Monday, 25 October 2010

The Washington Washroom



These photos are from the ladies toilets of The Washington Pub in Sheffield, where they have painted frames and polaroids of ladies crotches on the walls. They have also left empty frames for the public to draw in, and drawing on the walls is encouraged which is quite amusing. It's quite crude I know, but I liked how they encourage participation and are relevant to the setting.. and I find them quite funny.

Is Seeing Believing?




These shots are from the BBC's recent episode of Horizon; Is Seeing Believing? I love programs that look at science in a really accessible and interesting way, and that are relevant to our everyday lives. The program was about how our sight works and how it often domineers our other senses to give us an inaccurate view of the world. The part I thought was relevant to design was about how we see colours, and how our mind tells us information about colour based purely on the contrast between it and the colours around it. For example the 'brown' square in the top image (on the white side of the cube) is exactly the same colour as the 'light orange' square on the side of the square that is in shadow. It's a brilliant program and I'd recommend giving it a watch while it's still on BBC iPlayer.

Sunday, 24 October 2010

McDonalds Great British Weather





These shots are from a current *McDonalds advert which highlights how much of their produce is now sourced from British farms, so they are more reliant on the British weather to grow the crops and maintain the animals. I love how they combined shots of typically British scenes both from farms and everyday life, with the graphics from weather reports. It visualises how the weather is always around us and how much it effects our daily lives, and it's shot in a personal and emotive way.

This is yet another move from McDonalds to realign themselves in the publics minds, as an environmentally friendly and ethically conscious company. They have also adopted a more open and honest attitude towards consumers in recent years, including making the nutritional values of their products visible which has also gone a long way to counter attacks from critics.

*Just to clarify I don't endorse McDonalds and I'm not personally a fan, but I have to admire their marketing and advertising strategies of late.

Wednesday, 20 October 2010

Mooooooooch



I just saw this new brand of chocolate milk at my local shop called Mooch, it's in a can which I think is a new way of packaging milkshakes as a more handy drink. It fits in well with the new ranges I've seen recently of chilled coffee
in cans.

I think the muted colours work really well to communicate the different flavours in a subtle way, but the rich brown hints at the richness of the chocolate. I like the logo, although I would like to seperate the C away from the H so it reads Mooch more clearly, instead of Moooh. The brand has some similar qualities to Innocent smoothies, with a friendly cutesy vibe to the cow character.

Saturday, 16 October 2010

Introducing Harvey





I love the 'every home needs a Harvey' TV campaign by thinkbox, which demonstrates the effectiveness of TV advertising. The campaign reminds me of the clear channel brief which asked us to demonstrate the effectiveness of outdoor advertising in our second year of university.

I found the 'unseen footage' and 'working with harvey' videos on thinkbox's website and they are really tongue-in-cheek and very funny. I think the theme tune of 'Ain't seen nothing yet' by Bachman-TurnerOverdrive, makes the adverts even more humorous, and helps to develop the cheeky personality of Harvey.

It just shows that the advert doesn't have to scream TV advertising to show that it works, there's no connection between getting a dog and advertising on TV, yet the campaign is so memorable I think it really proves it's point.

Monday, 11 October 2010

Made In Dagenham




I saw Made In Dagenham tonight and thought it was brilliant. Sally Hawkins gave an amazing performance, I believed and empathised with her character throughout. There were some moments that were a little bit cheesy.. but these were few and far between. The film showed the sacrifices and struggle that these women went through for something they believed in, and they showed an unbelievable amount of unity, all of which I had never been fully aware of before.

Nature Needs Heroes





I just saw a Timberland advert at the cinema which I thought was pretty good, it actually made me laugh out loud, because it reminded me of those embarrassing moments when you drop something and when you go to pick it up it keeps moving.. that wasn't really the point of the advert but it least it got me to remember it. The strapline 'Nature Needs Heroes' summarises really well the messages of their more environmentally friendly product, and reinforces their core brand values of masculinity and adventure. It also demonstrates how the little differences and standards we enforce in our lives can make a difference, but it presents this concept in a way that their target market can embrace without losing face.

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