A satire on sponsorship, an inversion of the principles of design function or just a geeky affectation writ large, there’s something innately appealing about these mini-cardboard tops – the entire collection of which will be going on show at the Cube gallery in Manchester from next month.
Fitzmaurice says the concept for the football fag packets came to him on a wet afternoon – ‘In this kind of weather the glue holding the packets together dissolves and they tend to fall apart.’
These are the videos I used in the lecture on 19 November
British War Posters
This video shows a selection of recruiting and other morale-boosting posters from the British. Compared with the German and Russian selection shown in the lecture, they are less aesthetically accomplished. However, it could be argued that because they used a visual language that was entirely familiar to its audience, borrowed from advertising imagery at the time (and largely produced by the same people who created commercial advertising) the posters were far more successful than some of their ‘better’ designed European counterparts.
Music: Pack Up Your Troubles
British War Artists
The British armed forces have a long history of official artists, what we would now call ‘embedded’ (nothing’s new, it seems).
They were commissioned to capture the atmosphere and story of battles and other engagements for regimental histories. Hundreds (thousands) of paintings and drawings were made which have rarely, if ever, been seen.
Many are kept in the archives of the Imperial War Museum but are now available to view online.
This video, a mood setter for the lecture, shows a small selection but they are much more impressive when viewed ‘properly’ on the IWM website. Some of the images are quite horrific and seem to bring home the true extent of the conflict much more than photography or film could do.
The music is the Agnus Dei, from Benjamin Britten’s ‘War Requiem’ composed in the 1960s.
The work combines the Catholic requiem mass with the poetry of Wilfred Owen.
In this movement the tenor sings the poem ‘At A Calvary Near The Ancre’ while the choir sings ‘Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, miserer nobis/ Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, miserer nobis/ Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, dona nobis pacem’ (Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy on us. Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy on us. Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, grant us peace).
The words of the poem, together with an explanation, are below:
One ever hangs where shelled roads part.
In this war He too lost a limb,
But His disciples hide apart;
And now the Soldiers bear with Him.
Near Golgotha strolls many a priest,
And in their faces there is pride
That they were flesh-marked by the Beast
By whom the gentle Christ’s denied
The scribes on all the people shove
And bawl allegiance to the state,
But they who love the greater love
Lay down their life; they do not hate
The poem describes a ‘Calvary’, a crucifixion scene that was often placed at crossroads in France (examples still exist today). Owen uses the fact that the figure of Christ has lost a limb to describe some of the absurdities of religious attitudes to war.
“Near Golgotha strolls many a priest” refers to the chaplains who accompanied troops to the Front and who claimed that wounds gained in the fighting were things of which to be proud. “Flesh-marked by the Beast” refers to the Devil and to the enemy, the claim being that the war was a righteous one, and that God was on ‘our’ side (the same of course being claimed by all combatants).
“The scribes on all the people shove/And bawl allegiance to the state” is a description of how the pulpit is used to denounce those who object to the war.
The last two lines are ambiguous, and in his setting of the poem to music Britten appears to read them as saying that those who are willingly laying down their lives are doing so for love of their friends and family, and strangers back home – this is not a time for hate. This would be typical of Owen, who often used irony in his poems; he is saying that the priests are advocating hatred, which is exactly the opposite of the message embodied in the crucifixion scene that sparked the poem.
Wilfred Owen was killed at the age of 25, a few days before the end of the war. He had originally been sent back to Britain suffering from shellshock. Posted first to a hospital in Scarborough, and then to Ripon (scene of Britain’s biggest army camp) he chose to return to the Front, despite his opposition to the war, rather than accept a safer posting back home.
Some of them are quite hard-hitting, but the most interesting thing is the size of the image on the package. The tobacco companies won’t like the fact their brand will be situated near these – in fact I wonder how tempted they might be just to sell unbranded cigarettes instead?
One of the images is more positive (below) – which do you think would be most effective?
