OPINION: Moment of truth: The trends shaping 2012

Posted by McCann on 10 Apr 2012

The very best advertising is based on truth. That’s a fact. And it’s something Harry McCann cottoned on to one hundred years ago when he founded HK McCann Co with the motto “Truth Well Told”, still adhered to by McCann...

What's in a name?

Posted by McCann on 25 Oct 2011

Driving to work the other day, I found myself behind a Skoda. Not knowing a whole lot about the new Skodas, I checked out the badging to see what model it was. It was called the Superb. Now THAT is one...

McCann Sydney MasterCard RWC Campaign Scores Four at Spikes

Posted by McCann on 24 Oct 2011

McCann Sydney’s ‘Witnessing History’ Rugby World Cup campaign for MasterCard has picked up four awards at the prestigious Spikes Asia Advertising Festival. The three TV spots at the heart of...

Greetings from McCann

Posted by McCann on 17 Oct 2011

As some of you may know, our agency SMART recently took the plunge and walked down the aisle with McCann. A week into swapping the life of a cavalier independent agency for a piece of the world’s largest agency network...

Eat Pray Love Shop Die

Posted by McCann on 27 Sep 2011

Is the culture of consumerism officially dead, or is it just taking a well-earned nap? In the red corner you have your, well let’s just call them Social Consciences, who’ve argued all along that consumerism is ultimately unsustainable, debasing and...

Lie to me. Really, it's fine.

Posted by McCann on 26 Aug 2011

It’s probably because I’m a little slow on the uptake, but I’ve finally figured out something that’s been bugging me for years. The thing is, I know people are hugely contradictory creatures but I could never quite put my finger on...

MCCANN SYDNEY ROCKS

Posted by McCann on 29 Jul 2011

After a decade in Darlinghurst, McCann Sydney has moved to a new part of town. You can now find us at number 32-34 Grosvenor Street, right on the edge of the CBD and the harbour-side Rocks area of Sydney. We’re...

Michael Raso Selected For Spike Awards Jury

Posted by McCann on 29 Jul 2011

McCann executive creative director Michael Raso has been chosen as one of the jurors for the 25th annual Spikes Asia Advertising Festival. Michael will sit on the jury for the Film, Print, Outdoor and Radio category, which will judge work from...

Lessons from the locker room

Posted by McCann on 29 Jun 2011

There are numerous similarities between what you learn from the sporting field – and what you use in the advertising business – you just need to be smart enough to realise it. Here are a few examples of what I mean.

The...

Surprise me!

Posted by McCann on 29 Jun 2011

You know – after so many years in this business – it is a little harder to surprise me – or so I thought. Let’s face it – one of the things we all like about this business is that...

Five interesting answers from ten years of interviews

Posted by McCann on 29 Jun 2011

Every journalist has fall-back questions should their mind go blank mid-interview. Whenever the tumble weed of anxiety swept across my brain, this one was usually good to me: “If you could give one piece of advice to someone entering your...

That Fine Line

Posted by McCann on 29 Jun 2011

“I’ve always thought that working in a creative based business was very special – because like most supplier businesses – there are different levels of creativity and servicing so people can find their place. Some get better at it so...

Gamification: Who Owns Play?

Posted by McCann on 29 Jun 2011

I have only very recently joined the advertising industry with most of my professional life spent working in computer games (most recently for Sony PlayStation) so I have been actively following the convergence of these two worlds into something that...

Plain packaging of cigarettes: there's no sympathy for the devil here.

Posted by McCann on 10 Jun 2011

The committed trawler of industry websites and the marketing pages of our daily newspapers usually isn’t hugely rewarded for their efforts. Until recently, that is. Because the proposed plain packaging legislation for cigarettes has caused all manner of people to add...

Three big questions to ask of an agency

Posted by McCann on 2 Jun 2011

Back in August 2010 I switched careers from journalism to advertising. Now I’ve had the chance to get my feet under the table, here are three important questions to ask if you too are contemplating a switch agency side: 1) Will...

