Newlitter

Time for a Swift exit?

2009-09-03T10:36:00.004+01:00

My newest little one. Proud, proud...

Time for a Swift exit?

2009-09-03T10:09:00.008+01:00

Thanks to the talented Drew Gardner and David Owen for their patience in helping us make this idea come to life so beautifully.

Callaway Golf 2009

2009-03-11T12:07:00.008Z

Taking the premium golf brand into the realm of luxury goods. With the help of London fashion photographer Richard Foster and a custom made mercury mirror, we aimed to make these products as desirable visually, as they are technologically.

a shotopop is born

2009-02-10T16:14:00.008Z

I am proud to have constructed the wording on the beautiful new site of the uber-talented Casper & Carin at Shotopop . Keep it up guys, make more pretties and I'll write more wtf's! :)

We got a winner!

2009-01-21T15:46:00.002Z

30” TVC

We open on a guy driving down a city street in an [insert car name]. He opens his door while doing about 22mph and rolls out onto the sidewalk. A German Sheppard runs past the rolling man and jumps into the moving car. Just when the dog gets the car under control the boot pops open and a tied up man in a suit screams (in a Spanish accent) “Hey, look at de boot!”

A dozen white fluffy bunnies performs the final part of the “Thriller – Michael Jackson” dance sequence in the road and the car screeches to a halt to avoid hitting them. As a result of the sudden braking the passenger seat airbag pops open and the words “TA DA!” is written on it in a comic style.

The camera pulls back to reveal that this is all a movie being projected on a wall and a Japanese man in a white coat steps forward and says (in sign language): “And this was all done on 0.45 gallons of petrol. Any questions?”

Camera turns to the crowd to reveal a classroom of zoo animals staring back at him.

[car logo] with packshot.

A diary of journey

2008-06-04T14:04:00.003+01:00

The sun goes back to where happiness sets up hearts and strike us down with harsh words and glitter promises. She’s lost on her paradise island while I mourn lost friends and sit here amazed at the bright past of broken memories.

I make up dreams of yesterday and wish my life was as fucked up as I remember
cause maybe then I might be that big star trapped in my head.

And as the curtain blows up the shape of a dancing bride, I wonder if the answer is being married to the wind. Cause if no one knows your address, it’s hard to get your heartache in the mail.

If you’re not a friend in a foreign place, you’re a stranger in your own skin. So here’s another pint, let’s get that alien out of your head. It’s thoughts like that that make me like you less. And these days we all have to take what we can get. There’s a darkness rolling in. A cloud’s approaching and I wanna be packed and ready when the questions start.

I’ve heard of it in the whispers of a free man and saw it bleeding off of the maps of the lost. There’s grass and fields and more than enough. We could start it there and get it right this time...

But the story of my life is a catalogue of re-run new beginnings.

Boo

2008-04-21T17:12:00.003+01:00

Sure I've seen ghosts, haven't we all? It's scary because it's a portrayal of half a being. An opague image that suggest that the other half has transcended, stepped through, knows what's on the other side. Yet there is something very natural about ghosts, they almost seem absorbed by the energy field of the earth itself. That is why apparitions in outer space are something altogether different. But the one thing that made me realize with immediate clarity that ghosts are purely (and I say purely and not merely because they can still feel extremely scary) a projection of the witness's subconscious, is the clothes they wear.

Hollywood picked the glowing white frocks for apparitions, but most other accounts can describe the wardrobe with vivid accuracy. Did the ghosts choose it's wardrobe? Is it the fate of every spirit to be stuck with the garb it died in? (hopefully a nice cardigan and a pair of comfortable loafers rather than a smelly two day old jock strap and black wool socks) Is there a big old clothes rack in the sky? What does a spirit fashion stylist charge by the eternity? These are the type of questions that at once invalidate and dispel the idea of ghosts. But if it is true and the clothes maketh the monstrosity, I hope they have a pinstripe Cavali from the summer '04 collection in a "42 waiting for me...

