Culture Jamming and stuff.

This was supposed to be a post about culture jamming. But in a very early status of figuring out what to write I realised how diversified the area of culture jamming - offline and online - is and how single-minded my view on culture jamming is. It's the view of someone who works in advertising. So all the stuff following will mainly be influenced by this point of view. The common explanation on Wikipedia describes it as

"the act of transforming existing mass media to produce commentary about itself, using the original medium's communication method."

From the examples Wikipedia gives I took two in order to find a differentiation between two ways of offline culture jamming. The first is Nikeground which represents the artist's way to interpret brands and their communication in order to make people think about the part that brands take over in our daily life. For example, the artists behind Nikeground designed a branded outfit for cities, based on the idea "You wear it, why shouldn't cities wear it too?" Here you can see the Karlsplatz in Vienna that was "dressed up" with Nike boxes and renamed "Nikeplatz".
A very subliminal and intelligent way that should make people think about brands taking over every part of our life. But on the other hand a very elitist thing as well. Though it's a intelligent effort, it acts the same way as brand communication does: it's an uninvited guest appearing in your daily life trying to communicate a message.

It's a tricky thing. And I am not sure if this act of culture jamming wouldn't become an aim for another way of culture jamming: the people's way or the direct way. You have seen it a million times in form of commenting tags on advertising billboards. The Bubble Project took it one step ahead. In the form of bubble stickes like the one above it encouraged people to leave their comment on billboards and advertisements. Not a lot of people would tag a billboard. But with a bubble on it...why not? To spread the message of the bubble, their website offers bubble templates of different sizes and a documentation that later was pubilshed as a book. This book featured pictures of jammed billboards around the world. Political comments, sexual comments, social criticism and commedy - it's amazing to see how diversified the stuff people wrote into the bubbles was. While going through all these pictures you may find that all comments follow one rule: They only appear on advertisements of brands that seem to be not true or have a "dark side". Ever seen criticism on brands like innocent, american apparel or howies? Probably not. But as soon as you are McDonalds, you get culture jammed a hundred times a day with films like "Supersize me" or with spec ads like this one: The positive point is that via culture jamming and it's success the people are able to force brands to think different. More and more the consumers seem to discover that they have the power to change the way brands act. And in the course of time more and more brands notice this fact as well. That's probably why more and more FMCG companies seem to somehow try everything to jump on the train to Sustainable Consumer Goods.

Okay, so more and more brands try to be good brands in order to receive consumer's appreciation. That's it with their products. But what about their advertising? Most of the big companies only seem to follow one rule: the more, the better.

"Let's forget about the message, we have prepared some USPs here. But the most important thing is, that it's everywhere. Cut that 45 second TVCs into three 15 seconds TVCs. More media power, more channels, more messages. Advertise everywhere!

Do you remember the time when there were no pop-ups in the internet? It was wonderful, wasn't it? It was okay that our favourite TV show was interrupted by ads as long as they were nicely done and not as long as the programme. It was like this: But since this time (I am telling nothing that really suprises you, am I?) the picture changed to this:
Or in the words of Banksy:"Billboards are like having millionares throw rocks at your head. You never asked to see them, they invade your life and make you feel inadequate."
More and more the mainly mindless messages of most advertisements have become the real graffiti problem of cities as the Anti-Advertising Agency and the Graffiti Research Lab point out with the following culture jamming titled:
Here's the film:
Brands should learn more from the opinion of their consumers. Advertising should evolve from the uninvited guest that tries to hammer brand stuff into your head to the uninvited guest that surprises you with a nice story or image. Don't get me wrong: I am not one of those people desperately trying to turn advertising into some sort of art. And I fully agree that advertising is pointless if it doesn't sell. But I think the growth of culture jamming in the cities and in the internet shows the consumer's wish to not to be taken for a fool. And I deeply believe that only good ideas consenquentially will result positive perception of the advertised brands. The problem of people disliking or just ignoring advertising is a home made one. Most ads lost the ability to be interesting, imaginative and original. That's why nobody is listening, why nobody will know what it has to say and why nobody will believe in it. Therefore what applies to products also has to apply to the advertising. It must be entertaining and intelligent. Interacting but not obtruding. Emotional but not mindless. And above all: interesting and true. It's not enough to just be there. And there are some brilliant examples for advertising fits that aim. The Dove campaign. It's not a creative masterpiece but it hit the heart of the consumer. Or the Honda work in the UK. They are not everywhere, but when they appear they are clever and entertaining. The same applies to the new Coca Cola films "Happiness factory" and "Video Game". So advertising must turn into advertainment to be relevant to the people out there again.

