I bought a copy of Frankie last week. Strolling to the office, an annoying and small piece of advertising fell to the ground from inside the magazine's pages. Upon opening I see Hunter S. Thompson, Karen O and Sid Vicious, amongst others, staring back at me with that type of attitude always used to sell something. "Pfft!" I say with fervent annoyance. "I cannot be sold!" But the closer I got to work, the more I began to fool even myself.

I have read Fear & Loathing, I felt uniquely hip when I first listened to the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, I even spent a whole night watching YouTube videos about John Lydon and Sid Vicious to feel closer to that now ancient scene. I have also had a pair of Converse shoes - something each chosen 'star' seems to be wearing, and the brand that I soon realise is trying to influence the burning hole in my pocket. The part about the shoes is not why I feel connected to these people, but is surely a connection Converse is trying to cultivate.

To be completely honest, I don't really care what Converse want to say to sell their shoes. I feel as if the shoes have enough of an identity in their own right without the corporate side feeling the need to be involved. If the shoes were to speak, I'm sure their disconnected sole would flap, "We're not related!" As far as brands go, it is one of those rare icons loved so much that it becomes practically owned by its consumers, rather than the corporates swimming in the cash it shovels them.

What I am interested in however, is the agency that brought this campaign to life. And I have since found it truly is a campaign, not just a crappy, flappy, piece of rubbish magazine insert.

This is where I introduce the agency responsible, Anomaly. And yes, they are one of those agencies. In the vein of KesselsKramer, Mother, Taxi, Fallon, Strawberry Frog, etc; Anomaly are one of the many new model agencies making a name for themselves.

I should really start at the beginning. A few months back, I saw a billboard at South Yarra station for The Converse Century using the connected converse stars imagery you see at the top of this post. To be honest, I thought it was a complete wank. Associating the Converse brand with 'cool' people was to me not too dissimilar from putting Ray Ban Wayfarers on a kid and calling them cool. It was easy, it was a cheap idea (not in the monetary sense of course) and it presumed the cool kids would associate with cool people on face value alone. No wonder I had such pre-conceived ideas of the campaign when I opened Frankie months later.

A few weeks ago, I was flipping through Creativity Magazine and stumbled upon an article heralding the acquisition of Urban Outfitters (America's General Pants) Creative Director Kevin Lyons by Anomaly. I presume around the same time as this happened, Anomaly landed the Converse account. Before Urban Outfitters, Kevin had worked as Art Director for Tokion Magazine, AD for Girl Skateboards (Spike Jonze's company), Design Director for Stussy and Senior Designer for Nike. A pretty tight heritage if you ask me. From that point on, Anomaly had no excuse not to make some genuinely interesting cultural work.

I've mentioned the billboard and magazine insert already, but what else have they done to get inside the minds of hip kids globally? I thought you'd never ask...

The campaign website, ThisIsTheIndexPage, is a genuinely original and well thought out idea. Basically, Anomaly bought a whole lot of domain names and made them all unique, simple and enjoyable for impatient Gen Y'ers like me. But what is even better, is that in this post-Web 2.0 climate, they have made an entirely bloggable range of sites that can be debated and discussed in the many forums created by the Web 2.0 phenomena. I've heard it called Web 3.0 before, but that's a debate for an entirely different post. Bottom line is: simple idea, clean execution, made specifically for the medium and completely digestible for the target market. Personally I believe it spells the end of the 'viral video' era, and heralds the official beginning of the 'ideas that go viral' era. I suggest visiting the Converse Spelling Bee page to see the best example of this.

But the fun doesn't stop there.

They made a song. But not just any song mind you. A pretty good pop song. Which is the most you could hope for when making art to sell a shoe I'd say. Just like choosing the right photographer to shoot your precious print ad, choosing the right producer to make the perfect pop-tune is an important choice. Anomaly's choice? Pharrell Williams. Who is in my mind the most successful pop producer of the last decade. Along with his successful 'band' N.E.R.D, Pharrell has written or and/or produced some of this century's most successful and half-decent pop tracks including Kelis' Milkshake and Justin Timberlake's Justifed album. And yes, I know. The answer is 'yes they are' and 'no I don't'. But never underestimate the sound of amazing production and progressive music-making. Big tick for choice of producer. Oh and he performs in the song too.

