Those Guardian ads
Sitting through two sets of pitches five years apart for the Guardian and Guardian Unlimted’s ad agency, you become aware all too quickly of just how few decent ideas there are out there. One agency a few years ago proved the point to us of how similar newspaper TV ads were by running two of our rivals ads back to back - but with the soundtracks switched. No-one noticed.
Anyway - obviously I’m biased, but after the rather pedestrian ‘We’ve got a big website according to some spurious stats’ claim from the Telegraph; and Times Online’s ‘Here’s a witty quote from our content’ (the oldest trick in the book - and I felt a real missed opportunity to get across the idea that their website was ‘new and improved), I think the Guardian’s work stands up rather well - and its also a great case history for outdoor media. The pic above is at my local station - deep in enemy territory for the Guardian..I’m sure I’ve seen a few more copies on the train since we started.
But in case you’ve miseed it - my favourite is this ad - which I think is visually striking and captures the times and the Guardian’s tone of voice perfectly.
Tim Elkington wrote:
Quite agree, think the ads look great (though obviously I’m still slightly biased as well), also intereting comment on the similarity of newspaper’s TV ads - and a great idea by some clever person at the agency to swap the music to prove the point.
Posted on 18-Apr-07 at 8:01 am | Permalink