Before finishing this post here is a nice example for a brand using culture jamming for its advertising. Some time ago adidas installed white billboards with the outlines of adicolor sneakers to encourage passers by to tag them and design their own one. Nice idea, isn't it? By the way most of the pictures and information are taken from the lovely Wooster Collective. If you're interested in street art and culture jamming visit their website. It's worth it.
Did all of this make sense? Because after reading this post again I guess most of you already knew the stuff I was writing about and figuring out. Maybe a hundred people before me thought out the same things in a far more brilliant way. But it was nice to think about this stuff while writing it down. And hey, I am 25, a young gun who likes to have a think but without a lack of the experience brilliant people like Russell or Richard have. Nonetheless I hope there were some interesting aspects in there for some of you. The last words belong to SACRUM:
Friends may use it. Open source.

adidas just did it.

Actually I thought that Adidas couldn't beat the worldcup campaign "+10". Simplicity, great film and brilliant ideas in every medium. But then Adidas and I guess mainly 180° prooved me wrong. Nothing is impossible. Not just the name of the new campaign but a statement that even great work can be bettered. Okay, the idea "let athletes tell stories that fit to our claim" was done by NIKE again and again. But adidas managed to not only tell the story of one or two athletes but of 12 sportsmen and women from different sports, mixing professionals with amateurs. Furthermore the execution is really good, the illustration style is sweet and combined with the emotional stories behind not only athletes like David Beckham but as well the junior soccer team of St Margaret makes it just brilliant. On the campaign's website there is even more to find. Beside the "works of art" that were down by the athletes and that will tour Europe in an exhibition you find games, behind the scenes stuff and the usual downloadable stuff. All things considered it's a very well done campaign with a wide use of channels. Congratulations adidas and 180° / TBWA. A nice side dish: the website offers quick and easy embed-function to bloggers who want to show one or two of the films on their blog. And that's what I am going to do now. Here are my four favourites:

Nike vs. Asics

Most of you will remember the marvelous Nike Freestyle commercials by Wieden+Kennedy (here, here and here). Football, basketball, skateboards, bouncing balls, beats, Ronaldinho...brilliant. Yesterday I came across this. Football, basketball, skateboards, bouncing balls, beats...no Ronaldinho. What seems to be some kind of homage is the new commercial for Asics. So I thought if Asics can take up an old Nike idea and add volleyball, cricket, frisbee, jogging, bmx, tennis, some Eastern European architecture and a ghetto blaster, I could take both and mash them up. And here is the result:

The power of language?

Überraschung, obwohl die Corporate Language dieses Blogs ja im allgemeinen englisch ist (Internet ist ja global und so), mache ich heute mal eine Ausnahme. Und wer hat mich so bezaubert, dass ich diese Ausnahme mache?

It was Reinsclassen, the coporate language agency.

Wobei Bezauberung wahrscheinlich das falsche Wort ist, denn straft mich lügen, aber im Duden findet man unter "Bezauberung" höchstwahrscheinlich nicht folgende Beschreibung: leichtes Kopfschütteln, dass in Verwunderung, stärkeres Kopfschütteln und ständiges Wiederholen des Wortes "nein" übergeht.

