I agree with Kirsty and Ben. This is brilliant and perfectly captures the tipping point of enthusiastic marketers inserting ‘social media’ into every available brand orifice. When it works it’s great, but the rest of the time it’s a lazy copout.

Soon to be joined by the pointless iPhone app – it doesn’t matter what it does so long as we get our logo on your home screen.

Anyway, here’s a sausages idea from before the internet…

…Walls liked it.

I sometimes wish there was more choice than the ubiquitous ‘like’ button on Facebook. At the time of writing, 398,844 people ‘like’ Marmite on Facebook. That sort of ambivalence shouldn’t be allowed. I thought it was a LOVE / HATE thing?

Idea for Marmite brand owners: start a campaign for Love and Hate buttons on Facebook.

I’ve finally got round to going through some of my pictures from honeymoon in Tanzania. We had a great time and as well as photos of my beautiful new wife, I took lots of the sort of pictures graphic designers take when they’re on holiday:

I loved the hand painted signage in the places we visited. Obviously print reproduction is beyond the means of many people, so they’ve become adept at rendering typefaces and brand trademarks with a paintbrush. The imperfections and analogue nature of the graphics can be laughable, but they do the job, and in some cases are very accurate indeed.

Typography is a constant need, but when photos of things are called for things get interesting.

It’s something we miss now that cheap digital printing rules the roost, those chalkboard writers pushing pie and pint night in the local Wetherspoon’s pub are all that’s left.

It reminded me of these movie posters from Ghana I saw a while ago which are just wonderful.

And then there’s an album I’ve been listening to recently, from The Very Best, friends of Vampire Weekend…

With some global companies taking a real interest in emerging economies, and African nations growing in commercial confidence, could we be looking at a new source of visual inspiration? Cadbury’s seem to think so at the moment…

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 live in Southfields, South West London, which is where anyone who’s anyone will tell you is really where the Wimbledon Tennis Tournament is. It’s not actually in Wimbledon you see, it’s down the road from our house which makes Wimbledon fortnight a little bit like Dawn of the Dead, but instead of fighting off hoards of flesh eating zombies, I’m barricading myself in my house to keep out the American bumbag (fanny pack) wearing tourists.

Anyway, I digress. Every year they dress up the local tube station to within an inch of its life, and this year is no exception. Perhaps tourists think this is what every English tube station is like all the time.

This year HSBC has put up the usual tennis regalia, but the reason it’s featuring on this blog is that someone has gone and done some typography…

It’s not going to win a D&AD, but it is appropriate, unnecessary and fun. I like it. And from a bank too…

Now that Andy Murray has been served, please can everyone clear off and let me get to work on time…?

A while ago the Sony Bravia plasticine rabbits had everyone won over until it was pointed out that the whole thing looked rather similar to a Kozyndan art print:

Then we had the Sugar Puffs crimpin’ rip off from the Mighty Boosh…

…and only yesterday Ben Terrett noticed Lucozade’s new eerily familiar ad campaign:

Now today Creative Review has noticed that the Flight of the Conchords has been the latest victim of selling out to corporate advertising, but conveniently missing their pay cheque.

All this puts me in mind of the suspiciously familiar photoblog I found through my site stats, it even uses my own stylesheet:

I wonder if it will change now I’ve redesigned my website…

Everyone loves Lego don’t they? I know I do, and it seems that lots of designers do too. Maybe it’s something to do with the regularity of it, the structured creativity it brings, the bright colours, or just that we remember it from when we were young…

I’ve loved these ads from the USA since I first saw them:

They’re by an agency called Blattner Brunner and they do a lovely job of conveying the magic of Lego to a small child (or a graphic designer who’s old enough to know better…)

Here’s the 2006 Cannes Print Grand Prix winner from FCB, Johannesburg, South Africa, which came after the US ads:

This small web version doesn’t do it justice, click for a better look.

I recently also found a series of Escher inspired ads from the same guys:

And of course, let’s not forget Michel Gondry’s video for the White Stripes:

…and The Brick Testament – the Bible in Lego.

Finally, if you like a bit of Lego with your screensaver, click here…

It all goes to show how much fun adults can have with Lego too.

If anyone else has some good Lego examples, please post them in the comments.

Blimey, no posts in almost 10 days, then three all in the same afternoon…