Love the conversation Anthony Kiedis and Ed Ruscha are having here. Especially the opening bit where he says;

Sometimes you make something and the universe just says “Yes, you did good today. You woke up with nothing and made something where there was nothing. Your job is done”

Inspired by their chatter, i began to explore Ed Ruscha’s earlier work and found something that looked familiar. Art has always inspired advertising so no judgements here, just the pure joy of recording observation :)

How to dominate the world by Wunderman
No brand was created as a global brand and was never designed to cater to a global consumer.
The world is full of young people so BE VISUAL ( Illiteracy is a huge issue and visual communication works best on a global level)
Find the average age of your country and deploy your campaign
Non-Western advertising has a tendency to promise STATUS. The consumer in these countries survive within a space intensive environment where everything is potential media space, eg; housing, shops, transport, refrigerators, rooms; etc.
Western advertising promises SUSTENANCE
Communication for a global brand needs to be culturally neutral

BBDO – The Next Billion. Relationship between consumers and the screens in the media scape.
Screen1 – The Television. The Television is the jester of the family. Its there to entertain and comfort you. Over the years, it has lost credibility in delivering news content because of the many stories of government alliances and conspiracies to control the media. It is currently the official source of entertainment
Screen2 – The Computer. The Computer is the ‘All Wise Sage’. Almost a little like the elder sibling who you are comfortable approaching with any kind of question and you are confident that he/she will have the answer for you.
Screen3 – The Mobile.mobile is the Lover. This archetype shoes characteristic similarities across multiple age groups and their relationship to their lovers. The teenager is protective, experimental and partly insecure about her lover. Never lets it out of his/her sight. He/she is receptive to new kinds of communication and advertising on this platform. When compared to someone who is over 45, the relationship with the mobile is more along the lines of ‘Don’t give me advertising bullshit! – You know me well enough by now to give me this crap’
Screen4 – the Tablet. The Tablet mimics the wizard who does things differently. This correlation was very poorly presented. i suspect it is because it’s an evolving medium.

The Times – The Future is Connected
The master class presented the beta tablet version of the Times newspaper. The digital newspaper is by paid subscription only following the philosophy that good journalism needs to be paid for. The application embeds advertising within the news content like a traditional newspaper. However, all the advertising is treated as a portal to more engaging content, eg; On the tap of a finger, the consumer can view the tv commercial, cars can be customized, phone features can be compared to one another. Consequently, the depth of feedback that can be attained is extremely rich. Users are more receptive to advertising on tablets because it is a ‘Lean Back’ and ‘Immersive’ experience as opposed to advertising that is meant to be received whilst on the computer. Advertising on websites that are meant to be consumed during work hours demand a ‘Lean in’ experience which is extremely difficult to achieve. On the spectrum of engagement lies Immersion on one end and Interaction on the other. The former seduces with beautiful looking content and the latter attracts with utility/applications.

Kraft Foods by Malcolm Gladwell - Importance of being 3rd
A culture built for INVENTION is not optimized for INNOVATION
Example – Apple comes in last. It comes in late to the party and dominates the scene. It turned up late for both – the phone and music player category and went on to rule.
Example – Friendster gave way to MySpace gave way to Facebook
Come second or third and MAKE IT BETTER.

Directory – Laughter the most direct response
PROPOSITION and PROMISE are different. PROMISE is where the humour in advertising is

Use of laughter defined the various groups in a society.
Laughing with v/s Laughing at
Very few brands leaders ‘laugh at’
Brand followers usually ‘laugh at’ in order to get noticed
What is funny in advertising? – Death, Profanity (language, poo, vomit), Politics, Religion, Masculinity and Gags
Establish strange perspectives on the product
Establish characters with a comic flaw, eg incompetnece, greed, laziness, vanity, snobbery
Comic setup – Premise within which the true story unfolds

Ok! So sick day from work yesterday totally paid off. Amidst all the coughing and sneezing i was atleast able to get my act together and have my portfolio and tumblr site together. I still need to get my stuff onto Etsy and see what Behance has to offer.

Finished producing this campaign for the launch of Ferrari World Abu Dhabi back in January but hadn’t had the time to post it up here. Big shout out to Photographer Frank Kayser. Here we go now! :)

Here is the TV Commerical we shot with Xavier Mairesse

FerrariWorld AbuDhabi from artraj on Vimeo.

This is perhaps the best compilation of the most impactful social media campaigns from recent times. Stole it from WeareSocial, who btw are a must-follow on Twitter.

