If you’re looking for the traditional spilt blood of a true Private
View, stop now. Check out Stefano’s column instead. Or ring up John
Prescott and say, ‘Mr Prescott, don’t you think the Tories are OK,
really?’. Or practise your own Jeremy Paxman impersonation (‘come off
it, Prime Minister, it’s all a bit of a cock-up isn’t it?’). Me? I’m
still admiring the glittering gems on my TV.
They were put there by BMP for the Ministry of Sound. The brief? To
encourage 18- to 24-year-olds to vote in the next election. The idea?
Thirty-second documentaries that air the appalling views of assorted
bigots, crackpots and racists; each film rounded off with the salutary
message: ‘Use your vote, you know he’ll use his.’ Your mouth falls open
as you watch a racist ranting: ‘I want the scum and filth out! I want
this country run by white people!’ Your jaw bounces on the coffee table
in front of you as a misogynist explains: ‘I think women are happiest if
they’ve been given a routine job in which they’re given the rules.’ I
don’t doubt the inspiration for this procession of misfits came from an
infamous BBC 2 40 Minutes documentary - I think it was called the
Shooting Party. But that’s not a carp. This is inspired stuff. It
actually makes you want to vote. If only it could solve the problem of
who to vote for.
Let’s move on to something else I like: women’s underwear. I’m not in
the market for hold-up stockings right now, although that could change
when the theme of this year’s agency Christmas party is announced. But
Aristoc’s ‘Warning. Hold-ups ahead’ is a witty six-sheet to put by the
side of the road. It’s a tease for the 48-sheet full-length reveal
that’s supposed to follow a few yards further along. Nice idea, ruined
by the route I take to work. I keep getting the tease without seeing the
full works. It’s like being condemned to relive my puberty.
One of the two Polaroid films is very good indeed, so let me concentrate
on that. It whisks you to the office of a Japanese organisation where
the young hero is being red-carded by his boss. The hero’s revenge is to
grab the office Polaroid camera, duck into the toilet, flash a few
times, and pop the results in the internal post to his erstwhile
employer. It’s a piece of bravura film-making, but perhaps what truly
elevates it above the ordinary is the setting. How many of us, writing
the same story, would have set the action in Europe, with a European
hero? (Age 22, good-looking etc etc.)
On to DNA, which is an alcoholic spring water. That’s another way of
saying it’s watered-down alcohol. The images are suitably arcane for a
young target market. And the tone comes straight from Patrick McGoohan’s
the Prisoner. ‘I am not a rumour,’ the voice says, ‘I am copyright. I am
not a souvenir.’ The result is what Richie Benaud would call a ‘good
effett’. And the endline - ‘pure water that’s lost its innocence’ - has
possibilities.
I do miss seeing the old Peugeot 306 ad. I miss hearing the immortal
line: ‘Nice car. Wanna show me what it can do?’ Followed by that shot.
You know the one. The one where the heroine clawed at the interior
window of the car while the hero, both hands on the wheel, wore a
puzzled Thunderbirds impression as he tried to work out why indigestion
affected his woman that way. In the new ad, the couple are having such a
rollicking good time, snogging, dancing and steaming up the windows,
that they barely remember to pick up the children from the grandparents.
It’s a more credible ad. But I wonder. Will it be as memorable as its
kitsch predecessor?
Finally, BT. They’ve chosen quiet illustrations to announce massive
price cuts. But I work for one of BT’s competitors, so if I suggested
that BT could have done noisier, newsier, more emotional work you
wouldn’t believe me. Besides, the agency concerned has done lots of
other good work for BT and you’d like me to keep this column positive.
Jerry Green is the creative director of McCann-Erickson
Peugeot
Project: 306
Client: Kel Walker, advertising director
Brief: Just because you’re married doesn’t mean you have to have a
boring car
Agency: Euro RSCG Wnek Gosper
Writer: Mark Wnek
Art director: Oliver Caporn
Director: Peter Smillie
Production company: Smillie Films
Exposure: National TV
BT
Project: Price campaign
Client: Sholto Douglas-Home, head of advertising
Brief: Announce various price cuts on national and international calls
Agency: Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO
Writer: Steve Spence
Art director: Trevor Kennedy
Illustrators: Christopher Wormell (‘Ayres Rock’), Alison Jay (‘sun’), Emma Parker (‘moon’), Brad Gray (‘globe’)
Exposure: National posters and press
Aristoc
Project: Hold-up stocking
Client: Danny Hughes, marketing manager
Brief: Make women feel confident about wearing hold-ups
Agency: WCRS
Writer: Ruth Jackson
Art director: Emma Reddish
Photographer: Michel Momy
Typographer: Barry Brand
Exposure: National six-sheet and 48-sheet posters
Herres Group
Project: DNA
Client: Adolph Huesgen, export director
Brief: Launch DNA alcoholic spring water
Agency: Summerfield Wilmot Keene
Writers: Dave Copeland, Paul Wilmot
Art director: Pat Thomas
Director: BDH Athletico
Production company: The Producers
Exposure: Channel 4 and satellite TV
Polaroid Europe
Project: Polaroid Instant Camera
Client: Tim Palmer, European marketing director
Brief: Show how Polaroid lets you live for the moment
Agency: Bartle Bogle Hegarty
Writer: Nick Worthington
Art director: John Gorse
Director: Michel Gondry
Production company: Partizan Midi Minuit
Exposure: National TV
Ministry of Sound
Project: Use Your Vote
Client: Mark Rodol, managing director
Brief: Get 18- to 24-year-olds to vote in the next election
Agency: BMP DDB
Writer: Andy McLeod
Art director: Richard Flintham
Director: Dominic Murphy
Production company: Produktion
Exposure: Cinema
