A happy choice of music
Music may be the food of love but it was the lifeblood of Hamlet commercials.

By Mike Everett on

In last Friday’s edition of the advertising website, More About Advertising, editor Stephen Foster reprinted an article that had been written by the late John Webster for a magazine called Commercials. Stephen published John Webster’s article as part of his Desert Island Ads series. John Webster very gamely chose ten commercials from an agency that […]

The fallability of research
It’s astonishing how often research jumps to the wrong conclusion. Brexit is just one example.

By Mike Everett on

As I write this I have beside me Thursday’s London Evening Standard. The headline reads as follows: ‘Remain ahead in final poll’. Also beside me I have Friday’s Evening Standard, whose front-page headline shouts ‘We’re Out’. So, as with last year’s General Election, the polls have got it wrong again. Not that I’m surprised.

The tyranny of the blank piece of wall
It’s often said that the writing’s on the wall for advertising. Might that be because of quite the opposite: there’s no writing on the wall?

By Mike Everett on

The other day I was invited to visit the new offices of AMVBBDO. And what splendid offices they are, too. Occupying a modern building in Southwark Street, with views over The Shard, this sparkling workspace, is set amongst a complex of shops and restaurants, a stone’s throw from the Tate Modern.

A timely reminder of Trumbo

By Mike Everett on

This is a rewrite of a post I published a few years back. It concerns the feature film, Lonely Are The Brave. But seeing as the feature film’s writer, Dalton Trumbo, is the subject of a new movie I thought it was timely to update it.

A celebration of the career of Alan Waldie.

By Mike Everett on

The other day I was privileged to experience something that one person who was present described as ‘magical’. It was a specially-convened event to celebrate the remarkable career of Alan Waldie. Alan is noted for many great pieces of work but most famously for the Benson & Hedges ‘Swimming Pool’ commercial which won a coveted D&AD Black Pencil in the late seventies. Last Tuesday, Alan was presented with another Black Pencil, to mark his extraordinary career. But rather than describing the event in detail, I can do no better than to publish below a press release prepared by Tim Lindsay, CEO of D&AD. Here it is.

Being Jeremy Corbyn
Of all the people to resemble, why, in my case, did it have to be the leader of Her Majesty’s Opposition?

By Mike Everett on

Why couldn’t it have been somebody like George Clooney? Or Cary Grant? Or Martin Shaw, even? No such luck. It turns out that my near-doppelganger is not so much a Clooney as a loony. I wouldn’t mind, but people keep pointing out the resemblance, even complete strangers. Of course, none of this is helped by the fact that, like Jeremy, I live in Islington.