Only an hour and a half til train time...

Fingers, toes, eyes, ears, everything crossed that the 6.30 from Kings Cross to Newcastle behaves and leaves on time this evening....

Looking forward to three and a half hours with lots of fellow Geordies, soaking up their accents and getting all excited about being up North again.

Merry Christmas to all our faithful followers...erm, that'll be you then Dave...and seeing as you sit opposite me I could have just said it in person...

See you in 2010!!!

xx

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone!

Apart from Joe Corcoran.

XXX

Xmas Boo

See what I did there? A headline to counter-balance the previous post's headline? Classic copywriting, that! That's why we're paid the big bucks. 

And apparently why we're being briefed on yet another pitch this morning.

Feel like I've opened the window of my advent calendar and found that someone's eaten my little chocolate treat, and there (in the space where the chocolate was) is an illustration of the three wise men being sick on one another.

Whatever happened to winding down for Christmas?

Xmas Cheer

Check out the Christmas themed banner! It's like Google, only slightly shitter.

Even in between working on The Sun and Bupa we still find time to think of Jesus' birthday.

Happy Birthday Baby Jesus!

Poncing about....

You will not believe how long it took me to decide on our new colours...

'What new colours?' I hear you ask.....

Welcome to the World of Tomorrow!

In an attempt to get down with the kids (and also find a better way of showing our parents that we actually do produce work now and again) we've been experimenting with the idea of an online portfolio.

You can see it here. It's the basic version at the moment. Like a ZX Spectrum. Or the fat guy in the picture dressing up as Tron. But rest assured, it will be the all-singing-all-dancing-MacBook Pro-less-revolting-man-in-Lycra soon.

Let us know what you think. We have lots more stuff to add, obviously.

Oh how we love brand guidelines....

The brief was simple. 'A tactical ad to tell people that you now get additional extras when you buy a BMW please'. 'Certainly sir'.

A sweet idea ensued.

That was beautifully and elegantly shot by genius photographer Nick Meek.

Finely tuned by Brad Eagle at Tag.

And then......BANG! Out of no where brand guidelines hit us like a tonne of bricks.

Hopefully you can still see the thing of beauty it could've been....

Onwards and upwards....

The Clocks Go Back (Sponsored by Radox)

A while ago we had the idea of hijacking the clocks going back as part of our Radox 'Be Selfish' campaign. 

Jane and our good friend Alistair Campbell (Digital Creative Director at WCRS) did a viral with some bloke from Eastenders stripping off while talking about what the clocks going back means.

We also wrote a couple of print ads which will be popping up on Friday and Saturday. There are shelf wobblers and other such guff, but you're probably past caring at this point.

You can see the viral here as well as discovering that women (well, at least the ones on this website) are just as obsessed about sex as men. 

The print ads are below.

Back to Work

After two weeks of DIY and flat admin' in preparation for selling up and moving further into the wilderness of Essex, I return to work to news of a load of redundancies at WCRS, moral as low as an old dog's balls, and a Kerrygold brief to support Leek Town FC.

I've got that joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, down in my heart... down in my heart... down in my heart!

Everyone!

Where's Dave? *

From about 5.30 today I'll be out of the office for two week's holiday, leaving Jane to enjoy Fun On The Floor, more Sun radio, BMW and a big pitch.

Cue sinister evil nemesis-style laughter.

*I'm hiding behind the bottle on the shelf by the way.

It's not all work, work, work....

Poor Old Dave has been nose to copywriting grindstone for two weeks on his tod....

Meanwhile I've been drinking booze in exotic places - a fantastic cava bar in the wonderful Barcelona to be precise.

I suspect that half of my blood is in fact now cava....hooray!

Does Not Compute

Apparently the Radox digital activity is up the spout. 

The future of advertising indeed.

Digital, Smigital

Radox banners, MPUs  and skyscrapers (ooh, get us!) go live today.

Talk about 360 degree advertising.

Exciting times.

New Sun Football TV Ad (Kind of Like Last Sun Football TV Ad)

Just when you thought we couldn't eek out any more from our day at the New Den with Terry, Harry and Ian, we've managed to eek out some more from our day at the New Den with Terry, Harry and Ian. 

This is the 3rd spot for The Sun football, and has taken some time to get approved and out.

There's also going to be some national 48 sheet posters, press in The Sun and The Times, and loads of other stuff, but for the sake of your sanity and ours we've decided not to post it up on the site. 

More Self Indulgence

Yet another Radox ad. This time for a shower product full of fruit. What will those crazy marketing people think of next!

Selfish Full House

 

And as if that wasn't enough, these Radox print ads can be seen in various magazines at the moment. See what we did with the consecutive page thing there? Yeah, that's why we earn the big bucks. 

Selfish Print

Following on from the last post, this is the print for the Radox campaign that's still out and about (we think). Lovely patterns by Petra Borner. 

Lovely type by lovely Bockers, overseen by horrible - sorry, lovely - Jane.

Be Selfish in the Cinema

This morning we were at Wave, tinkering with the sound on the Radox TV ad we shot in May with Terri Timely through Blink. It's been doing the rounds on telly for a while, and in the next couple of weeks it will be playing out in cinemas too, in 5.1 surround sound and all that jazz.

Bap

The latest creation from the Mr. Dave Kitchen this morning was a Ham & Tomato Bap. 

Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of it. It was nice though; made with Asda crusty baps, ham, and tomatoes grown in Mr. Dave's Garden. I don't know why I'm referring to myself as Mr. Dave. I will stop now and never do so again.

Anyway, I ate the lovely bap for my lunch. 

At my desk.

Yes, this is advertising.

Bragging now...

Not that I'm proud or anything, but check out the stitching on his wings!

How neat is that?

Enough bloomin football!

(After Everton's 6-1 defeat at the weekend I'm sure Dave feels the same way....)

Here's the latest creation from Miss Jane's Knitting emporium....Rosie's Owl...(name TBC once Rosie can speak to name him)....

More Football

Here's the second of three ads for The Sun Football. It's called "Season Start" in case you were wondering, or bothered, or dull I guess.

"Our Brilliant New Commercial"

Not our words, but the words of Sun Football journalist P.Jiggins. Who is obviously employed by The Sun. And not likely to say "Look at this load of crap". So... yeah... You can read his gushing article here by the way.

Anyway, after days of mind meltdown, constant running around and strained nerves, we've finally got an approved commercial, which will run in the Holland .v. England match tonight. 

Many thanks to director Austen Humphries, and all who worked on it at Rattling Stick, WCRS, Angel Sound, Workpost and The Mill.

There is also some print in the campaign, of which these three 48 sheet posters are the first. Photography is by David Clerihew.

Football, Isn't it?

(Photo by Julian Jermain)

14 days to the start of the season and you can almost smell the meat pies. On Tuesday we're off to Millwall's ground to shoot Terry Venables, Harry Redknapp and Ian Wright for The Sun's football coverage. TV and print ads will be made and perhaps a game of football cliche bingo might take place.