Campaign for breakfast

This morning whilst consuming my ever so nutricious all-bran I found a very interesting piece in Campaign. Its from Rory Sutherland's blog,
"Are Brands Eco-Friendly?: I have suddenly conceived the insane notion that brands are good for the environment.
Brands are, after all, gloriously intangible. You can build a brand without killing trees, and few precious raw materials are needed in their creation. I might go further.
The value of any branded item often decays far more slowly than the value of unbranded equivalent. Those Chanel sunglasses you buy today will still fetch a fair price on eBay in 20 years' time, while their cheaper unbranded equivalents have been clogging up a landfill for a decade.
Yet, such is my lack of confidence in the environmental benefit of brands, I can't really believe my own argument. It can't be true,can it?"

Good question! and great notion! I shall use it next time some advertising hater throws me the typical spiel, on how advertising is the pimp for the prostitue known as commercialism (So brilliantly worded by my lecturer Rob Bowdery)So thanks Rory! Heard good words about the man whilst visiting Ogilvy and now I think I like him even more!

Following up my blog the other day, concerning the new Oxfam Unwrapped campaign, I read an interesting article on this too, also in Campaign. Adrian Holmes, executive creative director of Y&R Europe says the fundraising idea is "commendable enough" and "Hats off to the various celebs for mucking in" but then goes on to say, "...but I'm a bit perturbed by the slightly jokey tone of voice of the spot:it starts off as a parody of a typical charity ad, and can't quite wipe the smile off its face from then on" He concludes by saying, "Yes, it's fun and all that, but I do hope the credibility of the whole enterprise isn't undermined as a result."

Even though I said I love the ad, and still do, as i truly feel this satirical slant really grabs the audience's attention, I feel Adrain has made a very good point here, one I had not considered before. Whether or not he is correct I am undecided, but it did make me wonder about any possible negative outcomes. For examply next time a serious Oxfam ad comes on, will i start thinking of a flapping fish and of fluffy pigs and dung, and begin to smirk uncontrollably?!!(which would be very bad timing!) or will i simply make no connection between the two, and leave the spoof in the far away distance of my christmas memories?! Only time will tell!

Nikki