wowee, wow.

A new, shiny, grown-up home.

2007-11-19T22:52:00.003+01:00

This is my last post. Not the last forever but the last on this blog. It all started with no clue and some pennies of passion. It ended up being 138 posts and 317 comments. But the best part is the lovely bunch of nice people I met. And a great opportunity that came along.

Unfortunately I am always kind of restless, desperately need continous change and so this blog is moving to a new home. It will look different and maybe will be a bit more grown-up. With a childish view on thing. The bloke who writes it will definitely be the same. Hopefully all of you will be there, too.

Hooray. Double-Hooray.

2007-11-13T23:54:00.000+01:00

Originally we WKsiders were supposed to stay until the end of November at Wieden+Kennedy London. But as we got some projects going on until the end of the year today we were offered to stay until the end of the year. Amazing, another month together with this lovely bunch here.

Because of these brilliant news and to console myself from the sad fact that it means I will be separated from the girl I love for another month, the girl in me bought a pair of shoes. I hunted them for quite a while because they aren't available everywhere nowadays but I found them in Berlin (well, actually on the website of the nice people from Nort). Nice?

For the sneaker freaker or (for Will who always reminds me that we don't say sneaker but trainer in Britain) the trainer brainer: It's the NIKE Air Max 1 Premium Leather in black/black/medium grey/metallic gold.

Preparing to move: Hail to democracy.

2007-11-12T22:49:00.000+01:00

As some of you may know or have read in the comment section of on of Rob's posts that I misused for my own purposes, for a while I have been thinking about moving this blog to wordpress. Not because I don't like blogger but because I think that wordpress has become more convenient and offers less ugly design templates. Don't know if the move is a good idea, if not I always can return to this home. Anyway, I have been struggling finding a name for the wordpress-blog as woweewow.wordpress.com is given away (actually to me, but I deleted it ages ago after doing the thing on blogger and as cruel as the wordpress rules are, it is gone forever now).
Okay. After being offered some rather interesting and some tad German cliché ideas over on Rob's blog (thank you Andy) the whole thing went into a tiny little corner of my brain and now it is back. Three suggestions.
Now here comes the democratic part:

You choose the name.

Simply click on one of the names (hopefully the one you like most) and the website that has the most page loads in a one week's time is the winner*.

No. 1

No. 2

No. 3

*It's not public just because it would be absolutely embarrasing to make it public how few people actually read this shit.

Honestly, read this. It may prevent you from going into that wrong direction you're up to now.

2007-11-08T11:37:00.000+01:00

This is Yoshi. He's not a toad. I like him but he belongs to Nintendo.

So you may read this because you really want to get into this exciting Web 2.0 thing and hope there is some *kaching* in for your company or agency. Because all the marketers talk about. Or agency heads. Or you client asks for it. Whoever of these you are you should definitely read this, this and this. It's true and simply common sense. And over all it's written by a very smart guy who knows what he's talking about. Go there, lean back in your othopaedically shaped chair and soak up what Marcus has to say.

A late goodbye, luv.

2007-10-20T22:11:00.000+02:00

Last Sunday was the very, very, very (increasing accentuation) last day in London for this wonderful young lady:
The next big thing: wear headphones, even if there's no music on.

That's why on Friday some nice chaps, mostly followers of the "wear headphones around your neck...and let them be big ones" gang met in Soho to celebrate the day before the day before the day of Lauren leaving London (woo, a triple allitaration. We had a nice time, behaved stupidly (see previous post) and then went back to bed. Only to meet at Waldemar's party (nice flat, mate) again. Only to meet on Sunday afternoon around Harrod's area (posh isn't it?) to have our final cup of coffee.
Will and me accompanied Lauren to the tube station and into her train. While walking back Will nearly stepped onto something very familiar. Lauren's glasses. Brilliant. Two men, dressed in coats run along the platform...just like in a bad James Bond movie. We met at the next station and had our really. really last goodbye.
Who's that lady staring into the camera? I don't know.

Omi...it was a short but great time. I enjoyed the few evenings and days we had and really miss you. Hopefully Meike and me can make it to Australia next year, so we can meet again. Now this may sound pathetic, but it's wonderful to know you and I am looking forward to see you again. Because there aren't many people like you around. Bussi, du Flachpfeife.

Feel free to use these pictures against us.

2007-10-20T22:06:00.000+02:00

And please refer either to the "two idiots from London" or the "two queer idiots". Your cooperation is much appreciated, thank you very much, blah, blah, ta.

SONY or SONY?

2007-10-11T16:26:00.000+02:00

It's always hard to create the ad that follows an ad that was loved and awarded by both consumers and creatives. The "Balls" ad for SONY by Fallon London is probably the best example. Over the last days two new commercials aired. One for the international market created by Fallon, the highly discussed "Play-Doh Bunnies". And on the other side a film done for the Asian market by Young&Rubicam (correct me if I am wrong). It's all about colourful yarn and a pyramide.

Which one do you prefer or like?

"Play-Doh Bunnies" by Fallon London

"Pyramide" by Young&Rubicam

yeah! YEAH! Y-E-A-H!

2007-10-11T09:21:00.000+02:00

The perfect song for everything from A to Z, from 7 am to 1 am. For getting up, for taking a shower, for walking to the Great Portland Street Station, for standing on the tube, for sitting on the tube, for leaving the tube, for walking along Bishopsgate, for entering the agency, for making coffee, for answering emails, for writing posts, for swearing on other blogs, for writing copy, for having lunch, for thinking, for coming up with stuff, for leaving the agency, for...you got it, have you?

News from Wieden.

2007-10-02T11:59:00.001+02:00

Just click one of the lines and they will gently direct you to the connected post.

Campbell's branch in Hamburg.

2007-09-24T13:25:00.000+02:00

I was in my lovely hometown of Hamburg over the weekend and while buying coffee and trainers I spotted this sign for an optician on the other side of the street. Looks like Rob's not only has his hands on the cynic crowd.
For all of you, who have no idea why I post a sign for a damn optician in Hamburg, please visit the blog of this lovely bloke, try to find a picture of him and you'll understand.

The Impossible Helmet and other stuff.

2007-09-21T20:43:00.000+02:00

Okay, it's been a long time since my last post and I am in London since three weeks and I feel unbelievable...no....fucking uncomfy and guilty that I didn't manage to do a proper post yet. And, surprise, this won't be a proper post as well, as I am not in London but in Hamburg right now. When I am back I will definitely post more things about being at Wieden+Kennedy and post some proper pictures of the area and the lovely people I am glad to work with. For now only one picture I took while doing an exciting little thing for emeco.
For, well, safety reasons we wore helmets. Because I have quite a big head I only found one helmet that fitted quite well. It was in a shelf down at the front door. And what can I say, thanks to a quick talk during a cigarette break I found out it was the helmet from Honda's "Impossible Dream". Nice. Hopefully nobody notices some minor scratches that our filming thing left on this piece of advertising goodness. Here is the film: And here is the bloke who writes this blog wearing it and trying to not look like dumb while smoking his cigarette.

Okay. That's it with twitter from Wieden's right now. Time for a nice little note. If you are in London this weekend take your last chance to see this exhibition:
It's Illustrate 07 and it's brilliant. A myriad of different illustration techniques and styles worth a tube ride to Holloway Road. From Jon Burgerman to (my absolute favourite) Tim Ellis you eyes will rapidly rush from the right to the left to the top to the bottom and won't ever get enough. Go. And if you can't then feel invited to take a look at some of the pictures I took while visiting rooms with my not too small too be big Nina. You can find them on my flickr here. If you like to know more about Designersblock just click the exhibition poster above.

WKside-dish.

2007-09-07T14:46:00.000+02:00

As some of you may noticed I moved to London on Saturday to be a WKsider (or "Siders" or "Sidies" as the nice bunch here calls us) at Wieden+Kennedy for 3 month. As we are quite overwhelmed by nearly everything I just copy and paste from the nice and worth-a-read blog of lovely new side-home. If you want to read the original stuff you can find it here and here.
Not to forget: thanks a lot for all the lovely comments. You know who you are and you are great.

And, well, here we are:

Kelly:

Sarah:

Edd:

And, well, that stupid looking German bloke.

In the news.

2007-09-07T14:35:00.000+02:00

It's been nearly two weeks so this is really old news, but the olvely copywitress Elena and me made it into Hamburg's big newspaper Hamburger Abendblatt. We picked up our Cannes Lions the night before and were photographed because we fitted into the "are you young and unknown? not famous?"-search of the photographer quite well.
It was a really nice evening and I went up on stage with the lovely Google client, Mr Krainer, who was really excited and happy about the award. It was great to see and especially hear him repeating "that"s so cool" the whole evening. So, any Germans in here? Then here is the full article featuring a dull quote by the bloke who writes this blog.

Commercial of the Week: Coca Cola.

2007-09-07T14:34:00.000+02:00

A lot of new, amazing and exciting things happen at the moment so there is a real delay in writing posts and stuff but I hope it will get better soon. So don't be mad it will change, hopefully. Until then I am happy to bring the "Commercial of the Week" back on track. Well, while everybody is discussing the Gorilla ad by Cadbury's (check YouTube or Marcus' blog) I think it's not deserved the title. But the new commercial or, to be more precise, movie for Coke does. It's the next sequel of well-known, brilliant and lovely "Happiness Factory". Just have a look. It's worth it. Word.

A question of good taste.

2007-09-02T16:34:00.001+02:00

There is a application on facebook that is called Compare People. And that's basically what you do. On a late Saturday evening when you have nothing to do it offers approximately 30 minutes of fun. Only fun? No, sometimes it will leave you speechless. Just like the question below. My eyes, my fingers, my mind and the rest of my body were simply unable to do a proper judgement. So, ladies and gentlemen, please sharpen you comments and let your opinion do the talking...er...writing.

Off to Norway.

2007-08-18T05:17:00.001+02:00

Yup. Back in 7 days. See you then, hopefully.

Impossible is nothing.

2007-08-16T13:59:00.000+02:00

So this isn't another post about a new and fancy campaign of our beloved sportsbrand with the three stripes. No, this is the story about a relationship lasting over 50 years. Wonderful years of mutual success. Times of neverending pioneer work. It's the history of adidas (or to be more precise of Adi Dassler) and the German national football team. Adi and his abiding love for sports on the one side and a great football nation on the other side. Here a man that developed state of the art sports equipment to make sportsmen even better. And there a team winning the world cup three times and rocketing the sales of adidas products in the sky.
This relationship is special. Because both are German success stories for the most parts of their history. Like back in 1954 when Helmut Rahn plus 10 beat the vastly superior Hungarian team in the finals of Bern.
And with the success of one partner the other got successful and more successful as well. Who doesn't remember the team of 1974 with football heroes like Franz "the Kaiser" Beckenbauer or Gerd "Bomber of the nation" Müller and their spectacular final match against the (again) superior Dutch football team with the likes of Cruyff and Neeskens.
But times got harder for both. Adidas not only had to face the family's own competitor Puma, that was founded by Adi's elder brother Rudolf (a quite interesting story, because the rivalry between the two brothers who both founded their company in Herzogenaurach actually did split the whole town into one adidas camp and a Puma camp). No, adidas had to struggle with the upcoming competitor from Oregon. NIKE. And just as their suporter the German team wasn't the best anymore. So it was quite a surprise when in 1990 a team around Lothar Matthäus, Jürgen Klinsmann and Rudi Völler beat the (again) superior Agentinian crowd led by the "Hand of God", Diego Maradonna.
The last gold age for the German national football team. Because since then the mutual success is gone. Though adidas is still number two, they are unbelievable successful. Only our team has gone through dark times. World cup 1994 and 1998 were horrible. Short highs like in 1996 with the European Championship and 2002 with the second place in the world cup were followed by disastrous competitions in the following years. The only absolute term was the partnership with adidas. But as the team wasn't that successful they were supported with "only" 11 millions Euro per year what is, compared to the French national team, a small amount. But then in 2006 young German football players like Bastian Schweinsteiger, Lukas Podolski and Miroslav Klose under the leadership of Jürgen Klinsmann achieved the impossible. Thanks to Teamgeist and 80 million people standing behind them like a wall they beat vastly superior teams like Agentinia and Portugal and made the 3rd place in the world cup 2006 in Germany. Germany adored this team. And until now they are playing the best and most successful football throughout Europe. Great for adidas, isn't it?
No. And now after a long story we arrive at the purpose of this post. NIKE wants the German team to wear their logo from 2011. And the offer the unbelievable amount of 500 millions Euro for 8 years (that's over 5 times more than adidas pays right now). Immediately adidas made an offer of 22 million. But the Nike offer is still the double. So what to do?
Forget about a relationship lasting more than 50 years? Or reject an offer that would help to strengthen the youth work in German football? History or Future? Today representatives of adidas and the German football association met in a hotel to talk about the topic. It's a small headline in the news but it's a question worth talking about. So what do you think?

AHA.

2007-08-16T12:34:00.000+02:00

Today our agency received an offer from a company called dynetic. It was immediately send to everybody in the agency to see if they would be interested to meet them. So, what can I say. It's alluring, isn't it?

"... dynetic is the technological leading soaftware specialist for mobile content-transcoding, -adaption, -rendering und -delivery – and that world wide. Our solutions enable you to provide any kind of content and websites of your clients to more than 4.800 mobile end devices easily and efficient while using optimized standards. Optional we offer you to access our whole range of attendance of dynetic for development and operation of mobile services. We made international top brands - from a variety of sectors - like eBay, AOL, Spiegel, freenet, ADAC, kicker, Maggi or RTL mobile thanks to our mobile-technology emoveo UAP. It potentiates the optimized delivery of content such as text, picture, website content, video streams or audio podcasts to mobile end devices as well as the provision of messaging services (SMS/MMS) or java clients. Now together with you, agency, we want to make more top brands mobile..."

Officially back (and gone).

2007-08-16T10:47:00.000+02:00

After some time I have realized that my blog still hasn't learn to write his own posts and isn't able to live on it's own yet. Stupid little thingy. That's why after nearly one month of doing nothing else than working, looking for a room and saying "Goodbye" to lovely clients and real people I am back to take over my blog again. This post is basically here to just inform you about that. Nothing more, nothing less. And if you have some time and are around Hamburg, why not pop by the farewell party of our lovely account manager Merle, who is going to the UK for love, and me? Everybody is welcome. Well, at least everybody with tolerable manners and body perspiration. Cheers, would be lovely to see you.

