Hasta La Creative!

LONDON – GfK is ignoring Sir Martin Sorrell’s “put up or shut up” call with regards to a bid for fellow market research group TNS, and will reportedly wait until September to make a decision.

LONDON – Terry Venables and Harry Redknapp have joined Setanta’s presenting team for its exclusively live coverage of three England World Cup 2010 away qualifiers and home international friendlies.

LONDON – The Body Shop has unveiled a new global positioning as it launches its first marketing campaign aimed at re-establishing its ethical heritage following its L’Oreal takeover

If you’ve been watching the Olympics, you’ve seen Visa’s “Go World” commercials from TBWA\Chiat\Day, in which the impressive feats of Olympic athletes are recounted in gold-tinted slow motion. They made an impressive number of spots (all viewable at the Go World site), but what really struck me were the three executions specifically created for Michael Phelps that aired right after each of his wins. There was the generic, Michael-isn’t-a-dolphin spot, which came after the first few, then the specific congratulations on winning more gold medals than anybody ever, and of course, another one for surpassing Mark Spitz’s record with eight golds in one Olympics. In the bevy of ads that followed Phelps’s wins, Visa stood out as the only advertiser with a relevant message. The spots were given extra gravitas by narrator Morgan Freeman, who was injured in a car crash recently. So, of course, they were recorded far in advance, even though the footage was turned around in less than a day from Phelps’s previous victory. What I wonder is what the ad would have said if Phelps hadn’t pulled it off. Did they have a special “You’re still crazy-awesome, Michael, and we still love you” commercial ready?

—Posted by Rebecca Cullers

LONDON – Setanta Sports has signed up ex-England manager Terry Venables and current Portsmouth boss Harry Redknapp as presenters for its coverage of England’s World Cup 2010 away qualifiers and home international friendlies.

Damn you TextURL, you’ve now made me follow Don Draper at Twitter. Like I’m not addicted enough to the previously mentioned tumblr blog What would Don Draper Do? As if I didn’t spend last night scoring perfect tens on each episodes trivia game at AMCTV.com. I’m pathetic enough to even shriek of shock seeing as Salvator had what looked like a date or even a wife in the first episode – my dreams of being his AD-assistant/fag-hag now crushed. *cries*

For a trip down emory lane, here was my ad-paranoid recap of Mad Men Episode 1 season one.

However, I will admit that I haven’t dressed up like the Mad Men posse and hung around my elevator lobby like Red Tettemer did. But that’s because I already dress tres cool. ;P

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LONDON – Visit London, the capital’s official visitor organisation, is gearing up for the launch of its first global advertising campaign, ‘See the World, Visit London’ to coincide with the Olympic handover on Sunday.

And unlike other cars, which wave their ostentatious extras in your face, you can’t even see the excess tooshums.

Create your own summer tale.

Advertising Agency: Scala JWT Bucharest, Romania
Executive Creative Director: Mihai Cojocaru
Art Director: Virgiliu Andone
Illustrator: Alex Tamba
Copywriter: Andreea Dragomir
Via: Bestadsontv

LONDON – Online fashion retailer Oli is this week launching its Autumn/Winter ad campaign, called ‘Goodbye – Hello’, with the Golley Slater-created ads running in magazines such as Heat, Grazia and Marie Claire until November.