Quick thinking Lynx
Image taken from the news story on Campaign
Great ad from lynx apologising to Prince Harry for the fallout from his Las Vegas antics which they claim could have been caused by the ‘lynx effect’ – very funny
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Posts by Suzi Price:
Channel 4’s meet the Superhumans ad is spot on.
I suspect I’m not alone in feeling total respect for Channel 4’s Paralympics, Meet the Superhumans ad.
It’s powerful, gritty and not afraid to show disability up close. There’s nothing sentimental or mawkish about it, unlike that very different Olympics ad I blogged about recently, P&G’s Proud Sponsor of Mums. Nor is it apologetic, squeamish or voyeuristic. Its honest story-telling approach works brilliantly.
Image from the official Channel 4 Paralympic site.
I also love the way it takes the viewer down one route – sporting prowess – then suddenly takes a side swerve showing us how injuries were incurred.
Hopefully the Paralympics and ads like this will have a lasting legacy as to how society views disability.
With the CIO no longer with us, ads like this are doing a great job in picking up the public information baton. Well done to Channel 4’s in-house creative team for producing something so iconic.
Oh and yes, the music, Public Enemy’s Harder Than You Think is a brilliant choice too.
P&G’s “Proud Sponsor of Mums” campaign, a true reflection of modern day motherhood?
P&G’s “Proud Sponsor of Mums” campaign has been cited by many as one of the best Olympic campaigns of 2012. But when we were discussing it in the office the other day the majority of us agree it hasn’t won us over.
The general feeling was that overall the campaign is pretty condescending. It is tagged as a thank you to mums who are, in the campaign’s own words, ‘never the focus’ in their day-to-day lives.
Image from official P&G Proud Sponsor of Mums campaign site
On many levels this concept annoys me and my colleagues singulair 10mg. It plays to the very old fashioned idea that as soon as a woman has a child she gives up her own life and ambitions to become an unpaid servant to her family. This view is actually pretty patronising and I wouldn’t say it is necessarily true of how today’s society functions. What about all the dads getting up early to wash their daughters’ sports kit? Or the high powered execs out there juggling family and athletics of which there are several. Or, of course, the many sportswomen who have children and gold medals at home.
I understand why a company which predominately makes household products would want to glorify domestic servitude, but I think they’d win far more customers by telling it like it is. Buy our products and you can spend far less time doing those boring household chores and far more time with your kids, at work, or if you fancied it, out on the track yourself…
Stop! Grammar time
Image from Grow or Pay
There is a disturbing new trend lurking on the internet – and it’s got nothing to do with cat videos.
Bad grammar and typos can be excused on platforms like Twitter which are all about speed and brevity. But that cuts no ice with people like @CapsCop and @GrammarCop who are building their own algorithims to flush out tweets with typos, flawed grammar or English. Some offenders get away with an auto-response reprimand but for other a full-blown campaign ensues. Kirstie Alley and John Cusack are just two of the celebrities who have been targeted by this red pen brigade.
Now I love a well placed comma as much as the next person, but if there is going to be a war and I have to choose a side, it’s not going to be the geeky grammar brigade. Whilst good grammar remains totally necessary, we need to flex our attitudes just a little. Increasingly we view the world through social media spaces like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube where speed, humour and creativity rule and where the full stop is often dumped as an unnecessary character taking up vital space. It’s conceivable this will start to spill over to mainstream writing soon.
Having good grammar is vital when you make your living out of explaining ideas, which is what we do at Velvet. However Penelope Trunk, dubbed the world’s most influential guidance counsellor, actually thinks having good grammar can harm your career because she believes in today’s society time would be better spent learning other, more important skills. She claims that the overall message in what one says is what counts and that we should stop worrying about the details of how we say it.
I’m not saying we should all starting burning semi colons and live in some sort of grammar-free utopia but what I am saying is that maybe Trunk is partly right in urging us to move with the times, and that there are more important things to get excited about than flaming people who get their grammar wrong on Twitter.
Because you’re worth it…
News that Poundland is selling packs of condoms and pregnancy tests for £1 is getting us talking in the office. Firstly would you trust bargain basement contraception or a pregnancy test that costs less than a magnum classic? Or for that matter be very impressed with a man who paid for the meal, the drinks and the taxi home but scrimps where it really matters?
Even though the £1 products are from leading brands, is it the right environment they should be selling in? Does it really do anything for their brand and consumer confidence, especially with products where confidence is everything?
We also wonder if Poundland is planning any cross promotions – buy two packages of condoms and get the pregnancy test half price…