Fame (no, you're not gonna live forever)

Posted by McCann on 17 May 2011

Salt, pigs, oil, land, gold, fame. All have been used, at one time or other, to measure a person’s status. And although I enjoy a nice piece of salted pork loin as much as the next man, it’s fame I’m...

If advertising doesn't work out, you could always try being a preacher.

Posted by McCann on 3 May 2011

The first intake of a new Award School class is about to rock up to the agency. And every time I see advertising hopefuls en-masse, it always gets me thinking about advertising (the career) rather than advertising (the job). Because they’re...

Is there anything more polite than advertising?

Posted by McCann on 1 Apr 2011

I’m just putting it out there, but is anyone else surprised that we’re still not allowed to say fuck in ads? Bitch seems ok, shit is borderline, and the c-word is obviously off the radar for some time yet. But...

Where'd that fucking paradigm go?

Posted by McCann on 22 Mar 2011

I really like this. Living in Melbourne, Australia, I've borne witness to one of the world's most effective road-safety campaigns from the TAC. Very effective, but very shocking and often gruesome. Hard-hitting, powerful stuff. So it's pleasing to see something very different...

How 'bout that glamour then?

Posted by McCann on 18 Mar 2011

I was grabbing a coffee from the place around the corner, when I bumped into a certain ECD from a certain agency. I must’ve caught him at a weak moment, because the conversation quickly turned to how much of a...

Whatever you can do, Walt Disney could do better.

Posted by McCann on 1 Mar 2011

When I went through the Disney exhibition at ACMI a little while ago, I thought it’d be all mermaids and maidens and pre-teen wish fulfilment. Which it was. But it was also something much more interesting: an insight into one...

We're not called consumers for nothing.

Posted by McCann on 31 Jan 2011

What’s the oldest thing you own and regularly use? I don’t mean your house or your Grandma’s old mixing bowl or antique whatnots. I’m talking about consumable stuff: the things that keep the global economy (and us advertising folk) humming...

What I like about advertising

Posted by McCann on 24 Oct 2010

Advertising is harder work than it used to be. Margins are tighter, clients more demanding, pitch shortlists are as long as longlists used to be, and longlists read a lot like ‘A’ in the Yellow Pages. Fragmentation and the shifting...

Why it's best not to confuse reinvigoration with reinvention

Posted by McCann on 11 Oct 2010

The Melbourne Marathon was on yesterday. But I don’t want to talk about the run. Or the fact that I beat Ben by an hour. Instead, I think it’s worth considering the whole notion of endurance, and whether it still...

Risktakers are rare for a reason.

Posted by McCann on 27 Sep 2010

People say they like adventure. But I suspect they like their adventure in carefully meted doses, totally controlled. Like bungee jumping, and safaris, and travel to safe but ‘exotic’ parts of the world. Or maybe a ordering a beer from...

The secret to creating a standout ad is simple. Just go against the grain.

Posted by McCann on 27 Aug 2010

 Why does beer advertising always try to be funny, yet wine and spirits advertising usually tries to be serious or dramatic? Do people share a laugh over a beer, but stroke their chins thoughtfully when drinking vino? And have you...

Masterchef united people around australia like no other program, But it may also have highlighted why fragmented media isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

Posted by McCann on 13 Aug 2010

Once upon a time in Australia, there used to be this thing called mass-media. This was back in the day when people had dial-up modems that made that awesome EEEEEEEE-OOOOOOO-EEEEEEEEE-GHGHGHGHGHGH noise, and before everyone had Foxtel, so the big free-to-air channels...

There's a limit to how much you should embellish your brand – try-hard ads will only scare off your audience.

Posted by McCann on 30 Jul 2010

I’ve got kids, so one of my tasks in life is to protect them from people like me; people who earn their living presenting versions of the truth that may or may not entirely and accurately reflect the way things...

The federal election is approaching and we can expect some aggressive advertising.

Posted by McCann on 16 Jul 2010

Oh goody. Another Federal election is on the way, and that means a whole new raft of political advertising. A lot of people hate election ads, and it’s easy to see why. They’re usually painstakingly crafted to appeal to the...

Subtle brand boosting is fine, but crossing the line doesn’t do anyone any favours.

