Deja vu?

I'm nostalgic for the reign of the Supermodels.

I'm a fool to want you...

The next Apple advert?

(Thanks redjotter.)

The Scandalous Moments of Tom Ford

Tom Ford's association with scandal was well underway long before his icy departure from Gucci. Remember the days when Tom Ford's ads were notoriously provocative with no less than three separate campaigns of his being banned in various countries?

The Gucci "G" emblazoned in the model's pubic hair:

Going completely bare for Tom Ford's Men's fragrance:

Tom Ford Eyewear ads, which were deemed sexually explicit(?!?)

And of course, possibly the biggest advertisement for himself was that Vanity Fair cover: the Hollywood issue where he posed alongside a naked Keira Knightley and Scarlett Johansson. 

Customize@ConverseOne

I came across this advertisement to design your very own pair of converse, which would be made and delivered within 4 weeks. I felt the need to try it out. 

Of course Nike - who as of 2003 have owned Converse - have had Nike I.D. for years so it is unsurprising that they would introduce the idea to the Chuck Taylor All Stars, Jack Purcells and the Skate shoes. 

Despite Nike doing a good job in mainly sticking to the Converse traditions, I do feel that the idea of designing your own pair goes against the grain a little. Converse throughout the decades, has been representative of so many youthful sub-cultures who used the shoe as a blank canvas for creativity: to draw on, to paint, to sew, to show your personality. It was the role of Nike sneaks to have slick, polished designs but Converse always represented the complete opposite. 

Perhaps it's just the teenager in me that isn't quite ready to accept that Converse "sold-out".

Explains itself.

Street Art.

Saw this on the Nylon blog. A visual artist has altered lots of bus stop advertisements in California. Sean Woolsey has painted over existing advertisements in "an ongoing experimental campaigne to raise cognitive awareness and more importantly to inspire benevolent action that we often forget, oversee,  or might be in opposition to our often hedonistic culture."

Happy Birthday Selfridges!

Selfridges - the Oxford Street department store that made shopping sexy - marks it's 100th year this year. 

On previous occasions when I've had time to kill in London, I have found myself wandering from floor to floor perusing the gorgeous collections on display.  I love seeing when you approach the store, the hoards of people carrying bright yellow (109 pantone to be precise) shopping bags; a massive marketing ploy screaming "Come shop inside."

When you walk into the store - as with Harrods and Libertys - you are always conscious of the history behind the brand. 

Above, an image of a roof garden fashion show during the 1920s, demonstrates Selfridges' fondness for fashion luxury. The image below shows people peering through the famous Selfridges windows at a dress on display just as clothes rationing was began in 1941. 

Selfridges is celebrating it's birthday by calling on a host of designer friends to create limited edition pieces all in the signature Selfridges yellow. 

For this entire month, designers such as Paul Smith, Jimmy Choo, Marc Jacobs and Mulberry will have their designed items on sale exclusively in Selfridges. 

One of the most hyped up pieces is a patent leather dress by Giles Deacon (costing £1500) which many staff members will be sporting throughout May. 

The store has also commissioned British designers Dame Vivienne Westwood, Stella McCartney, Giles Deacon and Paul Smith to design them some limited edition carrier bags. I am tempted to fly down to London just to experience the celebrations - yellow oragami aeroplanes will decor the store and DJ sets from Henry Holland are also on the cards. And perhaps I could get one of those carrier bags - a certain future collector's piece.

It's good not to know everything!

A fascinating and engaging story of how the Dutch ex-Heineken COO with little retail experience, transformed the falling Morrison's brand into a success story, which isn't even letting the Credit Crunch knock it back down. 

Bolland feels his lack of retail knowledge benefitted him when he was appointed to CEO of Morrison's. Coming from an outsiders perspective, he didn't understand what the brand stood for and had to start from scratch in repositioning Morrison's, often acting against the advice of those "in the know". Speaking to real customers, he established that there was a feeling that the brand didn't offer the same service that say, the high street could.  

By weighing up the market competitors such as Tesco, Sainsbury's, Waitrose and Asda, Bolland established that he wanted to position Morrison's as a predominantly food retailer (when everyone else was moving into non-food) with competitive yet quality product. He made the decision that every single penny needed to go into making the food valuable and fresh. Today Morrison's is the only supermarket who buy entirely from farmers. 

Bolland also discussed their adverts featuring celebrities but stressed that the likes of Denise Van Outen and Alan Hanson were real Morrison's shoppers who appreciated value and fresh produce. When questioned on pumping lots of money into flash advertising, he responded by stating that there was very little increased budgeting for their ad campaigns and that the real difference was in the advertising approach.

The power of Levi's music.

Today I went thrift shopping and bought a bunch of vinyl records including this 1982 Levi's Strauss compilation 'Fingers off!' for just 99p. 

Of course Levi's has been associated with musicians for a long time, with the likes of Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones, the Strokes and even Massive Attack all sporting the jeans and their TV ads famously use music as a marketing tool to reach a specific audience.

My favourite one I remember being in awe of when I was just 8, was this advert featuring the song "Inside" by Stiltskin. At the time, Grunge was massive so this song and band were created specifically for the advert and went on to get a lot of airplay off the back of this advert alone. (Also good ones to watch are this Brad Pitt one and this fab one directed by Michel Gondry).

Recently, Levi's have taken it one step further with their Record Company label, Levity which has been signing up what they view as some of the best young acts around.

New Royal Mail advert

Check out this Royal Mail 'Growth' advert I just saw on tv. Just thought it was pretty cool.

AA's new advertising approach.

American Apparel has always prided itself in using more 'realistic' models in their advertising and not airbrushing their models. Fantastic! So it wasn't overly surprising to find out that they had selected real people to advertise their AA and California Select Vintage clothing lines. 

I already followed Karla's blog so it is great to see her feature in these images - doesn't she look fab? Karla and 2 other girls were chosen due to their highest ratings at Chictopia (a networking site where anyone and everyone can upload images of themselves in their chosen outfits and users vote the best looks).

 

But this isn't the only new approach American Apparel have had to their photography. Featuring real people in their adverts really appeals to their customer and AA has heavily featured sexual innuendo before. However, most recently, they have also introduced some unique, raunchier images of nudity... featuring porn stars!! (one "model" wears thigh-high socks alone.) 

The ads (idea of Dov Charney - the company's contraversial founder and CEO) were created "exclusively" for more... shall we say "risque" (sex) blogs but of course have given American Apparel massive exposure due to their shock value. 

TMobile advert in Liverpool Street Station, London

I know we'll probably see loads of this but I had to post it. Apparently they really did film this just a few days ago with real commuters around but they filmed it every 20 minutes. Life's for sharing! Enjoy!

New Audi 'Unbox the box' advert.

How good is the new Audi advert?! I heart audi.

Sears 'Arrive' advert

I'm a big High School Musical fan and came across this Sears advert (more like a full length music video) targeting kids going back to school in America featuring Vanessa Hudgens.

What amazing advertising for a generation influenced by celebrity and MTV. I must admit if I was a school kid in the US then I would definitely want to visit Sears after seeing this 'advert'. Thankfully in the UK we have to wear a school uniform which I actually loved and appreciated the advantages of. It was more fun adjusting school uniform to my taste than it would have been trying to think of something new to wear everyday.

Vanessa of course looks amazing in all 3 outfits (well 4 once all 3 are combined into one) but my favourite is the Rock chick one. The others seem a bit much for school.