Read Between the Ps

A billboard by a Dutch Health club that makes you conscious of your weight. Though it is being called something that triggers public humiliation, I really appreciate the "Creative Quotient" of the advert. Worth learning from! read more | digg story

An interesting and critical link to understand the challenges faced by Organized retailers in India, and how it is critical to balance debt, equity and internal accruals! read more | digg story

A great post by Vanessa on Social Media - a 101 on Web 2.0 actually. Going on the concept of "contribution currency" on the Web. She has given a simplistic, yet beautiful difference between Web 1.0 thinking and Web 2.0 thinking - "give instead of take" - worth a read for sure. I like one of the sayings she refers to, by Eric Hoffer, “In times of change, learners inherit the Earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists”. :) read more | digg story

Today is the 200th birthday of Charles Darwin – hit upon the event through the Google icon only! But while chain-browsing the links on the greatest face of science, something interesting caught my attention…..the concept of natural selection in the theory of evolution , as explained by Darwin himself, in his Origin of Species Darwin, during his studies, wanted to determine the ‘specific mechanism’ that permitted animals and plants to change over time. Eventually he realized that the mechanism underlying the process of evolution was that of ‘ natural selection ’ ………… individuals having any advantage, however slight, over others, would have the best chance of surviving and of Procreating their kind? On the other hand, we may feel sure that any variation in the least degree injurious would be rigidly destroyed. This preservation of favourable variations and the rejection of injurious variations, I call Natural Selection. Variations neither useful nor injurious would not be affected by n

A great outdoor for Colgate on ensuring High Brand Recall and effectively communicating the benefits. Created by Y&R Bangkok for Colgate-Palmolive, the creative reads - Colgate normally gives out small product samples at annual events like “ Oral Health month ” to remind target consumers, especially kids to take better care of their teeth after eating sweets. This method does not drive strong results as most consumers tend to forget the message, even if they have collected the samples. Instead of giving away product samples, Ice cream and cotton candy were given out. The stick carrying the ice cream and cotton candy carries a hidden message. Once consumers are done the message printed on the tip of the stick shaped like a toothbrush reveals “ Don’t forget ” with the Colgate logo. This simple message effectively reminded consumers to brush their teeth. For sure, this simple message ensures high recall and that too, through a new smart medium – the candy / ice cream sticks – a new

Found an interesting effort-intenstive Outdoor campaign on Anti-Smoking. Created by O&M Lima , for their client Liga Contra el Cancer (The Peruvian league to fight cancer) for their no-smoke day According to BestAds, Using 15,000 cigarettes butts, glued together one by one in an outdoor panel, level to the sidewalk, Ogilvy dramatized the threat that cigarettes represent for a non-smoking person, in this case, a little girl. A month and half before the campaign, with the help of many volunteers, Ogilvy was able to gather 15,000 cigarettes butts. An artist was in charge of pasting them together and to maintain the essence of the original idea, he painted the little girl in oil paint. Scary Butts – aren’t they? ;-) [Via Best Ads / Source ]

Found an interesting creative at Ravi Kiran’s blog on Inbound Marketing - As a parody on the famous song by Alanis Morissette, “ You oughta know ” ( watch the original Song here ) , the musical takes you through the specifics of Inbound Marketing . Comparing with outbound marketing (TV Ads, Direct Mailers or cold calling), the creative ‘sings’ and musically conveys why and how inbound marketing is beneficial and how can it be made effective. The lyrics go like “ Marketing is like torture as they hang up on you ”, “ Cold Calls, Direct Mail and TV Ads fail ” and “ Every time I try to sell, did you know they say you go to hell ”. With details like SEO, inbound links, blogging, landing pages, tagging content, and page rankings – the song says it all…..truly, something, we oughta know ! A nice way to use parody to talk about a theoretical topic and explain it so well – Kudos to the creator Rebecca Corliss , of Hub Spot Incidentally, this creative took me to Hub Spot - An excellent blog

I never knew that there is such a bad Housing Crisis in France until this strong Guerilla campaign hit me at Best Ads . Made for Foundation Abbé Pierre (France) , the objective of the campaign was simple – to raise awareness among the general public and the government of the bad housing crisis in France. It wanted to present an in-your-face reality that thousands of people in France have as little space to live as a car in the street or a bus stand or a billboard - posters of real-size 7m2 (the size of a parking space) apartment were stuck near symbolic sites in paris (The National assembly, The Senate, The count hall, the City Hall, and the Paris Stock Exchange) They used the space of billboards, parking spaces, bus stands , put real-size posters matching up to the actual space that people managed to stay within, demonstrating the struggle for space within the country. As you can see in these pictures, the way it was communicated, instant connect could be established with the intent

Bumped into another nice creative on Durex (had earlier posted an out of the box piece and another creative ambient . Whatever the brand signifies, I really appreciate the out-of-the-box ideas the agency (Fitzgerald + Co, from Atlanta) comes up with. From a creator's perspective, it seems like someone built upon his "pervert" cells while playing with the product in the office...can visualize someone playing with these pieces, and doing different interesting things with it to attempt a creative... Must say, nice output - you DID IT ...the creative I mean :) (seems like your "pervert" cells never stop working, eh?) Here is the link to the ad. Have a nice watch....Parental Guidance advised! By the way, do you know where did the brand derive its name from? "durability, reliability and excellence" :) [Via Martina's Adverblog ]