A great nostalgia fest and an indication of how much things have changed in the gaming industry, this journey through the evolution of video games shows how the various genres (war games, sports games, etc) have advanced with the available technologies. The clip was produced for a presentation made by game developer David Perry at the TED Conference.
One of our very first blog posts here on CR Blog showed a selection of posters created by Wieden + Kennedy Amsterdam for Nike Italy. The campaign was for new Nike football boots and each poster celebrated one of the members of Italy’s World Cup winning team in the style of 1950s advertisements. As we reported in that original blog post, each poster is the starting point for an animated spot and W+K have kindly just showed us the first spot to be completed…
2006 YoungGuns of the Year has been awarded to Matt Devine and Luke Crethar of The Glue Society, Sydney for their Jason Donovan campaign for Virgin Mobile. The campaign was based around the premise that Virgin Mobile’s rates are so low that people will use their phones to make non-vital calls – just because it’s really cheap. In the campaign Jason Donovan’s phone numer is leaked on the internet. As a result his phone is inundated with calls. Virgin Mobile respond with a pseudo damage limitation campaign asking people to stop calling Mr Donovan. Finally TV and cinema ads showing pranksters calling up the ex neighbours star were screened – with the message to stop the harrasment. Over 60,000 people visited the www.responsiblemobileuse.com/au site and over 670,000 calls/texts were made to 0403JASOND. Devine and Crethar won a Gold Bullet, 20,000 USD and an invitation to sit on next year’s YoungGuns jury.
Seven international ad agencies have joined forces with the Global Media AIDS Initiative (GMAI) to create a series of spots to raise awareness of AIDS. The first 24 spots in the campaign will debut on MTV channels globally on World AIDS Day, December 1.
The ads forms part of the Staying Alive campaign, which launched nine years ago with a one-off documentary and now encompasses documentaries, a website, concerts and forums with leading politicians. This is the first year that the advertising industry has been involved with the campaign. “We realised that the GMAI needed to involve advertising agencies, so we approached people in Cannes,” explains Georgia Arnold, VP of Public Affairs for MTV. “There were no restrictions placed on the agencies. They were given background info on each of the core subjects, and then the scripts were only reviewed to check that they were factually correct, there was no creative interference.”
This freedom means that the films cover a broad range of styles, from the humorous to the heavy. I80 Amsterdam, for example, has contributed a simple animation of a talking penis, while Ogilvy has created a 70s style commercial showcasing the joys of not having sex (see still above). On the more serious side, Ogilvy has also created a chilling film, directed by Stink’s Neil Harris, which shows three men pulling out handguns and shooting their partners after having sex, with the guns representing the killer virus they have just passed on. On a similar theme, Y&R has created a commercial featuring a couple engaging in casual conversation while playing a game of Russian roulette.
If you feel like engaging in a little culture this weekend, take a trip to see Swiss artist Christoph Büchel’s epic, sprawling exhibition at Hauser & Wirth gallery’s East End branch, Coppermill. Situated just off Brick Lane, Büchel has merged the gallery seamlessly with its surroundings, turning the entire space into a down-at-heel hotel/cheap electronics shop, complete with a tacky sign and shop front on the outside of the gallery.
Moving inside, the illusion continues as a staircase leads into the hotel itself, a rabbit warren of rooms that are disturbingly stuffed with beds, including narrow mattresses in the kitchen and bathroom. The attention to detail is obsessive, with drawers, desks and beds littered with personal possessions while half-eaten food and overflowing ashtrays suggest a very quick getaway by any inhabitants.
With a new font, masthead, crest and thorough restyling of its navigational system, The Times has completed the final stages of its transition to compact format that originally began in November 2003. Neville Brody and designer Jon Hill talked us through the changes they undertook, working with deputy editor Ben Preston and the paper’s in-house design team. “I likened it to moving from a house to a bedsit but not unpacking,” says Brody. “We helped them to unpack and to put stuff on the shelves. We made it more spacious.”
It’s OK to be alone. While in the past, advertising may have conspired to makes us feel utterly inadequate unless surrounded at all times by a coterie of guffawing supermodels, images of solitude are the growing trend in global visual culture.
So say Getty Images whose Map Report claims to “capture the concepts that are shifting global culture and will become hot themes for the world’s media”. According to Getty, “advertisers will no longer shy away from depicting the individual without relationship ties.”
Having spent decades deriding singletons as losers with all the social skills of a rock, advertisers now want to make friends with those of us with just the one toothbrush in our bathroom. And it’s not just because, with no family to support, single people are wont to fill their empty lives with pointless new purchases. Being on your own is now, apparently, an aspiration.
Instead of fretting at your lack of mates or your pathetic inability to attract a partner, advertisers now want you to think of the Single Life as a Good Thing: “The label of ‘loner’ or ‘singleton’ will give way to singleness as a value. Advertising will reach out to those without ties, who can do things that you are not able to do in a couple, as a family or in a group,” claim Getty, who reveal that over half of their top 500 selling images feature solitary people. “We are likely to see imagery around the concepts of peace and quiet as a lifestyle choice enabling thinking time, reflection and freedom from chaotic lifestyles.”