A lovely website worth a look. Or more.

2007-07-25T18:26:00.000+02:00

While spending most of my time working and looking for a room in London, it's great to just take a short break and discover something new and interesting. I love days when you find a lovely, interesting and brightly shining thing on the web. It doesn't happen every day, but today I found it on the blog of Kristofer Ström. Kristofer does cute and lovely executed short illustrated films. Every image and character is morphing into a new one and it's just great to watch. Here are two of his films, more can be seen on his blog.

Kristofer also has a website where you can see his latest artworks, download wallpapers like the one below and watch this beautiful movie.

By the way, if anyone knows someone with a free, clean, preferably furnished and wifi-connected room in or around Shoreditch, or basically close enough to Hanbury Street to not spend a living for underground tickets...then please let me know. Lovely, thanks for your attention.

Temporarily out of service.

2007-07-24T17:23:00.000+02:00

Since July, 10th, or so nothing has happend on this blog. What is a shame. Unfortunately in the near future nothing will change. I am getting smashed by a pile of work because of three presentations in the near future and additionally have to struggle with getting a room in London and, what is more exhausting, I am desperately trying to fight my way through British bureaucracy in order to get a National Insurance Number.
To make a long and tragic story short: Until the mid or end of next week nothing spectacular, mind changing or brilliant will happen on this blog. But I hope to have some time to do one or two proper posts then and hopefully won't have lost my four or five readers.

Until then why not make your own Simpsons Avatar? Just like Nina and beeker already did?

Hooray.

2007-07-10T04:37:00.000+02:00

Today was a busy day. That's why I got the best news so late. But from the 3rd of September I will take part in WKside 3. That's so great and I am very happy and looking forward to work with great people in a great agency. It will be a huge change for me. A new country, new people, new streets, new everythings. An exciting time to come. Thanks to everyone who supported me in this thing. My lovely girlfriend, Marcus, Rob, Will, Lauren, Rob, Andy, Dan, Paul and all those who always had nice words of warmness and support for me. You are great and I hope to meet you in September for a beer or two. And I am really excited to get to know the other three WKsiders. So say hello. I am excited and happy. Cheers.

A terribleterrific day.

2007-07-06T11:49:00.000+02:00

So I went to London last Wednesday. So I had the perfect schedule. Get the plane at 5:45, arrive in London at 7:10, take Gatwick Express at 7:45, arrive at Victoria Station at 8:15, take the tube to Liverpool Street, at least arrive there at 8:45, have some time to drink a coffee and then step through Wieden+Kennedy entrance at 9:20 for the start of the interview is at 9:30. This was a great plan, with an included buffer, easily I could have dropped that "time for coffee"-thing. Unfortunately germanwings and Gatwick Express were against me and turned the first part of the day into a disaster.
At 5 a.m. I found myseld at the germanwings desk at Hamburg Airport. The unfriendly woman got me my ticket and, as it would be some kind of sidedish, told me:

"Your flight is delayed."
"What do you mean with delayed?"
"Your flight is delayed."
"Oh, really? You meant "delayed" as in the meaning of "delayed"? Should have thought of that. But what I wanted to know is what "delayed" does mean in terms of minutes."
"45, have a pleasant flight. Next customer."
"Oh, thanks very much, too friendly."

Okay. 45 minutes. That's okay. Then I will arrive at 8:00, take the Gatwick Express at 8:30 and will rush from Victoria via Livverpool Street to Hanbury Street in 30 minutes. But I hadn't thought of that this maybe wouldn't be it. So at 8:29 an announcement banged down Gatwick train station platform 1.

"The Gatwick Express to Victoria Station at 8:30 has been cancelled."

What?

"The Gatwick Express to Victoria Station at 8:30 has been cancelled."

What? WHAT?

"THE GATWICK EXPRESS TO VICTORA STATION AT 8:30 HAS BEEN CANCELLED, STUPID KRAUT BOY!"

Damn you. Now I will be too late for the interview. Goddamn germanwings, goddamn Gatwick Express. So I made my sheepish call to Wieden+Kennedy reception.

"Wieden+Kennedy, hello?"
"Hello here is Sebastian, I have an WKside interview today. But unfortunately my plane got delayed and my train got cancelled so I will be a bit late."
"What?"
"What?"
"Again please."
"Hello here is Sebastian, I have an WKside interview today. But unfortunately my plane got delayed and my train got cancelled so I will be a bit late."
"So you won't come?"
"No, I mean NO! No, YES! I will come, only a bit late!"
"Okay, I will tell them, say your name again, please."
"Sebastian."
"What?"
"Let me spell...S...E...B...A...S...T..A...I...N. No, wait. I...A...N. Sebastian."
"Okay, and your last name?"
"Oehme...but...I think they don't even know my last name."
"K, give me a second."

Seconds pass by, I can hear she's talking to someone.

"Hello Sebastian?"
"Yes?"
"No, problem. They know you will be late."
"Oh, I am so sorry. Thanks a lot."
"No problem. Good bye."
"Bye."

Huuu. Okay, everything seemed to be okay (though it got me -10 points). The next 60 minutes just rushed by. I sat on the train next to a business man who had a really bad breath, I got onto the District Line to Aldgate East and then walked, walked, walked, started to sweat, walked, passed the Wieden+Kennedy house without noticing, walked, came to the end of Hanbury Street, turned around, walked, walked into the door and said hello. A friendly girl at the reception asked me to fill in my name into a form and then took a picture.

"Nice. You are the first one who did smile. All others were frowning."
"Really?"

Really. What a stupid answer is that? But I like the girl. She is very friendly. While following her I have a look around. Everything is very colourful with a lot of stuff standing around everywhere. Compared to this all agencies I know look like the government's department of finance. Boring. This looks like a crazy, colourful leisure park. She opens a door. I can see a lot of people. Immediately everybody is starring at me. I try to smile, but I guess I looked a bit tantalised. Quickly I sit down. The friendly girl gave a form to fill out. While trying to follow the conversation going on I try to fill it out.
Then time passed on very quickly. Everybody said some stuff about who they are and what they have done until know. I am not the only one not from the island. There is a guy from Stockholm, one from Zurich, one from Barcelona and Zac, a director from LA who now works and lives in Shanghai. Isn't that a crazy guy? He flew down all the way from China to take part in that interview. Then the nice people from Wieden+Kennedy did a presentation about the agency. They showed us some of the books they did for Honda and other clients. Really impressive. That's a brilliant thing, to capture the character and voice of a brand in one book and try to express through all of those pages. Really cool. Any questions? Someone asks to go to toilet. Great idea, I follow him. On the toilet I can't find the light. Someone kindly pulls a string next to the door. Funny, in Germany you would have pulled that string in order to use the flush. After the loo the second WKsiders join in to talk about what they did. They look nice. One girl (I guess her name was Sophie) and two guys (I think both were called Ben). One of the Bens has weird curls, the other Ben talks weird. It must be an accent from Scotland or Wales. It sounds funny but he talks so fast that I understand nothing. Everybody is nodding about the stuff he says. To me it sounds like someone gurgling words. I am lost. But one of their first projects was to do a concept for a hotel. Together with Philippe Starck. Wow, Philippe Starck. That's amazing. They seemed to had a great time. A lot of work and a lot of fun. I wish I could do that as well. Then Simon is entering the room. He is called the fat planner. Because he is WKfat. Funnily he is a very thin man. He is here to give us a brief. In groups of five people we are supposed to collect ideas on how to embrace Wieden+Kennedy's connection to music. Quickly we start to work. We have one hour and the 15 minutes to present our ideas. The first 45 minutes we spend talking about music in general. Then the last 15 minutes we quickly draw a scribble and get together our idea. Then presentation time has come. The first group present their idea of "Welcome to (P)Optimism". One of the guys is Christos. A friend of Waldemar who was a professional basketball player in Greece. He's really tall and has a deep voice. Their idea is really nice. And pretty close to the stuff we came up with. Then it's our turn. We decided to let a nice guy called Elliot do the main talking, because he is pretty good at it. We others jump in to explain stuff or talk about some of the ideas. The last group was, I think, the best. They had a pretty cool idea. It was the group of Zac, the 15hours-flight-man, and a skinny guy from Zurich, who gestured a lot what looked quite funny. Then it was time for the last part of the day. Speed dating. Five people of Wieden+Kennedy. Three minutes each. They ask for volunteers. Nobody raises his or her hand. So I step up and walk out. The first was a friendly guy. I talked a lot about blogging with him. Then came Sam. She was very friendly as well. Then Nat who is the woman in charge of human resources. Then Lucy. She was really nice. She's the one I have my appointment with on July, 31. She says she liked the stuff I did to answer the "Can anything be beautiful"-question. I cheer up a bit. Nervousness is gone. The last in the row is Darren. He's very friendly as well and tells me about a skateboard and sneaker exhibition of Nike I should visit. One of his questions made me think a lot and stumble. Then we wait a lot for everybody to finish. During that I call Will and my girlfriend who told me about a very lovely thingthat Rob posted. Thanks to everyone who had his or her fingers crossed. I think I need it. Because everyone here at the interview is brilliant and nice. The people of Wieden+Kennedy say some nice words to all of us at the end. Unfortunately Tony and Kim, the creative chiefs, have a Honda meeting and can't join for some last words. Then we all leave. It were 6 exciting and interesting hours. I feel a bit exhausted. Now all we can do is wait and be optimistic.
Last but not least the most lovely hour of the day was to come. I met Lauren... ...and Will......at the 1001 for a beer. They are excited about the thing I came here for and I am excited and happy to meet them for the first time. It was lovely. We talked, drank our beer...no...Lauren drank tea actually...talked and talked. Unfortunately after one hour I had to leave to get my plane. Next time we hopefully have more time. Because it was brilliant and toptastic (sorry to steal your word, Rob) to meet. But, just like it started, the day had a new problem for me. The Circle Line was closed. But Lauren, thank you so much, found me a way that got me the last Gatwick Express I could have taken. You are great, thanks a lot. So after another flight and a taxi ride I arrived home. Exhausted. Excited. And happy to have my girlfriend in my arms.

What does inspire you?

2007-07-05T11:19:00.000+02:00

Yesterday at the WKside interview Darren, a copywriter from Wieden+Kennedy, asked me this question. I answered it. Because that's what, I guess, you mostly do with questions. While on Gatwick Express I still was thinking about it. Probably because I thought: Gosh darn it, Seb. You're answer was fucking rubbish. And you forgot about one thing that always has inspired you. Maybe because it's so ordinary that you just did not think of it. So, here is the part I forgot:

What really inspires me is as simple as walking through a door. Because it's actually that. I just go outside and walk around. Because what inspires me most are the streets. The people that pass by, the sign standing or hanging around, things thrown away, damaged things standing in the way, old shabby houses, grafitti, trash cans...

Because everything out there can be an inspiration. Sometimes I just sit in the train and listen to what the people around me are talking about. Or I secretly take pictures of all those people stuffed into one train. Because the ordinary things sometimes can be the most inspiring. Things that you maybe pass every day without really noticing them. If you look at them open they can be truely inspiring. Like that wall of yellow tiles. It's just a wall and then sometimes, it's an inspiration.
My question to you all: So what does inspire you?

Advertising is dead! Long live advertising!

2007-07-02T23:19:00.000+02:00

From time to time things slightly change. What is great. Because change is great. Years ago the internet started to change certain things in advertising that happily can now be harvested by us. Because the internet fastforwarded a process of growing media coverage. Wherever you go there is advertising. Everywhere. In the papers, the TV, the internet, the outdoor, on your mobile and in your videogame. People became more and more used to it. And more and more bored by it. Not because advertising became bad. There were more great ads in 2007 than there were in 1980. But there even where more bad ads in 2007 than 1980. And that's the problem. Bad advertising compared to good grew excessively. So people became bored and slightly immune against advertising even faster. It's sad. It's a disaster. But as every disaster there is a chance in it. A BIG one. Maybe the most exciting and biggest chance in advertising ever. And as always the guys and dolls at Crispin, Porter + Bogusky are ahead of all the others. Not because they reinvented the wheel. They are just doing something that most agencies don't. Because advertising agencies tend to answer clients briefs with advertising. What is great, because that's what their name says, right? No. It's the point that make us weak and replaceable for clients. But CP+B do it different. They answer the clients brief with a SOLUTION. And this solution may be a commercial or an outdoor campaign or a website or a print ad or a new product or a TV show or a video game. And that is what is exciting about the future. Because advertising is no more only about "telling an interesting story about a brand in an interesting way" as Bill Bernbach said. It has become more multi-faceted. It has to be entertaining, interesting and probably not only the product it advertises but the advertising itself should have a benefit for the customer. Whatever this is. There are exciting times to come, and we can be very proud to have the possibility to add our value to that evolution. Today advertising can be anything. And for example CP+B step ahead by just doing things right. And exciting. To be honest I thought that Nike was nuts handling their most future-facing account from Wieden+Kennedy to Crispin, Porter+Bogusky. Because Dan Wieden made them do it. But looking at it objectively it is the right move. Long time ago DDB changed advertising. CP+B is doing it now. With work like the Subservient Chicken, Mini, VW, Burger King and definitely maybe Nike. And hopefully they have and still are encouraging agencies worldwide to present solutions and not only advertising at tomorrow's client meeting. Does all this make sense or am I just writing behind time?

Can anything be beautiful?

2007-07-02T23:14:00.000+02:00

For their third WKside intermezzo Wieden+Kennedy asked to give a digital answer to the question "Can anything be beautiful?" while submissions somehow had to be interactive. Anyway I couldn't resist and did an asnwer on a blog that you can find here: The basic ideas was that everything can be bautiful if you try to make it beautiful. The blog gave examples on how to make ordinary things in your daily life more beautiful starting with the simplest of the simplest. Some of those things were "Parkbench Makeover", "Garbage Can Thingies" and "Analog Pixel Walls" that were documented on videos as the one you can see below (thanks to Marcus for musical geniusness). The nice people at Wieden+Kennedy somehow must slightly have liked that stuff and sent me an invitation to an interview for WKside this Wednesday. So, if anyone fancies a coffee in the afternoon, I will be in London for one day.