Add Julian Casablancas from The Strokes and international hipster-on-the-rise Santogold to the mix, and you have a potent combination of the right amount of cool and the exact amount of risk-free money making brands can only dream of.

Before I go further, watch and listen below.



Finally, the choice of Psyop as the directors for the video is as inspired as it is perfect. Psyop have for many years been innovators in the motion design scene, paving the way for the likes of Qube Construct here in Melbourne. It's all money, and no one other than a brand owned by Nike could afford to do it. But they did. And they did it well.

Surely Anomaly own some rights to the song too. Which is free to download from the Converse website and is getting a bazillion plays on many mainstream and online radio stations alike. If they don't, then I'll be surprised.

Quite seriously, I don't think Anomaly could have done any better with what they had to work with. Billboards and magazine inserts are inherently consumerist mediums that when used say nothing but 'buy my product' at the end of the day. But building new and different websites, writing songs and throwing parties are the perfect balance to all that above-the-line claptrap that they no doubt had to do, for whatever reason.

Having said all of this, I have no idea how well the campaign has tracked. I also know there are far more components to the campaign that I haven't gone into, some of which include parties and art exhibitions. But what I can say, from a completely personal view regarding the mix of strategy and creative, is that this sort of work really excites me about the future of advertising. Don't get me wrong, I still think it's all a load of money-making wank (which is important in retaining my reputation as a self-respecting hipster, apparently) but it's clever wank, well targeted wank, and the best use of the resources Anomaly had wank that will sell the most amount of shoes possible. Which is, after all, why we do what we do.

Hello all. Recent events have shown a renewed interest in The Wayfarer. I haven't updated in over a year, yet the entries posted here seem to have lived on within the 1011's of Google's servers with stoic resilience. With this in mind, I have decided to re-think and re-invigorate The Wayfarer. Stay tuned, possibly subscribe to the feed, and wait to see what The Wayfarer has planned next.

To see what I'm up to, go here.

Sometimes you see an ad on TV and think to yourself, "It's almost too good to be an ad." Take away the cheesy tagline, product shot and logo; soon enough you've got a work of art. It doesn't happen often, especially as a lot of ads are only good because they're funny. Not that I've got anything against funny ads (The Big Ad, VB Boony, etc), but too often do advertisers play the comedy card when they want to give their ad cut-through.

Advertising is a creative industry, but wouldn't you say it's at the bottom of the pile when compared to other creative industries? Time to sack the Art Director/Copywriter team, and bring in the artist.

Take a look at this brilliant ad for HP as an example. The creative team have come to Michel Gondry (Human Nature, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Science of Sleep) with a skeleton of an idea. Surely they would have said, "Salut Michel! Make us some of that 'dream' stuff you do!" This is what he came back with:



It does beg the question: Is Michel Gondry well known enough to speak to HP's market? There are millions of people who have never even seen his movies, let alone heard his name. But then again, he is a mainstream-cult figure with a legion of fans all over the world. This leads to one conclusion... HP is looking to speak to an audience that connects with Michel. Who are these people you ask? You guessed it, Mac people.

HP's new machines are interestingly slick. An obvious response to the success of Mac's consistent product design across all its hardware. I'll be very interested to see what the response is. Are we Mac users buying into the Mac brand merely because the machines look great on our desks? Probably. This may be the first test for Mac in a while. And as soon as Google releases an operating system that sinks Windows forever, the competition may get stiffer.

Before you scream nerd, let's get back to art. Another great director (and friend of Gondry) making quality ads is Spike Jonze. Everyone loved the Ikea lamp ad he did. Even more enjoyed the Adidas TVC he made to a soundtrack by Karen O. But my personal favourite was this ad for The Gap. I would have loved to be in the client meeting when the idea miraculously made it through.



