Think Hard

Breaking news.

Based on Rudyard Kipling’s iconic poem the new Irn Bru commercial has landed.  Set in various locations across Scotland and somewhere abroad it features some lovely vignettes.  Some work brilliantly, like the Loony Dooking pensioners (at 33 seconds) which struck a real chord with me, also the kissing Celtic and Rangers fans, the despondent Scotland fan with his wee lassie and the way folk choose the wrong descriptor for their meal times are all great.

Others are a less succesful and I’d question Martin Compston’s voiceover.

I feel the whole campaign suffers from being shackled by a weak strapline.  Phenomenal does nothing for me.  It’s unphenomenal frankly.

Overall it’s a nice , rather touching return to form.

But judge for yourselves.

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I went along to this on Thursday night and it was a great event.  Particularly because Alfredo Marcantonio showed us a reel of commercials that were all low budget, but brilliant.  To demonstrate that in a recession when budgets are tight we don’t have to compromise on the quality of the idea.  He used a few of Adrian Jefferty’s old ads for The List and Radio Scotland to illustrate the point but I wish he’d also used an old 1576 classic series for The Scottish Claymores.

Here are a few of the ads he showed.

I’d never seen this VW Karmann Ghia ad before but it really is a classic.

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He showed this too.  Which made us all laugh.

And this cracker for Carling Black label.

He showed a different ad from this one for the x show.  But this is a pretty good alternative…

I think it is.  Unfortunately it’s the German version but the voiceover is short and very very sweet.  It says.

“What does the man who drives the snowplough drive to get to the snowplough?

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Got a nice cheeky note from an old friend and mentor, Roger Stanier, who now works at Lowe in Londinium this morning.

It made me laugh.  The cheeky monkey.

My mate, Tim Maguire, shot these very tasty commercials in the Seychelles for The Union advertising Agency.

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And he poses a very intriguing question.

How on earth do you make 12 commercials on 35mm film for £16,000

You’ll have to get in touch with him direct to find out.

An anti-painkiller ad by masochists.

Very good fun indeed.

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Spencer Davis Group song gets an outstanding airing in this brilliant new commercial for the VW Polo. Sublime demonstration of the benefit of owning a Polo. The best ad I’ve seen in a long time and a firm favourite in the Gorman household

The latest masterpiece from the 60 Watt creative assembly line is this rather nice recruitment ad for a New Zealand beauty salon.

Not bad for a bunch of 40-something (and the rest) blokes.

I’m making a presentation to the Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday and in it I have to demonstrate how good we are at advertising in Scotland.

So this is what I could find on Youtube that at least makes the cut. Some of it is very very fine indeed.

The best Tennent’s ad ever?

The best Irn Bru ad ever?

A rather nice VisitScotland ad that I was involved with at 1576.

and another…

Kwik Fit

S1

HEBS

Interesting.

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