I want to see Craig not sea containers.

I'm afraid folks it seems to be true. Long serving TV campaigns for carpet companies will never be the same again. Yes 'Craig' from Rugs-A-Million has gone off the airwaves. Disappeared behind a pile of heavily discounted carpets and hall runners. Never again will we hear the 'Owner' telling us he's 'Massively Overstocked' (cut to staff members stroking rugs and pretending to be customers) or 'Being forced at gunpoint to slash prices'. No more 'Sea containers' (cut to footage of sea containers just in case we don't know what they look like) will have 'Just arrived'. Course I'm hoping it's all just a cunning marketing plan by the agency who are giving the carpet retailing brand a new look. That Craig's indentical twin brother El Craigo from Mexico (Craig wearing a big fake tache and an oversized novetly sombrero)will be back to tell that once again he's going out of business. Craig Please come back. I miss you already!

Nirvana smells of teen spirits

Saw this spot via a recent Tweet. Clever, delightful concept and beautifully shot. One of a series not too distant from Carlsberg’s long running ‘Probably the Best Lager in the World’ campaign where these utopian worlds would exist if their particular brand of booze was running the show. Course reality is spend five minutes in any city centre late on a Friday or Saturday night where alcohol IS directing proceedings and it’s a stretch to believe you’ll see the kind of charm filled world seen here! More likely get threatened or vomited on by some ‘Absolut’ drunken youth. But then it’s not about the social problems caused by alcohol abuse it’s just an ad right? And a very good one at that.

Winston

Good old Ray Winston! Tough, bluff, authentic and ready to kill someone at any moment. No wonder he played Henry VIII.... West Ham's marketing team did very well in signing up his services for this teaser for next seasons strip. When it comes to celebrity endorsements then this is a winner. And thank goodness Vinnie Jones never played for the Hammers....

Bombs Gone

I confess I have a small addiction to old black n white British war movies. Not something I imagine Paris Hilton or Mylie Cyrus suffer from. Thus I have probably seen the classic 'The Dambusters' (a re-make by 'Lord of the Rings' Peter Jackson is in the pipeline) about 98 million times. Which leads me to this wonderful spot from a good few years back from beer giants Carling for their 'Black Label'. The tagline 'I Bet He Drinks Carling Black Label' was used for years in their TV campaigns and for me (and my addiction) this one is the pick of the bunch...

The Iron Curtain To The Tea Bags.

As I staggered though my local shopping centre the other day I paid my weekly visit to Coles supermarket. According to their corporate tagline we the punters should 'Love' them as opposed to those 'Fresh Food' people at Woolworths who presumably we only 'Like'. Anyway, as I entered the store I passed through one of those automatic gate/barrier things that both these grocery giants like to employ. Which made me ask the question 'Why the flamin' heck do they have those things?!!' I mean it seems they're actually trying to prevent their valued (apparently) customers entering the premises to spend our hard earned credit crisis cash. I can understand making it tricky to leave (especially if one has absent-mindedly or otherwise not paid) but why make the entry to their stores so unwelcoming? I go to my local Bunnings, K-Mart or Big W and there's usually someone standing there to welcome me in. "Hello Mr Ronan" they say. "Can we offer you a Laitte and a tasty Cinnamon bun"? OK maybe they don't actually say any of that but at least one feels welcome. Not so with a steel bar across the entry.

A large queue in the Departure lounge

I like to think that we're pretty high Brow at Mammal. We're really not big on toilet humour or anything that degrades us and our clients to little more than a bunch of giggling school-boys. This said there's a spot for All-Bran that's been given a regular run in Australia featuring former cricket test legend Merv Hughes. Seems the agency responsible felt that his mere presence was enough for the ad to work. That rather quaint 'Down Under' mentality of shoving an Aussie icon in an ad and thinking that'll do. Job done. No decent script or ideas required. Equalling of course a limp and dreary TV campaign that does no-one any favours. Least of all the client footing the bill. This said here's a US version of the same '10 Day Fibre Plan' which doesn't include any top Aussie blokes and though visiting a cliched visual idea and the toilet humour we don't approve of is a darn sight better than the Antipodean version. You can't help but smile as you watch...Tut Tut! Shame on us all.....

Shirts (not hats) off!