Posted by McCann on 2 Jul 2010

It’s the morning after those cheating, diving Italian bastards did it again, so I’m a little fired up. Not content with diving their way to the Quarter Finals, and eventual victory in 2006, they’ve just cheated their way to a draw...

Nike, the world’s best-marketed brand, has stolen the show once again.

Posted by McCann on 4 Jun 2010

A couple of interesting things of note this week. Firstly, our agency seems to be stocked with racist foodstuffs. I’ve grown up with Coon cheese since forever, so the name doesn’t seem odd to me at all. It’s just a...

Creatives love awards but some of the best advertising craft will go unrecognised

Posted by McCann on 21 May 2010

It’s awards season again, and wonderful work like Boag’s Pure Waters is – justifiably – set to win big.But here’s the thing: only a tiny fraction of the work our industry produces ever wins an award. This is not because...

Taglines are overrated.

Posted by McCann on 3 May 2010

Everyone’s always interested in the campaigns that Tourism Australia puts out. Partly because it’s our money they’re spending, but I suspect mostly because it’s our good selves and our way of life they’re actually selling… and ‘me’ is everyone’s...

They lie to us because we let them

Posted by McCann on 3 May 2010

All that is necessary for marketing to triumph, is for sensible people to do nothing. OK, Edmund Burke said it first, and most certainly better. And he was talking about evil, not marketing (although many would say we’re splitting hairs here)....

The illusion of control

Posted by McCann on 3 May 2010

As I write this, our agency is slowly drying out after nearly a metre of water surged through the Melbourne office on Saturday. A freak storm brought so much rain, so quickly, that the force of the floodwaters broke the...

Tourism Australia’s latest campaign doesn’t have a great tagline but so what, it’s all about whether the ads can convince people the proposition is true.

Posted by McCann on 9 Apr 2010

Everyone’s always interested in the campaigns that Tourism Australia puts out. Partly because it’s our money they’re spending, but I suspect mostly because it’s our good selves and our way of life that they’re actually selling… and “me” is everyone’s favourite topic,...

The industry often gets too wrapped up in trying to predict how an ad will fare.

Posted by McCann on 26 Mar 2010

Bloody hell, there’s been a lot of debate over the Carlton Draught campaign. First it was killed, then it was resuscitated and went online, then it went offline again. It was great, it was awful, it was on-brand, it was...

Consumers crave power, making it difficult for brands to boast about their size.

Posted by McCann on 12 Mar 2010

As I write this, our agency is slowly drying out after nearly a metre of water surged through the Melbourne office on Saturday. A freak storm brought so much rain, so quickly, that the force of the floodwaters broke the...

The “more is more” ad bubble.

Posted by McCann on 26 Feb 2010

I hope the “more is more” ad bubble has burst and left us with more emotional messaging. Once upon a time, way back in the 1950s, more was more. The western world was in the process of exiting a lengthy period...

Consumers complain about lies in advertising, but the bare truth is not welcome either

Posted by McCann on 12 Feb 2010

 All that is necessary for marketing to triumph, is for sensible people to do nothing. OK, Edmund Burke said it first, and most certainly better. And he was talking about evil, not marketing – although many would say we’re splitting hairs...

Why australian advertising has lost its local flavour

Posted by McCann on 29 Jan 2010

I’m writing this on 27 January, which means yesterday was Australia Day, which is meant to give us pause to reflect on the whole Australia thing; what it means to be Australian, where we came from, where we’re headed. This being AdNews,...

Is choice is nothing but an illusion?

Posted by McCann on 15 Jan 2010

Do you ever get the feeling that choice is nothing but an illusion? That while we think we desire choice, what we really crave is more of the same? Driving to work this morning, I consciously looked out for the colours...

Come together right now......over my dead body

Posted by McCann on 18 Dec 2009

In an industry that sees more and more specialist agencies and niche media practitioners jostling to lead the implementation of complex marketing activities, Adam Ferrier [right] and John Mescall [far right] see if they can find some common ground on...

Can hate be good?

Posted by McCann on 14 Dec 2009

I hate Carrie Bradshaw. I hate her so much that if they made Final Destination 5 and showed nothing but Carrie Bradshaw getting killed in a variety of absurdly gruesome ways, over and over and over again, I’d see the...

