Monday 24 October 2011

Mary Queen of Flops...

There's a very irritating woman on the telly at the moment who is so up her own surname it's just unbelievable!

She is on a mission to 'dress the older woman'; and is, condescendingly, visiting 'beyond the pale' places such as Guildford (which I LOVE thank you very much); in order to prise such women away from their comfort zone shops such as M&S and other middle-class, middle-aged fashion outlets. This arrogant, egotistical woman is telling us we have a choice between 'frumpy' (like your granny) or 'frivolous' (so that you have to pretend you are buying stuff for your daughter).

Well, let me tell you Mary, Mary; on the contrary:  There are actually a lot of really nice shops out there; staffed by really nice, polite people. And, in these recessionary times, they are falling over themselves to serve us.

So why should we go anywhere near a shop which has anything to do with such an outrageously rude and overbearing ginger monster?

Tuesday 4 October 2011

Snap, Crackle and Pop! How Advertising appropriated popular culture.( And vice versa)

Last week I went to a very interesting talk by Richard Alford, Managing Director of M&C Saatchi. It was the last (but not least) of a series connected with the exhibition of pop art at the Woking Lightbox. The exhibition title 'Snap, Crackle and Pop', came from a slogan used many years ago by the advertisers of 'Rice Krispies' - the idea being that, when you added milk to the cereal, it made that snap, crackle and pop noise - evidence that the stuff was really crispy and fresh. The old commercials were really good in their day, but the advertisers have updated the original idea and made a new version which is much more 'empathic' and, actually, conveys the original message to the modern audience even more clearly, I think. See it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vS7X02Wa3GA&feature=player_embedded

As you can imagine, I had high expectations of the level of presentation, given the profile of the speaker. And  was not disappointed. Mr Alford gave a 'no nonsense' critique of what Advertising should be about, in his opinion, as a practitioner. He admitted first off that he was no expert on Pop Art, Post-Modernism; or any of the other art 'isms' which are bandied about.  He emphasised that the point of advertising is to sell; but sometimes, it's not surprising that potential customers don't 'get' the message, as often, the advertisers themselves are not clear about what they have to say.

The audience was treated to a few examples of successful and unsuccessful uses of Pop Art in advertising. Then, with the warm glow of a free glass of wine; and a balmy early autumn evening ahead of us, we left the gallery feeling a bit more positive about the world of advertising.