I managed to see Spike speak at Cinema Nova on Lygon Street when he was in the country filming Where the Wild Things Are. Asked what happens when approached by agencies, he said (and I paraphrase): "When an agency brings me an idea, I usually tell them it's shit. I say, if you want me to film this ad, let me write it. So they do and this is what they get."

Apparently some turn him down. Their loss I guess.

If anything, the Gondry ad for HP is a step forward. Will they be able to catch up on lost ground against Mac? Only time will tell. But I'm pretty sure Michel would have taken his hefty payment from HP and bought some new Macs.

Getting a job in the advertising industry is about as difficult as drawing a straight line while on public transport. It's a constant struggle that leads to many false starts. Even when you do make it, the ride has been almost enough to put you off forever. This coming from someone who hasn't been through the process, but plans to in the future.

There is however, reason for my pessimism. Out of every graduating year at RMIT's creative advertising course, only 10% land jobs in the industry. One such lucky team is Trent Hendrick and Celeste Millot, who just scored a dream first job at Cummins & Partners in Brisbane. This was only achieved after being knocked back by an assortment of hardened agencies in and around Melbourne. Would their arduous journey have benefited from the new book released by Sydney adman Justin Lane? The creative group head at M&C Saatchi has compiled a collection of tips into an affordable bundle called 69 Ways To Get A Job In Advertising. We're yet to know if it's a worthwhile read, but at $15 it's only slightly more expensive than an issue of Campaign Brief.


I recently stumbled upon an interview with one of the fathers of modern advertising, George Lois. If you're a bit hazy on who the hell he is, all you need to know is that Bill Bernbach was his mentor, he created the "I want MTV" campaign that changed a generation, and art directed a host of unforgettable covers for Esquire Magazine. It was conducted in 2003 by New York magazine.

Here's his story on how he made it into the agency Doyle Dane Bernbach (DDB) and made a lasting impression...

"My first ad there—my very first day—was for a CBS show about how food gets delivered to New York. So I called a photographer and told him to get a fish—I wanted to have the fish saying, “How do I get to New York?” That first day, there was a memo from the business guy to all the art directors, saying, “You got to return props. I know you guys are keeping the props. I don’t care what the props are, I want them delivered to my office.” So after the shoot, I get the photographer to give me the fish. Then at ten o’clock at night, I leave the fish in the guy’s office with a note that says “As requested” and sign my name: George Lois."

In the few places I have stumbled across successful creative people, I find they all have one thing in common. That one thing being an undeniable vision. They know what they want and how to get it. Creativity has always been a subjective business, but it shouldn't be left up to everyone's interpretation. Someone has to captain the ship. With this in mind, George Lois was the Blackbeard of Madison Avenue. This is one quote which sums him up in a uniquely articulate manner: "I know what the fuck I know, and you know what the hell you know, and I’ll tell you what I think, and you tell me to fuck off." It's about not wasting your time or the time of others. It's a clear vision to communicate in the best way possible to the right people.

Another good example of his heralded insight and opinion is in this biting comment on the 1984 Apple Superbowl TVC: "And that great Apple commercial, which was horseshit, but it was Citizen Kane horseshit. It was the kind of thing that knocked you on your ass."

George Lois is a huge inspiration to me. And I'm finding it increasingly helpful to build a database of inspirational personalities to look up to before embarking on the ad job journey. Because most of the time, it's not what you know, or even who you know, but how you can make big things happen for influential people. Like a good friend and writer told me, it's all about the tone, and these people can be the signpost to making who you are the perfect fit for a lucky agency somewhere in the world.

The State Library in Melbourne is getting better and better with age. Tomorrow (Thursday), the famous institution will be presenting a free forum discussing artists' zines and the spoken word.

The event will feature Steve Grimwade & Lisa Greenaway from Going Down Swinging, Jessica Tuckerman from City Library Street Press and Luke Sinclair from the catacomb zine palace that is Sticky.