At the studio (again).

2007-06-29T13:54:00.000+02:00

Haven't been at the studio for...days. So it was time to go back and do some work. When my mum is on the telly she sometimes asks: "So what are you doing there all day?" Well mum, I am doing stuff like that: No, honestly we were finishing a commercial with some nice people. Christian (the man on the mic), who is working for Bakery Films as a production assistant and Svenno (the man on the desk) from Tonhaus. Nice people, nice day. Though it was long. Client was there, too.

The bronze and the sad.

2007-06-26T18:03:00.000+02:00

So, some nice things were happening over the past weeks. And one bad. Let's start with the nice ones to celebrate the bad one at the end. Well, for weeks we weren't allowed to talk about it, when we were, we simply forgot. Because something even more exciting happened, something so exciting that we forgot to tell, as well. The forbidden topic was that Nina and me won a so called bronze world medal at the New York Festivals what is really nice. But what's even nicer and slightly outperformed this award formerly known as "the thing I am not allowed to talk about" was a bronze lion we were awarded at the Cannes Advertising Festival. Nice, isn't it? For one night, though we were not able to go to Cannes, we were the happiest people in our office. Until next morning and the fact that clients care about ROI and give a shit about Cannes. Okay, most clients of us. Most clients of us except the brilliant people at Google for who we have done the work that won both bronze thingies. And here is the short documentation of the work.

The words in the Google Video search, just in case you can't read them, are: a crowd of tourists, people waiting, changing traffic lights, busy airfield, people eating fast food, people getting into cabs, people going up and down and people crossing the street. Okay. Happiness. Now the sad part of this post. Last friday was the really, really last day of my little Nina as an employee of our agency. From July she will live in London, looking for whatever full-time or freelance job can pay her rent and food. Erm, I mean, whatever graphic-design-ish, art-direction-ish or idea-have-ish job that can help her pay that stuff. You can get in contact with her and see some stuff she has done by clicking on this picture puzzle:
If you don't like picture puzzles you can click here: toosmalltobebig.com.
As always, a farewell will mean words of warmness and a lot of people standing together in the hallway, drinking free alcohol before 6 pm, chatting loud over even louder music and pretending they are not near crying like a baby. Well the last one regards mainly me. So from now on I will be sitting in our office starring at the empty place that used to be Nina's desk dreaming of the good ol' times. Times when we were looking stupid on pictures while posing with our NoHoHon or a small furry thing called Filou. Goodbye little Nina. You may be too small to be big, but you're not too small to be great. So if you are working at a design, arty farty or advertising agency, that is nice and like people who are nice, for god's sake get Nina into your rooms and hire her. Or, even better, the both of us. Be kind and drop her an email here:

Damocles is a 10k.

2007-06-22T15:15:00.000+02:00

I don't know why, but it happened. In a moment of total overestimation of my own capabilities I said "yes" when Elena asked me, if I would join the agency's team for the yearly 10k run around the Alster (a lake right in the middle of Hamburg). Hello brain? Anybody at home up there? Did I forgot that I only have about 2 months training time left and Nike+ friendly reminded me that my current running capability is this? Right now I just can hope that Elena did not lie when she said, she's not a runner as well. And the only thing left as well is run, run and run. In the hope I am not the last bloody fool to arrive at the finish line. Well, cross your fingers that on the 9th of September Mr. "Yeah, I started running two weeks ago but 10k won't be a problem, haha" will be prepared enough to do this. Why I couldn't have kept my mouth close?

Being art.

2007-06-21T15:08:00.000+02:00

So what did you do last weekend? Watched football? Went shopping? Re-sorted your record collection by year and in alphabetical order? Hosted a big summer starting barbeque? Worked in the garden? Washed your car? Well, last weekend I was art. Only for one minute, but I was. Because my lovely girlfriend, my old creative whatever-head, his lovely wife and the little output of their love, called Lenny, went to the Erwin Wurm Exhibition at the Deichtorhallen in Hamburg. In the middle of the hall Mr. Wurm put some stuff to get involved with while being photographed. It's a thing called "One minute sculptures". Here you can see one of the objects: We joined and had some fun. And furthermore had our three minutes of being art objects:
If you are near or think about going to Hamburg, go and see the exhibition. It's really great. My favourite Erwin Wurm piece of work is this one. I think it's called something like "The man who ate the world and the man who ate the world when it still was a disc". Great. In the background of the picture you can see another instalation, the fat house. Though I think the most widely known piece of work he did is a music video for the Red Hot Chili Peppers which basically is a video of the band doing some "One minute scultptures" with really ordinary objects. Again, visit the exhibition. And if you don't have the chance to come to Hamburg at least visit the website of Erwin Wurm where you can see some pieces of his work. Some beautiful pieces like the ones below. Thanks for your interest.
Legal Disclaimer: No, Lenny did not drink from the toilet cleaner bottle.

The appointment and the silence.

2007-06-14T00:44:00.000+02:00

In case you were wondering why since weeks nothing has happened on my other blog "This is getting scary" it's because after Neil's post on the blog of Wieden+Kennedy some days passed by and then an appointment at Wieden+Kennedy in London was made. HOORAY! For the end of July. Enough time to polish the portfolio and stuff. Hope they are nice. Anyway here and on the other blog I will keep everyone updated who's interested. And if you would like to meet me in London for a pint, coffee, talk or to show the pictures of your last holiday, just give me a shout. I will be there for some days and would be happy to meet some nice. So Seb will be in London. Hope to see some of you. And sorry for the visual pun.

APSotW calls for Hummer action.

2007-06-13T23:32:00.000+02:00

Unfortunately I did not have the time to do Rob's brilliant task properly. But because I was one of the loudest screaming "YEAH!" or "HOORAY!" or "YOU'RE A FUCKING GENIUS, ROB!" deep inside of me grew the bloody plant of bad conscience. That's why I sat down yesterday night after work for four hours and put together my solution. It could briefly be described with the following picture:
Unfortunately it's done very rough and is more of an advertising solution than a core strategic idea. But I think it's worth a look. Though I've done it only for Rob, because I did not want to let him down with his first APSotW-thing, nonetheless the bloody bastard apparently wants to send it to his judging partners. That's why I changed my mind and wrote this post. To let everybody on the whole world wide web know about it and maybe support me, ha. So if you maybe are interested in the stuff I wrote, you can find it on this blog:

A new year.

2007-06-13T22:16:00.000+02:00

Last sunday was my birthday. I turned one year older and though twentysix is the most boring age in the world it was a really nice and laid back come together, sit together on sofas, drink and smoke together on sofas and celebrate this day on sofas. Open air. Outside a cozy bar. Brilliant. Thanks to the lovely people who were there.
While thinking about getting older, an idea came to my mind that I set myself new things I want to try or do during this new year. Three of them I will post today. Before, I want to show you a brilliant new commercial for Nike by Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam. For me this is my commercial of the week. A sports company advertising with the fact that running sucks. It's so true. And so brilliant.
It briefly described what I thought about running. It's boring. You run, run and run. And where does it take you? Where you started. How stupid is that? That's the reason I prefered football and basketball. But I really like this whole Nike+ training thing. Apart from that it's brilliant marketing, I think it's great to actually see results from your daily training.
Because I stopped doing sports regularly when I started my job, I am far, far from a body and health condition you could describe as fit. And that's why I want to start running this year. Got a Nike+ set (thanks, love you, darling) and will hopefully from now on do some workouts every week. Besides I hope that it will cure me from smoking, as well. Here you can see my first stats from today. Will maybe post more about my first run with Nike+ later. It's not much, but a start, isn't it? All the money that running and stop smoking can save me, will all be spend for a long holiday. You know, since I started working here four years ago, I haven't been on holidays. Sure, three days here, four days there...but that's not a real holiday. And that's why I promised me to at least visit three countries I have never been to before during year twentysix. The first one will probably be Norway this August with two lovely people and my best little friend Lenny, who is 10 month old now. But the really exciting thing is the plan or idea for next year. Four weeks in Australia with a stop in maybe Singapore or Thailand. Depends on what's possible. Though the lovely girl sharing the bed, kitchen and bathroom with me still is thinking about the Westcoast ot the Americas. But I think I will persuade her. Anyway I am already excited. And I hope we somehow can make this happen. Australia...this would be brilliant.
Okay. The third thing will be a bit strange because of my age. But I definitely want to learn a new trick on the skateboard. Easy. Unfortunately it inevitably implies to learn how to skate. And I have never done this before...no...this is a lie. I did stand on a skateboard when I was 6 and prompt fell on my butt. But everytime I see those guys skating around in videos, on the street or when I sit in front of my PS2 playing Tony Hawk's Pro Skater (yeah, I have them all), one thing springs to my mind: I want to try that. I want to skate. And you know what? This year I will buy a board and start. Though I am not exactly sure if I will begin to skate or repeatingly will fall on my butt. Unfortunately my helpful girlfriend already proclaimed that she won't vet any injury being caused by skateboarding. Thanks, lovely.
So how does all this sound so far? Maybe I will post some other tasks later. But for now: Thanks for your attention.

Cookie Rope.

2007-06-12T18:24:00.000+02:00

Quite busy finishing a TV thingy for our cookie client. But while looking for the perfect song for it I came across one of my most favourite songs when I was 17 or so. It's "Carrot Rope" of the fabulous Pavement. Nice. Reminds me of sitting in the sun with some friends drinking beer and just watching the water floating down our local river. A time when I did not thought about unique selling propositions and target groups most of my day. The whole band in yellow raincoats. How brilliant is that?

Advertising the web.

2007-06-11T23:59:00.000+02:00

Since I am working at the agency that supports me in paying my bills an ongoing job is the development of the new website. During this 4 years nothing has changed and we still have an boring and grey old one. But while surfing around the "agency web" it seems to be quite obvious that a lot of agencies put all their creativity into the work they do for their clients. Don't get me wrong, that's good. That's how they make the money. But don't you think, as well, it's a bit curious that people who get paid for developing brilliant and efficient communication for other companies often show a lack off brilliance and creativity when it comes to their own website? What's quite interesting is that the most creative agencies in the world sometimes have the most uninspiring and uninteresting websites. Let's take a look at some of them. For example the webiste of Crispin, Porter+Bogusky. Definitely one of the, maybe the most creative agency, producing groundbreaking work in all genres. But the website is held minimalistic in light grey, dark grey and even darker grey. With slices of red and some pictures. Everything is structured clear. Could be the website of a bank as well. Or a insurance company. The same goes out to BBH. With their black sheep in a horde of white sheep, their philosophy is crystal clear. When the world zigs, zag. Brilliant. But the rest of the site is, well, quite minimalistic. Some case studies, facts and stuff. Mostly without picture. Maybe it's understatement of one of the most brilliant agencies of the last decades. But doesn't the internet deserve a bit more? Probably that's what Strawberryfrog thought. Great creative reputation, they are in charge of some of the most exciting brands worldwide, directing all the good stuff that comes out from their Amsterdam headquarter. But except the lovely frog that is walking around, the website is made without great love. The rest is a normal business site in pinstriped corporate identity. Though they have an online shop where you can buy frogism shirts what is quite nice. To make this one short: the website of M&C Saatchi is handcrafted to fit Maurice Saatchi's "everthing has to become more simple"-paradigm. It's very simple and unfortunately very unentertaining. Nothing special. Only facts & figures, approach, work, press section and contact. Just what you expect. Nothing that does touch the heart or stomach. But put together all are wonderful and great compared to what Scholz & Friends is calling their website. It's yellow, it's a mess, it's worse than most insurance company websites. The eye doesn't know where to look first and the menu can't help a little. Is "No. 1 in Poland!", "Copytest", "Lore's Law" and "Strategic Alliances" the kind of information you would put into the main header if you were one of the most creative agencies in Europe? Aren't there some more exciting things to tell? And what's that "Efficiency Booster" supposed to be? Another unnecessary ad tool? Corporate toadiness? I am sorry, but could the "Orchestra of Ideas" please put some more hours into practising? Three better examples are what WCRS, Leagas Delaney and 180 call their home on the web. WCRS and Leagas Delaney are quite similar: big pictures fot the eye and entertaining factor and a well structured menu to guide you through the site. They don't offer more information than the others but these facts are wrapped in a better looking paper, I think. 180 even has a cream topping because they explain the main facts about their agency visually. Unfortunately these facts are more serious now than they were one year ago. Anyway it is a well done website. The next one is really, really cute. And though I don't know much more about the agency than the fact that Paul Colman is a planner there now, I think RKCR/Y&R not only have an incredible hard to remember name - Rainey Kelly Campbell Roalf - but a lovely and sweet website, as well. I don't know much about their work, clients or creative reputation, but I am getting more and mor interested as soon as all those funny little heads start walking around in my browser. I can even chase them around. This one is really done with love. Looks like handcrafted and leaves a nice feeling about the agency with that hard to keep in mind name. Even more lively it the website of former German creative hotshop Aimaq.Rapp.Stolle. It looks cheap. It may look a bit porn. But after clicking around you see there went a lot of work and love into their webhome. Everything is quite flashy and gaudy, there is a hidden Michael-Jackson-fanpage link and they plug their own magazine, music label and interactive agency. Woo. Nothing for people suffering from epilepsy. Another German creative flagship. This time a bigger one. Based on a radar the menu of the site of Jung von Matt is really interesting. But the intro featuring their symbol, the Trojan horse, and some parts of their "brand core" are slightly menacingly and disturbing. It somehow has the touch of a sect, speaking about "our seven guiding principles" or "our great model" and calling the agency an "idea power plant". A bit bigmouthed, isn't it? Anyway the website is done visually nice and according to the fact that they have a lot, lot, lot to say it's well structures. Only there is a questionaire where users can check, if they are the right client for Jung von Matt. I tried to be the most fucking asshole-client in the world and they still want to meet me. Hmm? The new website of Wieden+Kennedy is worth a look as well. Flashy. Colourful. A visually nice way to guide users through their site is the tag cloud combined with the timeline on their landing page. Looks so tomorrow. No more words needed, just see. In the queue of such brilliant agencies like BBH, Wieden+Kennedy and BBH one shouldn't be missed: Abbott Mead Vickers. Though some years old, maybe already having a hunch, it's still a good example for an agency showing the power of a simple idea thought it's website. All examples of work are shown as drawings and you will know every single on of them. What more can an agency say / show? It has all the information, simple structered and a lovely handcrafted visual appearance. A good example to lead over to my favourite agency website right now: Fallon London. From the first second the "we just have done it all by ourselves" look and feel is creating a cozy atmosphere in front of my Mac. After every reload a bunch of nice people will say "We are Fallon". Boom. And there they have you. Instantly you start clicking around, there is a picture of everyone working there. Very personal. And though it may probably not be state of the art or what other fucking rubbish, for me it's a brilliant site. Not too technical, not too much business but therefore personal, a bit messy, very human. Really love it. Give it a go. When talking about agency websites additionally one page must be mentioned because it has a brilliant, simple idea, new menu and is slightly spectacular. Maybe that's why it was awarded with a black pencil at D&AD 2006. I am talking about, you all know it, the website of Leo Burnett. Finally the most unusual agency website ever, or maybe since I am in advertising and paying attention to agency websites, definitely is the one of kesselskramer. Every time you reload the page there will be a different content. From pizza delivery service to girls in uniforms. And the crazy thing is that every of these weird pages contains work of the agency. And their address. No corporate toadiness. Just a friendly "we don't care" attitude. Brilliant. Okay this may have been my longest post. I thought it is quite interesting. Maybe you can find some nice stuff in it as well. Probably I will update new websites every week or so. As some kind of blog regular. If you see an interesting agency site, just put it in the comment section and I will include it in the next post. Thanks for attention.