Doch zunächst einmal gute Worte. Reins und Classen haben sich auf die Fahnen geschrieben, die Sprache zum zentralen Thema in ihrer Kommunikation zu machen. Hut ab, Chapeau, darauf musste mal jemand kommen, auf die Agenturphilosophie hat die Welt gewartet, huijui und jui. Nein, im Ernst, das ist ja eine durchweg positive Herangehensweise.

Aber, das ging schnell (wir sind bereits bei den bösen, schlimmen Worten, die wahrscheinlich irgendwann einmal in Nichtachtung und, wenn es ganz schlimm läuft, Gerichtprozessen enden). Öffnet man die Seite, wird nämlich relativ schnell klar, dass Sprache eben nicht alles ist. Oder zumindest nicht reicht. Graue Schrift auf weiß. Das könnte mitunter auch die Startseite eines Bestattungsunternehmen sein, wobei dieses wahrscheinlich noch die gestalterische Eindöde bemängeln würde.

Informationen sucht man dann erstmal vergeblich. Denn diese gibt es nur in Form eines .pdf, das den klangvollen, aber irreführenden Dateinamen "Kurzinfo" trägt. Hallo Zukunft, reinsclassen, fast 7 MB als Kurzinfo zu bezeichnen, da habt ihr aber tief in der Schatzkammer der deutschen Sprach gegraben.

Nichtsdestotrotz, die Kurzinfo hat es in sich. Keine der gezeigten Kampagnen (Ausnahme: IKEA, welche aber wirklich ganz schön ist) setzt auf Worte. Sondern Bilder.




Sollte man ja so von einer Agentur für Sprache nicht unbedingt erwarten. Ihre große wehende Fahne mit der Aufschrift "Achtung, bitte lesen, wir machen Corporate Language!" schmückt zwar jeden Kunden, nur sieht man nie, was sie denn da nun gemacht haben. Und wie kann eine Agentur, die es seit 2005 gibt, Kunden seit 2004 betreuen? Zauberei? Zeitreise? Oder doch die macht der Sprache?

Liebe Sprachwerber, ihr bleibt da sehr viel schuldig. Und weder in der Kurzinfo noch auf der Seite überzeugt ihr durch dufte Texte oder Sprache überhaupt. Ohnehin...eine Agentur für Sprache. Ihr habt da nicht den Stein der Weisen gefunden oder etwas, dass nicht jede Agentur sowieso kann und tut. Aber wahrscheinlich wäre eure Empfehlung an VW auch, einmal dafür zu werben, dass ein Volkswagen Räder hat und bremsen kann.

Ohne Bilder, und dafür seid ihr das beste Beispiel, ist Kommunikation leider nicht so stark. Hätte nicht ein amerikanischer Präsident vor tausenden, sondern eine weiße Wand in einem dunklen Keller gesagt "Ich bin ein Berliner!", würde sich wahrscheinlich kein Schwein daran erinnern.

So. Und ab jetzt keine uninteressanten Themen mehr.

How does your perfect agency looks like?

Minutes ago I wrote to the brilliant Flora (go, visit her blog) about how the perfect agency would look and feel like. And I am not talking about that "I wanna work for Nike and Adidas, Volkswagen and Apple"- or "I wanna work in an agency that gets all the goofy ideas done I did at Starbucks during coffee break"-wishes. And I don't wanna hear (who should answer? my zero readers?) that you would like to work for Wieden+Kennedy or CP+B or 180°. I know. Everybody wants that.

So, tell me. I think I will post my agency tomorrow.

Mr Centerfold Retoucher.

Thanks to YouTube you may all know the Dove commercial you can see below.



Coincidentally our very own Mr Handsome-Even-Without-Retouching Tobias did quite the same to get a bit closer to his dream of looking like a red haired copy of James Dean. Without question he knows how to retouch himself.

Untouched, red-faced, equipped with the coolness of Benny Hill.


Retouched and cold as ice.

