Look at that bling on that four-poster

So, The National Trust are looking for a new agency to help them reconnect with urban youth.

It's the kind of task I'd relish, I have to say. Once you set yourself the task of communicating outside a traditional audience, it demands a creative response.

What I hope is that they manage it without dumbing down, and that they recognise that they need to engage young people with what they do - not pretend to young people that they do something else. And if they do want to be known for more than "crusty old houses", then they should perhaps stop using "Protects and opens to the public many historic houses and gardens" as the first sentence of their description.

And I'm not sure lavender-infused watercolour scheme would be my first choice for connecting with urban youth.

It'll be interesting to see how things develop. And who wins.

Blog for the School of Communication Arts

I wrote an entry defending the use of earphones, which seem to have been much-maligned implements in the creative world. Read it here.

Mother Moneysupermarket

Bit of a classic Mother London advert, this one. It's all about quirkiness, backed up by the little details - the deodorant on the barbecue is a nice touch. But overall, it's so overblown that it's just good fun. Not quite on the "look for it on YouTube" level, but at least on the "might stay and watch the ad" level.

Heinz whistle

At Sir John Hegarty's talk to SCA students last night, he said "find facts and build your communication around that fact". Great advice, but sometimes you can see creatives casting around desperately for some behavioural truth to dramatise, even if it isn't the most meaningful or emotional. In this slot for AMV BBDO, they've alighted on the fact that people blow on soup before putting it in their mouths.

Can you guess the tune? It was so disjointed I couldn't pick it out, and I'd count myself as pretty musical. If you recognised it as "Love Me Tender", then I'm impressed.

But apart from that, I'm just not convinced it's the strongest product truth. And while I know plenty of people who blow on their soup, I'm not aware of anyone whistling while they do it.

It tries to be feelgood but comes out forced.

Snickers - popular with homosexuals*

*I, of course, am asexual, for the purposes of this blog.

But I thought I would continue the theme of featuring ads that had been mentioned by friends of mine, with no outside prompting. This AMV BBDO slot for Snickers, featuring Joan Collins and Stephanie Beacham, was featured on the wall of a somewhat fabulous friend, with the comment "JUST SAW THE JOAN COLLINS STEPHANIE BEECHAM SNICKERS ADVERT AND CAME ALL OVER THE LIVING ROOM!!!!"

It is quite a wonderful thing, I have to admit. So many of the ads I've featured previously have squandered promising premises on poor, thoughtless execution. But this allies a marvelously bizarre initial setup with good lines and good acting.

Just ask yourself, how would you replace Mr T with Joan Collins as the face of your ad campaign while still keeping the creative strategy exactly the same?

Taking a bag of poo for a walk

Not long ago I was out for a jog, and I passed a young chap with a dog on a lead. In his other hand he was holding a clear plastic bag with a poo in it.

Of course it wasn't a significant moment; I have no recollection of what he looked like, or what breed of dog it was. I jogged past and my mind automatically said "boy taking dog for a walk and to do toilet".

But something about the bag of poo got my mind working (takes all sorts, I know), and thinking about the presumptions I was making.

What if the poo wasn't from the dog but from the boy?

What if the dog was taking the boy outside to use the toilet?

What if the boy was actually taking his pet bag of poo for a walk, and on his way had found a dog?

Of course they're all highly improbable, and as a mental exercise it might seem pointless. But it's always worth looking for those assumptions, because when you break them, that's when you get people's attention.

Another example. A man I follow on Twitter was having bad day, then tweeted "Came home from work to this. Not pissed off anymore" with the following picture:

We assume that he's married, and come home to find his wife had baked these, and that therefore he was no longer pissed off because of the love and the rather tasty looking biscuits.

But what if he was unmarried and in fact lived alone, and he was no longer pissed off because he was terrified?

Keep tabs on this one; I want to make sure I get something like this into an ad someday.

"Third World Debt" project

Here's a little project I produced as one half of Molly to promote taking action over debt in poor countries.