FedEx Office vs UPS Store
Understanding vs Love
Service vs Service
Fast vs Fast
Funny vs Funny
Who delivers a better message?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVruqFDmbyU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MG6Q3x1yV_8
FedEx Office vs UPS Store
Understanding vs Love
Service vs Service
Fast vs Fast
Funny vs Funny
Who delivers a better message?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVruqFDmbyU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MG6Q3x1yV_8
E*Trade vs Raymond James
Fun vs. Fastidious
Silly vs. Serious
Icon vs. Demonstration
Young vs. Old
Today vs. Tomorrow
Short Haul vs. Long Run
Do-It-Yourself vs. Professional Partner
Time to invest your opinion.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEXZ2hfD3bU
Two short lines. With perpendicular proclivities. Intersecting. Replete with possibilities.
Positive. Optimistic. Add-ictive.
It’s humble, yet unpredictable. Lacking pretension and calmly confident
It’s given us great inventions. Great food. Great art.
Yes, I love the plus sign. And the endless opportunities it affords the creative mind.
Consider the combinations it creates.
Peanut butter + jelly. Ham + eggs. Macaroni + cheese.
Abbott + Costello. Martin + Lewis. Oscar + Felix.
Captain + coke. Gin + tonic. Scotch + soda.
Lennon + McCartney. Plant + Page. Jagger + Richards.
To those of us who ask “What if?”and for the ones who channel Thomas Edison, the plus sign is empowering. Emancipating. It’s an enabler.
When do you + ? How do you + ? What do you + ? Why do you + ?
What’s your favorite combination? Your greatest combination?
A Halloween candy competition.
Hershey’s Kisses vs Twix
Sentimental vs Snarky
Demonstration vs Slice of Life
Smooth vs Crunch
Moment of Love vs Moment of Salvation
Which one’s the treat???
I’ve seen the following unfortunate situation unfold countless times for nearly a decade in advertising courses I’ve taught : A student will come up with a highly engaging, on-strategy, traffic-stopping campaign idea for a creative assignment. Then, execute it with visual images that are as well matched and powerful as Lady Gaga singing opera.
Sure, a well composed photograph from one of the many stock photo websites looks great in a layout at first glance. But, upon closer examination of the ad and its concept, the image often does more to blunt the idea than amplify it.
Imagine if there were a website that offered stock concepts. Think ‘Corbisideas.com’ for instance. Type in “Funny, toothpaste, whitening.” Hit search and bingo!!! A page full of creative ideas ready to go. Now imagine coming to class and seeing another student’s work with the same idea from the same site. Royalty-free concepts???
Now I’m not denigrating stock photography. The quality and selection of photography by way of a “click” has become quite impressive. And royalty-free stock has long since shrugged off the perception as generic and common. Full disclosure… many of the outstanding images we see in advertising, both online and off, use stock photography. And to great effect. As a result of today’s shrinking ad budgets, stock is often the only viable solution.
The point I’m making is this: a concept that’s highly original deserves nothing less than an image of the same quality. Your photograph may be original or taken from stock and Photoshopped until its origin is unrecognizable, but you should settle for nothing less than a final execution for a wicked concept that’s wicked as well.
Remember this… when you finally get that interview with the Creative Director of an agency you’d kill to work for, the last thing you want to hear during a review of your portfolio is “Is that picture from ThinkStock or Corbis?”
BMW vs Cadillac
Germany vs America
Engineering vs Ingenuity
Driving Joy vs Automotive Adrenaline
Heritage vs Here & Now
Hairpin turns vs The Fast, Fast Lane
Get in, turn the key, make a choice.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_D9B3LJcdM0
Do you like Velveeta? That bright orange semi-soft mass of psuedo-food.
I do. And I don’t.
OK I know that sounds like political speak but I’m 100% sincere about it. I like Velveeta when it comes out of the microwave and you dip your Dorito into it. And yeah it works great in a simple Mac & Cheese. That’s ’cause it’s not cheese. It’s processed cheese food. So it has it’s place, just not in the world of real cuisine.
Which brings me to the point of this week’s post.
Is your advert Velveeta? Was your idea real cheese? But, when you went to your computer and started “app-ing” your way to creative nirvana, did it turn into Velveeta? What got lost along the way? Very often that mistake lies in trying to be too clever. Too “advertise-y”. Not real. Not relevant. Lacking real ingredients that the viewer can taste and enjoy. Then come back for more. Again. And again. And…
Sure, sometimes Velveeta is the perfect food to serve. But, by halftime they’ll be looking for something with more substance.
Lady Gaga vs Justin Bieber
Dance Queen vs Boy Toy
Babe vs Baby
Sexy vs Sweet
Make Me Sweat vs Make Me Squeal
Flavor of the Month vs Flavor of the Month
Who’s the tastiest?
Who’s more needed, necessary and valuable in toady’s creative environment? The AD or the GD? In my opinion it’s neither. Or rather both. Versatility and broad creative-solving skills are the best way to stay relevant and valuable in the marketplace of ideas.
More and more online and offline media are becoming mashed up. More online media outlets are popping up everyday. Consumers shape-shift from social community to social community with increasing rapidity. All of this requires creative skills that can adapt ideas – big ideas – to whichever medium is called upon to create a connection to the consumer ad the communities they form.
Design and advertising have formed a creative alliance thanks to the Internet and social media. Let’s call it designvertising.