What you love others are bound to hate

Posted by McCann on 20 Nov 2009

I hate Carrie Bradshaw. I hate her so much that if they made Final Destination 5 and showed nothing but Carrie Bradshaw getting killed in a variety of absurdly gruesome ways, over and over and over again, I’d see the movie,...

Economics, sociology and marketing form the key three pillars of the ad exec’s armoury.

Posted by McCann on 6 Nov 2009

If you read and enjoyed Freakonomics, you’ll be pleased to know the sequel – Superfreakonomics, naturally – is on the shelves. For those who missed it the first time around, a quick introduction: Freakonomics is what happens when so-called “rogue economists” turn...

Potential employees

Posted by McCann on 23 Oct 2009

Here’s the bad news: According to the “latest Clarius Skills Index”, Advertising & Marketing graduates are officially the “least in demand” in the country. Accounting and engineering graduates are having a hard time of it too, but we sit proudly...

iHaveareallydumbidea

Posted by McCann on 2 Oct 2009

When Kraft launched their new cheesy/vegemite hybrid snack, and named it iSnack 2.0,  it inspired me to let my fingers do the walking through the yellow pages, and see if I could find an even less appropriate name – for...

Sorry for making your kids fat.

Posted by McCann on 14 Sep 2009

It’s all our fault, of course. We advertisers with our mystical powers of coercion have been forcing Australian children into a lifetime of obesity, and it simply must stop. How wonderful it is to wield such power, though. To know that...

A typical TAC ad

Posted by McCann on 11 Sep 2009

I saw a drink-driving ad from the Transport Accident Commission (TAC) on Father’s Day. It was a really good ad, written to an undeniable emotional truth, at once honest and disarming, uncomfortable yet compelling. In short, a typical TAC ad. You...

Think outside the square.

Posted by McCann on 28 Aug 2009

A lot of businesses espouse the need for creative thinking, and they often encourage their employees to do things like shift paradigms and – oh God, forgive me for putting this horrible phrase into print once more – think outside...

Why we spend so much time testing advertising in development.

Posted by McCann on 31 Jul 2009

Trash television rates its pants off despite the fact that it’s usually difficult to figure out its strong points. Given its inexplicable success, I wonder why we spend so much time testing advertising in development. Mine is Wife Swap/Trading Spouses. Celebrity Rehab...

Is this the most important question in advertising?

Posted by McCann on 7 Jul 2009

Why do otherwise placid people become aggressive when they get behind the wheel of a car? Why do we blink when we sneeze? Why do retrievers always look like they’re smiling? Why do so many people wish they had the...

“Overtly sexual”?

Posted by McCann on 19 Jun 2009

I see American Apparel (AA) is getting beaten about the head because its adverts are apparently too “overtly sexual” in nature. Actually, I don’t know why I put “overtly sexual” in inverted commas, because it’s pretty clear that AA makes the...

Why you should've become a cop...

Posted by McCann on 12 Jun 2009

If you were a lawyer or a detective, or even a forensic scientist, you’d be pretty happy with the way your profession is treated on TV. People would meet you and assume you have a really action-packed, sexy job where...

Is new old, the new new?

Posted by McCann on 28 May 2009

I don’t know about you, but when I saw this the...

Beware the evils of background tunes

Posted by McCann on 28 May 2009

We were trying to come up with some ideas for a brand repositioning the other day, and the guys in the studio had their music cranked up pretty loud. It was 80’s stuff, but we weren’t really listening to it.   Well...

When it comes to goods and services, choice is good

Posted by McCann on 22 May 2009

Read your history of the Soviet era, and you’ll find that the average person’s biggest gripe – aside from members of their family being routinely tortured and killed during Stalin’s purges – was the lack of decent toilet paper. Apparently, the...

“We stole their land, their buffalo and their women. Then we went back for their shoes.”

Posted by McCann on 8 May 2009

 That was a headline written for Timberland by the incomparable Tim Delaney to help launch the aforementioned brand into the UK. “It’s ugly, but it gets you there.” This was a headline written for Volkswagen, at the time of the moon...

