I love my job. I really do.
For the two or three people who regularly read this blog it may not seem that way. But why else would you stay in an industry where the bullshit is piled so high it reaches your bottom lip and you have to keep your mouth shut for fear of letting it pour in, to get inside you, to become you, only to look around and see some ego-maniac client screaming through the cesspool on water-skis? But, in amongst all the fear & loathing, there IS much to love. So be warned: this post is more loved-up than two turtle doves on oxytoxin.
Recently, we at Kingsday were asked to revamp the 'Favourite Flower' campaign for Bloemenbureau Holland (the Flower Council of Holland). And while it wasn't my project, I was roped in to help write some of the 'Hashtag Stories' that the new campaign would creatively centre on.
A contemporary update of Hemingway's legendary 'Six Word Story', we wanted to tell a full story in just six (or less) hashtags.
(BTW: it's now generally believed that Hemingway didn't write the above story to win a bet that he could make people cry using just six words - but hey, behind every great story are always facts that say it didn't happen that way)
So I spent the greater part of a day trying to write love stories with just 6 hashtags. And it wasn't until the Art Director responsible asked if my husband & I were ok did I realise what I had done: every single hashtag story was more tragedy than love story. Like the hoax Hemingway, the promise of new love suffered cot death. The most uplifting I could muster was #FavouriteFlower #WeLived #Happily #EverAfter #Separately.
Luckily, the rest of the team were having slightly better days.
But it got me thinking: writing a good story is difficult enough, but creating a great love story is even more of a laborious task. Now try fitting it into the confined space of an advert.
So here's a selection of some of ad-land's love stories I've really loved seeing.
SiriusXM got some flak for grossing out sensitive souls with their 'We Love Comedy' ads but I reckon they demonstrated a true understanding of what makes good comedy with a truly arresting visual.
And Kobold's 'Love Sucks' ad- made by Saatchi & Saatchi Dusseldorf is one of the finest, sweetest ads I've seen in a long time.
Of course, it's helped enormously by the choice of the perfect Burt Bacharach song to tell you all you need to know.
(BTW: don't let your pet take a dump in front of one or you'll end up with poopocalypse)
Speaking of pets: if you thought it hard not to fall in love with a love-sick robot, wait until they start putting cute puppies into the story.
In fact, imparting believable emotional states into inanimate objects or animals seems to be a lot easier than using actual people (see virtually any Pixar film for proof) but the following ad for Scrabble did, I think, a robot typed jog...er, a pretty good job.
Again, a simple boy-meets-girl story is elevated by the clever use of anagrams throughout the onscreen titles to perfectly match plot with product. If you’re a lover of word-play you’ll love this ad..
But you'd have to really love the product if this beer campaign by Jung von Matt speaks to you.
You do have to admire Bergdorfer's bravery at showing the real result of loving their beer too much.
Still, if you've spent any time in Germany you soon understand bellies are more a badge of honour than shame. But I guess that’s what real love is all about. Loving someone despite their flaws, down-sides and making you fat.
But the following 'Love Has No Labels' campaign for The Ad Council of America shows that not only is true love blind, it also expertly shows we should all stop judging what we see on the surface.
Hiding people behind an X-ray screen is a brilliant move to prove a very salient point. But sometimes you don't even need people at all.
While it perhaps over-simplifies the usefulness of a Google search, it's a beautifully modern interpretation of Hemingway's six (search)word story.
And I DO really love my job. I must do because I keep telling myself that over and over...