At the studio.

2007-06-01T13:02:00.000+02:00

So I have been caged at the studio for two days. Cutting a commercial that is not mine but I somehow was made one of the people in charge of post-producing it. Glory, glory, hallelujah. During the day a lot of overpaid people are sitting around in the avid room, surfing eBay and pretending they are quite busy working on other clients. No, honestly, these people are working. Trying to get new 3D-animations from there to here and other quite important stuff, I guess. And as always the lovely people at the postproduction company will serve a huge amount of calories pressed into cookie dough and plastic foil. That's really caring and nice but will end up in getting fat. Or staying. Thank god I only ate one muffin and drank a bottle of water. Back at the agency now. Hopefully losing some calories by doing some work.

Short note from the pulpit.

2007-05-31T11:36:00.000+02:00

Nothing special, it's just that yesterday I've posted the 100th post. When I started this thing last year in September I never thought that point would come so early. For me it was just an experiment and I started because I loved and still love to read Russell's blog. I think I am not the only one who started this whole blogging thing because of him. Anyway, time passed by very quickly and I got to know a bunch of interesting and lovely people (you know who you are). What I am really happy about. Hopefully some of you actually did find some interesting, amusing, honest, lovely, nice or just silly things in the stuff I wrote and maybe some of you enjoyed reading my musings (copyright for this word is held by Rob, I've just lent it).
So this is my post no. 101 and if you like I will remain on this domain writing bits and pieces. Thanks for all the attention, nice words and stuff. I hope this was an adequate post for this occasion.

Playing around with money.

2007-05-30T16:56:00.000+02:00

This post was only published because of some heavy threat of force by Mister Marcus Brown. Now, go and have some fun with the funny money machine generously shared with the world by Mister Rob Campbell. Have to work on now, serious. Word to your mother.
My other bills can be found here, here and here.

Working.

2007-05-30T16:29:00.000+02:00

When you pass our office and you see our feet on the desk, don't think we are hanging around on porn sites, reading comics or jiggling our balls. Actually it means that we are working. Because the brain feels better when being on one level with your feet. It works. So give it a try.

Commercial of the Week: Wrigley's Extra.

2007-05-30T11:57:00.000+02:00

This one is cute. A perfect example of how a good idea grows because of a brilliant execution. The story is quite easy to understand: a posse of food characters, looking like small vinyl toys, is following a guy around town throughout the day. Simple as that. Nice idea by DDB Sydney and a really good execution by directing duo Jonathan & Josh Baker as known as TWiN. Good one. Clap, clap.

D&AD side note.

2007-05-29T11:03:00.000+02:00

This year was somehow difficult. And, though I am not the one to judge, the outcome of this years D&AD Global Awards is somehow disappointing. Not in all categories. The commercials for Skittles for example are brilliant and therefore deserve a pencil. But the poster category was slightly disturbing. In the next to pictures there is one winning poster hidden and one who did not. Unfortunately it's the "St. Wayne" billboard for Nike, made by the folks at Wieden+Kennedy London, that did not get a pencil. Not even a nomination. That's a decision I simply couldn't understand or, to put it in a rather adequate way, pissed me off that much that for one second I thought about quitting (don't worry about the money, I've just renewed my membership). It was the best poster that has seen the shiny sunlight of 2006. Brilliant execution, great idea. All for nothing. And then I see this. Worth a yellow pencil. That's a poster I argued about with someone before. He thought it is a simple and nice idea. I though it looks like the entrant for some photoshop contest on Worth1000.com. And as much as I try, I still don't like it. Not the idea, not the art direction. But maybe it's because Wieden+Kennedy did a brilliant piece of work for one of their clients and I still can't find LEGO on the client list of the agency behind that poster. Is it because it was done for award reasons only? I don't know. Maybe I simply don't like it. Anyway if the judges at D&AD decided that "St. Wayne" wasn't even worth a nomination and LEGO was, they will have their pros and cons. From my point of view it's disappointing. D&AD always has been the award with the best judged work worldwide and hopefully always will be. But this year, I am counting on the guys and dolls in Cannes to do it better than some of their colleagues in London. Nothing more, nothing less. Thanks for the attention.

Marvellous Maik.

2007-05-25T11:27:00.000+02:00

Last night our very own art directing genius Maik was awarded with a black pencil at D&AD. It's the first black one that has been awarded to a German advertising agency. What is brilliant. He got it in the category of illustration for this (it's only one of three illustrations): We're all very happy and proud. Hopefully this great achievement will stop him sitting around frowning, like he does here: If you like say something nice to him in the comments. Thanks for the attention and: HOORAY!

Yeah.

2007-05-21T13:20:00.000+02:00

Just another word for yes, oui, si and ja. Or something like that.

Update on the scary WK London thing.

2007-05-19T01:18:00.000+02:00

The nice people at Wieden+Kennedy London, in person of Neil Christie, have written a post about the painting. Brilliant. There are some nice comments on it, some critical stuff and an interesting and quite supporting rant by Mr Campbell. Thanks, Rob (and everybody else who wrote something. Supporting or critizising.). Though I have to say, that maybe there is some misunderstanding in the aim of the painting. It was not supposed to scare Wieden+Kennedy. It was more some kind of personal journey. Because I was scared to do this thing and finally did some piece of work I like and what I think has some kind of meaning and message. Maybe not only to me. I was scared but I have turned it into something good and meaningful. That's why scare is what you make of it. And that's why it's not supposed to scare somebody. It's supposed to leave a "you're so right. love it.". Nothing more, nothing less. Though it is supposed to open one or two doors as well. Preferably the one to the office of Kim and Tony, ha (Neil said the picture is standing around somewhere there now).

Though while checking pros and cons about what I did, I have to say that it's maybe a bit too complicated to get at first glance. You have to check this website to understand everything (start at the bottom, that should help as well). And busy people don't have the time. Though if you're interested have a look. On woweewow.com all the important thinks are linked (my two blogs, my pieces of work, my email). And you can see the post on WIeden+Kennedy London's nicely written blog by clicking on the picture below. And if you have some minutes take a look and the other interesting things they write. Or maybe tell them to hire the charming and brilliant bloke who is writing this blog.

OFF.

2007-05-18T23:23:00.000+02:00

Having a few days off, visiting my grandparents. Tomorrow is the 80th birthday of my grandpa and nearly the whole family will come together for a great brunch and talk and dance and whatever is fun. Only at my hotel room there is WLAN, so don't be mad, angry or sad if I don't answer comments or emails that quick. Anyway we were at my grandparents' garden today. It's a bit outside the city and a small paradise with a little forrest (are 9 crowded trees a forrest?), a huge rhododendron, birds, bees, squirrels and lots of other lovely things. The perfect place to have a cup of coffee, a think, a nice chat and to work on a cool freelance job I am doing for a lovely and great brand. Maybe I'll post something on that job when it's done, hopefully successful. Have a nice, relaxing, brilliant, sunny and lovely weekend, everybody.

Commercial of the Week: frosta.

2007-05-17T02:36:00.000+02:00

The last commercials I presented were witty, emotional and well executed. Just the way it should be. But people, let's face it: most or nearly 95% of the commercials the poor consumer has to bear during a commercial break is really horrible. Crap that only has a chance to have a positive effect on sales if it gets hammered into the head of our lovely consumer by a media budget as big as Russia. One of this embarrasing commercials for frosta sprang to my mind while I was watching the final of the UEFA Cup. It's really daft crap. And if I only would have the telephone number and private address of the agency and client people in charge of something like that, I would post them. So that every single consumer who is taken for a fool with shit like that could ring their bell and then blow their horn. But have a look:

If the subtitle doesn't work that well, here is what they say.

Cook: Hello?
Woman: Peter, tell me why does frosta has this packaging?
Cook: For you to see the food.
Woman: And tell me why do you have this purity requirements?
Cook: I already have told you. Because we don't use flavou...
Woman: Peter...don't you want to come over?
Cook: Yeah. This fish is as fresh as I am randy!
Woman: More fish, Peter! More fish! Oh! Peter from frosta!

Godness, I love this dialogue. Superb written. Very subtle and Shakespeare-ish. "This fish is as fresh as I am RANDY!" Why never before somebody thought about advertise frozen food with a sentence as powerful and unique as this. But honestly, what is the consumer supposed to keep in mind? If I eat this frozen fish from frosta, Peter from frosta comes over, dirties my kitchen and shags my wife? Or maybe if I cook this fish a horny bitch from another dimension calls, asks stupid questions and then wants me to shag the hell out of her on the kitchen table? Er, hello people who take the responsibility for this sparkler in German TV advertising history...could you please tell me what you thought while doing rubbish like this?

Or am I wrong? Is this progressive and I just don't understand it. Can anybody help me?

iPod Singing reloaded.

2007-05-16T18:31:00.000+02:00

After posting "Countryhouse" by Blur and the incredible torturing (my singing, not theirs) "Never Forget" by Take That, we had some sort of iPod Singin party at our office. The videos were posted by iPod Singing-inventor Marcus but as you all know he deleted his old blog. That's why I am posting the videos here. To give all of you some cause to take the mickey out of me and maybe to get some of you to do it again (Rob, I am waiting for you to do Freddy Mercury's "Living on my own"). But first here is what we did (I included some introduction to the people):

Please welcome a new iPod Singing hope. He's a copywriter, he's from Austria, his name is Johannes and he's doing "Rebell Yell" by Billy Idol.

The next song will be cool. Because it's "Daddy Cool". Sung by the first copywriting boy band of iPod Singing. That's some heavy Boney M.

A bit later the copywriting iPod singing Austrian-German duo returned to perform as Ms Kylie Minogue and Mr Robbie Williams. Ladies and gentlemen: "Kids".

Please welcome another heroic duo of iPod Singing. They are one online specialst and one copywriter merged together in one song: "Radio Gaga" by Queen.

Some hours, many beers and a few cigarettes later, the duo of copywriters returned for their final appearance as the Beastie Boys. Maybe you won't understand our singing craftmanship, but it's "Sabotage".

I hope this stuff doesn't make me and them come across as some sort of a geeky, crazy, stupid and awkward bunch of people. Though maybe we are. No. No? Right? Could somebody please say a nice thing or two?

A Mac is a Mac is a Mac, isn't it?

2007-05-15T19:28:00.000+02:00

Okay this one is not a real problem. Or at least a problem of someone without a problem, you know. Two month ago I bought a new, wonderful black MacBook, basically for nostalgical reasons because my first Mac was a black Pismo. My old G4 PowerBook should go to my parents because my mum always is in trouble with her PC and, as we all know, Macs are way better and easier to understand and handle than PCs. Because my mum is a bit fussy about things like that I gave it to an Apple Dealer to replace the cover and trackpad because they had some scratches. Now here is where my problem started: Apple wasn't able to replace it in a month's time so our IT guy (thank you, Robin) argued a bit and now they did send me a whole new MacBook Pro. Is that brilliant? A shiny new MacBook Pro. But what to do now? Take a bit of money and give it to my mum? Or keep it and give the MacBook to my mum? Luxurious problem, eh? The MacBook is a bit more handy and has this nostalgic touch. The MacBook Pro is faster, a bit bigger and the aluminium upper is not as sensitive with finger spots as the black MacBook. It's not a problem, but it is. Any suggestions?

Help her grow.

2007-05-14T17:39:00.000+02:00

Finally, between some heavy planning of her new life in London, Nina managed to get her busy but lazy ass off and put some things online. It's not much but at least, it's something. So if you like click here: The link will take you to her website. There you'll find a bunch of brilliant features to say hello, visit her blog and download some of the wallpapers she generously offers. Nina is working hard on content for her blog and to get her portfolio online, so maybe give her a nudge, poke or, while you're at it, a job or some freelance work in London. To be honest, she is a brilliant art director, illustrator and graphic artist. Additionally she can put some very mean and nasty faces on and can walk uprightly underneath her desk. That's why I did set up the "too small to be big"-thing for her. Though she definitely deserves to be fucking big. So please, lovely people who read this blog (you're all lovely, are you?) help her grow. For example by downloading and forwarding some of her wallpapers here: Cheers, thanks for your attention, lovely. And stuff.

The Return of the APSotW.