Posted by McCann on 24 Apr 2009

I don’t know about you, but when I saw this the other day, it was news to me: Volkswagen in South Africa is releasing a new version of its ever-popular Golf. But the kicker is that it’s an exact replica...

Posted by McCann on 9 Apr 2009

We were trying to come up with some ideas for a brand repositioning the other day and the guys in the studio had their music cranked up pretty loud. It was ’80s stuff, but we weren’t really listening to it....

Posted by McCann on 26 Mar 2009

I was grabbing a tuna baguette thingy for lunch the other day from a really nice little place frequented by ad types, people who work in stores selling needlessly expensive objects, and women who gather in small groups to eat...

ARE WE SMART OR STUPID?

Posted by McCann on 18 Mar 2009

I’m only asking this because (and I may be the only one here) I constantly find myself vacillating between these two extremes of opinion. It’s tricky, because everywhere you look, there’s ample evidence to support either case. And as advertising professionals,...

Australia's a pretty big country...

Posted by McCann on 3 Mar 2009

No, let me take that back. Australia’s a freakingly huge country, with cities so far apart, other freakingly huge countries could comfortably sit in the empty spaces between...

Posted by McCann on 27 Feb 2009

Australia’s a pretty big country. No, let me take that back. Australia’s a freakingly huge country. So it always gives me a bit of a wry smile when folk like us sit in our Sydney and Melbourne offices and blithely...

Unfortunate timing or brilliant self-parody?

Posted by McCann on 16 Feb 2009

Not so long ago, Melbourne recorded its hottest-ever day, and the Summer down here has been so hellish that the weather has become a legitimate topic of conversation, rather than the bluntest arrow in your smalltalk quiver. In fact it’s...

Not so long ago I was in a hotel that had a very limited selection of Foxtel channels...

Posted by McCann on 27 Jan 2009

There was golf, a documentary on (I’m not making this up) hero-pigeons of World War 2, the inevitable discussion on the global financial crisis, and the shopping channel.

Welcome to 2009...

Posted by McCann on 12 Jan 2009

Welcome to 2009.  Rather than attempt to predict what the next 12 months have in store for us, I googled ‘2009 the year of the…’ to see what others have decided is our pre-ordained fate.

I just conducted a very small experiment...

Posted by McCann on 28 Nov 2008

I just conducted a very small experiment: sitting on my bed at home, I made a quick audit of all the brands that I could see, without moving so much as a muscle. What I got was: Saucony, Skins, The North...

A lot of advertising creatives suffer from Peter Pan Syndrome...

Posted by McCann on 14 Nov 2008

A lot of advertising creatives suffer from what’s been termed Peter Pan Syndrome: an inability or lack of desire to grow up. And I think I know the reason: Working in advertising is almost exactly like being in school. It’s so...

Do we lie for a living?

Posted by McCann on 31 Oct 2008

Do we lie for a living? Some would say yes, but I think your answer largely depends on what your definition of a lie actually is. Our harshest critics would look at the exaggerations and embellishments that are our bread...

We’re witnessing the beginning of the end of the American Empire...

Posted by McCann on 17 Oct 2008

If, as many political, social and economic commentators have suggested, we’re witnessing the beginning of the end of the American Empire, it certainly raises several interesting questions. Chiefly: how would the advertising industry cope if our beacon of rampant consumerism finds...

The AFL attracts so much money...

Posted by McCann on 3 Oct 2008

The AFL attracts so much money, it’s got a spare $30 million to sink into a team in West Sydney, where the inhabitants like Aussie Rules less than Osama Bin Laden likes America. Why is AFL so successful? Plenty of...

Stuffing things up is entirely natural for the human race...

Posted by McCann on 19 Sep 2008

If “to err is human” is to be believed, stuffing things up is entirely natural for the human race. In fact, people are so far from perfect, if we rolled down assembly lines instead of birth canals, we wouldn’t make...

We humans have a deep-rooted desire to believe...

Posted by McCann on 5 Sep 2008

We humans have a deep-rooted desire to believe. And it’s fascinating to observe the ways in which commercial interests exploit that desire for all it’s worth. At the bottom of the food chain are astrologers and phone psychics. I suspect if...

