Favourite Ad Friday! - Bishop's Finger

The ad featured in today's Favourite Ad Friday is a bit of an outsider.  It has felt the wrath of the ASA's banhammer and rather unjustly, if you ask me.  As the weeks go on you'll probably hear me use that argument a lot.

Advertising Agency: JWT London
Media: Print
Sector: Alcoholic beverages
Client: Shepherd Neame (Bishop's Finger)
Year: 2006


According to the ASA, "We considered that the text 'I love a good session on the Bishops Finger' played on the connotations of drinking and sexual activity. We considered that the woman's pose was suggestive and concluded that, in combination with the headline text, it was likely to be seen as linking alcohol with seduction and sexual activity.
On this point, the ad breached CAP Code clause 56.9 (Alcoholic drinks)."

A medieval wench sitting on a stool with the tagline "I love a good session on the Bishop's Finger" along with "At 5.4% it's near the knuckle". Nothing wrong with that!  In this instance it's probably safe to say that the complainees have had a bit of a lapse in humour and had to spoil it for everyone else.  It's one of those occasions where you read into it what you want, and I think whoever was responsible for complaining about it has a bit of a guilty conscience... 

Amazon Kindle - Tush & Fie, Technology! You Ne'er-do-well Bounder!

This piece of copy for the Amazon Kindle brief was based on the notion that if books were seen to be obsolete, then surely there would be some people that wouldn't be too chuffed to see books disappear.  This idea takes this a bit further and suggests that if you don't keep up with the times, you run the risk of getting left behind, being seen to be out of touch and - as you'll go on to see - a little bit mental.

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Client: The Amazon Kindle Digital Book Reader.
Project: Digital/social media campaign.
Video filmed for TV and to be uploaded to YouTube

We open to a black screen with a white caption.

Caption: This is a political party broadcast paid for by the Anti-Kindle Party.

We open to a Victorian era living room with an old man wearing a red smoking jacket, a monocle and a large mustache.  He is sitting in a high back chair in front of a roaring log fire and completely engrossed in a large book spread open on his lap.

Old Man: "Ha ha! Oh, Yossarian... You cad-like bounder!"

The man looks up at the camera as if noticing it for the first time.

Old Man: "Oh! Hello!

He removes his monocle and the camera begins to slowly zoom in on the man.

Old Man: "Glad for you to join me! Today I would like to urge you not to purchase an Amazon Kindle.  The whole thing is a load of bally nonsense!"

The man slams the large book shut which releases a cloud of dust into the air. 

Old Man: "Books have been around for years! Books run in my family! 

 As the man speaks and gets progressively more angry, the camera continues to zoom in on his face.

Old Man: "They were good enough for me! My Father! And his Father! And here comes t-t-t-technology sticking it's big nose in where it doesn't belong! 'Your first paper-cut is a rite of passage for any boy,' my Father used to say!  Tush and fie, I say! Ban the whole bally lot of them!"

Camera stops zooming in on the man's face and pauses there for a few moments.  The camera quickly cuts back to it's original position as the old man re-opens his book and puts his monocle back on.

Old Man: "Cheerio!"

The old man cheerfully continues to read his book, guffawing frequently as if the whole encounter never happened.

Strapline: (... Don't buy an) Amazon Kindle.

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Well, that was that:  the final idea concocted for the Amazon Kindle brief.  But that's okay, the next update will consist of a brand new brief with brand new ideas.  Interesting times indeed!

Amazon Kindle - That Book Makes A Very Fine Hat

Short and sweet introduction this time! This is the second piece of copy I came up with for the Amazon Kindle brief.

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Client: The Amazon Kindle Digital Book Reader.
Project: Digital/social media campaign.
Video filmed for TV and to be uploaded to YouTube

We open to a black screen with a white caption which is also read out in a Voiceover.

Voiceover: "Lets pretend that in 5 years, the Amazon Kindle has rendered all books obsolete. So, what are we going to do with them all?"

We cut to a close-up of a girl standing inside a room holding open a wooden door.  She opens the door full and then lets it begin to swing closed.  The camera cuts to a close up of a book sitting in the door frame as the door closes on the book.

We then cut to a tall girl standing with mistletoe in her hand and pursed lips, expecting a kiss - reminiscent of the Yellow Pages Christmas ad.  The camera slowly pans left to reveal a long queue of boys with varying height and carrying books of varying thickness.

We then cut to a hallway littered with toys.  A young toddler runs clumsily into the corridor and off-camera while wearing books for shoes.

We finally cut to close-up of an older, stern looking man facing the camera.  He slowly places an open book on his head and begins to laugh.

Fade to black.

