Here’s a novel idea for your next ad campaign - advertise on loo roll!

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The possibilities are endless!

[insert inappropriate pun here]

Slate have posted an excellent article that explores Donald Gunn’s theory that all great advertising used one of 12 formats.

“In 1978, Donald Gunn was a creative director for the advertising agency Leo Burnett. Though his position implied expertise, Gunn felt he was often just throwing darts—relying on inspiration and luck (instead of proven formulas) to make great ads. So, he decided to inject some analytical rigor into the process: He took a yearlong sabbatical, studied the best TV ads he could find, and looked for elemental patterns.”

Example from the sixth format, ‘benefit causes story’. Here we follow a series of events caused by the product’s benefits…

“In this Lynx ad, we see a series of attractive women forgiving a guy’s uncouth behavior. (It’s OK that you’re late, it’s OK that you forgot my birthday, it’s OK that you cheated on me, and so forth.) In the payoff, it’s revealed that the guy has been using Lynx body spray. The product’s benefit—beguiling women to the point of dementia—creates the story.”

View Slade’s interpretation of the 12 formats in their slideshow.

It must be the best compliment to any brand or creative agency to have a spoof ad made for your advert or product. There have been many spoof ads over the years and some really great ones recently, here’s my top 10 with a couple of bonus clips at the end of this post.

Starting with this classic, the oldest spoof example I could find…
1.MasterCard

Read the rest of this entry »

[drumroll] … and the top 10 brands for 2007 are… Read the rest of this entry »

AD-i, short for ‘Atomic Design Interactive’, is a place for the staff of Atomic Design to share their thoughts, ideas, news and opinions on the world of advertising, design and marketing.

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Atomic Design Ltd is a full service design agency based in the North West (UK). Launching in 1999, we have grown to service the marketing requirements of major brands throughout the UK and overseas.

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