Ads I'm not sure about: Hotmail The New Busy

Ok I don't love this campaign, but it's interesting and has made me think so I'll share. It's more 'Ads I love to think about' really. I'm not actually sure if I like it. I think it's clever... or is it just really annoying and arrogant?

You've probably seen the adverts, they're all over the place; in the tube, in the paper...

From http://www.litmanlive.co.uk/blog/2010/04/the-new-busy-is-not-like-the-old-busy/

From http://el-nicol.com/?p=95

So the concept is 'The New Busy....' and then some slogan boasting about how they can do loads of stuff while still being ridiculously busy. And not stressing at all, and seeming to have an amazing cool life, while working 12 hours a day, and so on. Which clearly doesn't exist. Is it aspirational? I'm sure most of us wish we had a full diary while not having any kind of stress/pressure on us at all.

I'm not entirely sure why Hotmail are advertising, and why this applies to them. I've had a hotmail account since I was 13, and still do, and most people probably do too, but generally have a 'real address' as well. I don't give my hotmail out in a professional basis. Hotmail is not professional. It screams 13 year old girl. And probably always will. They can add all these 'useful' functions like calendars that synchronise with your cat and so forth; but I'm pretty sure 'The New Busy' has an iphone or a blackberry and does all their organising on there. Not on a free, web based, advertising plagued, email service. They just don't.

Plus, wasn't hotmail, MSN Hotmail, and then Windows Live Hotmail? What is it now? Just Hotmail again? It's like when they changed MSN messenger to Live Messenger. We kids still called it msn. You know, back in the day, before myspace or facebook. 'You going on msn after school?' 'Yeah! LOL!!!! :p (Y)' etc etc. Stop messing with the brand names. We don't care.

Some of the slogans are quite good. Some are just weird. Some are just a bit scary:

Crazy eyes? Shut up! It's not my fault I have to get up at 5.45am every day so am generally exhausted mon-fri! Jeez. Don't be mean. I work hard. I'm just not superhuman like this 'New Busy' seems to be. I'd love to be 'New Busy'! It sounds like have some kind of major career focus yet still do the student-stamp-on-the-hand-where-did-we-go-last-night thing:

I miss that! Waking up with stamps on your hands. And face. But I didn't zing out of bed, do some pilates, get the train to work and create something amazing before 11am. No. I texted my friends incoherent words, then found some kind of bacon-type substance. And I did not check my emails. Or schedule my day.

What I don't like about it, is it echoes this pressure in our modern lives to be awesome 2.0. It's crazy. And I'm not immune to it; I do play 'Fill the diary':

And I usually fail. I do 'see things others miss', generally. But that just comes from my general observation powers. And I do wish I had time to exercise, and time to illustrate as well as my full time graphic design job, and I wish I had time to go to cool bars every night, and travel whereever I want on a whim, and time to chill out and not feel guilty. But I don't. I try to do all these things - and I'm just tired.

So I hate The New Busy, with all their smugness and superhuman time keeping skills. I'm pretty sure they don't have hotmail to thank for it though. Actually, do they even exist?

This campaign just makes me feel bad. And guilty for not being The New Busy. And wishing that I was. And knowing that if I was, I would probably be awesome 2.0. But I'm not. I'm just tired.

You can play around with this silly interactive thing if you want. It's not that silly I suppose, it's kind of interesting.

The most interesting part of this campaign for me though is they managed to get an experiential element in there. OF COURSE. The New Busy is allll about the experiential. They practically demand it, from their skinny lattes to their brainstorming sessions:

 'Blue Screen Lagoon' at various places, including Canary Wharf. Well of course, bankers are the The New Busy. Basically, you could go along and pretend you were doing crazy awesome things like tight-rope walking. 'All from the comfort of a blue (or even green) screen - oh, that's so New Busy.' What?? That doesn't even make sense!. I hate you, New Busy. It was happening yesterday (28th May) and guess what - I couldn't check it out. Why? Because I was busy. WORKING. Yeah, take that New Busy.

New Busy would probably tell me to shut up and get him a skinny latte.

'Frivolity Fields' - 'The New busy likes nothing more than extreme knitting, circus tricks, sideways guitar....' Ugh. It sounds sickeningly awesome and pointless. If I was New Busy I wouldn't have a 9-5.30 job. Nope. I'd be freelance and could saunter over and do some extreme knitting. See, New Busy just makes me feel bad.

