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Toybox The Creative Communications Company
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The Twatsign (|). How have we managed without one?

In response to the latest brilliant idea to design an official, easy-to-use punctuation mark to emphasize a sarcastic phrase, sentence or message, we thought we'’d invent one of our own.

It’'s called a Twatsign.

It can be used to point out that you think the recipient of your message is a dickhead.

Just as all the brainless gobshites who are prepared to pay £1.99 to display their unbelievable stupidity online with a Sarcmark are.

The Twatsign (|) is available from us for just £10.

Get yours now and make sure twats everywhere know exactly what you think of them.

Thursday 05.15.14
Posted by Paul Taylor
 

You’'re not always what you think you are

I’'m a musician.
I have three guitars and a penny whistle.
One of the guitars, a little acoustic job, was given to me when I was very small.
I managed to teach myself a one-fingered approximation of the intro to “What’'d I Say?” By Ray Charles.
Then I had five or six lessons and learned a few chords.
A, B, C, D, E, F, G plus a minor and a seventh or two.
It hurt my fingers.
So I didn'’t practice very often.
But eventually I picked up enough to struggle through a couple of Bob Dylan numbers and “Here Comes The Sun” by the Beatles.
Plus one or two other simple tunes.
I wasn'’t really good enough but I joined a group.
We played in youth clubs and at parties.
The fact I had a guitar impressed people even if what I did with it didn’'t.
But they could just about recognise most of the notes I played so they didn'’t complain too much.
They clapped politely.
And once or twice they paid us.
I told myself I would never get any better without a better guitar.
So when I was older, I bought myself one.
My playing did improve.
But not much.
I was good enough to entertain myself at home with some simple songs.
But not to perform in public.
I told myself it would be much easier to play an electric guitar, what with all the effects and such.
So I bought myself one.
And my playing didn’t improve at all.
But, never mind, I can still pick up one or other of the instruments from time to time and pretend I’'m Bert Jansch or Muddy Waters.
And tell myself that, as I know a few chords and can scratch out some basic blues and country numbers, albeit littered with errors, I’'m a musician.
As for the penny whistle, Frère Jacques is as far as I’'ve got but it’'s early days.
I’'ve lost count of the number of copywriters I’'ve come across during the time I'’ve spent on Social and Business Networking sites.
Hundreds of them.
Thousands.
I read a lot of what they have to say.
A lot of them have trouble spelling.
Let alone writing.
Here’s one for you.
The other day one of our brethren spoke of some written material as, “mascarading as good copy”.
Double ouch!
But I suppose with so many words spewing into the ether these days, there’'s a desperate need for people to provide them all.
“Come on boys and girls, jump aboard our online bandwagon and scribble away!”
Which means that quantity is so much more important than quality.
“Quick killer content” more important than care.
Copywriters can ignore the need to craft their words.
As long as they can get some semblance of sense across, it’'s fine.
The technology will take care of the rest.
And there’'s such a huge amount of online debris among which to hide.
No one will notice, will they?
It will be lost within seconds, won'’t it?
Well, if approximations in English, after a six-week correspondence course and one website worth of experience, are enough for someone to call themselves a copywriter, then my approximations on six strings are enough for me to call myself a musician.
Yes?
No?
Rock and roll.

Thursday 05.15.14
Posted by Paul Taylor
 

The ad game needs its heroes.