Getty are calling the trend One Life. It’s based on analysis of buying patterns on its website, a study of 50,000 searches conducted in the last 12 months, 120 re-branding exercises conducted for its clients, tearsheets from the 260 magazines read per week by its Creative Research department and a survey of 500 advertising creatives around the world.
It’s all wrapped up in an 11,000 word report which, though blighted by some of the worst marketing bollocks ever committed to paper, nevertheless contains some intriguing insight. We’ve read it so you don’t have to – OK, we didn’t read it all, it’s not like we’re some sad loser with no friends…
From a 1996 episode of David Letterman’s Late Show: is this where Fallon got the idea for Sony Balls? Please don’t let it be true…
Hi everyone
As was previously posted here, we did have some problems with people registering to post comments. That problem has now, happily, been resolved although I should point out that all comments are monitored and, therefore, there may be a slight delay in them appearing here.
best wishes
Patrick
Red Snow Bootprints
Long term Radiohead collaborator Stanley Donwood is set to exhibit a series of paintings he completed with Dr. Tchock (better known as Thom Yorke). Held art Barcelona’s Iguapop Gallery, the show – bouyantly titled Dead Children Playing – is the first time the pair have exhibited artwork together.
We hate to say it, but this is pretty bad from the start. But it’s not Johnny Cash’s fault. Featuring 36 famous faces from music and film, the new video accompanying the singer’s track, God’s Gonna Cut You Down, sadly backfires from celebrity overload. Intended as a montage of personal tributes to the Man in Black – which, on its own is a touching idea – the film actually comes across as more of an excercise in cool-by-association.
And rather than a heartfelt eulogy from those indebted to Cash’s music (and many artists featured in the film, of course, had an acknowledged debt to, or intimate friendship with the man) the film feels like a furthering of what’s slowly become, particularly since his death, Brand Cash.
Alan Fletcher as pictured in his final book, Picturing and Poeting, £24.95 / € 39.95, Phaidon 2006
The Design Museum was packed out with the great and good (plus CR) last night for the official opening of Alan Fletcher: Fifty years of graphic work (and play). Given the tragic circumstances, Fletcher having died little more than a month before, the evening was as much celebratory tribute as private view: a chance for the industry to show how much they loved and admired the man. Among those paying homage were Wim Crouwel, Bob Gill and, bizarrely, former quiz show host Bamber Gascoigne (anyone who knows his connection with Fletcher, please enlighten us).
Derek Birdsall gave a touching, if meandering speech and we all left clutching Quentin Newark’s beautiful show guide (the latter features biographical text from the exhibition alongside Peter Wood’s photographs of Fletcher’s gorgeous studio and is almost worth the admission money alone).
Of course the show is great – GTF’s design is respectful and understated while still providing some delightful touches (including a giant 3D Reuters logo) and Emily King cleverly paces the journey through Fletcher’s remarkable career. It’s all there: from the iconoclastic early years, through major corporate work at Pentagram to the exuberance of an independence secured late in life. But as with all great shows, Fletcher’s should be as much about influencing the future as documenting the past. It is the effect that the show will have on those who come to see it that will be as important as the joy of reviewing his triumphs. So here are some thoughts prompted by last night…
Brands are saying sorry at a more rapid rate than ever. CR’s advertising columnist Ben Kay delves into why sorry is no longer the hardest word and whether this is an effective strategy for winning audiences
By loosening its approach to advertising, and engaging with its audience directly, the drinks brand has transformed with the times and won a whole new set of fans
Kelly Grovier’s new book charts the artist’s persistent dialogue with classic and contemporary art
We speak to Lego’s VP of global brand development Alero Akuya about the brand’s rare ability to straddle the physical and virtual worlds with ease – whether through its immersive new art exhibition in Paris or collaborations with Epic Games and Nike
The Pentagram partner has created the titles for the acclaimed new Netflix show, which reimagines the Greek myths in a contemporary setting
A new book from Reel Art Press collates the first comprehensive history of film posters. We explore why they remain an underappreciated area of cultural design
The Autumn 2024 issue of Creative Review looks at the brands and individuals who are pushing creativity forward on their way to the top
Mark Sinclair talks to the artist and designer about his new book, Lost Ordinary Magic, and the importance of recognising the power of simplicity and the everyday wonders that surround us
We explore how the 90s, an era the UK looks favourably upon for its thriving culture, are continually inspiring a stagnated creative industry
The band’s surreal new album visuals explore a darker, more grotesque side of romance. We speak to the creative team behind the campaign about challenging the visual tropes of rock music
As the &Walsh founder launches her agency’s new offshoot Type of Feeling, she discusses why typography’s ability to evoke emotions makes it one of the most powerful tools at a brand’s disposal
Kinda Studios is tapping into the emerging field of neuroaesthetics to help creatives and brands make more impactful work that benefits people’s wellbeing