2007-05-10T17:14:00.000+02:00

Account Planning School of the Web, Advertising (Planning) School of the Web, or however you might call it, is back. Russel, planning-blog-guru of the web, has handed over the ceptre to Rob, opinionated sod at cynic. Because Rob was not amused about Marcus using this picture I have put together some new ones. So, everybody, this is Rob:
Rob has put together, or as he said begged and bribed together, a bunch of excellent people who will judge the assignments together with him. Here's a list:

Emma, the Global Planning Director of BBH
Arun, Deputy Editor of MEDIA Magazine
Niku, Managing Partner at Naked
Jonathan, Global Researcher at Virgin
Ian, an Inventor at ?WHATIF!
Sarah, a member of Apple's amazing product design team
Andy, the Global CD of cynic

By now the task seems to be great and Rob has given some helpful hints on how to approach it. It's all about making Hummer the number one 4x4 vehicle for men. So give it a go, read the assignment here, join APSotW today, work hard, work very, very hard, have fun, learn stuff and make Rob and his glorious bunch happy and proud. Thanks for attention'n'stuff.

One Day Excursion.

2007-05-10T16:05:00.000+02:00

Not at the agency today. One day off to the client (picture one) and to the agency of my former creative director Christoph (you can see him in his office on number two). Tomorrow at 7 a.m. me and Kete, our lovely account manager, will fly back to Hamburg. Nice.

Dear Mr. Annoying Crap Mail Writer.

2007-05-09T15:16:00.000+02:00

This is for all you Maritza Davidsons, Jaquenette Roselles, Kris Cowans, Hiram Vis, Cruz Elmores, Loraine Byers or whatever bloody character you SPAM mailers come up with. For now and all time: I am neither interested in enlarging my penis until it can knock at the door of my girlfriend's larynx nor in purchasing Dreamwaver or Photoshop CS3 or whatever bloody programme on this planet. Furthermore I am not interested in joining the republican, the liberal, the socialist, the green or whatever party on this planet. I won't forward any chain letter, subscribe any petition or sign any newspaper / magazine / newsletter you generously inform me about. My interest in becoming a follower of the Process Church of the Final Judgement, Scientology, the Church of the First Days, the Church of the Last Days and the Church of any god-given Day is as low as my wish to get one more email about Kabbalah and any Kabbalah-related product. For god's sake I don't care about all this stuff. Not in the past, present, future or any time froanother galaxy in another dimension. Please, bother me wherever you like. On the TV. On billboards. In the radio. But not on my mail account. I hate the feeling of checking my mails and being pleased about getting some of them only to find out that they we not send by lovely people I know but you dastard bunch I have never met. Oh, and while you're reading this, please let me add something: No, I am not interested in purchasing a SPAM filter.

Doubled Nervousness.

2007-05-08T13:23:00.000+02:00

The day is passing by and I am excited, nervous, afraid and scared by two things. Number one is this. No reaction. Right now I am really scared that all the work will lead to absofuckinglutely nothing. Woo, goose bumps. Second nervousness is all about football. My favourite football club Schalke 04 is the leader of the table right now. But on Saturday there will be THE derby against some football club not worth mentioning. Double scared. Woo, jimjams.

Commercial of the Week: Nokia N95.

2007-05-08T12:50:00.000+02:00

Seems that I like philosophical commercials right now, as seen last week with Nike and this time with Nokia's new commercial for their N95 mobile communication thingy. Though the line "There's a thing in my pocket" could have been the starting dialogue of some low-fi pornographic movie from the 80ties, Nokia and their agency (GREY, I guess) managed to turn this sentence into a poem. Really good. Not the latest, most creative and outstanding idea but it gives you a nice and human feel about this little techtool. Really like the commercial. Well done.

Nina & Seb

2007-05-03T19:02:00.000+02:00

Nina and Seb are a team. Jobwise and friendwise. They are creatives and they like each other. So maybe you will like them as well. Or some of the ideas they have. Just give them a nudge and see.
Say hello to Nina.
Or say hello to Seb.

Back.

2007-05-03T16:24:00.000+02:00

Apart from some general rumbling about advertising and DHL there wasn't so much happening on this blog recently. I am sorry. Very sorry. Had to do some stuff. Jobwise, futurewise, lovewise. Apply at Wieden+Kennedy London for example. All the work that went in and the stuff that came out you can see on my new website. Just click here:

DHL is the devil.

2007-04-28T18:49:00.000+02:00

Brilliant. I have finished my painting stuff and am happy as happy can be. Nobody can interrupt this feeling of total happiness. Noone except DHL. It's impossible for them to get a painting of 90 to 70 to 4 cm to fucking London. Hello? Why does fucking DHL own a fleet of trucks, Boeing 747s and probably ships? To carry postcards? Or to just show off? Listen, why it's possible to get a 120 to 60 to 60 cm box that weights 35 kilogramme to every goddamn place in the world? And why then it's not possible to get a smaller painting that probably weights 1 kilogramme only because it has 10 cm more on one side (and instead 30 and 50 cm less on the other two sides) to London? Hello? Hello-ho?!
You know, what DHL? I don't give a fuck about you as much as you don't give a fuck about me. Because I now will ship with the lovely and helpful people at UPS. It did cost me some hours because they usually serve this stuff only to commercial clients but I managed to solve this problem thanks to Meike's dad (Thank you very much, Pete). And by the way: they charge 50% less than you would have. Now I just hope that they won't fuck it up as you did. Thanks for the attention.

Commercial of the Week: Nike.

2007-04-25T14:42:00.000+02:00

Addicted to running? No, not me. But the new commercial for Nike+ by Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam. A lot of "+" in this sentence, don't you think? Shortly after Nike handing over their US running account to Crispin, Porter + Bogusky I saw it on television yesterday. My first thought: Woo, what's that? Brilliant copywriting and great execution. That's what running is about, isn't it? And though I really like CP+B for their groundbreaking work I think they'll have to walk in huge footsteps. Never forget: Dan made you do it.

Potato Fun.

2007-04-17T21:35:00.000+02:00

During lunchbreak we had some fun with a mini potato gun, built by Johannes and Fabian. Nice one. And no, it doesn't hurt no more. Thanks for asking. And yes, we do work stuff as well. To be precise a lot of it right now. That's why from time to time we need to do stupid things. Serious.

Where is all the humor gone?

2007-04-16T16:48:00.000+02:00

This iPod singing thing reminded me of something probably burried in the past. Not sure, but is it true that music videos some years ago were more humorous than they are today? Maybe it's that mostly videos by Blur remained in my head but I have the feeling that music videos today are primary aimed on "let's make the band look cool" (Rock), "let's show some dancing chicks with bouncing butts and maybe let's have some more naked body parts as well" (Hip Hop) or " we don't have any clue what this video is about so we just booked some dancers" (Pop). Okay some try to have at least a bit of humor or one or two witty takes as in Lady Sov's video for "Love me or hate me". But most vids are very generic. Put a Franz Ferdinand tune over a Arctic Monkeys video. Nobody will get it. It's sad, isn't it? Take Blur. In the 90s they had videos with nice humor. For example "Parklife" (though it looks very 90s). But the last Blur videos just had nice looks. That's another thing I came across: A lot of videos do look very, very arty. Unfortunately it's arty for the art's sake and not because of some nice idea. Many videos are visually nice but that's it. Of course this could make sense because the audience will concentrate on the music and see the visual execution as "just nice looks". And that's okay. But I prefer videos that are witty, weird or have some kind of message or tell a story. Like the next two examples. First is Jurasic 5. Unfortunately they split up. "Unfortunately" because they wrote intelligent songs (for the homie in you: the kicked intelligent rhymes over bouncing beats) and had some nice videos. Though this one includes the Dave Matthew's Band...ugh...here's "Work it out": The next one is a strange, witty and weird video of a great band. Muse mix up Science Fiction and Western for their brilliant directed video "Knights of Cydonia". Brilliant song as well. Prog Rock. Great. Hm. Any thoughts on this anybody? Let's hope that young bands will try to not only do good music, as well. Just saw the new Arctic Monkeys video...a bit dissapointing compared to their music.

Update.

2007-04-16T01:06:00.000+02:00

After cutting stencils for 2 hours it's a bit frustrating that I used them for at least 5 minutes of spray painting. Now the beginning is made. Next will be giving each bubble a different happy face. This is scheduled for tomorrow evening and night. Let's see. Any suggestions, support, help, critic from the artist in you? Any helpful comment is welcome. Thanks for attention and stuff.

From Failure to Planning.

2007-04-15T20:10:00.000+02:00

Yesterday around 10 pm I horribly failed in my painting process. A lack of knowledge in chemistry and physics destroyed two hours of work (paper, wet colour...you can imagine). With a knife I tried to save the work but I failed again. But it's okay. It will be the "failure...embrace it"-back of the thing. After work I returned. And I had my "doing the painting"-shirt with me. As Lauren suggested in her comment on my last painty post I got myself a cardboard to try colours and just screw it up and see what happens. Just look: While thinking about how to start I discovered an old, dusty box with spray cans. Great. I missed to buy some so I was thankful. Until now I don't know if the colours are still okay. They seem to be very old because they still had pre-Euro price tags. Right now I am doing drawings to get an idea of what I can arrange around my scary centre of the painting and to get out what ideas or bits and pieces to keep or to abolish. Here you can see some of the drawings I did. They were done quick-handed just to get the feeling of it. And as I said before: I am a copywriter that can't draw. This whole process is strange, scary and I completely enjoy it. There are a lot of ideas in my head and I feel overwhelmed but planless as well. Where to start? What goes in, what not?

Commercial of the Week: Volkswagen.

2007-04-15T16:49:00.000+02:00

I like to watch commercials. Especially when they are well done. That's why I thought about honouring commercials that I really like on this blog. Hopefully I will manage to do this every week. That's why it's called "Commercial of the Week". Maybe some of them are not the latest ones, please forgive if that may happen. The first in row to deflower this new category is Volkswagen with a commercial for the Tuareg. Usually SUV commercials will show the car rushing and fighting it's way through the irrepressible wilderness of nature. Brilliant, it is what they are made for. But none the less it's like showing a washing machine while washing. DDB Amsterdam did it differently for the Volkswagen Tuareg. No daredevil drinving scene, no serpentine, no 70 degree ascent. Just a man talking about how easy he could overcome this obstacles. Then why he doesn't demonstrate it? Watch:

Agency: DDB Amsterdam
Production Company: CZAR, The Netherlands
Director: Bart Timmer
DoP: Lex Brand

Give me a minute and my glasses.

2007-04-14T23:09:00.000+02:00

Just saw a new commercial for a promotion by Opel (Vauxhall in the UK). Simply couldn't believe what I saw. The story was forced as forced can be: Cars playing "Catch me if you can" and having some kind of mind voices...hello? This was followed by the usual suspect: a chart saying "blahblah...limited edition...blahblah...many extras...blahblah...save money...blahblah...you can lease it....blah." Nothing special. But then, for approximately one second this chart appeared. What? What, what, what? Who is supposed to read this copy? Superman? A megabrained live-form from another galaxy? Is this the target group Opel (Vauxhall) is heading for? Honestly, what do you think your actual customers will think? Well I thought that someone (you) doesnt't want me to know the dark side of this offer and therefore is hiding it inside of some very fine-printed copy. Will I consider getting more information about your offer or maybe buy a new car? Well, lovely marketing experts at Opel (Vauxhall), here is my answer and I have put it in a way that might suit you: And, by the way, may I add a suggestion for improvement? The logo at the end of the film...it can still be bigger.

This is getting scary.

2007-04-14T16:07:00.000+02:00

Okay. After rumbling with myself and a pretty hard working week today I started to let things get scary. If you take a look at the right top of this blogs' sidebar you may find the word "copywriter". That's what I am usually doing. But since I started to work in advertising I disappointed every art director I had by doing layouts as well. I thought it would be helpful. They thought I would disrespect their work. Hm. No. Anyway I usually do the writing stuff for our ideas. So this time I will do something I've never done again since I left 4th grade. I will do some painting stuff for some people over there in London. The first thing I got, was some acrylic colours (thanks for help, Marcus), brushes, some glue and tape.
I have no trust in canvas. So I bought a thin wooden plank to paint on. It's about 90 to 70 cm. If you wonder why the newspaper under the thing is taped: I will do the painting work next to a big panorama view window. To get some of the sun of this beautiful summer's day.
Nevertheless I simply can't draw and paint. That's why I am doing some planning and things on my new MacBook. Got it when I was in Zurich. Beautiful little machine. Then I will have some stencils of the work I am doing digitally and will use them on my wooden blank. Let's see. All that may sound very amateurish to the artist branch (hello Lauren, hello Marcus) but as I said: I am a copywriter that has never done something like this. And honestly I am a bit scared that I will fu&%$ it up. Will post some progress later. Hopefully.

iPod Singing Number 4.

2007-04-14T01:29:00.000+02:00

After Marcus' spectacular performance I felt the desire for some falsetto singing as well. And what did my iTunes offer? The biggest boygroup of all times, Take That. So here it is: "Never forget". You should. Quick.

Okay. Unfortunately that's not all. Mathias, a brilliant and aspiring young copywriting intern, left the agency today. Inspired by Marcus we turned the farewell party into some kind of iPod singing contest. We had a hell lot of beer what caused in disintonation and lyrical blahblah. Nevertheless it was a great evening. But I am not sure if should post the outcome. We have Billy Idol, Boney M., Kylie Minogue and Robbie Williams, Queen and the Beastie Boys on offer. Anybody interested in some blokes singing the hell out of themselves?

iPod Singing Number 2.

2007-04-13T14:29:00.000+02:00

So this is my first contribution to iPod Singing. "Countryhouse" by blur. Maybe it doesn't pay this song the tribute that it deserves. Great song, great band and my lack of lyric knowledge. Already working on the next one. A piece of music history.

In the middle of the forest.