- Russo

the lonely shallow tree

2008-01-25T15:54:00.000Z

Thank you to Casper for his first contribution to the cacophony that is my blog. Love you man. (but in the man-love kinda way...) *uhmm...
nevermind

The wilderness beyond: ep.1

2008-01-25T15:45:00.001Z

We've been fishing for what must feel like four months now and it just keeps getting better. Sean pulled out a monster just before noon and we had it over the open fire for lunch. This is nature at its finest.

A bear came wandering into our camp just before sunrise. I awoke instantly, an instinctive reaction to its smell. That smell. Honey, salmon offal and fear. You never forget that smell. Now this was a most curious thing, seeing as we were camping in Africa, with not a bear in at least a thousand miles! "It must have came from the circus", said Sean. And as we sat there huddled in the upper branches of a giant beechwood tree, belly laughing at his comment, a clown came by and took the beast away.

-by Russo

My new viral: the King of Overseas Property

2008-01-21T11:12:00.000Z

Scripts just get in the way when your actor is this crazy! This was a great project to work on. It's a Paradise!

Apple will become the new Microsoft, only cool and friendly to humans

2008-01-15T11:10:00.001Z

What is it about stuff that "just work" that make the modern man go all teary eyed and qeue-bound, wallet at the ready, willing to see past all limitation just for that one more taste of the future?

Or, better yet, what is it about Apple Inc. that makes what they do just flat out superior to anything else? Is it because they're smarter? Yes, but Bill and the team of the beast are smart too, very smart. Is it because they listen to what real people want? Well yes, but others spend bajillions on customer research and focus groups too. So what is it then?

You see, other brands are like smartphones and Apple is... well, like the iPhone: just so much better in everything that matters to the USER that there is no comparison. (blatant iPhone user bias, but hey...) The things they focussed on to work really do work. Sure, it doesn't have the best specs available, but it's still by far the superior device because it looks better, feels better and just works. And that's exactly it!

"Apple uses design to make the achievable future of technology available today."

Apple uses DESIGN. That's the coup de grâce here. Planning, considering and optimizing. The essence of every architectural, artistic (or good advertising) work.

No matter what some idiots say, design is one of the most important contributors to incredible advertising. Always striving for that "something" in an ad is what makes it art. Taking the not necessarily most avant garde concept or revolutionary product and creating something for the people. A message, a whisper that reaches a single ear, and changes the world.

Were Baz Luhrmann alive today (and I know he technically is but come on...), he would have said:

"If I can offer only one piece of advice for the future:
Buy Apple stocks!"

- Russo

perspective

2008-01-15T09:40:00.000Z

Ideas are like babies: usually full of shit

2007-12-04T12:39:00.000Z

Well it's December. The year's gone, and what a crazy trip it's been! (and I mean one-eyed leprechaun flogging a hairless pink pony on crack cRaZy)

From legendary rock concerts in the middle of pristine Belgian farmlands, to the vulgar cesspool of mental energy waste that is British bureaucracy. Mental note: do not think for a second that they'll make it easy for you to live and work here, even if they claim to need 14 million of you to stay afloat. There's always one final hoop to jump your pudgy poodle peanut through... just one last needle's eye. "oh.. and don't forget section II, question 3.1.6.4.8 of appendix note 7, subsection C... How to prove you are in fact QUALIFIED TO TEACH THE QUEEN'S LANGUAGE to the monkeys they classify you with"

Among other things I discovered in the shower this morning, (hehe... don't you just love that as an intro to my industry rantings?) I realised something that gave me perspective on my ever-looming feeling of frustration about the fact that I am squandering my creative zest, looking on with glazed eyes as my talent dissipates into that effervescent bitch called the Zeitgeist.

You see, a creative idea is like a baby. A small little seed planted in your subconscious. (this is possibly where the term -mind fuck- comes from) And like the little agency sluts we are, we don't even realise it's there until it starts to kick! "Your mind is the womb where change is grown. If that idea is born, it can change the world."

