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Here's a delightful radio sketch of old, which explores what happens when the crew of a pirate ship decide their working practices aren't quite up to scratch.
It's from The Million Pound Radio Show, and was first broadcast in 1991. Astute listeners may recognise the tones of Andy Hamilton, an habitue of panel shows and one of the fellows behind bubbling-under sitcom Outnumbered.
On the subject of ubiquitous advertising, how about that one that's all over the tube, encouraging people to join the Metropolitan Police as volunteers?
It has the headline 'Last night a DJ saved my life' in different shades of neon. It's a good piece of work, despite the fact that there are more numbers in the response para than Russell Brand has in his address book. And its massive exposure begs the question of whether are not any more campaigns executions were, or should have been, considered. Me, I'd like to see 'Last night a plasterer pushed me down the stairs', or possibly 'Last night a mechanic was justifiably accused of institutional racism'.
Anyway, the thing that always gets me on these posters is the bit right at the bottom:
Which is a lovely bit of weird. I can only imagine it went in against the designer's will, with the Account Director demanding it be inserted because it was the client's idea. It certainly seems inconsistent in terms of copy tonality and typography.
Maybe the Account Director even put it in him or herself, breaking into the studio early one morning after a night on the sauce, and selecting a nice script typeface because that's how they used to do it back in the seventies.
Have spent the last couple of weeks doing employment marketing work, and I'm sick of it. So let's leave the world of sits vac for a while and look at this campaign for - deep breath - Cadbury Dairy Milk Caramel.
For those of you who don't get it, this is the Caramel Rabbit who used to promote the chocolate bar back in the eighties. (When, as I recall, the name of the product had only one adjective, and not three.) So this is, essentially, a nostalgia opportunity for those of us old enough to remember the original - as evidenced by a couple of media commentary sites with men of a certain age hur-hurring each other about whether or not Caramel Rabbit is tastier than Jessica Rabbit.
And it's everywhere. It's on buses. It's wrapped around the BFI IMAX. It was the cover on thelondonpaper last Monday. Small children are having it stapled to heads and being paid to parade around the West End wearing it. Next week, when I go to hospital for an X-Ray, I fully expect to see a copy of it pinned to my large intestine. It's everywhere.
Model-wise, there are significant changes. La Rabbit is now wearing make-up. I suppose this is intended to make her look like a sexier older, thing - twenty years on but well-preserved in a male fantasy type way. (I imagine the lads working on this talked about RILFs when they drew her.)
Annoyingly, the adverts are carrying the 'A Glass and a Half Full Production' logo which I suppose is meant to be - um - the branding of the branding. This is an unforgivable sin and must be stopped immediately. It speaks volumes about the agency and marketing types behind this kind of work, strongly suggesting they're attempting to promote their own 'craft' and 'talent' above actually shifting product.
And look at the site - despite being much-lauded, am I really alone in suspecting the work isn't actually that good? Airport trucks and creepy pre-pubescent eyebrow artists? I'd expect that from Mark Wallinger but don't find much justification for it in a brand campaign. For chocolate.
Anyway, my main point was that the Caramel campaign almost has too much exposure. Here's how it worked with me. The first time I saw it I thought it was clever. The second, I possibly felt a slight stab of nostalgia.
The third, I realised that there was some connection between the image and my distant, adolescent awakening.
But the fourth time, I'm slightly bored by its lack and creative development, and even worse - I'm associating the rabbit and the chocolate bar with a whole world of zits, physical discomfort and sexual rejection. Hmm - is this what the people at 'Glass and a Half' had in mind?
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