Agencies Need to Focus on Customer Service Too

We just got back from a nice little break in New Zealand. Three weeks of hiking on glaciers and in national parks, kayaking and even sailing for a couple of hours on an America's Cup boat in Auckland. It's an absolutely beautiful country, with very nice people and could be, quite possibly, one of the nicest places on earth. And all I could think about was Bob Garfield.

The Living Room Photo Retouching: 3

The Living Room Photo Retouching: 3

Advertising Agency: Leo Burnett Brussels
Art Director: Marie-Laure Cliquennois
Copywriter: Gregory Ginterdaele
Illustrator: Leasammarie
Published: December 2007

The Living Room Photo Retouching: 2

The Living Room Photo Retouching: 2

Advertising Agency: Leo Burnett Brussels
Art Director: Marie-Laure Cliquennois
Copywriter: Gregory Ginterdaele
Illustrator: Leasammarie
Published: December 2007

The Living Room Photo Retouching: 1

The Living Room Photo Retouching: 1

Advertising Agency: Leo Burnett Brussels
Art Director: Marie-Laure Cliquennois
Copywriter: Gregory Ginterdaele
Illustrator: Leasammarie
Published: December 2007

Zoo Salzburg: More than zebras

Zoo Salzburg: More than zebras

More than zebras. Zoo Salzburg.

Advertising Agency: .start, Munich, Germany
Creative Directors: Marco Mehrwald, Thomas Pakull
Art Director: Matthias Grotter
Copywriter: Katrin Bayer
Released: December 2007

Hawaiian Tropic Pink Bits – Turn off the sun – print Sweden

Oh great, thanks, this is just what I need after today. It’s pissing down here, not even a hint of sunshine and so cold that my fingers turned blue as I waited for the bus, which naturally drove straight into a puddle and splashed water all over me. BrrRRRrrRRRrrr. Yeah, so, Hawaain Tropic reminds all Swedes who have been smart enough to get a winter holiday in the sun to bring their lotion. “Turn off the sun”? I think not, I’d rather turn it over here to shine on my wee blue fingers. Oh shoot, I think that one snapped, they’re not supposed to make that icicle sound are they?

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World Effie Festival: Terror

World Effie Festival: Terror

World Effie Festival 2008. A celebration of highly effective capitalism.
The premier international brand conference featuring global business leaders, thinkers and creatives.
It won’t please everyone. www.worldeffiefestival.com

Advertising Agency: Bartle Bogle Hegarty Asia Pacific
Creative Director: Todd Waldron
Art Director: Hoon Pin Kek
Copywriter: Douglas Hamilton
Client Servicing: Lesley-Anne John, Eugenie Yeo
Published: December 2007

World Effie Festival: Bus

World Effie Festival: Bus

World Effie Festival 2008. A celebration of highly effective capitalism.
The premier international brand conference featuring global business leaders, thinkers and creatives.
It won’t please everyone. www.worldeffiefestival.com

Advertising Agency: Bartle Bogle Hegarty Asia Pacific
Creative Director: Todd Waldron
Art Director: Hoon Pin Kek
Copywriter: Douglas Hamilton
Client Servicing: Lesley-Anne John, Eugenie Yeo
Published: December 2007

World Effie Festival: Kick

World Effie Festival: Kick

World Effie Festival 2008. A celebration of highly effective capitalism.
The premier international brand conference featuring global business leaders, thinkers and creatives.
It won’t please everyone. www.worldeffiefestival.com

Advertising Agency: Bartle Bogle Hegarty Asia Pacific
Creative Director: Todd Waldron
Art Director: Hoon Pin Kek
Copywriter: Douglas Hamilton
Client Servicing: Lesley-Anne John, Eugenie Yeo
Published: December 2007

Laughter Yoga (UPDATE) – Now in Moscow, LA, Texas, Chicago

More than a year ago, Trend Hunter covered Laughter Yoga. Since then, Laughter Yoga has been sweeping the globe. The first ever Laughter Yoga training in Eastern Europe took place on January 5th and 6th in Moscow, Russia. It was taught by Sebastien Gendry, Director of the American School of Laughte…

Navigating Your Small Agency Through a Recession

We've all heard the recessionary drum beats for many months now. And judging by what's happening in the housing, automotive, retail and manufacturing sectors, we may already be in a recession. Those are scary words for any business. Especially so for a small-to-mid-size marketing-communications agency.

Sometimes a Profession (First Mangles, then) Chooses You

A girl named Mandy promised this video would reveal the COOLEST ROBOT EVER! We were skeptical but later decided she was right. Sure it won’t shave your balls and get you off, but it will do a silly little…

Orange Uses Gesture-Based Display to Drive Handhelds into Actual Hands

For client Orange, the Alternative is doing that gesture-based advertising thing. Do a little hand-dance to bring news, film clips or music videos to your fingertips. We see a less useful, but strangely more amusing, version of this technology…

Hyundai Pussies Out of Dropping Super Bowl Spots

With what Advertising Age calls Hamlet-like indecision, Hyundai has decided to keep its ads in the Super Bowl after all. Here’s our brief coverage of its flirtation with pulling out. (We hate that!) AdAge dubs the move “a most…

For Royal Treatment in Developing Nation, Build Brand that Doubles as Tarp

We spent some time in the Philippines last week. Good news for old-school brand goliaths: free promotion is alive and well alongside freeways and in living spaces (at the same time!). That, and offshore telesales. We’re in the money…

Who’s to Say Technology Doesn’t Get Under the Skin?

Adrants reader Atif sent us this spot, snapped by Engadget at CES 2008. It causes us physical pain. Not to say every questionable piece doesn’t have its audience. Atif thinks the veins as headphone wires idea is cool, actually….

One Little Password For One Gigantic Interweb

According to Wired, Yahoo’s adoption of OpenID is a huge victory for the OpenID foundation.

Until now, despite support from larger sites like AOL and Plaxo, OpenID has remained largely a tool of the geek-elite, but Yahoo’s announcement is set to change that since it provides even those Yahoo users who’ve never heard of OpenID a simple way to use it. And that in turn gives startup sites an even greater incentive to support OpenID logins.

Right now there are roughly 120 million OpenID accounts. Add Yahoo’s 248 million users worldwide, and OpenID is set to triple in size.

McDonald’s Ends Report Card Advertising

Everyone bitched and McDonald’s listened. Under pressure from the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood and 2,000 angry parents, the fast food giant haspulled the advertising it had placed on Seminole County, Florida’s report cards. Graciously, McDonald’s will still pay…

Heart-Shaped Crotch Shot Promotes Italian Footwear Quality

In the customs line at Heathrow we saw this leggy ad reading “I love Italian shoes.” And then we blinked. What’s that logo in the upper left-hand corner? Is that a wide-open, heart-shaped pair of legs? Then we understood….

Pocket Geek Game Tests Management Skills

We really like when business to business advertising leave behind the idiotic metaphors that so pervasively fill their advertising and, instead, opt for something, well, more fun. For power plant and air traffic control software developer QNX, Fuel Industries…