2007-04-12T18:08:00.000+02:00

This is a post I wanted to do for a very, very, veryvery long time. Then after reading this post by Marcus I decided to do it today. But I have to warn you: It is some very serious promotion. Not nice, intelligent advertising but the never-ending repetition of "for god's sake take a look at this page"! Or simply click the pictures, they are linked with the page as well. So CLICK them!
It's the website of my former partner Andreas. We worked together for only 2 years I think. But it was a great time, we did some nice work and had even more fun. Unfortunately at some point Andreas left the agency to work as a freelancing graphic designer and illustrator. I guess that's what he always wished to do. You should have seen him doing the art direction of campaigns, films and ads. He did most of the things by hand not by Mac. And from his face and enthusiasm you could tell that he deeply enjoyed doing this stuff. Before and during the Football World Cup in Germany he was exhibiting over 80 illustrations of famous football players. As a supporter of Arsenal London I instantly bought Thierry Henry and Freddie Ljungberg. After Sol Campbell scoring the 1:0 during the Champions League final against Barcelona I ordered his portrait as well. Sadly he left the team. So here you can see Sol and Freddie:
Here you can see some other illustrations he did. If you visit his page you can see some of the advertising stuff he (and me) did. The website is in German. So here is some short guide: Arbeiten=Work, Werbung=Advertising, Zeitschriften=Magazines. Some of the football portraits you can find under "Verlängerung". By the way he isn't just a great illustrator and designer, he is a nice chap and has become a good friend as well. So if you would like to own some of his brilliant work or would like to have the squad of Chelsea (you wouldn't, wouldn't you?) hanging over the chimney, feel free to drop Andreas a mail. And if you need a great graphic artist and nice person for your ad campaign, drop him one as well. Thanks for your time.

What I forgot, for those of you wondering about the headline of the post: It's the translation of the German name of his website, "Mitten im Wald".

Do you look like this?

2007-04-11T13:24:00.000+02:00

Then you may or should be a prisoner of German jail "Berlin Tegel". Twenty of them merged their faces into one portrait to create some averageness. The average prisoner, to be more precise. On their website you can find a merged CV as well. Got kids? Finished school? You are not as save as you may think. Because they have as well. And imagine that: prisoners having their own website. Weird. But interesting.

Less Britney, more Aries.

2007-04-10T13:00:00.000+02:00

This video made this Tuesday a nice day though it felt like a Monday. I know it is just another impersonator but I liked it. LL Cool J, Snoop Dogg, DMX and Jay-Z compressed into one body. Ladies and gentlemen, enjoy the performance of Spears. Not Britney but Aries. Nice.

Snapshot Saturday.

2007-04-07T14:36:00.000+02:00

Over the last weeks I slightly forgot my "let's get some structure into this blog" ideas but maybe they were born dead from the beginning. Nevermind here is the return of the Snapshot Thursday which has become a Snapshot Whenever-I-Have-Time-Day. Anyway. Before I went to Zurich we had a good week at the agency. Or to be more specific not at the agency. Because Nina and me decided that it would be a great idea to work outside. In the sun.

So we went to the "Amphore". A cafe, bar, restaurant and whatever. From there we had a nice view of the harbour. And some delicious pizza, panino and chilled drinks.

Nina turned herself into Gretl. I like it a lot when she has braids. Sweet, isn't it? By the way you can see our creative directors in the background. Sven is the art part with the bald head on the left. On the right you can see Lorenz, the copywriter, who is called Lawrence by our clients. We don't know why. Maybe they are fans of Peter O'Toole.

So after this great but stressful week I went to visit my mate Hannes in Zurich as some of you might have read on this blog.
Zurich is a lovely and nice city. They might be known for cheese and chocolate but they should be known for their hairdressers. This was a shop packed with old guitars, pictures and stuff. And it had a nice moped in front of their window.

Hannes got me my new MacBook. So we started to play around with photo booth. Don't we look like a painting of Picasso next to a proboscis monkey? Sorry for this comparison, Hannes.
Thought this would be a nice angle to photograph a statue.
Only in Zurich it's okay for Cartier to have an advert with a lepard. Though Hannes said that he liked it because you don't see a woman walking through a city with a lepard that often. Oh, really? How come?
After some adventurous walking thought the city Hannes took me to some location called Bierhalle.
We had some great food. Here you can see Schweinsleberli with Roesti. Was good. Just like a mum would have done it. Not mine, but some Swiss mum.
In Zurich they don't have a Metro. Everyone is using the Tram. And it was great. It felt that the Tram driver was using his hands to steer the thing. Not a computer. Was a nice feeling. Quite antique and oldschool. Like you don't get something from an assembly line but something hand crafted. Nice.
A lot of buildings in Zurich look very arty. Maybe it's because in Switzerland they have a feeling for art direction and architecture. This is the Museum of Design. They had some great exhibitions there.
Here you can see a small part of their exhibition, the winning entries of a competition called "50 years of Helvetica". As the name says it's all about this nice and simple typeface. The one on the lower left side has a really nice headline about the designer's relationship to Helvetica:
"It's like runnning into an old girlfriend and being surprised at how attractive and sophisticated she still is."

In the museum there were a lot of screens and headphones and like children always do this boy just sat down on the floor and watched and listend. Just nice. Established a nice feeling of being home at a museum.
As I said the Swiss people have an instinct for nice graphic design. So even the signs of laundry shops look nice.
Here are some more pictures of Hannes. One day he will be a well known architect. Believe me, he will be. But now he's just a true friend and it's fun to spend time with him. By the way, he looks like a brother or at least family member of SACRUM, doesn't he? A small shop that does only stock condoms. And it's not situated in some sort of red light district but in the old and beautiful part of Zurich. Lovely.
To finish this post here is my daily view out of the window of Hannes' appartement. It was great to wake up in a big city where you open the window in the morning and can take a deep breathe of fresh air you'll only find in the mountains.
Okay. That's it with Snapshots for today. If you like to see more lovely pictures from Zurich or Nina and me just visit my flickr. I will go to Sylt until Monday so there will be no posting and commenting. Blogfree time. Somehow it feels sad. But I will be back on Monday evening. Have a wondeful easter eggy weekend and thanks for the attention.

Can anything be beautiful?

2007-04-04T15:48:00.000+02:00

So Nina and me were too late for that "WKside"-task. But we have no time mourning about that because we have got our own scary task and are working on that. Hence thanks to Val I have found some answers to the question mentioned in the headline on YouTube. Two of them are really lovely and well done. The first is a hand crafted and nice animation film and the second a wonderful poem. Good luck two both and if you have some time take a look at both films. They are worth it. Thanks for attention and stuff.

No headline, no way.

2007-03-30T14:13:00.000+02:00

A few days ago I had an interesting conversation to someone. Then suddenly after talking about my life and work at the agency and about the distance learning programme I am currently doing (or not doing), this person said: "You're a person who always plays safe, right?" Woo. You are so wrong. I just don't like surprises and therefore think about the possibilities to come before doing something. Oh, wait. Maybe this person is right.

While still thinking about this I stumbled across this post by total stranger and "iMate" Marcus. You are so right. I am 25. And I have nothing to be angry about. I started to work in advertising when I was 20. Straight after finishing school I went to a small ad agency and then to Germany's leading copywriting school, Texterschmiede. After joining Leagas Delaney and then later TBWA I work at Kolle Rebbe for nearly 4 years now. Shot some commercials, went from junior to mid-level, won some awards and stuff. Privately I have found a wonderful woman that I would call "love for life". And I live in one of the nice parts of Hamburg. It's called Eppendorf and you might compare it to Notting Hill (without the prices). My life is somehow a comfort zone. Nothing to complain about. Happy. Nothing to fight for. Everything is fine. But probably this is the point why I am unsatisfied. Everything is okay. But what does okay mean? Nice, medium sized, fine. Not very bad, not very good. For me okay might be the most unsatisfying word. At our school we used to say that okay is the little brother of shit. And it is. I am not happy. Because (that's what I think) when you are a creative okay is nothing but mediocreness. To put this right: This feeling mostly applies to the limitations and borders that are set for my work. This okay does not include Meike. She is great. And I truely and deeply love here. But back to work. I love my agency. But wait. I love most of the people. I don't like the rules. Tidy up the room. No pictures on walls, nothing on your desk except your MacBook and the phone and maybe some briefs. How is a creative person supposed to work in an environment like that? And furthermore I maybe a bit tired of always pushing our creative directors to not always present the "safe" ideas. I had some key moment a few weeks back. I was working late and at 2 am changed the whole presentation because I was not satisfied. I was supposed to present the work so I thought that I have to like it nevermind what my creative directors might think. On the next day I presented to the client. It was great. They said it was the best presentation they ever saw from my agency. The reaction of my creative directors? Angry. But what should they say? "Hey we left agency before the presentation was finished and then this kid came along, changed everything, put stuff into the presentation we never saw and then made the client happy like never before!?" Probably not.
I know that maybe I could have fallen (is this grammatically correct?) on my butt. Nonetheless my brain felt better for it. So back to the general situation. After thinking about all this stuff I remembered this video on the website of Wieden+Kennedy. And Ademar is so right.

That's why I promised to myself that I will leave my comfort zone. Jobwise. Once a wise man said "Do one thing every day that scares you." And that's nearly what I will do. I will stop to wait for my dreams to knock on my door. I will ram their door or at least ring their bell. What door? I will tell you. Don't laugh. Since my second week in advertising my aim was to one day work for Wieden+Kennedy in Amsterdam. So why didn't you send your portfolio there and see what they will say, you might ask. An awarded person can't be that bad in what he's doing, right? Right. But I was afraid. It's like asking the most wonderful girl at school if she would like to go out with the president of the chess club (or something like that). But now I am angry (thanks, Marcus). No, I am unsatisfied. And dissatisfaction, not money, is what makes the world go round. And while some may say that I am stupid to think about probably leaving a well-paid job in one of the top agencies in Germany for maybe an internship at some agencies in London or maybe for a trainee job at WK Amsterdam, I just can say: I am 25 and have the right to do stupid things. Or at least on thing a day that scares me.

And believe me, I am scared. Afraid of the big fat "NO!" out of the mouth of some people I deeply respect and would like to work with. But I've got nothing to loose. Because the thing that's most important in my life is this one human being that I love (Hello, Meike). That's a thing I said to Marcus. Unsatisfaction can settle free all the energy you'll need to change things. But it can't recharge its batteries. So let's change something and see what time may bring. Maybe I end up staying in Hamburg but trying to make this place THE place and maybe change will happen. Updates, anyone?

Oh, here is one of the text I think might fit on this:
"I work, I wonder, get things done yet take my losses, too. I kill my darlings, kiss some asses, tell a lie (but not to you). I move the mountain, I cross the ocean. I throw the dice, cut the crap, confront. I sharpen edges. I curse, I claim, I rock the cradle, thrive. I scream. Of love, of fear, of joy. I excel, exclaim, exhale. Maybe get more wrinkles, more grey hair, perhaps take a diet.....and fail. I question answers, change the odds, at times I ride the tide. I break the rules and bite the dust. Mouth open wide. I beat the drum, I blow your horn, or - who knows - ring your bell. I stir the fire, I make great waves, shoot horses, stars as well. I random order, unchain hearts, I think big fish of you. I want, create, believe, persist and fail. I get up, I dream, I wish and do."

What do you think. Does this make sense? Or am I just stupid? Feel free to comment. And: Thanks for the attention.

UPDATE:
This whole thing somehow got it's own blog now. It's called "This is getting scary" and you can find it here.
More stuff about scare and Wieden+Kennedy on THIS blog you can find here, here, here, here and here.

Off to Switzerland.

2007-03-29T12:54:00.000+02:00

I am going to Zurich over my long weekend to visit my mate Hannes (if you like search the comments for "Hannonymous" or something like that, but in general every improper comment is from Hannes). So the next post, if there will be a post, will be from Switzerland. Perhaps I finally will post that life- or at least mind-changing thing I am talking about for some time when mentioning Marcus and that person I can't mention here. When there is no post on Saturday or Sunday, Lauren, could you please kick my backside (like you did for that Culture Jamming post). Thanks for your attention. I will bring cheese and chocolate. What a nice combination.

Dead spot, dead good.

2007-03-28T12:14:00.000+02:00

I've just got a call from someone to my phone at the office. That someone told me that another someone desperately tried to call me on my mobile and was freaking out because "everybody checks mailboxes every day". No. Not me. Because I don't have my mobile with me. Forgot it. And I am fine with that. I don't like the fact that people think I should be available at any time on my mobile. Why should I? If it's that important write an email, SMS or twitter or something. I'll check that.

Be sure that it's not because I don't like you or disrespect you. No. But just because my favourite TV show or magazine or newspaper is interrupted by advertising that doesn't mean that it can be interrupted by incoming phone calls as well. One's enough. Honest. But this time it was just because I simply forgot my phone. I had my PowerBook with me because I need it for working stuff, you know. I had my iPod with me because I like my way to work accompanied with some fine music. I had my keys with me because I need them to lock the door. I even had some cigarettes with me because from time to time I like to enjoy a smoke. I definitely had my wallet with me because I need my ticket for the underground and some money to buy food and the newspaper. But I didn't had my mobile with me because I don't need it to survive my day. Because it's not that important for me to get calls from whoever feels like talking to me. The ones that are important have my office number (though a bunch of unimportants have it as well). My mobile remained unanswered yesterday. And will remain untouched today. Two days off for my mobile to recharge batteries. Two days off for me to recover from being available at any time.

Seb became beatsteaked.

2007-03-26T12:33:00.000+02:00

Today I was angry. Very angry for it was very early. The reason was pretty dumb: I forgot to set my iTunes back from UK to Germany and because of this mistake wasn't able to purchase the new and yet old beatsteaks track "Jane Became Insane". Now, two hours and probably 56 times "Jane Became Insane" later, I am jumping around in the office. Happy and insane. And for all those unhappy and un-insane customers of the iTunes Store UK here are the beatsteaks. With some "NaNaNaNaNa" that will leave the Kaizer Chiefs crying like a whole kindergarten.

APSotW: Kick Starbucks' Backside.

2007-03-22T11:26:00.000+01:00

Some weeks ago Russell set up a new assignment for the Account Planning School of the Web which I occassionally join in (as long as it's not a too big amount of work). Currently I am thinking about a thing that someone I can't mention here and Marcus' latest post made me think about. Will post about that later. It's a question of life changing things so let me think a bit. That's why I only will post the charts for APSotW and maybe later add some links to classmates. And, please, don't be too critical because it was done on a 2 hour train ride from Berlin to Hamburg. And by the way: the competitor I took is Balzac Coffee und you can find them here. Thanks for the attention.

Which way to go(ogle)?

2007-03-21T10:54:00.000+01:00

There is a brilliant post on Rob's blog about Google being the new Microsoft which turns out to be a general rumble about Google. Here is the quick link to the post, it's worth spending some minutes of your lifetime on it.