Every four years, it’s the same...

Posted by McCann on 22 Aug 2008

Every four years, it’s the same: I tell myself that this time I won’t get suckered into watching hour after hour of Olympics coverage, and then I go right on ahead and watch hour after hour of Olympics coverage. Heats, medal...

Just because we love working in advertising, doesn’t mean we couldn’t learn a thing or two from other professions...

Posted by McCann on 8 Aug 2008

Just because we love working in advertising, doesn’t mean we couldn’t learn a thing or two from other professions. I’ll get the ball rolling: Architects are really good at providing just enough complexity in their recommendations that you never fully understand...

Bad news for the Australian public...

Posted by McCann on 25 Jul 2008

Increasingly, it seems likely that bad news is going to be the order of the day for the Australian public in the foreseeable future. We’ve been holding this really great party for nearly a decade now, but a few new...

On my way to work every morning, I drive around a lake...

Posted by McCann on 11 Jul 2008

On my way to work every morning, I drive around a lake. The lake is only a few kilometres from the CBD, and the traffic that builds up around it is your usual peak-hour mess: angst-ridden people gripping their steering...

Best use of a weird national idiosyncrasy...

Posted by McCann on 27 Jun 2008

Best use of a weird national idiosyncrasy: The crew from Hakuhodo Japan, who employed men in white lycra bodysuits with pulsating, glowing lights emanating from their crotch, to walk around their party as “the entertainment”. Uh huh. Best use of 45 minutes:...

Every June, 12,000 ad-folk fly into a French seaside resort to hold their annual soiree...

Posted by McCann on 13 Jun 2008

Every June, 12,000 ad-folk fly into a French seaside resort to hold their annual soiree. It’s a bit odd, this whole Cannes thing. Not so much the festival itself, which is pretty cool. The odd bit is that it happens...

We deal with language every day...

Posted by McCann on 30 May 2008

We deal with language every day. Visual language, written language, spoken language, the language of subtext, the language of colour. But lately I’ve been thinking about how we use the written language in advertising. Because something interesting is going on. There...

If it sometimes seems that we live in an age where everything is busily becoming just like everything else...

Posted by McCann on 16 May 2008

If it sometimes seems that we live in an age where everything is busily becoming just like everything else, it’s gratifying to see two of the world’s biggest and most successful brands practicing the ancient art of not being like...

lectured at AWARD school last week...

Posted by McCann on 2 May 2008

I lectured at AWARD school last week and it was great. Well, it was great for me anyway because, for a couple of hours, I could forget about the often needless complexities of the advertising industry, and focus instead on...

I didn’t score an invite to the 2020 Summit...

Posted by McCann on 18 Apr 2008

Crap. I didn’t score an invite to the 2020 Summit. And seeing as you’re reading AdNews, I guess you didn’t either. Of the 100 people chosen to provide input on the topic of Towards A Creative Australia, a grand total...

Earth hour...

Posted by McCann on 4 Apr 2008

If a little publicity and hype is a good thing, then even more publicity and hype is better, yes? No. And as Exhibit A, I give you Earth Hour 2008. The original Earth Hour worked incredibly well on a small scale. It...

Banning alcohol advertising as a way to combat the binge-drinking “epidemic”...

Posted by McCann on 21 Mar 2008

So the federal government is toying with the idea of banning alcohol advertising as a way to combat the binge-drinking “epidemic”. There are also calls to ban fast food advertising as a way to wage war on the obesity “crisis”. Seeing...

The greatest trick the devil ever pulled...

Posted by McCann on 7 Mar 2008

Those who believe in such things will tell you the greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist. At the risk of branding our endeavours the work of Satan, I’d say the greatest trick the...

If I ran a pizza shop...

Posted by McCann on 22 Feb 2008

If I ran a pizza shop, I’d make one with heaps of anchovies and call it the Corey. Because they’re a lot alike, Corey and anchovies. They polarise. Love/ hate, no middle ground. And the very thing people love about them,...

YouTube is good for many things...