Avid readers of this blog will have enjoyed a little piece wot I wrote not long ago regarding shirt sponsorship for English Prem team West Ham United AKA The Mighty Hammers. In the blog I was moaning (who me?! never!) about the prominence of the XL Holidays logo on the shirts taking away from the spirit of the strip and in turn de-valuing the West Ham brand. Good news (well unless of course you just booked a holiday with them...) is that XL Holidays have gone bust and West Ham have now terminated their $20 million sponsorship with them. Taking the logo from the shirts and all the branding from the hallowed ground at Upton Park. I'm assuming that meantime the shirts will, like Barcelona, carry no shirt advertising until a new sponsor can be found. Now THAT'S the West Ham United shirt I want! Pure, simple and proud. And if under new manager Zola we could get a string of wins happening in the Prem, maybe have a decent run in the cup competitions AND convince the club owners to put a cool Mammal logo on the shirts (well we can dream!) then the world would be a happier place.

11 IS 'One Louder' Slash!

Ford or Holden? City or United? Dockers or Eagles? Personally I couldn’t give a valid opinion or any of these BUT ask Fender or Gibson? and my piggy little eyes light up and I’ll start to babble. When it comes to guitars and the brands us guitarists love then it’s an argument likely to be as hotly debated as the rightly ownership of the Falkland Islands between an Argentinean and a Brit… Personally I am a Fender man. I won’t go into boring spodish detail but to my ear and eye their design is perfection. The more brute-like Gibson’s have their rightful place in the pantheon of rock guitars but they just don’t have the flexibility of a Fender. I mean if it was good enough for Jimi Hendrix then it’s good enough for me. Which is what any ad for Fender should be telling prospective buyers. Either way here a spot for Mastercard….



B

What's wrong with Canyonaro?

The Qashqai people were nomadic tribes people who arrived in Iran in the 11/12th centuries. Obviously some bod at Nissan chanced upon this piece of trivia on Wikipedia (errrr same as me actually...)and decided that their new compact SUV was suitably 'nomdish' to warrant being called The Qashqai (try spelling it even when you're LOOKING at the word is difficult!)I'm sure Nissan were hoping that the Qashqai's would be rolling off the production line easier than the name rolls off the tongue...Anyway, despite their best efforts to put off potential buyers off with this baffling moniker this TVC redresses the balance by actually being pretty darn cool....

Plenty more where this came from.

There’s no shortage of ‘average’ ad’s on TV. The ones that just pass you by. And of course all too rarely the better ones that actually make a connection. Then there’s the total stinkers. The ones that make you wish you’d been a fly on the wall at the meeting between the agency and the client when the following little beauty got the big thumbs up…..

Pigs might fly. Well climb anyway....

It would appear that I have something of an animal obsession this week as this blog is slightly 'animal related' as well. Well we are called mammal so it goes with the territory. Pfizer as you may know are one the largest pharmaceutical manufacturers on the planet. They make those little blue pills called ‘Viagra’ which are apparently quite popular. They also make a range of ‘animal health’ products from which this wondrous photo from Italian agency D’Adda comes. The message might be somewhat vague but the image manages that delicate balancing act of being both eye-catching and tender. And of course any ad that gets makes an emotion going is onto something. Next time the cat gets a gummy eye I might not demand the vet prescribes a Pfizer product but I might least be aware of the name.

Shirt Sponsor United

There can’t have been too many Manchester Utd fans who didn’t shake their heads in dismay when they hear American owner (Malcolm Glazer) refer to their beloved football team as a ‘Franchise’. OK he’s not wrong. That’s what all the big clubs around the world are. And if not that’s what they want and indeed need to become. You can get Man Utd TV and clothing so we can be fairly certain that a Man Utd washing machine, perfume range and holiday company are all around the corner. Just think ‘Virgin’ but with football boots and flashy dyed hair. Actually Branson already has that second one...

Anyway, it’s a commercial fact of today’s football but for most football fans it does tend to distract from the passion of the game itself.

