Move over, George!

Flo Rida CD single: £1.99
Reeboks with the stripes: £39.99
Simon Cowell's face: Priceless!

The end of a mini-era

A slightly sombre Monday evening as me and Sarah have decided to part ways. Various reasons leading to it, but mainly just in light of our current personal situations and the different directions we're being taken in right now. Sarah's currently trying to get work as an artworker whilst I'm on the 9-5 scene until finances allow otherwise. I don't think either of us would say it's a definite permanent move, but it's what's best for us both at this stage.

Has been a great 9 months and such a learning curve for us both, experiencing our first placements together and having our first ads produced, something I don't think we imagined would be possible just from our short time at the agencies we've resided at. Glad to have shared the experience with Sarah, and we'll no doubt continue to wreak havoc on the streets of Manchester!




Long live Team Sparkley!

In the spirit of forgiveness

Marks and Spencer have also been making up for their boo-boos (or boob-boobs) this past week after the negative press surrounding their "bigger prices for bigger bosoms" bra scandal. I've never been a fan of M&S as such, and the more expensive DD-cup and upwards bras did not impact on me in the slightest (as much as I wish they did), but I think there's something endearing about a brand that can hold their hands up to their mistakes. Fair enough, they needed to before even more people fled to Asda or Primark for cheap underwear, but to admit that they "boobed" (yes yes, puns are bad but this one is acceptable) and offer a new price AND discounts for a fortnight could well result in the biggest turnaround achieved in such a short space of time.

Unfortunately for them, their wily advertising charms will not have me crossing their threshhold. Power to the Primarni!

Learning lessons the hard way

This week brought about our first proper ads which was very good. Unfortunately, my week is ending on a bit of a low.

A year ago I was a student struggling towards the finish line of the degree under quite a lot of pressure and stress. Around this time I found myself on Facebook rather a lot (nothing new there!) and happened to post a couple of derogatory comments about a brand on a group that I joined, purely to let off some steam. Fast forward to today, and those actions have come back to bite me in the ass. The agency dealing with the brand's advertising has suddenly found this group and my comments, and politely informed me that I can rule out any chance of placement or long-term employment with them for the forseeable future as a result of this.

Let this be a word of warning to any current or ex-student who has ever thought that any negative comments they've made online would never be discovered, be it on Facebook or any other public forum - even blogs. During any placements I have had, I've always remained professional and abided by the terms of contract as well as asking permission before blogging about any aspect of work to avoid repercussions such as this. I understand and respect that the agency in question are simply protecting themselves and their client in such precarious times, but I am disappointed that something I wrote on one day a year ago as a disgruntled student under no contractual obligations, has now backfired so spectacularly.

If you're a member of any anti-brand/product groups, remove any comments and your membership now! I had removed my membership from the group some time ago, thinking the comments would disappear too - unfortunately not! As a mark of respect towards the brand and agency, I have now removed these. In future, unless you choose to be part of a pro-brand/product group, I'd advise anyone interested in this industry to learn from my naive example and stay away from these groups entirely.

As with everything I publish on this blog, this is just another stumbling block on the path to advertising superstardom, but the one I've learned the most from so far. I only wonder where it all ends - what of my criticism of the new Orange Wednesdays ad below? Does that assure me no chance of ever working for Fallon because I think their ad could've been better? If that's the case, then I think all of us bloggers are screwed! In an industry that tries to alter public opinion of brands and products, I find it a tad saddening that the creatives producing the work may only speak positively of brands and products, regardless of whether they are linked to them or not. But I guess you take the rough with the smooth and hope to hell you don't make the same mistake again!

Thus endeth the lesson!

What was that offer again?

The new Orange Wednesdays ads have come under some less than friendly fire since their first airing, the main criticisms being that they're just not as funny as the old ones, and that using the "I am who I am" line to send themselves up makes it less amusing still. Personally I don't have any problem with them, they're likeable enough, though it would be nice to see send ups of other well-known characters soon.

There is one flaw with the latest ad though - the flying monkey. Hell, nobody likes them, but that's not the point I'm making. Orange Wednesdays is a 2-for-1 offer. Witch + Vicki + monkey = 3. Is it just me, or did they need to give the flying monkey a flying monkey companion in order for the ad to sell what's it's meant to be selling?

WOOT!!

The time has come where we can finally reveal our ads for Warrington Borough Transport! Just to refresh while it's been so long, these were formed from a concept me and Sarah had during our time at AND Partners last October which the client gladly accepted. Still only small fry compared to your drumming gorillas and the like, but other than a leaflet we did for VivaLaDiva at Pravda, these are our first proper advertising babies seeing the cold, harsh light of day.


Our original scamps


The finished articles

4-page leaflet using artwork from our ad

The leaflet is something Lee and Sam formed after we left placement, but it uses the image from our ad so I'm shamelessly plugging it on here! For the moment our ads are appearing on WBT buses in the region to promote the U19 Savercard (which was originally U18, it's not a typo on our scamps!), but there's talk of them being rolled out into adshels and bus backs at some point. Whatever happens we're just happy to have work out there being seen, and the canny thought that the teens seeing it will never once think "I wonder who came up with these ads?" is actually kind of cool. Sure, someday we want to do something as big as Gorilla or Balls (possibly a gorilla's balls, you never know!), but for now it's a good feeling that Joe Public are seeing our work.

Though we sadly didn't get to see the project through from start to finish, we're glad we got to head to the shoot for it in February, and we've been enlightened as to just how long even the simplest of ideas can take to come to fruition (6 months!). Cue Oscars-style speech! Thanks to the AND Crew for giving us the opportunity to have our work produced, to Lee for letting us mock him as always at the shoot, and to Ste for keeping us in the loop about everything that was going on. Cheers guys!

Easter update

Just a quickie! Unfortunately me and Sarah received an unfavourable response from Finch yesterday - turns out they opted to go for a more experienced team which is understandable based on their standing at the moment. A tad disappointed, but knockbacks are always to be expected, more so now than ever. And at the end of the day it's another contact we've gained, plus Kerry said she'd put us in touch with some of their contacts closer to home in Manchester, so there's always that silver lining somewhere.

Right back to the chocolate eating. Not as a form of consolation, just because I love scoffing!