For analogy'’s sake, let’'s look at football first.
We have our all-action Premier League; the envy of the world.
We have our golden generation.
We have our brand-spanking new sponsored stadiums.
We have our splendid, ever-changing new rules, aimed at streamlining the game.  Making it faster, more exciting.
One sub. No two. No three from five. Next, five from seven perhaps. Maybe one day even eleven from eleven.
Times change. Whatever it is now, the supporters most certainly need something else. We'’re told.
There'’s no offside rule that resembles an offside rule. No tackles from behind, no raised studs, no having a good old swear at the referee, or a fight. (Not unless you’'re Alex Ferguson, and maybe not even him now.)
These are the kind of things that contribute to slowing down the game. We need to be quicker. TV needs us to be quicker.
Ah yes, TV.
The great god Sky and his billions, who did beget little idols with their tasteless ways and sweaty ticks. 
The players, whose wondrous talent makes it all possible.
And good luck to them, they deserve all they get and we really adore them.
After all they put their arms around all those disadvantaged little children and smile and lend their names to good causes.
Before heading off to another field, another lucrative contract and another good cause.
But all the while, as the game moves on, becomes swifter, slicker, more dazzling, more progressive, we still have its heritage, don’'t we?
Yes we still have that.
The history. The tradition into which all those supporters were born, and upon which they still feed. In which they still believe.
Outside those state-of-the-art stadiums you’ll find statues of old heroes bedecked with garlands.
Inside, there are plush stands named after former greats.
Read any online football forum and the quotes and questions are there, from teenagers and students, from young boys and girls who live for the game.
Today’'s young fans.
Who was the best?” “When will we as good as we used to be?” “Name the greatest team we had.” “Was Wilf better than Jermaine?”  “What was it like when we won the League?” “The FA/ Inter-City Fairs/UEFA/European Cup?” “Will England ever emulate the boys of ‘66?” “Can we do it again?”
They want their lads to be brilliant now and next but they understand what they owe, and where they’'re from.
The heritage means something.
Analogy over.
I tried to find the history of advertising online (as opposed to online advertising) and it wasn'’t there.
With a few measly exceptions, the history of advertising begins, in terms of what is accessible online at least, in about 1992.
Yes, go on, Google David Abbott and his name will pop up. But try finding the fabulous legacy of work that he produced and it appears to have gone the way of the outlawed back pass to the goalkeeper. (Yes, I know the analogy’'s back, but I promise you, only this once until the end.)
And the same goes for some of the greatest TV and print work of the latter part of the twentieth century.
Now I’'m no geek and maybe I’'m pushing the wrong buttons.
But the fact is it’'s not that easy to be able to refer to our glory glory days (last time, I swear) when British advertising ruled the world.
Yet it should be if what we do today is to mean anything.
Where is David’'s great Father'’s Day Chivas Regal press ad? I can'’t find it. Nor his fabulous Volvo work. Where is the excellent first Sainsbury’s campaign? Saatchi’'s B&H work? Lowe’s Albany Life stuff? Leagas Delaney’'s Timberland campaign? The great early Audi work? TBWA’s Lego commercial? All that the great CDP did?
Okay, look hard and you might come across one blurred, knackered example or another on page 84 of YouTube. But that’'s not good enough.
D&AD probably carry it all somewhere but it probably doesn'’t make commercial sense for them to make it readily available. They should.
Not long ago someone asked me about a great, now sadly deceased art director called John Knight with whom I once had the pleasure of working. They wanted to put something together highlighting his tremendous, unique talent.
Now John was as close as you could get to a genius when it came to advertising art direction and design. Perhaps I'’ll tell his story another day.
Unfortunately, no one knew where to find examples of his work. Most of it had been done before 1992 you see. When the history of advertising began.
Luckily for us all a chap called Dave Dye managed to scrape a few things together from here and there and you can go to http://bit.ly/3leQCo and be impressed.
Dave deserves our grateful thanks for his efforts.
But what of all the other stuff in that list of glorious creativity and beyond?
It must be somewhere but as far as I can tell, it’'s nowhere and it should be everywhere.
Advertising’s changed, I know that.
Football’'s changed too.
But in football, they all appreciate the history of their game.
I don’'t think in advertising, they really do.

Thursday 05.08.14
Posted by Paul Taylor
 

10 Ads That Wouldn'’t Have Been The Same

You can'’t beat a good music track.
You can spend money on a trendy director.
Choose a spectacular location.
Cast a famous personality or two.
Use as much of the latest technical jiggery-wizardry as is possible and affordable.
All good.
But choose a piece of music for your ad that worms its way into the consumer’s subconscious and eats away at their resistance and Bob'’s your uncle.
Not those itchy, scratchy, bibbly-bobbly, woodchip, beat-box, indie dance-trance mixes by Smackwax or DJ Strobe and the like.
Or the drippy-dreamy, floaty-fire-ice, quasi-classical compositions that help cars drive more smoothly or fragrances smell more expensive.
Or indeed the jingle – that specially written musical eulogy into which both the brand name and product particulars are cleverly interwoven to provide the consumer with a subtly persuasive reason to purchase.
“Um Bongo, Um Bongo, they drink it in the Congo” for instance.
“We buy any car …dot com, we buy any car…'dot com, we buy any car…'dot com, we buy any car…'dot com, we buy any car'…dot com, we buy any car…'dot com.”
Etcetera.
“The women at the wheel deserve a fairer deal, for bonzer car insurance deals, girls get on to Sheilas’ Wheels.”
Or the much-loved, “Do the Shake '‘n’ Vac and put the freshness back”.
No, although these are definitely fundamental to the visual communications they accompany and have doubtlessly contributed to the enduring memories that we all have of those brands, it’'s that piece of music that becomes the campaign in a more gloriously unassuming way that we examine here.
Or if not the entire campaign then at least the individual ad.
The music that personifies the brand, product or service.
That the concept could perhaps live without, but certainly not very happily.
That arrives attached to the original idea like placenta to a newborn, but that remains with it and sustains it as it grows.
And that eventually becomes the dominant partner, dictating campaign development and insisting upon long-term user recall.
Here, in no particular order is an incomplete, totally subjective and ridiculously inconsistent list of some all-time favourites.
•Nimble.
The bird who flew like a bird. The song was ten times better than the loaf.
•Hovis.
Czech bloke writes music that is more oldy-worldy English than an Uncle Joe’s Mint Ball.
•Courage Best.
What’'s that? It’'s a jingle because it’'s got the brand name in the song? Gertcha!
•Stella Artois.
Stella wouldn’t be Stella without Giuseppe.
•BA.
Malcolm Maclaren'’s finest hour after the Sex Pistols and Duck Rock.
•Delta.
Dull film plus fab music equals half-decent commercial.
•Cadbury.
Who would have thought Phil Collins would’'ve ever got his credibility back?
•Carling Black Label.
The music is the idea here.
•Levi’s.
Different films, different tracks, but strangely, somehow fulfils the criteria.
•Hamlet.
The guv’nor.

Thursday 05.08.14
Posted by Paul Taylor
 
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