The Chip Shop Awards 2009

Blu Tack advert Chip Shop Awards

After a tough judging session held at Leo Burnett’s offices, The Drum has today announced the nominations for this year’s Chip Shop Awards, the only international advertising awards that actively encourages entrants to cheat by entering ads for clients they don’t even have on their books.

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Sex, Lies and Photoshop

retouched eyes

With so much falsehood in fashion advertising, just how much are we affecting the minds of the younger generation? Magazines, billboards and other print media push an unattainable fantasy world upon us. So when laws are being considered to have publications clearly label ‘Photoshopped’ images, personally, I’m all for that.

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FAB Creative Excellence Awards

FAB Awards

There are just two days left to enter 2009’s FAB Awards (Food and Beverage Creative Excellence Awards). Now in its 11th year, the FAB Awards has taken entries from clients and agencies in over 60 countries around the world. Here are some of my favourites from 2008.

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10 Guinness ads from years gone by

pint of guinness

Guinness® is an acquired taste, and in my younger youth I’d always have opted for a fizzy beer. Nowadays, however, I’m more partial to a pint of black, and here I showcase 10 Guinness ads from years gone by.

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World Wildlife Federation ad campaign

hand towel dispenser

It’s not very often that I see an advertising campaign I instantly appreciate. That’s the power of imagery, and the power of targeting our environmental responsibilities.

This paper towel dispenser shows an ad campaign for the World Wildlife Federation (WWF), and the strapline reads:

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The hypocrisy of Unilever advertising?

Unilever brand logos

Dove, a Unilever-owned brand, have launched quite the insightful viral video campaign, called Dove Onslaught, which aims to highlight how todays children are bombarded with false advertising messages on a constant basis. In this article I discuss the possible hypocrisy behind Unilver as a whole.

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Advertising to children: right or wrong?

McDonalds apple

To a kid, everything’s better in a McDonald’s wrapper.

The Chicago Sun Times recently reported, Are your kids McDonald’s brainwashed?

The article follows research by Stanford University’s associate professor of pediatrics, Dr Tom N. Robinson. The study, involving 63 children aged 3–5, had the kids taste the exact same McDonald’s food, wrapped in branded and un-branded packaging. Every time, the food in the un-branded wrappers lost the taste test.

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How to effectively advertise musicians

How do you advertise an event that features some of the world’s finest musicians? Simple. With a stunning piece of visual artistry.

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How to use cutouts in advertising

CVV ad cutout

Here are two clever print ads for the suicide prevention centre, CVV. The strapline reads, “Help yourself”.

Mer-chan sees these ideas as inspired by the excellent art of Peter Callesen.

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Light drawing and light writing

Light drawing by Lichtfaktor

Light-drawing and light-writing is getting a fair bit of attention lately. Take these two commercials (below) for Sprint (also seen on Marc Schiller’s blog). Quite creative don’t you think?

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