Posted by McCann on 8 Feb 2008

YouTube is good for many things, not least of which is dredging up Australian TV ads from the ’70s. There’s at least a hundred of them on there, but after you watch a bunch, you realise there are in fact only...

A lot of people look fondly upon firefighters and paramedics and doctors...

Posted by McCann on 25 Jan 2008

A lot of people look fondly upon firefighters and paramedics and doctors who go work in godforsaken disaster zones for Médecins Sans Frontiéres. Personally, I save my admiration for anyone brave enough to slog it out in account service – surely...

It starts before you even get a job...

Posted by McCann on 11 Jan 2008

It starts before you even get a job, when you find yourself competing with hundreds of other people for a crack at AWARD school. Then, when you get into this little 12 weeks of hell, you find yourself competing every...

I’m trying to sell my house...

Posted by McCann on 30 Nov 2007

I’m trying to sell my house, and I’ve been wondering if there are any lessons from the experience that can be applied to my day job. Here’s what I’ve learnt so far: Newspapers are being eaten alive by the internet. According to...

The fundamental difference between election advertising and other forms of the genre...

Posted by McCann on 16 Nov 2007

After being bombarded with political advertising for just over a month, you can’t help but notice the fundamental difference between election advertising and other forms of the genre. Where traditional advertising is almost overwhelmingly positive, election advertising is quite the opposite....

I had to go into a Mitre 10 hardware store the other day...

Posted by McCann on 2 Nov 2007

I had to go into a Mitre 10 hardware store the other day, and the checkout chick’s polo shirt had the company’s new positioning line (Mighty Helpful) on it. What happened next is an illustration of why companies should be very...

I’m going to try something and I’m not sure if it’s going to work...

Posted by McCann on 19 Oct 2007

Bear with me, because I’m going to try something and I’m not sure if it’s going to work. As I write this, the first ad break during Channel Nine’s Sunday Night Movie (Mr and Mrs Smith) is about to screen....

Which agency is better to work for...

Posted by McCann on 5 Oct 2007

I suppose with the BMF guys selling out to a holding company, and others reputedly looking to sell, the talk turns to independent Australian agencies. But I’ll leave all the serious financial analysis to the proper columnists, and instead look...

Advertising is one of those endeavours where art and commerce must collide...

Posted by McCann on 21 Sep 2007

Advertising is one of those endeavours where art and commerce must collide. But does it need to be a loveless marriage of convenience or is it possible for these two key elements to happily co-habitate? In search of answers, I got...

Those That Didn’t Make It...

Posted by McCann on 7 Sep 2007

As I’ve discovered, when you write a column you inevitably cycle through a whole bunch of potential topics before deciding on one in particular. This week’s effort is devoted to Those That Didn’t Make It. Not that there’s anything wrong...

I don’t know about you, but when I find something that makes me happy I want to tell the world...

Posted by McCann on 24 Aug 2007

I don’t know about you, but when I find something that makes me happy I want to tell the world. Consider this week’s effort from Smartarse a big long list of happenings that have improved my life (at least in...

Every hotel bathroom I’ve ever seen has the same thing...

Posted by McCann on 10 Aug 2007

Every hotel bathroom I’ve ever seen has the same thing. A little printed request that says: “We care about the environment. Please help us by leaving on the floor only the towels you want laundered.” This, of course, is bullshit. What...

Stick your head out the window...

Posted by McCann on 27 Jul 2007

Stick your head out the window on any given day and you can hear the distinct sound of a brand stretching its societal relevance so far, it snaps.  Twaaaaaannnngggg!!!! The latest brand to stretch and break is Mount Franklin. Not content with being...

The popular belief is there used to be this thing called mass media...

Posted by McCann on 13 Jul 2007

The popular belief is there used to be this thing called mass media, but it died at the hands of the internet, pay television and other forms of digital communications. People like to throw words such as narrowcasting around because...

Procter & Gamble is the world’s biggest advertiser...

Posted by McCann on 29 Jun 2007

Procter & Gamble is the world’s biggest advertiser, last year spending around US$7 billion globally. And not too long ago, they were synonymous with by-the-numbers, mediocre work. P&G was shorthand for “tough client who’ll never approve anything adventurous”. But P&G, this most...

