So what has Santa Stefano sent me for Christmas? Please let it not be
turkeys. In this season of goodwill let’s try to keep it jolly and
generous.
First out of the sack comes a shiny Mercedes ad. It’s the launch double-
page spread for the SLK. For once it’s a launch ad that actually has an
idea in it as well as making the car look good. Although I did wonder
whether this was the most flattering angle, or whether it was shot from
bove to make the idea work. The darkness of the background really makes
the silver car stand out, and the result has a lot of style. When I
first saw this ad, in the press, the background was printed so dark I
failed to spot the tyre marks and lost the plot entirely.
Next comes a cinema and press campaign for Radio 1. I never get to
listen to the radio these days. My memories of Radio 1 are frozen around
the Tony Blackburn era. So there is a combination of identity crisis and
credibility gap when I play the cinema ad. I guess the intention is to
show that Radio 1 is in touch with what’s happening right now, and get
people to reappraise it. The visual/type mix is inventive and well
executed, and the sound design is dynamic, particularly for the Rap
Show. If it was for Kiss FM the fit would be fine. I just wonder whether
it isn’t a case of ‘he doth protest too much’ and it smacks of Del Boy
slipping into a crepe shirt and hipsters.
Radio 1 part 2. The print campaign. Now here’s a funny thing. After all
that state-of-the-art TV you would have expected a print campaign
designed by Tomato. Not so. This time the typography is straight out of
the 70s with eye-wateringly close letter spacing of stunning
illegibility. The idea of playing around with the DJs’
names/personalities is fine if you already know them. If not, it’s all a
bit confusing. And what on earth is ‘as it is’ all about?
Now let’s dip into Ambrosia. This features a bought-the-script-but-
couldn’t-actually-get-Chris Morris presenter doing a variation on The
Day Today sketch. It all works rather well, brings a smile to the face
and is creamily satisfying up until the point where a Japanese gentleman
crashes through the Devonian landscape yelling ‘Not chopsticks -
spoons’. Some of you have been eating too much Ambrosia.
Obviously people have been eating too much Marmite as well, because now
it’s come up with an ‘I hate Marmite’ ad to partner a ‘my mate Marmite’
execution. The casting and direction of both films is excellent although
the idea of sitting in a bath of Marmite is quite revolting. But quite
what it’s up to with ‘I hate Marmite’ I can’t work out. Let’s wait until
the next Institute of Practitioners in Advertising Effectiveness Awards
to find out.
The last present in Santa’s sack turns out to be a spot for Packard Bell
computers. I say ‘turns out to be’, because, to be honest, it’s all a
bit of a mystery for the first three-quarters of the film. It starts by
observing commuters in a bleak futuristic world you might experience if
you went to sleep having spent a week at the NFT then ate far too much
cheese. There are bits of Metropolis, Blade Runner, Brazil and Mad Max.
Even a hint of Dunlop ad. It’s beautifully done with the highest
production values and must have cost a bomb. It moves on to a Kafkaesque
bank interior where a pale and interesting young lady ages in front of
our eyes as she waits to be served. What can it all mean? We find out.
It’s all been a horrible dream and now we’re back in Disneyland. ‘Now
you can do it all from home’ we are informed. It is always hard to show
the positives of something like a computer, and it is easier to find
dramatic potential in demonstrating the negative before introducing the
product, but it’s hard bolting the two bits together successfully and
avoiding a let-down at the end. It’s interesting to remember Ridley
Scott’s classic Apple ad didn’t burst the bubble and worked all the
better for it.
So, a mixed bag from Santa, and a merry Christmas from me.
Jeremy Pemberton is the creative director of DMB&B
CPC (UK)
Project: Marmite
Client: Amanda Hawkins, marketing manager
Brief: Make Marmite relevant again to an audience for whom it has become
slightly distant and a bit too worthy
Agency: BMP DDB
Writer: Andy McLeod
Art director: Richard Flintham
Directors: Traktor
Production company: Partizan Midi Minuit
Exposure: National TV
CPC (UK)
Project: Ambrosia Rice Pudding
Client: Adrian Dent, marketing manager
Brief: Re-establish Ambrosia Rice as a contemporary eat-anywhere-anytime
snack
Agency: Delaney Fletcher Bozell
Writer: David Adamson
Art director: Richard Prentice
Directors: Terrence O’Conner, Marek Losey
Production company: Trademark Productions
Exposure: National TV
BBC Radio 1 (cinema)
Project: BBC Radio 1
Client: Sophie McLaughlin, marketing manager
Brief: Bring the audience to the station at the times most suited to
their needs
Agency: St Luke’s
Writer: Kola Ogundipe, Naresh Ramchandani
Art director: Dave Buonaguidi
Director: Earl Sebastian
Production company: Oil Factory
Exposure: National cinema
Packard Bell
Project: Packard Bell
Client: Peter Bromage, managing director, UK
Brief: Maximise Packard Bell’s leadership in home computing
Agency: M&C Saatchi
Writer: Judy D’Mello
Art director: Jean Batthany
Director: Samuel Bayer
Production company: not supplied
Exposure: National TV (not Scotland) and satellite
BBC Radio 1 (press)
Project: BBC Radio 1
Client: Sophie McLaughlin, marketing manager
Brief: Bring the audience to the station at the times most suited to
their needs
Agency: St Luke’s
Writer: Kola Ogundipe, Naresh Ramchandani
Art director: Dave Buonaguidi
Photographer: Robert Clifford
Typographer: Robbie Sparks
Exposure: National press and posters
Mercedes-Benz
Project: SLK
Client: Oliver Johnson, general manager, marketing
Brief: Launch the SLK two-seater sportster
Agency: Leo Burnett
Writer: Nick Bell
Art director: Mark Tutssel
Director: Russell Porcas
Typographer: Trevor Slabber
Exposure: National press