But aside from these great talents, I am very interested to see the spoken-word performance by Sean Whelan. This poet turned an old copy of Dubliners, James Joyce's classic novel, into a modern salute called Melbourners. I hear the poetry is even better than the concept.

(I wish these people had links but it's hard to find much about them online. All the more reason to come along and see what they're really about.)

Useless products have plagued birthdays and the family Christmas for many years. Who hasn't at some stage bought their dad an exploding golf ball, their uncle a novelty mug or their unsuspecting mum an apron with tits on it? They seem like a good idea at the time, but realistically you may as well have stuck $20 in a bottle and thrown it from the top of a very high bridge.

No surprise Granny May's went under a few years ago. I'm surprised What's New is still in business. But unlike Australia, in the neon world of Japan useless products are a big deal. Most people by now have heard of chindogu. Coined by the Japanese inventor and author Kenji Kawakami, chindogu are useless inventions that on the surface appear ingenious but turn out to be humourously useless.

The French lads at ATYPYK have taken the idea a step further. (Thanks to Chris at NowNow for the link.) With products like a sponge microphone for singing in the shower, a sketchbook made from tablecloth for writing ideas and a piggy bank in the shape of a clock for saving time & money; Christmas will never be the same again. My personal favourite is the Revenge CD. The pack contains a set of earplugs and a cd with 20 ear piercing tracks to play loud next time your neighbours are having an early morning soiree at your sleep deprived expense. Tracks include the sounds of a drill, domestic squabble, practicing scales (violin), pigeons and an orgasm (outstanding).

I love these ideas. The only problem I have is that they're still useless. Who wants to pay money for a product that will solve problems that didn't need to be solved at all? They would however work wonderfully as added value for existing brands. The sponge microphone for Playstation's Singstar is an example. It may mean the idea has 'sold out', but it gives the products a little more relevance and ultimately more usefulness.

A pair of such people dreaming up beautiful ideas and matching them to brands are David & Phoebe. Although their inventions have not lived beyond the humble notepad, the ideas are solid gold.

The varied talents of mankind never cease to amaze me. You thought the Xtreme Games were cool when you were 13, now they're just another yawnfest and a not so cleverly disguised money making scheme to be wary of. The word on the street is that Parkour is the new cool. What Industrie Magazine (Issue Two) described as 'the bastard child of martial arts, gymnastics, yoga and capoeira', Parkour is finally making an entrance into mainstream culture.

How so you ask? McDonalds, through advertising agency TribalDDB Sydney, have just unleashed a new TVC onto our television screens. It uses Parkour to sell Bacon & Egg McMuffins. If you fail to see the connection then I'm with you. But I could be wrong. Parkour is the new cool after all, so maybe it will rub off on the ultra cool gen-y target market McDonalds is desperately trying to win back. The following video is the making of, and features the ad in its entirety at the end.



I'm not too keen on grabbing a fad or fashion and attaching it to an ad. It's not an idea. It's like putting a random celebrity in front of a camera and hoping young impressionable youths will listen because they identify with the personality. It definitely doesn't make your brand or product cool. (I'm looking at you Thorpie and your fully sick cereal.)

Having said this, if there is a solid idea, adding a fad or said celebrity to your ad can enhance it's effect. A good example is the use of Ron Moss for Australian Fresh Orange Juice. The story is funny on it's own. The success of the concept doesn't rely solely on the credibility of Mr. Moss.

Another good example is the Honda Cog TVC. It was originally an idea by Swiss artists Peter Fischli and David Weiss created in 1987. The concept was updated and enhanced by the idea, without the two being mutually exclusive.

But to get back to the phenomena of Parkour, highly respected ad agency Wieden + Kennedy were on that bandwagon long, long ago. Back in 2002, they mixed the breathtaking images of Parkour with a hilarious idea to great effect for Nike.



Good try TribalDDB, but somehow I don't think the target will do anything but jump off the couch and into the kitchen for a distracting bowl of vegetables.