I feel bad about being negative in the previous post. Here are some ads I saw on the tube this week which I really liked. The whole idea of MI6 advertising for recruitment is a bit weird, but the ads are great; involving, clear and fun.

I failed in both my missions so I won’t be applying, although it looks like I’m already on their books…

Napoleon’s quote “A throne is only a bench covered in velvet” is currently getting all the attention as part of the latest Art on the Underground poster campaign in London. While I’m struggling to see the relevance of thrones and their upholstery to my life, I absolutely get this one which crops up less often.

As those who know me will attest, I’m a glass half empty kind of guy, although I like to label it realism rather than pessimism. Anyway, it means that I have a soft spot for self deprecating humour, you know that very English under the radar sort of stuff.

I saw this on the tube the other day…

…and it made me think that negativity is underused in advertising. Ads always focus on positivity, sometimes to the point of arrogance or desperation, so it’s nice when they go the other way. Somehow it seems more sincere, even though it’s more contrived than ever. Maybe it’s a sign of the times. Bleak austerity Britain has had enough of Barry Scott shouting at them about how clean his pennies are.

Let’s think a little bit about Dixons for a minute. I can’t remember the last time I bought anything there, as everyone who knows their stuff buys the things they sell online instead. If you were the bosses of Dixons you must have been getting pretty worried recently as the whole retail experience moves into the ether, people flock to electricalbargainzRus.com and your stores sit there ironically eating up their own electricity.

I love the fact that someone really got under the skin of how people perceive stores like Dixons now and subverted it into a nice little well judged piece of despair.

And let’s not forget the past masters of the art, Marmite, who deserve some sort of advertising valour medal pinned to their chest for displaying adverts of someone actually vomiting their product.

Maybe it’s because I involuntarily dislike being sold to, or because I move in marketing circles, I can hear the squeal of the truth being stretched a mile off, but it feels like this sort of attitude gets through my defences much less opposed. I might not buy my next TV from Dixons but they made me smile. Perhaps I’ll buy a memory card or some blank CDs…

I didn’t get round to posting the new Audi advert until it was too late and all over ITV, so here’s the new Durex ad, directed by Superfad. Very, very good. Head over to their site for the outtakes…

Old news this, it’s on TV every 5 minutes but I couldn’t let it go. Lovely new ad for the Audi Q5. The music makes it too, it’s Woody Guthrie “Car Song”.

From BBH London. “When the world zigs, zag.” Apparently. They’re also the people behind the Barclaycard water slide ad which everyone on Facebook seems to think is real…

Clever advert for the iPod on Yahoo’s website…