. We thought it was a humble but interesting way for Facebook to start talking about itself."

They ad has already been described as "Facebook's first ad" and "its worst ad," by the technology weblog, Gizmodo. It has also been described as "kind of silly". I agree with the overall reaction and don't think the message is very clear in this advertisement but I also don't think this matters too much as Facebook aren't trying to sell or promote anything, just simply celebrate their success and show users what the company represents and how one site connects the world.

A year..

It's already been a whole year since Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple, passed. As an avid Apple fan (currently typing this up on my MacBook Pro) I remember his death coming as quite a shock and it definitely had a huge impact on the design world to lose such a talented and creative mind. Apple honored Steve today with this video on their homepage accompanied by the following message. 

"Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle." - Steve Jobs