Wednesday 23 November 2011

It's Chriiiiiiistmaaaaaaaasss Part 2

Littlewoods' jolly festive offering (created in-house) is proving less than popular with precisely the audience it's trying to win over.

Irate Mums from all over the country have been bombarding the company's blog with three main beefs:

1.  It kinda blows the lid on the whole Santa Claus caper for their still innocent 'ickle ones.

2.  It encourages the notion that to be a good mother you have to buy your kids expensive stuff they don't need and you can't afford.

3.  It's incredibly sexist (Where exactly is Dad? Chopping wood for the log fire?).

Rumours of revisionist Facebook activities are also circulating.

You can see the ad and read the comments here (although don't be surprised if it 'magically vanishes' soon).



Wince pie anyone?




Agency, heal thyself.

It's very easy and usually unwise for one agency to have a pop at another.

But as with most rules, there's always room for an exception. And we're more than happy to make one for this turkey, from large multinational conglomerate Sapient Nitro.


Apparently, they are 'Idea Engineers', or something. They're so proud of this fact they decided to write a song about it. And produce a video too.





Now musical taste is a very subjective thing, and there will be some out there who might like this jaunty little number. But most were pretty scathing. Twitter and YouTube gems include:

"My eyes just vomited into my brain."
"OMG my skin just fell off."
"A little part of me just died watching this..."
"Makes me feel embarrassed to be a human."


Ouch.

But that's not the point here. The real problem is that the agency was unprepared for the almost universally adverse reaction it received. Rather than taking it on the chin, they started deleting hostile posts from their Facebook page and eventually pulled the plug on the video altogether. Too late. It had already been copied to YouTube.

So here we have a case study in:

A: How not to do agency self-promotion
B: How not to manage a social media backlash.

It appears the video originated from the agency's Indian offices, and that 'cultural differences' are being blamed. Fair enough, but there's another important lesson for us all: The Internet has no border controls.

But wait a minute. Perhaps the agency is having the last laugh here? If no one was talking about them before, they certainly are now. The video has over 50,000 views and counting and it even trended on Twitter. Hmmmm, pass me that guitar....

PS. The final word goes to Sapient Nitro HQ via Twitter: "We do great social media work for our clients. Today we left our own brand unattended. Sorry."

Friday 18 November 2011

Going to the chapel.

Sometimes life gets interesting when you say yes.

While on route to buy their lunch, Muz and Becky from our Creative department were asked to witness the marriage of Mark and Linise at Chelsea Old Town Hall.

They agreed and 20 minutes later, were cheering the happy couple (and wishing they had bought confetti).

All the best for the future, Mark and Mrs Mark!


Tuesday 15 November 2011

It's Chriiiiiiiiiiiiiistmaaaaas.

Well, it nearly is. And in adland the first shots of festive campaigns have been fired.

Front-runner for ad of the season is this little heart-string tugger from John Lewis. (Well, it made me go all teary-eyed. But then, most things do at my age.)






Of course, the interweb is a cynical place to be. So even though the ad managed to make it as a trending topic on Twitter, it wasn't necessarily for the right reasons.

Charlie Brooker, for instance, started a debate about what really was in the little boy's gift box, suggesting that:


"Anyone who wells up at that John Lewis ad is a monster. That's a dog's head in that box."


Meanwhile, miserabilist Smiths fans bemoaned the fact that Morrissey and Marr had sold out in allowing their hymn to teenage alienation be used to sell fast moving consumable goods. Oh, and that the cover version was rubbish.


But the best (and most creative) reaction was this clever bit of editing that married the ad to the music from The Shining to chilling effect:







Merry Christmas everyone.



Monday 14 November 2011

Changing Rooms.

We've recently updated our office with three new working spaces. Collectively named 'The Crystal Maze', each area is supposedly for a specific purpose, except everyone seems to have named them something different. Names include:

The Land of Leather.
The Docking Station.
The War Room.
The Smoking Room.
The Medieval Zone.
The Room with the Client in.
King Arthur's Round Table.
You Know, The One With The Big Table, Round The Corner, On The Left.

Here are Becky and Carley decorating The Land of Leather, in order to make it a little more homely. All that's missing is a roaring fire and some glass decanters....






Friday 11 November 2011

Will you marry me?

So with the eagerly awaited (two years to be precise) contract upgrade looming, the all-important question is 'Just how much do I need Siri in my life?' I mean, I think it's pretty unlikely that I'll actually ask Siri to do things for me...and could I trust that they'd be done accurately? If you want something done properly, do it yourself, right?

But all the people I know with the iPhone 4S seem to be able to admit that there is a use, and one use only, for Siri.

Stupid questions.



Saucy Siri....






Something my friend asked quite early on...


But maybe this is just a step too far.....


When will the novelty wear off? And when will poor old Siri get used for things she/he was intended for?

On my contract? Probably not anytime soon. Think I can just about cope with a Siri-less life for now.