Joe Joe What Do You Know?

A nice one-liner every week on the blog of the guys and dolls at Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam. This one's my favourite. Maybe because it's so goddamn true. Only they forget to mention Lürzer's Archive as well.

New Bravia Ad

Just brilliant. Really. Brilliant pictures. The clown. Brilliant. Only the music could have been a bit less überused.

Word to your product.

Over the weekend I went to our local Levi's Store to buy one of my favourite jeans, the Engineered. At home I saw a nice thing on the label.



I think it's a splendid idea to let the product tell consumers something about its history, heritage or philosophy. And I don't mean telling it via a branded paper coming with it as Adidas does it with its Originals Series. It's a new use of that silly leather-badge the other Levi's use to have. Or is there anybody interested in having the size of the jeans written inside and outside at the back for everybody to see it. So - quite clever - the people at Levi's used it to tell consumers something about the product, it's heritage and somehow make this badge a flag of pride for their company. And by the way people staring at your butt on the escalator at least got something interesting to read.

But to make a long way short at the end: Why don't FMCGoodies use their space as well to tell people about the character of their brand or its history? Or even make space for some more personal words than "this hyper-energetic drink fills the calcium and vitamin-c reservoirs of your body and activates your digestion". Nice, words like this really make me feel related to a brand. So why don't they write (consumer) friendlier texts on their labels?

A good example for nice copies that somehow makes a brand a friend is Glaceau and their products, for example Vitaminwater. A small exccerpt:

Energy
Grab an energy with vitamin C and ginseng. It'll get your hands off the snooze bar. We added a different combination of key nutrients to essential, multi-v, and energy that will each get you going and prepare you for the day. To us, it just made more sense than adding cream and sugar.

A nice text. Friendly. And i bet it gives you more information than the text I wrote down above. Just because you understand it. Because the people at Glaceau don't talk like scientists, they talk like buddies.

And that's what brands should feel like.

Why are you so afraid?

I don't know if ad agencies in England or the US have the same behaviour when clients set up a meeting to see work or to brief the agency on new projects. But in Germany I somehow feel 100% angst when the client is on his way. Agencies are afraid to rumble with them or even to talk for their point of views. Why? Because the client could give the budget to another agency, so let's forget about doing what we think is right and just behave like aboulic puppets.

Something is wrong. If your client trusts you and somehow thinks that the work you have done pushes the brand forward, then the last thing he will do is leaving the agency just because you have a different opinion. Good work needs some fighting. So do it. I don't want to spend any more hours working like a dog in order to sit in an agency meeting and hear words like "Oh, brilliant. But that's not exactly what we think the client wants. We would have to start a discussion and somehow will have to explain and defend our point of view...that's not what we like. Just walk the easy way and do some of this mediocre stuff, okay?"

No, not okay. In a matrimony when you are suppressed by your partner and have to play roles and are not allowed to think and act the way you think is right you spend some time at a therapist. or split up.

And honestly, do you really think that they want an agency with a philosophy called "Yes, you are right! Always!"

The beginning, maybe.

So this is somehow the start of the blog. Until now I don't know what it will be all about.

Probably it will contain lots of stuff about advertising in general, copywriting and account planning. So let's start with my top-3-daily-have-a-cup-of-coffee-and-read-blogs-list (the links you'll find in the sidebar):

Russell Davies
Russel Davies - the a-good-read-at-any-time-of-the-day-blog. Really interesting stuff about account planning and a nice guy. By the way you might want to join APSotW.

Wieden+Kennedy London
The blog of Wieden+Kennedy London - the beginning of my blog-reading-thing.

Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam
blog of Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam - my newbie but a nice read.

So. That's it for now with advertising'n'stuff. I guess additionally this blog will be a lot about sneaker as well. Think I will start with posting my whole collection. This should take some time. Hopefully enough to think about what this blog will be about and if the 2.5 readers somehow warrant the work (I am sure, somehow).