Which leads me to the current West Ham Utd shirt. Now I’ve been a ‘Hammer’ fan for as long as I can remember and more than happy to wear the replica shirt (Made in China for $0.50 and retailing in shops here for $180.00...) I’m wearing that shirt because of that little West Ham emblem on the left hand pocket corner. Not because of the vast ‘XL Holidays’ logo that totally dominates the entire front of the shirt. Shirt sponsorship has been around for ages (though hats off to Barcelona who have always refused to have shirt sponsors and now have a five year deal with ‘UNICEF’ which for a sport staggering in cash is a commendable way to go). And not doubt to pay those outrageous players wage demands West Ham needed a deal that would pay big money and XL Holidays obviously wanted maximum exposure.

But when it comes to brands then there’s always that danger of ‘devaluing the currency’. And having your club brand logo totally dominated by the current shirt sponsor does just that. Anyway, I shall wear my shirt with pride as always next season but should I need to book a holiday then XL Holidays won’t be top of my list. Maybe give Man U a call and see what packages they’re offering this year…..

The Fame Formula

A formula for fame! Whoa. It's F(T) = B + P(1/10T+1/2Tsquared) in case you wanted to know, or at least that's what PR "guru" Mark Borkowski reckons in his latest book.
If you're a publicist and you've got one (a fame formula)i reckon you tell the world, publish a book, get everyone crunching the fame formula and soon we've got a planet of famous people,famously duped that is.

I wonder if the the Big Borkowski gave a thought to how his existing famous clients might be feeling about him giving away his fame IP? Shaking in their boots famous boots I suspect.

Sherman

Here at Mammal we must confess that we are 'Ben Sherman' kinda guys. It's retro that won't date. Sure the skinny 80's jeans and side-swiped mullet hair-do's are fine as retro 'today' but of course it won't last. A decent Ben Sherman shirt lashed with a smart Mod' ish attitude will not go out of date. I'm not saying we should all be dressing like Paul Weller but it's a brand that remains a 'constant'. And I hope it stays that way. As for every Ben Sherman there's a 'Converse' who now must make hay while the sun shines as it won't last. Sherman however, as long as it remains on the side-lines will keep it's alt-cool appeal. especially for us old gits. Anyway, I like this ad. It's a bit wayward and oddly doesn't really have the 'essence' of Sherman but it's oddness and humour is enough to keep it cool..Enjoy!

It's all Bluff

The continuing rise of online Poker games and ESPN’s world poker series and other Poker related spin-off’s has seen a huge increase in the general interest if the errrr sport? Print publication ‘Live Poker Magazine’ used DDB Paris to produce a fabulous campaign featuring the fundamental poker ‘art’ of bluff 'BECOME THE KING OF BLUFF'
Personally my initial reaction on seeing this one was to send two jets of recently sipped tea squirting from each nostril and into the murky depths of my Vaio. Wonder if Sony can include a ‘Re-cycled Tea Brown’ as a colour….

Official car of The Sith

Jeremy Clarkson’s ‘Cockometer’ rarely fails. He might scale pretty high himself on some occasions but generally when it comes to how much of a errrrrr…’Thingy’ you look while driving along The ‘Cockometer’ is up there with the Richter Scale as an effective measurement. He says:

'The Saab has no cockometer because it doesn’t need one. You’ve deliberately gone your own way, deliberately bought something that isn’t a BMW or a Merc or an Audi. And in the process you’ve ended up with something that’s not only a little bit different, but also rather good.'

Course, being a Saab driver I already knew this. I got my serviced yesterday at a Saab specialist and seeing all those assorted Saabs together in one place was, for the Saab lover, akin to chancing upon a flower strewn woodland clearing with families of pure white Unicorns frolicking around. OK that’s a tad strong on the waxing lyrical front but you get my point. There are such wonderful cars and the undying strength of the Saab brand makes it impossible not to know with every sense of your being that you ‘Belong’. Which, leads me rather neatly to Star Wars. Of which I’m also a fan. Another equally undying brand that will never fade away. The combination of the two is naturally almost too much to bare…..

we vote the girl effect one of our favorite spots this year.... simple and very very smart... its what we aspire to, we love it, check out the girl effect

Personal Brand Champion -David "Sex" Soller

He might not be able to dance but he's stayed true to his personal brand for 3 long and painful years- love him or hate him 'Sex' (or just plain on Dave to the rest of us) has ticked all the personal branding boxes - the brand is easily understood, you remember him and his absolute self belief in the face of criticism is undeniable - at '21 plus' and with a legion of fans we vote David "Sex" Soller a personal brand champion.