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Premature e-publication

January 13th, 2011 // 2:48 pm @ // No Comments yet

Hello there. If you’re a regular visitor to thatandywhiteblog, ( and if not, why bloody not? ), you may have noticed that a post has suddenly disappeared. Yes, ‘the future is um, written’, has had to go into cold storage for a little while. The reason for this little change is simple and it’s all my own fault. You see, it mainly consisted of a little article I just wrote for Eight:48 magazine and I’d stuck it up here on the blog before the magazine had come out. Which is not only a bit silly of me but, frankly, it’s very bad manners on my part.

Anyway, rather than just leaving anyone to wonder why the blog seemd to have suddenly gone back in time, I thought I’d just offer an explanation. While I’m here though, I’d like to draw your attention to Eight:48, the magazine and its website, which you’ll find here. They’re both rather lovely you see and full of the kind of stuff that, if you’re at all interested in design and copywriting, ( and you really should be ) you ought to be having a look at. The magazine itself is beautiful. I had issue 2 delivered, as I’d missed number 1, and it kept me enthralled for half a day. It’s in the format of a small newspaper which is, in itself, a lovely thing and it contained enough really rather gorgeous images to paper half the wall of my ‘office’ ( I use the term ‘office’ loosely but it sounds better than ‘that area in the house which contains my desk, pc, printer, phones and enough shite to fill three skips’ ). Now obviously I’m going to be a bit keen on a publication that I’m in, it’s natural, but it really isn’t just that. After all, I’ve never asked any of you to subscribe to any of the mail order catalogues I’ve written reams of stuff for. Even though I could have pointed you at some really top end garden furniture on more than one occasion had I chosen to. It’s just I get a bit excited about quality printed stuff in these times of online publications and the slow erosion of things you can actually hold in your hands, hang on your walls or roll naked in, should the feeling take you.

I mean, have a look at all this.

See? It’s all rather beautiful isn’t it? What’s more, it’s the kind of thing that gives you a swift poke in the ribs, kick up the backside and a little wake-up call to the kind of design that’s going on all around us, without necessarily popping up in the mainstream media.

So, if you’re looking around for a little inspiration or perhaps the subscription’s up on your Exchange & Mart, you should maybe have a quick look at Eight:48.*

You could do a lot worse.

*( other design magazines and websites are also available. )

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Category : Advertising &Blog &chip shop awards &humour &Uncategorized

The Ad Critic: In depth analysis and deconstruction of 21st Century Advertising.

September 10th, 2010 // 2:54 pm @ // 4 Comments

Hello there. Once again it’s time for thatandywhiteblog and me, a respected Manchester copywriter, to take a serious, considered look at a TV advertisement currently running on our screens. This week sees the welcome return of Richmond sausages and it’s consistently innovative use of television.

Now isn’t that just unutterably, irredeemably f***ing awful?

Shamus O’Twinkle and his band of similarly musical and whimsical twinkly oirish brothers return to the maternal bosom, seemingly drawn inexorably home by the magic and the aroma of sizzling Irish pork. But that can’t be it really can it? For a start, Accordion O’Twinkle in the Bedford Nostalgia van is quite obviously not the full shilling is he? You just have to look into those slightly glazed eyes to see that his needs are more special than a plate of sausages.  It’s a good thing that van door was locked or I wouldn’t have held out much hope for the girl on the pushbike. I’ve read some terrible things about men with accordions in vans.

Then there’s Double Bass on the bus O’Twinkle. I mean, people pumping out their bloody N’dubz through their bloody ‘phones are bad enough but some geezer playing an upright bass on the bottom deck would drive you to distraction wouldn’t it? Not only that but look where he’s standing. What happens when some poor single mother, struggling with a trolley tries to find a place to sit? And what of the little old ladies off to buy two ounces of haslet for their tea? Where are they supposed to go when some bastard with a bloody great double bass is blocking the aisle and the disabled seats? He’d be out the door, closely followed by a load of shattered mahogany and wire if that was my bus.

Then take a look at ‘Sticks’ O’Twinkle, beating out a little tattoo at the railway station. Check out those big leather straps on each wrist. Now, I’ve been around a bit and I’d put money on those straps being of the type used to manacle unruly patients to chairs whilst administering Electric Shock Aversion Therapy. There’s something deeply wrong with that boy and I shudder to think what’s in the suitcase he’s sitting on. I can’t see one in the picture but I’m pretty sure there’s going to be an abandoned pushbike, wheel still spinning, somewhere adjacent to that platform.

So there they are, the wandering boys beating a path to their mother’s door and tucking into a feast of sausages, mash and peas. Oh yes, it all looks so lovely doesn’t it? But who knows what evil lurks in the cold, black hearts of the O’Twinkle brothers and who knows why they’ve had to flee wherever they were staying to lie low at Ma O’Twinkle’s lair? The one thing to hope for is that they don’t reform the band after they’ve had their tea and release that bloody desperate song as a single.

That just doesn’t bear thinking about, does it?

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Category : Advertising &Blog &chip shop awards &humour &Uncategorized

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