29
Jun
2008
8:13 AM

The good, the bad, the smug.

, , 
/
1 Comments

I'm torn.Here's a brand new campaign from At&t advertising its global roaming capabilities. I've been watching it unfold in the pages of the New York Times over the last few weeks.It's beautiful, visually lush.I believe it is a precursor to

Read More

23
Jun
2008
2:59 PM

How the competition says it unlocks gridlock.

/
0 Comments

This one comes from sunny Australia. Damn them for their summer in January. And, oh yeah, their good advertising.Consider this simple immediate ad - for scooters.Not buses/brt/lrt.Still, I thought it illustrated perfectly the advantage of the vehicle over the kind

Read More

23
Jun
2008
8:00 AM

A brighter highlighter.

, 
/
1 Comments

A while ago I promised I would feature great ads on this blog from the major multicultural "home markets".By that, I meant ads from India, Hong Kong and China to start with. Ads that show exactly how high the bar

Read More

18
Jun
2008
2:28 PM

Hit the rails, Jack.

, , 
/
0 Comments

A funny, direct campaign for the French national Railway SNCF. A classic technique: exaggerate to make a relatively ordinary message memorable.Mind you the train looks nice enough to make you want to believe the claim: you won't miss the road.Article

Read More

15
Jun
2008

The power of understatement.

/
0 Comments

A spot with no words, accompanied by a beautiful piece of classical music, makes the Madrid Metro rise below it all. An elegant, restrained, stunningly filmed spot, with a message that's crystal clear. Article and blog, copyright Gavin Barrett 2008.

Read More

11
Jun
2008
11:13 PM

Way to go, TTC.

, , 
/
0 Comments

A simple, effective campaign done in 2002 by Aaron Kwapisinski, a young art director friend of mine, for the now defunct agency Flavour. In his own words "We took the cost of all the things one would fork out annually

Read More

2
Jun
2008
10:42 PM

YouTube v 1.0?

, 
/
0 Comments

From a campaign for the Tube in London. Four tubes to sell the Tube.Brilliantly simple. Simply brilliant.Article and blog, copyright Gavin Barrett 2008.

Read More

2
Jun
2008

Take a Pass.

/
0 Comments

A now-classic (late 80s), edgy, award-winning TV spot for Oslo transit, promoting monthly passes. Article and blog, copyright Gavin Barrett 2008.

Read More

Popular Posts

  • The One Line Creative Brief Format
    In search of that holy grail, the elusive, perfectly distilled creative brief I've come up with this one-line format. What and what and ...
  • Advice to a young writer: what the job takes
      Photo: The Hindu Archives Dear copypuppies  Before you go all aww-goofy on me because I used the word puppies in a sentence, let...
  • Logos with wheels on 2
    Another logo "poster". This time it's a poster of the logos of a few major international rail transit brands. If you'd lik...
  • Oh, Good Brief!
    There are good clean briefs. And then, there are the usual skidmarked travesties from the mind of supposed marketing maestros. What sepa...
  • evian baby inside - US version
    Evian and Skittles are doing some genuinely engaging YouTube work. We knew the Evian babies could roll. Now we're seeing that they rock....
  • Bruce Lee viral spot smashes Chinese advertising clichés
    What could possibly make you want a mobile phone so much that you'd pay the equivalent of 5 month's salary to get one? JWT Beijing, ...
  • The Best Ad Campaigns of All Time? Really?
    The sharp eyes of MediaBistro's AgencySpy team found this infographic at CollegeOnline (of all places!). Highly debatable and ex...
  • Yo' Virgin Mama
    Full disclosure: this campaign was my brother's work. (Russell Barrett - at the time Executive Creative Director at Bates in India - is ...
  • The Bite of the Underdog
    Some of the most remarkable ads in the world took the position of the underdog. They celebrated their difference. They nipped at the heels o...
  • Search: Google, Find: a brand
    Google doodles at their best are a demonstration of the power of a brand to enliven one's imagination. I've picked a delightful few....
@ Gavin Barrett. Powered by Blogger.

Plagiarism Watch!

About the ideawallah

Gavin Barrett is Owner/Founding Partner + Chief Creative Officer, of award-winning Toronto agency Barrett and Welsh. In pursuit of big ideas he has: nibbled on pigs' ears (not on a live pig at the time); gone elephant-back in the Thai jungle (no elephants were hurt); gambled in a Macau casino (was utterly destroyed). His ads: have run in 35 countries, helped elect prime ministers, attracted the ire of the lawyers for Dolly the clone sheep, drawn an angry crowd in Lagos, have been studied in business texts in Canada and India and received derisive mention in a John Irving novel. His poems: can be found in Penguin’s anthology of 14 contemporary Indian poets, Reasons for Belonging. He cannot: sing.

Social

Gallery