PRIVATE VIEW

I can see into the future. In two days’ time it’s our launch

party.

I predict major hangovers for EC1. And someone, probably me, will do

something rather silly with a traffic cone and a box of matches. Much

harder is predicting the fate of this week’s nominees for Private

View.

I was in the office next door when Trev and Al wrote the now seminal

Tango campaign. I didn’t predict its success. I’m big enough to admit I

wasn’t at all sure if it was up to much then. One thing I was absolutely

certain about was that the previous Tango street hockey campaign was

dross.

Nothing is less cool than a brand trying hard to be cool, and what Tango

was then, Fanta is now. You can’t watch this commercial without hearing

the assembled ranks at Fanta HQ cursing the very existence of the other

brand of fizzy orange water while pushing pins into the flesh of the

orange Tango doll.

If you could see into the future and you wanted to make it big in IT and

computer technology, you’d plan ahead for the guaranteed eventuality of

a new millennium, wouldn’t you? Those bastards with brains the size of

planets who deal in bytes, rams and roms couldn’t see this little snag

until it was too late. Sometimes I just despair. Good news for the

coffers of the agency that gets assigned to tell us all how to cope with

such blatant incompetence. I love the millennium bug logo and the

posters it adorns are simple and direct. Being posters - a simple,

direct and ancient medium - they are the antithesis of new technology,

which, given the task at hand, is a good thing. Sadly the TV campaign,

an extravagantly produced testimonial, is littered with as many

whizz-bang trinkets as Frame Mill Matey could fit into a three-week

Henry session.

If the campaign doesn’t work and the bug takes hold, take solace in the

machines that made this number meeting their maker.

Who could have predicted the new Guinness campaign would have taken us

to Sorrento and Surbiton with its first two commercials? While I may

question the choice of setting, the quality of production is enviably

high. Thankfully, the new VHS recorder at Circus has a single frame

advance facility, otherwise I would struggle to tell you the plot of

this ad. Is that intentional?

They are bare breasts, by the way, with clever nipple-friendly tram

lines applied later by someone at the BACC.

If it’s your birthday and you can get to a phone, there’s a chance,

albeit a remote one, that smugness himself, Chris Tarrant, will give you

ten grand. I predict great things for this Capital Radio campaign. It’s

a great offer, well told. Proof also that Tarrant on TV is best without

the visuals.

Kids are unpredictable. A thought that was no doubt front of mind for

the director on the eve of the shoot for the reading and literacy

campaign.

Fear not - these commercials are charmingly shot and supremely well

performed.

The real hero is the idea. Simple, clear and totally appropriate.

Pulling off such precise drama is never easy and for me the ’bungee

jumping’ line lacks the authenticity of the others, feeling a little

snatched and a bit KIDS as opposed to kids.

Finally, the French Connection poster campaign. I love this. But then I

also publicly declared my respect for the Gap TV campaign and people

stopped talking to me for a while.

It’s different, for God’s sake. It’s brilliantly branded. It looks

magnificent, specially as a 199-sheet poster on the Old Vic Theatre.

It’s simple, like all posters should be. It’s very well crafted and it’s

shifting clothes off the rails like Virgin could only dream about. So it

doesn’t have an idea. But it does, you see. Just not one of those

wordplay headline, visual pun ideas that we’re all used to and feel

comfortable with.

People feel uncomfortable with different. It’s a feeling they’re going

to have to get used to.

COI/Department for Education

and Employment

Project:DfEE reading and

literacy campaign

Client: Mel Brown, team leader, strategy and communications directorate

Brief: Persuade parents to

read with their children as

often as possible

Agency:DMB&B

Writer: Richard Russell

Art director: Carl le Blond

Director: Roger Woodburn Production company: Park Village

Exposure: National TV, cinema

Capital Radio

Project: Birthday Bonanza

Client: not supplied

Brief: Get as many listeners as possible to tune in to Birthday Bonanza

on 95.8 Capital FM

Agency: Abbott Mead

Vickers BBDO

Writer: Mary Wear

Art director: Damon Collins

Director: Tom Vaughan Production company: HCL

Exposure: Regional TV - Carlton and LWT

Coca-Cola Great Britain and Ireland

Project: Fanta

Client: Charlotte Thursz,

brand manager

Brief: Fanta enhances fun

with friends

Agency: Leagas Delaney

Writer: Tom Hudson

Art director: Tom Hudson

Director: Floria Sigismundi

Production company: Academy

Exposure: National TV

Guinness

Project: Guinness Draught in cans

Client:Andy Fennell,

marketing controller

Brief: Position Guinness Draught as the definitive take-home beer

Agency: Abbott Mead

Vickers BBDO

Writer: John Gorse

Art director: John Gorse

Director: Pedro Romhanyi

Production company: Outsider

Exposure: National TV

COI/Action 2000

Project: Millennium bug

Clients: Niki Akhurst,

marketing director,

Sue Smith, marketing manager

Brief: Encourage British business to prepare for the millennium bug

Agency: FCA!

Writer: Shaun McIlrath

Art director: Ian Harding

Director: Gregory Rood

Production company: The Paul Weiland Film Company

Exposure: National TV

French Connection

Project: French Connection

Client: Stephen Marks,

chief executive

Brief: Reinforce the French Connection attitude

Agency: TBWA GGT

Simons Palmer

Writer: Trevor Beattie

Art director: Bil Bungay

Photographer: Blaise Reutersward

Exposure: National 96- and 48-sheet posters in the UK, New York, Los

Angeles and Boston