Strapline: What would you do? Upload your own ideas to YouTube to win a Kindle

Kindle logo 

Favourite Ad Friday! - Awareness Test

Hello and apologies for the sparse updates lately. I was busy sitting exams for University, going to the Edinburgh Fringe and visiting St. Andrews for a long weekend to celebrate my papa's 91st Birthday. 

Fun and games, eh?

So to mark my return to the blogging world, I've decided to make Friday something a little special - Favourite Ad Fridays. I thought it would be a nice change of pace from my creative copywriting stuff on a weekly basis.

I've amassed a sizable list of my favourite ads over the years for two reasons really: They inspire me and I think they're awesome.

Advertising Agency: WCRS & Co
Media: TV, Cinema, Social Media, Viral
Sector: Government, Travel
Client: Transport for London
Year: 2008
Running Time: 1:00
What's it about?:   The purpose of this ad was to raise awareness of cycling safety and also how easy it is for motorists to miss cyclists.

After 2 weeks, the online version of the film received a total of 4.4million views. 

• 1,500 comments video sharing sites;
• circa 34,000 results on Google discussing the ad;
• 4 fan groups on Facebook.
• Page 1 on reddit & digg;
• 6th Most Viewed Youtube film in the uk that month
• 1st most viewed in its category (How to & Style) globally.
• £140k worth of views for £20k, giving us a saving of £120k and an ROI of 600%

Personal Feedback:  I love this ad when I first saw it because it's very clever and because it succeeded in fooling me.  Even though it's several years old now, I can still remember my reactions when I watched it for the first time:

• Mild confidence as I attempted to count all the completed passes
• Smug arrogance when I got the correct answer
• Utter confusion about the moonwalking bear
• Sheer disbelief when sure enough, right in front of my face, a moonwalking bear.
• Complete astonishment as I rewatched the video thinking they just snuck the bear into the replay only to find the bear was there all along.

My brain well and truly left my body that day.  It got blown all over the shop.

Amazon Kindle - Greg the Tree

Once upon a time back in University, I picked up a Creative Copywriting class lectured by Adrian Jeffery who is the owner of the Mightysmall advertising agency in Edinburgh.  Prior to that, Adrian was also a copywriter for the Leith advertising agency in Edinburgh.  The man knows his stuff, is what I'm saying.  Every week, he would assign the class a creative brief for a client and it was up to us to go away, come up with ideas and then pitch them to him where he either swiftly blasted them out the water or gave them a thumbs up.  You can get easily attached to an idea but you quickly learn to let it go if it doesn't get the okay.

Here's the first idea for a digital/social media campaign for the Amazon Kindle digital book reader.  The brief stressed that the idea had to create a "movement" via Facebook, Flickr, Youtube, Apps, Blogs and so forth, it had to get people to stand up and be proud ambassadors of a new way to read and it had to use social media as mandatory.

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Client: The Amazon Kindle Digital Book Reader.
Project: Digital/social media campaign.
Video filmed for TV and to be uploaded to YouTube

We open to a black screen.


Voiceover: "Consider Greg..."

Screen fades from black to an image of an oak tree.  Camera slowly begins zooming in towards the tree.


Voiceover: "Greg has a lot to do.  He has an ecosystem to look after, carbon dioxide to convert and a family of Robins just moved in yesterday.  The last thing he wants is to end up like his brother Mike."


Camera quickly cuts to fresh tree stump, as if a tree had once been there but had just recently been chopped down.


Fades to black once again.


Strapline: Think of Greg - Kindle logo.

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The next step in this would be to give Greg the Tree his own personal Facebook page and Twitter account that people could like, follow and comment on.  Eventually, a remembrance page for Mike the Tree could be set up on Facebook.  The premise of this idea is that printing so many copies of books can be seen as a waste of paper.  As the Kindle can hold thousands of books at once, the intention of this piece of copy is to give the viewer an emotional - albeit humorous -  attachment to a personified tree (and ex-tree) called Greg & Mike.

There's a few more pieces of copy I've got for this creative brief so check back shortly

As always, feel free to comment or drop me an email on edward.marlin@hotmail.com

 - Edd

Hello and welcome!

The internet can be a big and scary place so I'm glad you managed to make it here in one piece.

The link to your right cleverly labeled "What is the Surf Shack?" once clicked will whisk you away from here to a page that looks remarkably similar to this one but will in fact tell you all you need to know about this blog.  This is not to be confused with the link "About Edd" which will give you information about me.

You can expect the first proper post containing examples of creative copywriting stuff I've done to appear up here lickety-split and in no time at all, so check back regularly!

If you want to leave a comment, feel free!

You can also send an e-mail to edward.marlin@hotmail.com

See you all soon!

 - Edd