Desert Island Ads.
Heat Electric – Creature Comforts
A regular on the Best Ads of All Time lists, this campaign is the one of my personal inspirations. It was one of the first ads that I remember actually grabbing my scatty youthful attention and sparked a fascination that I’ve been lucky enough to turn into a career.
Peperami – It’s A Bit of An Animal
I strive for the simplicity of these ads. They’re only 10” because that’s all they ever needed to be. The dual meaning of the tagline conveys so much more than just six words should allow.
Sony Bravia – Colour Like No Other
With modern CGI being so ubiquitous, no-one thinks they did this for real, but they did. A true one-take wonder that took a brave creative team and an even braver client. It was striking in its simplicity, yet the wider campaign was larger than just the TV content – the campaign included a “making of” video that was shared far and wide. It’s a great example of a campaign being “content first” and the TV commercial being the route in. It’s pretty common now as we have so many social media channels that are thirsty for content, but this was before Facebook and in the early dawn of YouTube – which is even more impressive.
Levi’s – Flat Eric
Levi’s gave us Flat Eric during my time as an advertising student and instantly became an obsession. Some of the ads had very little meaning outside of just being a hook. Many nights were spent driving around Bournemouth head banging to Flat Beat.
Aldi – Christmas On The Moon
I hate ads that talk down to their audience. This is a great spoof of an instantly classic John Lewis ad released in the same year. It gives the audience credit for being aware and conscious of a playful rivalry that Aldi has when passing off bigger brands.
Matt Buckle is partner/managing director at Transmission.