The Guardian is reporting on the way in which Chinese advertisers, unfettered by regulations like those we have in the UK, are using “celebrity endorsements” to advertises everything from underwear to housing.
Although some of the endorsements are from lookalikes, many are not.
using images of stars on products without their knowledge has been popular since 2003, when several real estate developers claimed Bill Clinton as a spokesman. The current US president has proved no less commercially-minded, apparently taking a break from governing to plug the “Blockberry Whirlwind” smartphone (not, of course, to be confused with the BlackBerry Storm).
This MailOnline article shows how impotence medication has been advertised using, among others, David Beckham and Sean Connery. Much to their displeasure.
In the UK, advertising is largely regulated by the Advertising Standards Authority. If you’re interested in working in this area, it’s a good idea to get to know what you can, and cannot, do.
81.1% of all IPA member agency art directors are male. With copywriters, the figures are slightly better – ‘only’ 77.5% of those are male. But the brave new frontier of digital is the same old story as far as women are concerned – they make up only 19.1% of creatives. This should all be seen in the context of the figures for agencies as a whole, where women make up 46.7% of employees (but only 16% of CEOs/chairs/MDs).
In other words, the gender balance in agencies as a whole is not far off the gender split in society as a whole. However, it’s likely (I imagine) that a lot of those women are at junior or administrative roles – receptionists, secretaries etc) while the “juicy” roles, and the senior ones are dominated by men.
The report goes on:
Figures from … agencies (that gave figures on ethnicity) indicate that those from a non-white background account for 8.4% of the employed base.’ Things have, however, improved from the last census in 2007 when only 6.1% of employees were non-white. There are no figures on the ethnicity of creative departments specifically.”
That looks pretty poor, but as CR points out, the last census showed that only 7.9% of the UK population is “non-white” suggesting that the ad industry is more than representative. However, again there is no indication about whether that representation continues throughout all levels, or if it is predominantly in junior or administrative roles. But as someone points out in the comments on CR’s blog, in the cities where the ad industry is based (e.g. London) the “non-white” population is rather higher than 7.9%, so in actual fact the stats seem to indicate a remarkable lack of diversity.
It’s worth visiting the blog and reading the comments. Here’s one that may make you choke, so ensure you’re not eating anything before you read it:
“… typically lost in all these stupid debates about equality and political correctness is the fact that its not sex or race at all… Its about how talented someone is… perhaps white males are just more creative?! Hey life’s not fair and balanced, white men cant jump or black men cant swim… xxx”
So the answer, according to this idiot individual is for women or anyone who isn’t white, not to bother thinking about being “creative” because it’s not in your genes. Sexist, racist and patronising all in one comment. That’s quite impressive.
One area I haven’t seen discussed here is class: I wonder if the ad industry is dominated by people from privileged backgrounds as well? The requirement to do an unpaid internship to gain “experience” before getting a job in much of the industry would seem to work against anyone without the required cash… Disability is also missing from CR’s overview.
So what’s your take on this? Sure, it should be about talent, not filling quotas – but no one’s suggesting that. What is being suggested is that in a world where ability is not based on race or gender, or class, the make-up of the creative industries should reflect society as a whole. Personally, I think that’s entirely reasonable.
Writing is a key element of design, especially in marketing and advertising, yet we often forget about it in design education – to our detriment. When I worked as a graphic designer in a marketing department I probably spent 80%+ of my time writing. The best ideas for the best ads always seem to start with the words, not the design, and that’s certainly the lesson to be learnt from looking at the winners of each year’s Advertising Effectiveness Awards (far better than the more famous D&AD awards in terms of identifying what works, in my opinion).
The role of ‘copy’ in ads and other forms of communication is essential and the US company Wells Fargo recently used ethnography to study how its customers responded to different types of message.
The bank recruited 20 customers who matched their three target personas to comment on all of the communications (e.g., account service notification, marketing solicitations) they received from Wells Fargo and other organizations over a 30-day period. These customers called a toll-free number to share their immediate reaction about the documents and they also kept a scrapbook in which they wrote comments about each communication. The bank brought the most engaged customers together to debrief them in-person about their scrapbooks.
