I think I’ve mentioned working on The Economist campaign before, but I now have a good reason to bring you a tepid rehash of that post.
I think they’d go great in your office or downstairs lav. The very best are beautifully written pieces of advice for all areas of your life, so why not give them a good ponder while you’re curling one out or throwing up after a night on the Bucky?
So if you missed the original post, here are a few interesting (if you’re into that kind of thing) facts about working on The Economist’s Red and White poster campaign:
1. People would often do the same ads. The one with Brains out of Thunderbirds was put forward year after year by different teams until there was a chance to get it out at the same time as the movie release, giving it extra topicality. Teams were very aware of the possibility of this, so they’d ‘reserve’ a good poster by sticking it up in their office so people knew it was ‘theirs’ and should not be done by another team in the following round.
2. The point of the campaign was not to sell copies of The Economist. Instead it was to make people feel like they ought to say they read it, so that when the readership research was conducted (‘Do you, Mr. clever rich person, read The Economist?’) people would say yes and The Economist would charge more for its advertising. I’m sure it also sold a few more copies, but that wasn’t the campaign’s raison d’être.
3. The whole department worked on it. As Peter Souter once told me, it was our ‘treat’. He was right. It was fun to work on, and a very likely award-winner. Thank you, David Abbott.
4. I did about twenty of them and they all came about through different methods. Some were the result of three solid days poring over the dictionary or thesaurus; for others I happened to be in the room when my art director came up with them; some gestated for years; others popped into my head fully-formed. I remember asking Malcolm Duffy how he came up with his. He said that there were lots of ways, then told me that one day he was reading the thesaurus when David Abbott passed his office. ‘You won’t find any Economist ads in there,’ said David. Later that day Malcolm came up with ‘Attracts Magnates’. So you never know.
5. My favourite is one that never won any awards that I’m aware of: ‘The loneliest place in the world is the edge of a conversation’.
Beautiful.
Comments 20
I loved the ‘Brains’ one
It was unbelievably original within tight confines.
Posted 11 Oct 2012 at 11:48 am ¶I’d have put it…
Posted 11 Oct 2012 at 12:07 pm ¶“The edge of a conversation. The lonliest place on earth.”
The missing piece of the jigsaw. Magnificent.
Posted 11 Oct 2012 at 12:11 pm ¶Yeah, they’re good, but would you stick one on the wall of your living room/office/ballroom?
Posted 11 Oct 2012 at 12:54 pm ¶@Rob: so you’d spell it differently?
Seriously, David Abbott wrote the other one, so y’know, it’s perfect.
and @4: that’s why I said lav, but I think it’d go well in an office too.
Posted 11 Oct 2012 at 2:15 pm ¶Ben.
Posted 11 Oct 2012 at 2:32 pm ¶Being written by The Bot doesn’t make it automatically unimprovable. I think mine is better (spelling mistake notwithstanding). I’m sure The Bot would disagree with me as you also do.
It’s a matter of opinion isn’t it?
Hadn’t seen “The loneliest place in the world is the edge of a conversation” one before. But wow, that’s something special. And amongst all the other Economist ads, that’s saying something.
Posted 11 Oct 2012 at 2:53 pm ¶I was the project manager on the account for a number of years and loved collecting the work for review. We ended up with around 100 ideas every burst with around 20 getting worked up for final selection of 6 or 7 winners. Everyone used to slip in ideas; from the designers and studio, as well as my own. Happy to say one of my ideas was bought (improved by Tim Riley) and won my only creative award to date. Happy days.
Posted 11 Oct 2012 at 3:52 pm ¶Love them all. But really, 200 crackers for something I could easily recreate for 10?
Posted 11 Oct 2012 at 4:02 pm ¶Well I thought Rob Bob was right.
But it turns out we’re all wrong.
I just looked it up in my “Well-written and red” book of Economist posters, and it was…
On the edge of a conversation. One of the loneliest places on earth.
There you go… Perfick…
Posted 11 Oct 2012 at 4:54 pm ¶Shit. I had a sneaking suspicion that was the case. Apologies, Rob Bob.
And hello Roy! Nice to hear from you. Yours was the glass half empty etc. one. Nice.
Posted 11 Oct 2012 at 5:56 pm ¶I like the wrong version of the headline better; I think it saves the clever play on edge for the payoff.
Posted 11 Oct 2012 at 7:28 pm ¶Agree. The wrong version feels more right.
Posted 11 Oct 2012 at 10:25 pm ¶I wrote that.
Posted 11 Oct 2012 at 11:23 pm ¶Sort of.
Not really.
I rearranged it.
I’m a remixer, like Jive Bunny.
interned at AMV (gosh felt like ages ago) and even us placement teams were told to have a crack at it.
walking into Tim’s office with a stash of scribbles was one my most humbling experience.
Thank you AMV indeed.
Posted 12 Oct 2012 at 2:10 am ¶No love for “The Pregnant Pause”?
Posted 12 Oct 2012 at 8:53 am ¶I enjoyed The Spectator’s snobby take-off. Using the same colours, typeface, etc.:
“The Economist – isn’t that what my accountant reads?”
Posted 14 Oct 2012 at 9:58 am ¶Sharp yet blunt.
Posted 08 Dec 2012 at 1:20 am ¶I’d put anything that reminded me of the great Joe Hoza in my lav. Fact.
Posted 08 Dec 2012 at 1:29 am ¶Ah, Joe Hoza. That takes me back…
Posted 08 Dec 2012 at 8:57 am ¶Post a Comment