Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.

Campaign for a new Bank Holiday

I read recently that the UK has the lowest number of Bank Holidays in Europe; we only have 8 a year, compared to 12 in Italy, 13 in Austria and 14 in Spain. They have so many in France that they have lost count!

This is a petition to campaign for a new Bank Holiday on the Monday after Remembrance Sunday in November.
Add your name, and lets see whether Democracy 2.0 actually works! The idea of having a long holiday in the middle of cold, dark Autumn is certainly something that makes me smile.

My favourite print ad ever

I remember being a kid at my primary school in north London and seeing this poster stuck up close to the kitchens. I remember being utterly mesmerised, horrified and never, ever letting a fly land on my food again.

When I get asked what my best ad is, this is always the one that I cite.

Based out of truth; beautifully written; brutally effective. 

Truth in Advertising

When I first saw this in the window of my local estate agents I thought that they must have made a typo.

When have you ever heard of an estate agent writing: "This is a deeply unpleasant 3/4 bed period house"?

I think it's brilliant.

If I was buying a house, Roy Brooks Estate Agents would be first folks that I'd talk to.

In an industry full of spin and half-truths I really applaud them, at least you know what you are letting yourself in for.

I wonder whether the advertising industry would come up with adverts quite so honest?

A blog post from beyond the grave

Andrew Olmsteadwas a US soldier and blogger who fought in Iraq.

He died last year.

As part of his will he requested that his Last Post be added to his blog after his death.

Have a read of it, whatever you think about the war it is a profoundly moving piece of literature. It's also funny, in a bitter-sweet way.

"If you have it, throw 'Freedom Isn't Free' from the Team America soundtrack in; if you can't laugh at that song, I think you need to lighten up a little. I'm dead, but if you're reading this, you're not, so take a moment to enjoy that happy fact"

"Believe it or not, one of the things I will miss most is not being able to blog any longer. The ability to put my thoughts on (virtual) paper and put them where people can read and respond to them has been marvelous, even if most people who have read my writings haven't agreed with them. If there is any hope for the long term success of democracy, it will be if people agree to listen to and try to understand their political opponents rather than simply seeking to crush them...Blogging put me in touch with an inordinate number of smart people, an exhilarating if humbling experience. When I was young, I was smart, but the older I got, the more I realized just how dumb I was in comparison to truly smart people. But, to my credit, I think, I was at least smart enough to pay attention to the people with real brains and even occasionally learn something from them. It has been joy and a pleasure having the opportunity to do this"

Andrew said that as a blogger he wanted to make sure that he could "have the last word".

Made me think about death in a web 2.0 world.

I wonder if this kind of blogging goodbye from beyond the grave will become more usual as we all live our lives online through blogs and social networks?

Sorry if this sounds like a morose post.

Don't write me a script, write me the press release

All of a sudden it's 2008.

I admit that I am struggling a bit to get back into the swing of work.

I know that it will get easier...

Couple of random-ish thoughts really that I wanted to share, both about the creative end product.

We've been pitching a lot recently (and winning some good stuff, fingers crossed, they'll be in next weeks Campaign) and it has become more and more apparent that when it comes to digital creativity the old notion of the "creative team" being composed of an Art Director and a Copy Writer isn't where its at. It's such a cliche, but  when you are looking for an engagement idea, an ideas that people will participate in/with, something that people will talk about/blog about, something that links together the online and offline world - this is a pretty tough brief for two people to crack.  We don't really get many briefs for banner ads anymore, its usually something much bigger and nebulous. A lot of  our most creative ideas come from our Technologists and also younger members of the agency regardless of discipline.

So my first thought/question is, do agencies still need an Art Director/Copy Writer teams for more digitally driven creative projects?   If you work for a pure-play Digital Agency, what do you do?

Second thought/question relates to ideas: DigiCynic posted recently about the urban myth that Alex Bogusky of CP+B fame, has instructed his creative department not to write him scripts anymore, he wants  press releases instead.  He wants his teams to be able to answer the question, why would anyone be interested by this piece of content. I love this and am dying to know if there is any truth to it.