Common sense. We all have it, don’t we?

Posted by McCann on 15 Jun 2007

Common sense. We all have it, don’t we? I mean, none of us is going to fly a kite in a thunderstorm, buy what we hope is an authentic Rolex from a bloke behind a trestle table, or expect decent...

A huge percentage of people on short plane trips spend their time napping...

Posted by McCann on 1 Jun 2007

A huge percentage of people on short plane trips spend their time napping. I don’t think they’re tired – I think at some primal level they’re frightened, and their nap is more for emotional succour than rest. Soon there will be...

Is advertising in danger of losing its role in popular culture?

Posted by McCann on 18 May 2007

Is advertising in danger of losing its role in popular culture? Or has it already lost it? I ask this because advertising and marketing practitioners are trained to believe that the product we create is “a part of popular culture”, and...

Banking on it

Posted by McCann on 4 May 2007

In the week Mo was laid to rest, one of Australia’s biggest advertisers decided no Australian agency could give them the advertising they needed, and so took their business offshore. Symmetry can be a real bitch sometimes. The Commonwealth Bank’s...

Fight for your rights

Posted by McCann on 20 Apr 2007

An agency I once worked at hired this writer, who seemed pretty normal. But, after a couple of days, he began working for hours at a stretch while sitting under his desk, rather than at it. Then he started wearing...

So the saying goes

Posted by McCann on 23 Mar 2007

 I hate sayings. They're old fashioned and platitudinous. But mostly I hate them because they're perfectly sensible. And, being perfectly sensible is not only a great recipe for producing mediocre advertising, it's also a pretty piss-poor way to live your...

Don't be scared of simple

Posted by McCann on 9 Mar 2007

 You have to be confident to make a campaign featuring little more than two people talking to each other in a white room. You have to know that you can write it well enough to be interesting. And cast it...

More like Britney less like Mary

Posted by McCann on 23 Feb 2007

There’s a lesson for advertisers in the bizzare behaviour of celebrities. There’s some pretty weird shit going on in the world lately. First off the rank is Anna Nicole Smith, who died a Marilyn Monroesque death and left behind a baby,...

Not so long ago, dumb was cool...

Posted by McCann on 9 Feb 2007

Not so long ago, dumb was cool. Everywhere you looked, dumb was the new black: the media was dumbing everything down. People didn’t care about political issues. Naomi Robson was considered a journalist. Then, two things happened almost simultaneously, and those...

Leveraging Australianness

Posted by McCann on 26 Jan 2007

 Other countries give their Big National Holidays really important-sounding names, like Independence Day, Liberation Day and Bastille Day. We called ours Australia Day. Which is kind of like calling your dog “Dog”. In a way, such a laconic and understated...

The commoditisation of childhood and CO2

Posted by McCann on 12 Jan 2007

It’s my first column since my last one and, in the intervening period, nothing of any note whatsoever has happened in the world of advertising (unless you count the inevitable, and inevitably bad, Boxing Day sale ads). So today we’re going...

The truth doesn’t hurt

Posted by McCann on 1 Dec 2006

You know when you’re out somewhere and people ask what you do for a living and you say “advertising” and you get one of either two responses: “Gee, that must be a fun job” or “So how does it feel,...

Keeping it deeply simple

Posted by McCann on 17 Nov 2006

The AWARD Awards were handed out last week at the Sydney Opera House. So while it’s topical, it’s probably worth considering the place that awards have in our industry. Perceptive readers will, of course, have just had their bullshit-radar light...

Keeping it deeply simple

Posted by McCann on 3 Nov 2006

It’s nice when an advertiser decides not to treat you like a slack-jawed moron. It’s even nicer, and more than a little surprising, when the advertiser happens to be a major political party. We’re in election-mode in Victoria and, as usual,...

This is great. Bacardi Limited has just tabled an offer of $120 million to buy the 42 Below vodka brand...

Posted by McCann on 20 Oct 2006

This is great. Bacardi Limited has just tabled an offer of $120 million to buy the 42 Below vodka brand. For those of you with an IT department run by McCarthyists who get off on installing spam filters so effective you...