Props to Madmedia though, they came up with it, and it did look good: http://themindtonic.blogspot.com/2010/05/madmedia-are-new-busy.html


If I was New Busy, I would've been one of the marketeers coming up with these crazy ideas. Extreme knitting sounds exactly the kind of thing my busy mouth would have said. But alas, new graduates really aren't New Busy. We're just trying to have some kind of career.

Ads I love: Travelodge's Mr Sleep and the Zzz Squad

Now, clearly I'm a sucker for furry animals, but ones with an east london mafia theme and cockney accent? I'm so there.



Travelodge have come up with this great advert for the Zzz Squad, with some great lines in there. Also I do enjoy the shredded pillow and 'Lucky Frank' (not so lucky) on the front of the dustcart. There's some definite 'ahs' in that advert (especially Jon AKA Mad Dog) which I'm sure Mr Sleep would tell you to man-up or something.

Considering most hotel adverts are cheesey or have Lenny Henry in them, this is pretty out there, for hotel-land. Still gets across that you'll have a great nights sleep (apparently) as you'll be looked after by some cute mafia-types who will scare pigeons for you. Rock.

Here's travelodge's little page for you. I'll leave you with this:

Ads I love: Wrigleys Extra 'Banish Smelly Followers'

Now. This isn't a clever viral marketing campaign, or guerilla gardening, or anything of that jazz. This is a plain, straight-up TV advert. And generally, most of them are bad. Not this one. It made me laugh and go 'aw' and feel fuzzy all at the same time. Possibly just a girly reaction, but my dad also immensely liked it too. And he complains about adverts more than I do.

Banish Smelly Follow..
Watch the ad...

Watch it. Why do I love it? Cute characters. Nothing gets me more than cute, slightly helpless characters. It's why I also love the Orange adverts.

And that it also works, at telling you what the product is (or reminding you of it) with none of that cliched icicles/arctic wind/cool fresh breath/breathing on a mirror stuff that most adverts of similar brands come up with it. It's just a visual representation of bad breath. In a cute way.

What's the song in it? If anyone knows, say so. It's nice.

I also love the bit at the end where the lil ickle onion gets stuck in the lift door. I hope he doesn't get squashted >.<

Alright, enough. I've made my point. It's fun and happy. The way ads should be!

Ads I love: Marmite 'That May Be Too Far' Campaign

I'm starting a new post subtitle - Ads I love. There are many. Considering I want to work in advertising and I'm quite adept at thinking up concepts (apparently), and I have tonnes of opinions about advertising, I don't actually post enough about it. I think it's because I have too many thoughts on the subject and don't know where to begin.

Well I'm beginning on a brand that everyone knows and you either love it or you hate it - The new Marmite ads of course.




I've been seeing these everyday on my way through Euston station and they make me smile, and think as well - which is a good thing. What I love about these ads is Marmite's willingness to embrace the knowledge that many people hate them, and using it to their advantage. I'm sure a lot of people would think 'A Marmite cereal bar is a bit too far' so they have hit the love it/hate it discussion head on, with spoof products that marmite lovers may buy, and marmite haters would subsequently hate them for loving it. Nice.

Brands that are brave (ish) with their advertising like this make me feel better about the state of the advertising sector. Apparently they even put up versions of these posters without the strap line, and marmite lovers were actually asking where they could get these products from. They make me think when I look at them as well because they are representing advertising stereotypes and taking a satirical view on them - how much do these adverts look like the real thing? How many times have adverts like these been plastered in front of our faces? Especially the perfume one... Gucci anyone? I like that these adverts are saying, 'Well we may as well make these products, there are people like you who will buy them with advertising like this'. Which is true.

The ads are from the ever-successful DDB, executing them with a confidence and hitting the target audience head on. Even if you hate the taste of Marmite (like I do), you can't help but love the brand. It's a British icon but it hasn't kept itself in the dark ages; especially with a fresh and fun campaign like this. Keep it coming.

Found the pictures via the blog of Sell! Sell!, which is a great Shoreditch based creative agency I've just recently discovered. Here is their website. From reading the stuff on their blog, they seem pretty cool though and I'd love to have a chance to work with them in the future.