But as with any pregnancy, you need a partner to consummate it - to give it life - and a team of doctors and nurses in a hospital usually help to make bringing it into the world quite a lot easier and more successful. (Just ask my mom, she'll tell you how "inconvenient" it was to give birth to a 12lbs fatty -me- in a speeding car on the way to the little coastal town clinic...)

And that's exactly what a great agency is! A partner to the ideas in your head, an accomplice with a gold-status medical aid membership, who can get you to the best team to bring your ideas to life. And that's why I need to find this partnership of mine pretty soon.

I simply have to. I owe it to myself not to settle for mediocre or easy or comfortable or not-quite-there ever again. Because then, creatively I'll just shrivel up and die. My biological ad-clock is ticking...

I'm done trying to reconstruct the Miraculous Conception on my own. It's time to get there, get busy and start popping them out!

*pop "IT'S A BOY!"

Mr. R

WEB 2.0 my brain

2007-11-29T16:35:00.000Z

A revelation. It dawned on me today, or rather, it smacked me on the frontal lobe like the misjudged leap of a Norwegian mating salmon... There are people out there today (in creative roles none-the-less) that don't know what WEB 2.0 is!

And here I am, wondering why they just don't get it when I ask them to make it clearer, simpler, more "glossy" please. And what happens? I get MS Word 95. "Uhm, it's not quite there yet..." (translation: "Please God, smite these fools... smite them Lord")

I realised that I'm not just getting fat, my body is expressing it's frustration through the medium of expansion. With water retention as an encore. Heart disease meet midriff...

Hopefully this post is not the tone-setter for the future of this blog. Maybe tomorrow I'll be all flowers and wit...

I won't be holding my breath if I were you.

Mr. R

A day with candy floss

2007-11-28T14:47:00.000Z

Damn... I finished the candy floss before I could take a picture of it. That was the highlight of my day.

Yeah I know, it doesn't get any better than this.

So to make up for my heinous hunger faux pas, I drew a picture of what I imagine the candy floss looks like now. Happy and safe in my tummy. yummy...

Mr. P

The smoke clears and

2007-11-27T12:06:00.000Z

We live in an age of truth and lies. A time where access to facts, the truth, is more readily available than ever before. Wikified, Answered and BBC/NBC/CNN documented to death, there is no topic or event not laid bare for public access in this digital age. Diversified media and integrated connectivity allows for instant truth and clarification. Yet, the lies run deeper now then ever.

Scandals, FraudGates and Silent Take-overs aside, the biggest concern for the information age, is political gains. And the epicenter of these gains have now become commercial gains. Our lives - and indeed the future - is governed by the gains that governments pursue. Welcome to global corporate governance. Countries run by capitalist corporations hellbent on turning a profit. *This is not a manifesto, merely an observation. Because a mere generation has become far to weak to do anything about it. So just enjoy the ride.

I was taught that all advertising is "Smoke & Mirrors". Nothing more, that is it. Dress it up, feed it the script and get the prime time placement into your Lsm. Then, depending on whether you're the client or the creative, either track the response to gauge its success, or get another beer and find out where tonight's party is.

People had to consume what you wanted them to buy. And you could run your message through one of The 4 Medias (prnt, rd, tv, outd) and know exactly who it would reach.

"Things are going to be a bit different from now on..." (the type of understatement Kim Jong Il would make if China called on their US debt). Media is dead, long live Medium!

The future of advertising is in Experiences. Tactile, full sensory, non-linear, human being led experiences. Emotional connection to the anthropological side of a brand rather than its intellectual property. The mirrors are being put away and the smoke is clearing...

or has it just soaked into everything and we're all sitting here blissfully unaware. "More gammon anyone?"

Mr. R,

John gets a puppy... beleaguered

2007-11-26T15:43:00.000Z

"So, you're a writer huh?"
yeah
"So what do you write?"
stuff
"Stuff? Like what"
like stuff
"Ok, what have you written then?"
i got new glasses today
"Wait what?"
nothing, forget about it
"You're weird, I'm gonna go now"
... so's you're face

Mr R.