Loneliness.

2007-03-19T16:16:00.000+01:00

Nina, my small and lovely art directress, is not at the office. Because of working on the weekend she missed her flight to London on sunday but managed to rebook it to this morning at around 6 am. As always when she's not at the agency I am in a bad mood and slightly bored. No one can say "Oehmchen!", this wonderful misspelling and defigurement of my surname, in a sweeter voice than her. And nobody is allowed by the way.
Therefore, people from London, if you see a very small girl scuffing down Oxford Street today it might be Nina. Say hello and give her a nudge. And just in case you're not from London visit her blog and kick her backside in the comment section for being to lazy to do her first real post (you may also use this comment thing to leave some words of admiration for the sweet blog title, must have been the idea of a smart copywriter...).

Give a Shout for the Robocop Kraut.

2007-03-16T20:06:00.000+01:00

Here is some support for the start of your weekend (or the last hours of your birthday, Dan). A brilliant band from - you won't believe it - Germany. And the best about The Robocop Kraus is that they don't sound like a band you would expect to come from over here. So Franz Ferdinand, Killers: You'll better be prepared. The Robocops are to come. And yes, you independent music lovers out there, I know they are called "Kraus" and not "Kraut" but it made the rhyme rhyme well. And yes the video is from 2005, but it's still great.

Dear Mr. Chief of the Freshly Squeezed Happy Fruit Bunch.

2007-03-16T00:36:00.000+01:00

My xing thingy some days ago told me that today is your birthday. Hopefully you were honest while filling out the form and xing is right. Anyway I thought it would be nice to post some words of warmness. And maybe you, lovely reader of this blog, have a minute to leave some nice words of congratulation in the comments pop up as well. But now let's raise our slightly chilled innocent drink to the Shakespeare of the strawberry smoothie, the master of the lychee limerick, the ruler of the raspberry rhyme. Dan, I am glad to have met you, blogwise, thanks to some posting about Canon Cable Chaos. And I hope to meet you soon to have a nice coffee or beer and chatting'n'stuff. Because you're a really nice person. And because noone puns a peach like you do. So if you, fellow reader out there, see a bearded man loping down a London lane today, raise your hand in some sort of Black Power clenched fist salute and shout "Happy Birthday, Dan!" Maybe the man turns around and salutes back while smiling. Or visit Dan's blog and say hello.
So once again congratulations, Dan. All the best to you, your future, your daughter, wife, dog and fruits. And be sure my wishes are as healthy and innocent as the smoothie in your hand.

The Brand Selection Sneaker.

2007-03-15T12:51:00.000+01:00

Just a weird idea: What if people could buy a blank sneaker in various ways of style and then could choose the brand they want to appear on it? The more people choose your brand the higher your brands price will be. But that's not all. Besides established brands like Nike, Adidas and Puma everybody can create their own brand, giving it a peculiar look and then post it to the public. Wouldn't it be interesting to see if Nike and Adidas can defend their reign against the Mr. and Mrs. Everybody brands? No? Does this make sense? Somehow?

My twitter is ill.

2007-03-12T17:21:00.000+01:00

Tried to update my twitter. It didn't work. Neither on the net nor via mobile. Things like this usually make me angry. So a grumpy Seb clicked around on his twitter-thing and went mad using swearwords and stuff. But then a small yellow area sprang to my eyes.

Isn't that sweet? From 100 to 0 in about one second. My twitter is ill. This message turns some stupid binary codes into a good friend. It's nice and friendly. And above all: human. That's why Microsoft Windows always will be an unfriendly binary code. Wonder if Apple could find some nicer words for Macs as well. Like "Nap" instead of "Standby" or "Say goodbye" instead of "Quit". Anyway that twitter message perhaps turns me into someone actually reading their newsletter. I never read that email some lovely person at twitter kept to send in unsteady intervals. But after noticing this message I think I'll probably read the next one. Definitely. Maybe.

Culture Jamming and stuff.

2007-03-08T22:26:00.001+01:00

This was supposed to be a post about culture jamming. But in a very early status of figuring out what to write I realised how diversified the area of culture jamming - offline and online - is and how single-minded my view on culture jamming is. It's the view of someone who works in advertising. So all the stuff following will mainly be influenced by this point of view. The common explanation on Wikipedia describes it as

"the act of transforming existing mass media to produce commentary about itself, using the original medium's communication method."

From the examples Wikipedia gives I took two in order to find a differentiation between two ways of offline culture jamming. The first is Nikeground which represents the artist's way to interpret brands and their communication in order to make people think about the part that brands take over in our daily life. For example, the artists behind Nikeground designed a branded outfit for cities, based on the idea "You wear it, why shouldn't cities wear it too?" Here you can see the Karlsplatz in Vienna that was "dressed up" with Nike boxes and renamed "Nikeplatz".
A very subliminal and intelligent way that should make people think about brands taking over every part of our life. But on the other hand a very elitist thing as well. Though it's a intelligent effort, it acts the same way as brand communication does: it's an uninvited guest appearing in your daily life trying to communicate a message.

It's a tricky thing. And I am not sure if this act of culture jamming wouldn't become an aim for another way of culture jamming: the people's way or the direct way. You have seen it a million times in form of commenting tags on advertising billboards. The Bubble Project took it one step ahead. In the form of bubble stickes like the one above it encouraged people to leave their comment on billboards and advertisements. Not a lot of people would tag a billboard. But with a bubble on it...why not? To spread the message of the bubble, their website offers bubble templates of different sizes and a documentation that later was pubilshed as a book. This book featured pictures of jammed billboards around the world. Political comments, sexual comments, social criticism and commedy - it's amazing to see how diversified the stuff people wrote into the bubbles was. While going through all these pictures you may find that all comments follow one rule: They only appear on advertisements of brands that seem to be not true or have a "dark side". Ever seen criticism on brands like innocent, american apparel or howies? Probably not. But as soon as you are McDonalds, you get culture jammed a hundred times a day with films like "Supersize me" or with spec ads like this one: The positive point is that via culture jamming and it's success the people are able to force brands to think different. More and more the consumers seem to discover that they have the power to change the way brands act. And in the course of time more and more brands notice this fact as well. That's probably why more and more FMCG companies seem to somehow try everything to jump on the train to Sustainable Consumer Goods.

Okay, so more and more brands try to be good brands in order to receive consumer's appreciation. That's it with their products. But what about their advertising? Most of the big companies only seem to follow one rule: the more, the better.

"Let's forget about the message, we have prepared some USPs here. But the most important thing is, that it's everywhere. Cut that 45 second TVCs into three 15 seconds TVCs. More media power, more channels, more messages. Advertise everywhere!

Do you remember the time when there were no pop-ups in the internet? It was wonderful, wasn't it? It was okay that our favourite TV show was interrupted by ads as long as they were nicely done and not as long as the programme. It was like this: But since this time (I am telling nothing that really suprises you, am I?) the picture changed to this:
Or in the words of Banksy:"Billboards are like having millionares throw rocks at your head. You never asked to see them, they invade your life and make you feel inadequate."
More and more the mainly mindless messages of most advertisements have become the real graffiti problem of cities as the Anti-Advertising Agency and the Graffiti Research Lab point out with the following culture jamming titled:
Here's the film:
Brands should learn more from the opinion of their consumers. Advertising should evolve from the uninvited guest that tries to hammer brand stuff into your head to the uninvited guest that surprises you with a nice story or image. Don't get me wrong: I am not one of those people desperately trying to turn advertising into some sort of art. And I fully agree that advertising is pointless if it doesn't sell. But I think the growth of culture jamming in the cities and in the internet shows the consumer's wish to not to be taken for a fool. And I deeply believe that only good ideas consenquentially will result positive perception of the advertised brands. The problem of people disliking or just ignoring advertising is a home made one. Most ads lost the ability to be interesting, imaginative and original. That's why nobody is listening, why nobody will know what it has to say and why nobody will believe in it. Therefore what applies to products also has to apply to the advertising. It must be entertaining and intelligent. Interacting but not obtruding. Emotional but not mindless. And above all: interesting and true. It's not enough to just be there. And there are some brilliant examples for advertising fits that aim. The Dove campaign. It's not a creative masterpiece but it hit the heart of the consumer. Or the Honda work in the UK. They are not everywhere, but when they appear they are clever and entertaining. The same applies to the new Coca Cola films "Happiness factory" and "Video Game". So advertising must turn into advertainment to be relevant to the people out there again.

Before finishing this post here is a nice example for a brand using culture jamming for its advertising. Some time ago adidas installed white billboards with the outlines of adicolor sneakers to encourage passers by to tag them and design their own one. Nice idea, isn't it? By the way most of the pictures and information are taken from the lovely Wooster Collective. If you're interested in street art and culture jamming visit their website. It's worth it.
Did all of this make sense? Because after reading this post again I guess most of you already knew the stuff I was writing about and figuring out. Maybe a hundred people before me thought out the same things in a far more brilliant way. But it was nice to think about this stuff while writing it down. And hey, I am 25, a young gun who likes to have a think but without a lack of the experience brilliant people like Russell or Richard have. Nonetheless I hope there were some interesting aspects in there for some of you. The last words belong to SACRUM:
Friends may use it. Open source.

adidas just did it.

2007-03-08T00:20:00.000+01:00

Actually I thought that Adidas couldn't beat the worldcup campaign "+10". Simplicity, great film and brilliant ideas in every medium. But then Adidas and I guess mainly 180° prooved me wrong. Nothing is impossible. Not just the name of the new campaign but a statement that even great work can be bettered. Okay, the idea "let athletes tell stories that fit to our claim" was done by NIKE again and again. But adidas managed to not only tell the story of one or two athletes but of 12 sportsmen and women from different sports, mixing professionals with amateurs. Furthermore the execution is really good, the illustration style is sweet and combined with the emotional stories behind not only athletes like David Beckham but as well the junior soccer team of St Margaret makes it just brilliant. On the campaign's website there is even more to find. Beside the "works of art" that were down by the athletes and that will tour Europe in an exhibition you find games, behind the scenes stuff and the usual downloadable stuff. All things considered it's a very well done campaign with a wide use of channels. Congratulations adidas and 180° / TBWA. A nice side dish: the website offers quick and easy embed-function to bloggers who want to show one or two of the films on their blog. And that's what I am going to do now. Here are my four favourites:

The Jon Spencer Blues Rediscovery.

2007-03-07T11:33:00.000+01:00

While writing down headlines, copy and two posts I rediscovered a great band that was (and now again is) one of my favourites: The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion. Some time ago they left out the "Jon Spencer" to be only the "Blues Explosion" what made me miss their last gig in Hamburg. I think on the website of Matador Records you can download some of their old tracks. Believe me, their music is worth a short trip to their website. Chef's suggestion: "Kawasaki Z117 50 Rock'n'Roll" and "Talk about the Blues". The video of TATB featured Winona Ryder as Jon Spencer and you can see it here:

And here are Russell, Judah and Jon as they will welcome you on their website:

Presentation = Working night.

2007-03-02T00:02:00.000+01:00

So, here we are. It's early in the morning and all the stuff for the presentation is done. This will be somehow my first real presentation. Not the first "first one" because I was allowed to present to our clients very early. After approximately one and a half year in job (Is that early?). But today will be my first presentation without any backing up by my creative director. Just me, the client and Merle, our lovely account manager. I guess I am too tired to be nervous. But it's a different feeling. Maybe that's why I'm still in the agency going through the stuff and replacing bits and pieces. I want everything to be perfect, leaving a happy face on the clients and my face. So let's see what happens. I am on my way home to have a shower and then will head to the station to get my train. Hope everybody who reads this will keep his or her fingers crossed for me.

Olive beats Culture Jamming.

2007-02-28T01:55:00.000+01:00

While thinking out and writing some stuff for a post about culture jamming I came across something that made me stop writing for today. On Dan's blog I stumbled across his "i digg this"-list that linked me here. And to make a long way short this link (glory, glory internet, everything seems to be linked) lead me to the blog of Olive Riley. "Okay, so what?!" you may think. The point is that she is 107 years old. And I bet she has got a lot of interesting things to tell. About today, the last century and the century before the last century. That's slightly more exciting than culture jamming to me right now. Perhaps I'll post that tomorrow. As long as Olive won't draw off my attention. By the way she loves shandy. Brilliant. I love shandy as well (though in Hamburg we call it Alsterwasser). Anyway let's raise a glass of shandy for Olive and listen to her introduction and what might follow:

"Good Morning everyone. My name is Olive Riley. I live in Australia near Sydney. I was born in Broken Hill on Oct. 20th 1899.Broken Hill is a mining town, far away in the centre of Australia. My Friend, Mike, has arranged this blog for me. He is doing the typing and I am telling the stories."

Things of Minor Interest: fivetonine magazine.

2007-02-26T22:59:00.000+01:00

There's always some free stuff, mags and sometimes gummi bears laying around at our post boxes. Today I took the free magazine fivetonine with me. Designated for a quick read while going home with the underground, I thought. Well, it was a quick read indeed. It took me 7 minutes to go through. Altogether a mixture of mindless blah, topics from yesterday and some pseudo high-fashion-photography. The only two pages worth a read were an article about various styles of moustaches and a thingy-page featuring a new BE@ARBRICK by the lovely folks at Medicom Toys. The brave makers of fivetonine in turn describe their output and mission as follows:

"We at fivetonine, the lifestyle magazine of WirtschaftsWoche, Germany's leading business weekly, take a holistic approach to life. We are aware that professionals who act as trailblazers and decision makers in the world of business want top level information and entertainment in their private sphere, too. We are insiders in the world of executives, this high-earning group of opinion leaders, we know all about their tastes, their needs and their discerning standards."

Name development extraordinaire by the way. Hey, why not flip "ninetofive" to "fivetonine" because we're the free time magazine for trailblazing business professionals. Brilliant. Hello, insiders in the world of executives (obviously not my world) thanks for filling my day with 7 minutes of shallowbrained non-entertainment. You're really cool (a word your editors obviously like to use). Honestly.

To Google or not to Google.