Lessons learned.
Here are some of the insights that Wells Fargo took away from the research:
The bank’s communications were meeting the basic needs of customers, but were falling short on the humanistic dimensions of ‘approachable’ and ‘empathetic.’
Customers wanted the bank to communicate like it knew them, similar to other communications they received from organizations like AARP.
Marketing messages, especially those with presumptive language like ’Congratulations!’ or ‘Good News,’ were viewed quite negatively; customers used words like ‘ploy’ and ‘scheme’ to describe them.
The bank could mitigate negative reactions to bad news like a notice of insufficient funds if the communications provided relevant advice.
Many consumers view the bank’s Website as the primary visual reference point; noticing differences with layout, color, and other design elements in the communications.
To ensure that the results were actionable, key stakeholders were engaged throughout the process. The findings were ‘socialized’ with 700+ content writers across Wells Fargo during 30+ workshops.
In one of my lectures, on visual communication, I use a little exercise to illustrate an aspect of semiotics.
I give the students a brief: they are to design a logo for a law firm that specialises in family law, dealing with families who are facing some form of legal entanglement. I tell them they have two minutes to come up with an idea. Two minutes later I stop them and ask them all to stand up. I then start eliminating them by saying things like “sit down if you drew a police badge”. That usually gets rid of about half. A gavel gets rid of several more, as do jail bars, a law book, a police light and so on. Before long we’re down to the last few students and I can usually get rid of them too with ‘hands’ or ‘cut out people’. I also eliminate anyone who used just words or initials (words aren’t so bad of course, I’m just being mean, but initials for firms always bemuse me – IBM and a few others aside, of course).
If there’s anyone left standing it’s either because I’ve missed a really obvious one (last year it was a bird, this year it was a court house) or because they’ve done something quite abstract – this year it was a square with four circles around it. Nice one. We have a winner.
(Just remembered, Orlando Weeks now of The Maccabees, “won” this a few years ago when he did a logo of “a unicorn jumping over a rainbow”. Mmm…)
The point I’m trying to make in that exercise, other than it being a bit of a break from them listening to me drone on, is that when faced with a quick challenge like that, students (everyone) tend to to think not in cliches (I happen to think cliches are good things – they’re how we communicate) but in too literal a sense. The last thing, I say, someone who is facing juvenile court on a shoplifting charge wants to see is a logo for a lawyer that screams “you’re going to jail!”. Look at supermarkets – how many of them have logos that show a basket of shopping? (I seem to be the only one who thinks the Lidl logo looks like someone pushing a trolley)
I came up with this little game (which makes more sense in the context of the lecture than it does here) a few years ago when some graphic design students at a previous job were asked by a local law firm to come up with a logo for a similar brief. The winner was a half open door with light coming through it. The tutor loved it, the clients loved it. I hated it. They thought it said “there is hope”. I thought it said “you’re doomed”. But then, that’s me for you. It did, however, make me look anew at logos to try to find the overly literal. And while there are a few, they’re pretty rare and almost universally poor. I won’t link to any here – look for yourself you lazy git.
All of which brings me to something that amused me. A couple of years ago, after I’d done this exercise with them, some students came in to my office with something they’d found in the Yellow Pages. An ad for a law firm which fell in to exactly the trap I’d laid for them (click on the image for a larger version). I think this is a pretty amazing/bad piece of advertising – I’ll have to add prison tattoos to my list for next year’s lecture.
An HSBC advertising campaign has come under fire from the Japanese for using a cosmetically enhanced male model in a wig to portray one of the traditional wrestlers honoured in their culture
This advertisement for Zurich Chamber Orchestra is a clever interpretation of what it feels like to listen to a live orchestra (if you’ve never done it, give it a go).
I’m not keen on the choice of music in the ad, and a more dramatic piece would have made the point a lot more clearly, but the concept is clever.