View more presentations from Marta Kagan – the woman behind What The F**K is Social Media? and What the F**K is Social Media: One Year Later

Ok.. so it happened once again! Blog lethargy!! Actually, it was more of lethargy consumed repeatedly with potent spoons-full of doziness! That sounds just about right – I blogdozed!! I blogdozed for a year almost and every time i told myself to get back into it, i blogdozed a little more.

Honestly, guess i’ve been keeping zip because i was afraid that my literal diarrhea would get me in trouble with ‘certain’ people i work with. But am hoping that my dormancy has sent them on a trip to Farawaysthan.

Why am i being such a mysterious 16 year old girl? Must be all that Nivea Soft work that i’ve been doing lately.Trying to get myself into the heels of a 25 year old has had me flipping the pages of Vogue and talking about the subtle differences between ‘touching’ and ‘feeling’.

And now.. i think i know!! believe it or not ladies! i think i am a tad bit closer to figuring you all out!

Ok.. sudden and sporadic intent to spin out of my blog’coon ends here. I may or may not return with more accounts of twists n’ turns from my life. No promises.. just doziness!

Oh btw, on the note of Nivea.. somebody please save me from this sexbomb goddess – Asha Leo. On a recent edit job that i’ve had to do for this client, I’ve had to repeatedly treat myself to watching clips of her dancing to the tune of LadyBug’s track ‘SnapShot’ in the Happytime commercial and boy!! was that 1 minute worth it?

,,,it sure was! take a snapshot of it yourself…

In a glittering ceremony last week, attended by over 200 eminent personalities from the media, marketing and advertising fraternity, the UAE Chapter of the IAA announced that it would award ParisGallery, the leading luxury retailer in the GCC with the honor of founding UAE’s National Lunch Bag.

For over 25 years, ParisGallery’s iconic red bag has become the quintessential grub bag for many UAE residents who prefer to carry their own lunch to work. Over the years, white collar employees have been traveling back and forth from work with this bag that has now officially been named a national fashion accessory. Hesham Ezzat, an executive working for a leading insurance firm claimed that not only was the size of the bag just ideal for most tupperware that he owned but the bag’s durability made it a highly reliable lunch mate.

The CEO of ParisGallery has been considering slashing his marketing budgets and producing more durable retail shopping bags from next year. In a proud moment after receiving the honor, he said ‘ All this while, i had no idea that shoppers were advertising my brand for me. Imagine, all the money i could have saved on marketing if i knew this was happening. I could have bought more hair gel and Bmw’s instead’

I’ve been wanting to put this one together forever.. actually No.. am lying!
I’ve been wanting to put this one together ever since i watched the scene in Madmen where Ron Sterling (John Slattery) walks into Don Draper’s office (Jon Hamm) where suited creatives sit in admiration over Volkswagen’s legendary ad ‘Think Big’. The creatives point to the ad and say ‘This is Advertising!’ to which Ron says ‘ you want to know what advertising is? it’s 99c. That’s advertising!’ HAH! Super!

About a month ago, Bert and Annie Sue recommended a book called ‘E by Matt Beaumont‘.. HILARIOUS and INSIGHTFUL TO THE CORE! is all i have to say. Just thought i’d pick a bit from the book to share here. This is the bit where Daniel Westbrooke (Head of Client Servicing) sends an email to Katie Philpott (intern), briefly telling her about advertising and ‘who does what’ in an agency.

(more…)

I know that the next post in queue was going to be dedicated to how awesome me and my writer were at the ‘Dubai Young Lynx 2009′ :P But i am forced to digress and crib about a depressing brief i found laying on my desk this morning. It was for the lack of a better word – CONDESCENDING!! – a brief that required me to design a poster urging mall shoppers to wear respectable clothing!! Now don’t get me wrong… i don’t usually consider any project as ‘beneath me’ and i have been charged guilty on numerous accounts as being the eternal optimist who sees a fluttering potential in mostly every shitty situation.. but somehow i considered it purely offensive and borderline insulting when i was asked to replicate an existing artwork for which we were missing our very own digital files. NOW THAT! IS BENEATH ME!

Anyway.. the drama queen within me found peace at the thought of ‘taking the piss’ !! mwahaha! If you can’t beat em – join em, is what they say ??? :P The call against ‘indecent exposure’ turned into a support for ‘decent exposure’ and i was calmed by the sound of my own brain giggling at these silly little figurines wearing these modestly shaped designer shopping bags. I mean after-all, if you can’t show any skin – you may as well wear the damn bag yea ??

Click on the image to see it BIG!