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This is McCann London’s last effort for big UK DIY retailer B&Q (not an advertiser who’s often succeeded in getting the creative juices running).
The business, worth a supposed £40m a year according to Campaign, has just shipped out to lively local agency Karmarama. McCann declined to repitch.
I was sent this before the news of the account switch came but decided not to write about it because I don’t do drowning kittens. But anyway…
There’s every cliche in the book, rotten casting and a song by Graham Nash that I particularly hate. It’s a pretty tune but “two cats in the yard, life seemed to be so hard..”. Bet it cost a fortune. Bring back William McGonagall.
Interpublic-owned McCann is going through a particularly gruesome period at the moment with the departure of global boss Nick Brien and the installation of his not entirely convincing replacement, PR man Harris Diamond.
New York and London creative supremo Linus Karlsson is no doubt moving might and main to drag the agency into the 21st century.
And we’ve all written off McCann before – I’m old enough to remember when London hired complete joker Don White as creative director – and it remains (I think) the world’s biggest single agency network although BBDO might have overtaken it.
But really chaps. Come on, concentrate!