2007-02-26T11:08:00.000+01:00

Last year Nina and me did this outdoor campaign for our client Google or to be more precise for their video service Google Video. It even has made its way into flickr thanks to some nice people from Italy. Quite unexpected people started to forget about Brandenburger Tor and began to take pictures of their family members standing beind the frame. Berlin 0, Google 1. After our little discussion about showing ideas and talking about it I thought about starting to put more and more ideas and work on my blog. This is the first one. What do you think?

Belated Snapshot Thursday.

2007-02-24T01:31:00.000+01:00

Thanks to my beloved clients there was not much time to write something smart over the last week. I am breaking my own "let's get some system into this blog"-rule which is sad. TBWA probably would argue that breaking the rules is the perfect way under the flag of disruption. And I am okay with that. Anyway, do you creativspace (perhaps our pendant zu plannersphere?) people have got the same problem? Stuff in your had you would like to blog about but no time to figure it out and type it into your Mac? Hopefully I'll have some time over the weekend to write down all the stuff that waits to be written for weeks. But for now let's start with "Snapshot Thursday" and let's begin with something beautiful and gorgeous: Kerstin. She used to be our graphic designer. Now she's a grown up junior art director. Somehow I still feel responsible for her. Probably that's why I buy her chocolate cake every day. But maybe it's just because I love her and want her back.

Last week Sven, our creative director, went to Capetown to shoot two commercials for one of our clients. OTTO is Germany's biggest catalogue company and one of the biggest online retailers. And obviously they've got some sense of humour.

Here you can see the director Jan with our model and actor(ess) Mike.

This is Sven. Wringing out the hair he doesn't has.

Ah, the joy of working in advertising. Sunny beaches somewhere in South Africa, turquoise coloured water and...erm...beautiful models. And not to forget: the teams that wrote the commercials sitting in the agency working on new stuff.

At Kolle Rebbe we have someone that officially could be called "Office Manager" or something like that. Her name is Mercedes, she is from Portugal and for us she is not an "Office Manager" but our "Agency Mum". Why? Because she does what mums use to do. Shepherd her "Agency Kids". So when Mum's not in the agency the kitchen looks like that:

Messy...no...disgusting, isn't it?

I had one day off to go to Berlin.

There I found my favourite street of Amsterdam in a shop window in Mitte.

The desk of my doctor. I had doctor's week which means I managed to stuff all the appointments of the year into one week. This is the desk of Doc Steinmeier, my general practitioner. Hopefully he won't mind that I played with the artificial knee joint while waiting for him.

Here you can see Toby having a think on the floor of our office...

...and his copywritress Claudia. They are wonderful, nice, clever, gorgeous and a bunch of other brilliant adjectives. Unfortunately both will leave the agency and return to Springer & Jacoby where they have worked before. I will miss them. Nina as well. But hey, they are just five blocks away what makes it less downbeat.

On my way to the metro I passed by one of those buildings essentially made of glass and couldn't resist to start taking pictures of the offices inside. All were illuminated so everyone was able to take a glimpse from outside. What kind of person might sit in this office?

Nina made me go shopping with her. Why? Probably because she needed someone to carry all her stuff while she tried on trousers, shirts and jackets. Or to get some admiring "woweewows".

And finally last week this lovely bloke made his final call to his client. Alex left advertising to become Mr. Contemporary Art Gallery Owner Superstar. In Berlin. Looking forward to visit him and his gallery.

Free ride on the bandwagon?

2007-02-21T10:37:00.000+01:00

The friendly blokes at bandwagon not only offer a interesting and great service for all the people who love music and like to keep it but also a free account to everyone who somehow blogs and has a huge amount of iTunes stuff to backup. Just visit their blog and follow the instructions. Great idea though I can't imagine how this will work. But let's see.

Snapshot Thursday.

2007-02-14T18:57:00.000+01:00

Every now and then I think about bringing some structure into this blog. With some sort of big idea that all posts allude to. While going through my 48 bookmarked blogs this somehow seems to be some kind of a movement among most of the blogging creatives...should we call it the "creativesphere" (hello, Mr. Huntington)? Niazipan has "an idea a day" and David & Phoebe have "what if they did" while Kristin & Waldemar and FIUYMI use it as some sort of diary of their daily creative lifes. Simon Veksner does it a bit different, he gives advice to young creatives like me. Haven't seen this on another creative blog so far. Anyway it seems like blogs about planning seem to be far more unstructured or open. You'll find posts about quite everything. Is it because as a planner you reach out and absorb every little inspiration that comes along the way and throw it out to somehow form an imaginative over-all-picture? And is it because as a creative you are driven by finding the big idea, the one that's brilliant? Or you are somehow forced to put an idea in everything you do? Hard to say. Nonetheless it's brilliant to find so many creative blogs. And I guess as in our daily agency life it was inspired by blogging planners like Russell, beeker and Richard. I think it's interesting to have this agency thing applied to blogging. The herd follows the shepherd.

I'm digressing a bit. The point is that I want to bring some unstructured structure into this blog. Don't want to apply a big overall idea here because all I could think of would be "one idea" or "what if" and that's what Niazipan and David&Phoebe are doing very well. No need for another one. Perhaps some ideas will pop up sometime. Let's see. Stop digressing, man. Okay. So I will start or reanimate some regulars. This will be the first. Let's call it Snapshot Thursday. Random pictures. A nice starter. The next will be to reanimate my friend Mr. Lee. Because I like him. Because he says things I don't want to hear. A nice side dish. Perhaps I will post some work I've done as well. But maybe I will hand this over to flickr and only post a link. Let's see if it will be a dessert. And the main course? Don't know. That's the unstructure in my structure. It will contain everything. Inspiration, stuff I did for APSotW and whatever crosses my way. Perhaps that's my big idea. To have none. Does this make sense? Let's see.

For now let's start with Snapshot Thursday.

So you are working in an advertising agency. You've seen everything. Logos, headlines, ads from Chile, clients, meeting rooms with a wide range of sparkling beverages and sandwiches, directors from Scandinavia, beautiful beaches with myriads of nearly undressed models. What's the thing that gets you off your desk, leaving layouts and headlines behind and rush to the window?

A production company shooting a boring TV sequel for RTL? Yes, sometimes...

Another great part of being a creative is the opportunity to leave the agency at 12:30 pm for three hours to visit an exhibition in order to "get inspired" while planners are blogging or researching and client service people are on the phone and have to stay in their offices. Whereas "get inspired" most often does't happen while in an exhibition but while on the way to the exhibition. Anyway Toby and me visited the Thomas Hoepker Retrospective at the Museum of Arts and Commerce in Hamburg. Great exhibition, great photographer. Here you can see some random snaps (sorry for the strange perspectives but I had to be undercover because it wasn't allowed to take pictures).

This one was my favourite. Not only because of the picture but for it's description. "Muhammad Ali scared by a bee." Great. When you rhyme, rhyme the rhyme well.

The second part of random snaps:

After numerous "Look, that's great!" and some heavy staring we had to take a break. Coffee and apple pie (Toby). Nice. Coffee and beef steak (me). Brilliant.

Afterwards we had a quick look at an exhibition of young fashion designers from Hamburg. I especially liked the flowery chairs though I never would have them in my living room. Would you?

Here is the rest in a very random view.

Back at the agency I prepared an old LP cover as a birthday present for Basti. Long time ago we shared a flat and because he was a longtime friend of mine I decided to send him a very special present. This cover of a horrible piece of music by Johnny Sax (gues which instrument he's playing) used to be a poster in our hallway. Very 70ties.

And, a brilliant suprise, Nina came back from a photo shoot and decided to not take some days off (as she told me). I love her for not going on holidays because I hate it when she is not at the office.

Bob is a nice guy who helps us to present a mailing we did for Bisley.

An ashtray at the entrance of our metro station. Reminds me to quit smoking.

Mette is the british bulldog from the lovely guys and dolls at Markenfilm. She's adorable and fat and lazy and snores. Sorry for the last three, Mette.

A sign I found on Steinstraße. Who would sell his golden teeth?

This one's form last year but I forgot to post it. On my way back from the LIAA ceremony to my hotel I had to park the statues and the annual because they were a bit heavy. Unfortunately I put them next to an ad board for a gym. Anything left to say?

Everytime you pass a mirrow you have to look at it. Or take a photo.

Bum. That's Snapshot Thursday for this week.

VOTE! VOTE! VOTE! VOTE! VOTE! VOTE!

2007-02-14T10:14:00.000+01:00

So by chance you stumbled over this blog. And you are bored instantly. When you now think about leaving this blog use the holy and linked Christ on the right and join the king of the culinary sausage club in his fight against american bacon. Vote. Jesus would do. Unfortunately you love this blog and don't want to leave to vote? Brilliant. For those of you lovely people I handcrafted the voting-badge into this blog, see below. By the way...after I got to know my 27 seconds visitor from Paris there is another person I really would like to get a "Hello!" from. It's my 23 hours 43 minutes and 17 seconds visitor from London. Dear Mr. Heavy Flatrater, I really appreciate your visit. It made me proud, it made me smile, it made me wonder "I wish I had that much time" and it made me think about statcounter having some system errors. But anyway I want to know who you are and I think it's my task to remind you to close your Mozilla 5.0 and shut down your system when leaving your Mac. For ecological reasons. To save some energy. And for wowee-ish reasons. To not make me think someone really spent 24 hours on my blog.

But now, let's get on with some heavy sausage voting. Marcus lives in Bavaria and therefore will be pretty disappointed if his voting results stay below 60%. So stand up for your Wiener. Or your Debrecziner. Or your Frankfurter. And maybe even for your Cabanossi.

Get Free Opinion Polls

Dear Mr. Canon ixus-i7 Digital Camera Developer.

2007-02-13T14:37:00.000+01:00

This post may be a bit geeky but two weeks or so ago I got a new camera. Because some quick handed braveheart stole my old one as you may have read. Anyway, let's start with the good things. The camera is great. Small. Brilliant pictures. Easy menu and stuff. I love my little Canon ixus just as much as I loved the Canon ixus that this Mr. Thieving blablabla stole. But...and that's the part where you jump in, my beloved Canon Digital Camera Engineer...why the hell do I need this unhandy, ugly camera station to download the pictures from the camera? When development is all about making things easier and more comfortable then why did you came up with the brilliant idea of "Hey, you know what? Let's replace one single, handy USB-cable with one single, handy USB-cable AND this...thing!" Could you please explain?
And while thinking about it perhaps learn from the nice guys at SanDisk. I never heard of them before you (Canon) only put a 16 megabyte MMC card into my lovely camera's box but they seem to have nice ideas. Like this one: a SD card plus USB. It looks like this: And, hello Canon, do you know why it's a brilliant ideas? Because it frees me from carrying this camera-station-socket-thing that came with my camera all day. Don't get me wrong. I love your cameras. They are great products. But you can't use the one word equity (uh, hello Mr. Saatchi) of "PLAY" while your products tie the consumer to things like camera stations. Sometimes one simple cable can be the solution. By the way: Hello friendly people at SanDisk. You build fantastic, easy-to-use products. But maybe you could overthink the slogan "Save your world in ours". Only a guess.
After rereading this post I know it looks and sounds absolutely geeky but sorry I can't help.

Snowee, snow.

2007-02-09T14:27:00.000+01:00

Today I woke up and everywhere was snow. It's great because snow doesn't visit Hamburg that often. In fact it wasn't great for my shoes because as a Converse All Star you probably never will be excited about snow. Neverever. So after some steps I decided to replace them by some winter-ever-ready Adidas Night Jogger. Brilliant. But anyway here are some pictures:

Snow is everywhere. At home.

At the way to the agency.

At the agency.

We're sorrounded by empty offices. Probably people that didn't make the brilliant decision to replace Chucks with a pair of proper Night Jogger .

Some handsome hands. Burnt yesterday by a mean microwave dish. Frostbitten today by some uninvited snow. If you feel sorry for this needy pair of art director's hands, feel free to visit the blog of their owner here and leave a comment of deep sympathy. Don't expect too much, Nina just started. Be kind.

Call me Louisward Irvingville, please.

2007-02-08T15:34:00.000+01:00

While trying to sum up a brilliant talk about blogs and TV vs. Internet I had with Toby last night, I stumbled across this post by Marcus. So for those of you who ever wondered what is behind the part I cut off the picture on the left, here is the answer. I am not sure about this Leslie Cheung and Frank Rijkaard-thing and not very proud of the Michael Stipe in my face (sorry, lovely REM-fan-blog-reader). On the otherhand I really like the idea of being a mixture of Edward Norton, Johnny Knoxville, Louis Pasteur and John Irving. But probably that's optimistic thinking because I find the idea of being a result of those four having a big night out consuming a wide range of drinks and, well, doing things I don't even want to think about quite scary.

27 seconds?

2007-02-06T11:09:00.000+01:00

A post from beeker made me think about something I was wondering before but somehow then decided to don't care and forget. What made my visitors come here? And why the hell did you, my lovely visitor from BETC Euro RSCG in Paris, stay for 27 seconds? It's not that I am angry (it's more a depressing kind of feeling) but I really want to know what you were doing here and more important: why did you leave?

SuperAdBowl.

2007-02-05T19:55:00.000+01:00

I had a quick glance at the ads from last nights Super Bowl on YouTube. Last year was better. From the team point of view. Because I like the Pittsburgh Steelers. And from the advertising point of view. But anyway there were great films and here are my Top 5:

Coca Cola "Videogame".

Coca Cola "Happiness Factory".

Bud Light "Class Mencia".

Bud Light "Rock, Paper, Scissors".

Snapple "EGCG".

Hmm. Seems like there is some "Non alcoholic/alcoholic beverages" overweight here.

Nike vs. Asics

2007-01-31T14:54:00.000+01:00

Most of you will remember the marvelous Nike Freestyle commercials by Wieden+Kennedy (here, here and here). Football, basketball, skateboards, bouncing balls, beats, Ronaldinho...brilliant. Yesterday I came across this. Football, basketball, skateboards, bouncing balls, beats...no Ronaldinho. What seems to be some kind of homage is the new commercial for Asics. So I thought if Asics can take up an old Nike idea and add volleyball, cricket, frisbee, jogging, bmx, tennis, some Eastern European architecture and a ghetto blaster, I could take both and mash them up. And here is the result: