Everyone's Invited to Swim

Only the great will make it to the other side.

The annual D&AD Student Awards competition is in full-swing. The British Design and Art Design Award is one of the most coveted and challenging student awards across the pond and around the world.

There's no limit of entries, but they had better be incredible. The best of the best will be grading them. Each entry needs to be signed by your tutor/professor, or you can't enter. Can a 30 year-old grad student enter? You betcha. (Coincidentally, that's the same age as this award.)

Winners receive an oversize pencil whose tree's growth must have been stunted due to the greenhouse effect. But this little stump can be used as a pedestal to reach the next level, or a doorstop to save yourself from having a crushed foot.

The categories are: Advertising, Animation, Furniture Design, Graphic Design, Illustration, Integrated Communication, Music Videos, Open Briefs, Photography, Product Design, Social Design, and What Else Do You Do? Description for the last onereads, "Having already entered one of more of the briefs this year, you are now entitled to now submit an additional piece of work that has nothing to do with this or any other competition..."

Because this blog is about advertising, I will only list the endless possibilities for the Advertising category.

Postcard
Breastfeeding, Sponsored by Best Beginnings
Press Advertising
Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Sponsored by Breakthrough Breast Cancer
Outdoor
HSBC, Sponsored by ClearChannel
Viral
Nando's, Sponsored by Nando's
Ambient
London Fashion Week, Sponsored by Grazia
Writing
If Only I'd Listened More Carefully, Sponsored by Ogilvy
Direct and Online
The Army, Sponsored by TEQUILA\
Poster
The Royal Opera House, Sponsored by This Is Real Art
TV
Belu, Sponsored by Weilands

You can't literally drown if you don't win; you only fill your metaphorical lungs up with water and have to be resuscitated by determination. Or you could change majors (quitter). Before you enter, read this. Did you read it? Okay, the briefs are here.

D&AD will accept entries from students from Jan. 14 – March 20, 2008. The grading takes place in May, and the awards ceremony is in June. All of the 'A' work is accessible in June.

Good luck!

(Do It) For the Glory of Love

In the latest issue of Communication Arts magazine, Ernie Shenck encourages us to appreciate every day, whether it's the day you get laid off or the day your agency lands an account with your favorite brand. The article is called 'Is There a Shoeless Joe in You?', referencing the baseball player, Shoeless Joe Jackson. Do what you do because you love it unconditionally.

Here's an excerpt of the motivational column. I encourage you to subscribe to CA. If you don't, at least get this issue for Ernie's uplifting words.

"I hope you love it all. Embrace it all. Suck it all in and let it shape and form you into something amazing, something with depth and breadth and subtle variations in texture and color, the likes of which we've never seen. Love what you do. Love the highs and the lows and weave it all into what you are to become. Be blindly in love. Be Shoeless Joe. Hold the bat up to your face. Look at the grain. Feel it on your cheek. Smell the varnish. You'll be better for it. We all will."

Here's a great example.

Conformity

The Drop Zone

Another company that's right on target is Perris Valley Skydiving. They've uniquely placed themselves as California's only resort skydiving center.

Driving to work, I saw a large plane on its approach. I get excited when I see jets because our airport is small, and the only flights are on a Beechcraft 1900D to Kansas City International. The airport is located in the middle of the United States, and one runway is long enough for the Space Shuttle to land on. Piloted by Steve Fosset, Virgin's longest flight around the world started and ended here. The airport is also a testing area for aircraft companies, training for the military, and a semi-frequent refueling stop for private jets and props. Back to the story. Driving 75 on the Interstate, I quickly glanced up a few times at the large jet. It couldn't be private; it was too big and didn't look like a Gulfstream or Learjet. My eyes only saw "Skydive", which immediately made me question if I needed my eyes checked. Skydive out of a jet? No way.

After further investigation, Skydive Perris is not only the sole skydiving center with a resort in California, but it also uses the only jet in the world that is certified (just last year) for skydiving. It's nicknamed the "pocket rocket", as it can take off on reasonably short runways. The McDonnell Douglas DC-9-21 is commissioned once again. (It may sound a little scary to use an old aircraft, but as long as the maintenance is kept up, you're good to go.) What used to be a commercial airliner for Scandinavian Airlines in the 60's, is now flying to drop people off who hardly ever land. There are only three of these planes left in service. Even better, the jet can take 80 experienced jumpers up to 15,000 feet, going 220 MPH -- at the price of $85 a person. Amazing.

'Dirty Jobs' Plugs Ford

On tonight's episode of 'Dirty Jobs' on the Discovery Channel, Mike Rowe, the show's host, teams up with a Texas outdoor advertising company to install a billboard. He helps with everything from start to finish. Keeping the stereotype alive, the billboard is huge. At the end of the segment, he plays with the idea that only a big company could handle this advertising space. The camera pans out and the Ford oval from an F-150 is in view. Cut to Mike Rowe on the billboard in front of a brand new Ford F-150 advertisement. He looks up at the truck and says, "Now that's a tough truck."

Mike Rowe joined Ford in January as a personality in their TV, print and online advertising campaign for the F-150 truck. The show was sponsored by Ford, and this one entire segment was dedicated to constructing a billboard. (I don't recall of any other episode where Mike Rowe did only one job for the entire show.) I wouldn't be surprised if Ford purchased the billboard and concepted the idea for this episode. The show was entertaining, and the Ford plug wasn't until the end, although it was very obvious what they were doing.

Will audiences accept this form of advertising, or will they ignore it?

Giant Pole Dancing Ad Seen from the Sky

A 100,000 square foot advertisement is causing turbulence because of its silhouette of a pole dancer. It can be seen by passengers from inside the fuselage of planes arriving to and departing from London's Gatwick Airport. The ad has been painted on a field underneath the airport's flightpath with water-based, biodegradable paint.

The local district council has called for the removal of the titillating ad because it was painted without permission. Planners have begun an investigation. Stephen Pearson, director of the company behind the ad, believes the council is unsure about their own regulations. Pearson also hopes the council finds humor in all this. "Myprivatedance.com follows on from the huge success the Lynx advert had last summer which caused a lot of controversy due to the graphic nature of the advert but was the most talked about advert in the month of July." Whenever it does get removed, by the council or the contract, the dyed grass or crop can be cut away easily.

This type of advertising would be particularly smart in busy areas where planes have to circle the airport time and time again for a cleared landing.

'Captivity' Captured

Browsing through Facebook, I checked out my friend's photos of her recent trip to L.A. Something that caught my eye was a billboard for the upcoming torture film, "Captivity". Is this the new and approved billboard?


The image has been cropped, so there are no other distractions.









Here's a better picture with a slightly different format, taken from Rotten Tomatoes.

In mid-March, the (banned) billboard was released, but the wrong file was sent to the printer; they released the version that was only supposed to be seen by the film exec's. Oops. It depicted the abduction, confinement, torture, and termination of Elisa Cuthbert's character. The public was outraged, and the producers paid for the removal of the ads that appeared on 30 billboards in L.A. and 1,400 taxi tops in NY.

Using only 'Confinement' from the previous billboard makes it a little more tame. But it's still going to be rated R for "Strong Violence, Torture, Pervasive Terror, Grizzly Images, Language and Some Sexual Material". Oh, is that all? The people at Creative Skirts and Ad Age have their very firm opinion of the film's content. And I agree. This movie will probably gross a lot more people out than it will gross in the box office.