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Nine ways to improve an ad - classic VW Think Small

11/7/2014

2 Comments

 
Nine Ways to Improve and Ad from David MacGregor
Here it is - your Friday Frolic.

The first ad agency I ever worked for was called Brown Christensen & Associates. Pretty much forgotten now. But in their day they were an important independently owned kiwi firm. They famously introduced Coruba to New Zealand and made it a best seller - and New Zealand the only country in the entire world that preferred dark rum to white rum. 

I joined as a production assistant - doing analog work that doesn't exist today: filing and retrieving transparencies, making bromides for finished artists to paste down onto layouts, marking up type, checking galleys…it might as well all be in Anglo Saxon…meaningless in the digital era. I finagled my way into the creative department by teaching myself to render and by leaving my layouts out in plain site of the principals of the company. 

Brown Chris were a plum that was riope for the picking - we served clients like Amex, Panasonic/National/Technics, Fisher & Paykel, NZ WInes and Spirits…DDB came knocking and bought the agency. As part of the indoctrination there was a copy of a book called Remember Those Great VW Ads. Brown Chris were bought and I was sold. I still have the book somewhere - I read it over and over, copying the writing style. 

The presentation I've put together is the fist time I've used SlideShare as a maker, rather than a consumer. Thought I'd translate the classic parody by Fred Marley and Hal Riney that I used to share with my advertising students at Massey University school of design. Study it carefully. And remember it next time you just want to add a little tweak or apply some cockamamy rule or convention to a product or an idea.
2 Comments
jerry fields link
17/4/2015 02:57:57 am

Hello David.

An acolyte send the link (below) to me, excitedly. I responded in agreement, but pointed out that this sort of thinking has been visited many times before, and has been done by taking an actual ad and applying the "rules," which cock it up.

I went searching for the VW piece and found it here on your blog. Thank you for being so considerate as to place it here for me to find, and in such a timely fashion.

Enjoy the latest creative iteration on the client-as-dope theme:

http://www.adweek.com/adfreak/client-feedback-famous-novels-reminds-ad-people-theres-other-writing-out-there-164115?utm_source=sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_term=AW_Adfreak&utm_campaign=Adweek_Newsletter_2015291615

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Steven Lanham link
28/2/2017 04:54:52 am

ME too! Left school early to join Brown Christensen back in 1987. Started as the gofer and could be found hold up the darkroom at the back of the garage making bromides, changing the chemicals, etc. And yes, "filing and retrieving transparencies" was also a key responsibility. Worked my way up to Production Assistant (along side Eric Thompson as the Production Director and Ross Jackson the General Manager). Loved my time at BC and one of the main reasons I wanted to start my own business. Amazing family type atmosphere. Stayed with the new entity "McCann Erickson Brown Christensen" (on Epsom Road across from Eves Pantry) for a year or so but was let go a year in thanks to the economy. Went back to school to get my degree. Now living in Chicago and own a direct mail company. I was just doing a random search and found my way to your blog.

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    David MacGregor

    This blog is a notepad of contemporaneous and sometimes extemporaneous thoughts about creativity, strategy and ideas.
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  • HOME
  • About
  • Busker Blog by David MacGregor
  • Archive
    • Leadership in the networked economy
    • The joys of Coffee Consulting
    • Signature Style in Graphic Design
    • Surviving Survivor Bias
    • Health Check - the near future of healthcare
  • EXCLUSIVES