I have been thinking a great deal about fiction. Reading for me is an absolute joy but I must confess that this has not always been the case. I was that normal kid and teenager who resented being told what to read while in school. My now voracious appetite for reading truly began when I chose to do it for myself, for my selfish enjoyment.

There was one brief but notable aberration to whom I must credit my brother. Thirty years ago, when I was 13 years old, he left a spine-bent paperback copy of Stephen King’s The Shining on our shared nightstand and the foil cover intrigued me. I read that book over two eye widening nights that was a record for me to that point and for some time following.

Continue reading "The Magic of Story Telling" »

Posted on October 26, 2009 2:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)

A eulogy for advertising and a proclamation for creative business consulting.

For the last ten years, media and media consumption have been changing at such a rapid pace that any assessment of them is rendered obsolete the moment it’s done.

For advertising agencies, this is akin to a tidal wave appearing out of nowhere on a beautiful summer’s day. But what do agencies do? Too many do not consider what the consequences of these developments and changes will mean for the world. They do advise their clients to take their ads beyond traditional print and TV into every conceivable medium because “you simply cannot reach people the way you used to.”

What this reveals is these advisors are still thinking in terms of “advertising ideas back in the day” and suggesting the only difference here is that traditional ads will now appear on the internet as CRM programs and POS posters.

Continue reading "On Creative Consulting" »

Posted on October 21, 2009 8:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

DDB Stockholm has just launched a campaign for Volkswagen based on the belief that the best way to get people to make positive changes in life, like taking care of the environment, is to make it fun. We call it "The Fun Theory" or "Rolighetsteorin."

We have begun a number of experiments to test the theory, like encouraging people to take the stairs by turning each step into a musical note. You can find a collection on the website thefuntheory.com

The Piano Staircase

A competition is even underway to encourage people to come up with their own ways of challenging or applying the theory to various scenarios. The winner will be chosen bay a jury of Swedish experts in behavioral science and environmental issues and will receive 2500 €.

Volkswagen will present their answer to the theory later on a new site and feature their range of environmental technologies and cars.

The campaign is attracting a lot of attention across the globe and was even featured on Discovery Channel's Daily Planet. In the first week of the launch, it got more than 3.3 million hits on YouTube. But most importantly, it reinforces the emotional connection of the Volkswagen brand and its environmental technologies to innovation, fun and doing the right thing – all in a very understated way that reflects the Volkswagen heritage.

Posted on October 19, 2009 8:52 PM | Permalink

I always aspire to see work produced that’s of the caliber of Whassup. That was a word on the lips of people around the world. It’s really tough to capture peoples imagination in that way. TalkValue on a grand scale.

Our Carousel ad is not quite in that league but I'm delighted to see CSI have copied us. It once again shows the value of creativity, creative business solutions, and that word of mouth and even plagiarism are signs that we are making an impact, first and foremost on the Philips brand and also on popular culture. As a gentleman far smarter than me once said, "Properly practiced creativity can make one ad do the work of ten."

Neil Dawson, Global CD, Philips, DDB London

Posted on October 9, 2009 9:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)