BEFORE 'CONTENT'
THERE WAS ADVERTISING
Before the invention of the smart phone, social media and 'content', there was just creative advertising.
Advertising was (and still is) a craft. It takes a learned skill to generate original ideas, design eye-catching layouts and execute engaging, customer facing communication. Nowadays there are secondary plugins and apps trying to do that, albeit with predictable, generic results.
I still care about craft, I still care about an idea. I still like to create ads but today's businesses are looking to move at faster speeds. "Content is King" and advertising is becoming more bland & mainstream. Wallpaper is the result.
Let's start going back to stopping people with creative ideas, not a TikTok dance or a movie meme!
Below is a selection of my advertising work from 1996-2009. Fun times, great experiences & Dobbin!
Fully Integrated work: (2010-2015)
VOLKSWAGEN
Translation: Small but tough. The Polo.
Translation: Small but tough. The Polo Fun.
Translation: Easily detachable guest seats.
1989 litres of storage space. 39 places to stash stuff.
FLIRTMACHINE
“Thomas”
If you look closely you’ll see the hero of this commercial is none other than me!
It was a great day shooting which saw me being sent to hospital in an ambulance with a dislocated shoulder after ‘the dive’ I did across the camera to knock the gun out of the guy’s hand. Ouch!
VOLKSWAGEN
VW Touran - ‘Neighbours’
A sweet woman takes her chances to kindly welcome the hot new neighbour on her street…
Shot in German, this is the English voiceover version.
HEINEKEN
Heineken - Meet You There
One December, I spent my whole Christmas travelling back and forth to the retouchers to finish this campaign.
Presenting to the client in January, Heineken was ecstatic with the results and rolled out a huge toolkit for the European market.
Canon - Euro 2008 Packaging
Canon was one of the sponsors for the 2008 European Championships. This was the packaging execution for in-store promotion and communication.
CANON
COCA-COLA LIGHT
Blurb
Coca-Cola Light - "Optimist Campaign"
With so much negativity going on it the world, Coca-Cola wanted to make an uplifting campaign for their product Coca-Cola Light.
We delivered a 'Light News' campaign where the news was no longer doom and gloom, instead it was positive and colourful.
PATTEX
"Toys"
The brief for this campaign was non-existent.
The ad agency, DDB Berlin, wanted to create some award winning work (that was the brief); come up with award winning ideas for our adhesive client; Pattex.
I came up with the idea and passed this over to a junior art director to create the campaign. He was very happy to be involved and bring the idea to life.
Tagline:
Since 1923. Pattex.
DEUTSCHE POST
“Big Apple” "Fast Fashion" "Clockwork"
The Deutsche Post TV commercials began the launch of the German Postal Service on to the German stock exchange in 1999.
At the time, the German public thought Deutsche Post simply delivered packages and letters, so these commercials were made to show the vast extent of the company’s global business. Produced in German, an English V/O was created for the international market.
Shot on location in New York, Milan & Hamburg.
RICOLA
“Funny Spots”
Ricola had previously done well known quirky commercials in Germany.
‘The Funny Little Swiss Guy’ had become a cult figure.
Here in this spot we had to use him again, but this time it was for the Spanish market.
A different approach with the same sense of humour.
SONY HOME VIDEO
‘Swan Princess 2’ - “Frogs”
My very first TV commercial.
The brief was tough. The first 'Swan Princess’ TV commercial had featured both children and adults so we weren't allowed to use them in the new TV ad.
We decided to use 'live frogs’ instead. The reason for this was simple: One of the main cartoon characters in the film was a frog, so it seemed like the logical solution.
HOLMES PLACE
Holmes Place was opening a new fitness centre in Berlin. I made the campaign without a brief and then presented it to the director of communication at the fitness centre. They liked it so much that I was given free membership for a year. Holmes Place then ran the ads in the Ex-Berliner magazine.
ANTI DRINK-DRIVE CAMPAIGN
ENGLISH PUB SIGNS
The traditional English pub usually has a memorable name with an iconic pub sign to go with it; The Kings Head, The White Horse, The Queen Victoria
I took this simple idea and translated these scenes into gory pub signs reminding people of what can happen when you drink & drive.
I have approached 2 UK anti drink-drive charities & 3 UK Police forces with this campaign only to be told they don't have the money to execute and run it.
