Ambient media - in and out of fashion?
Submitted by Dabitch on Tue, 06/05/2001 - 18:17.
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Last years D&AD winner and one of the recent best examples of an ambient media campaign was Mothers Britart.co.uk campaign, where everyday objects such as lamp-posts and park benches were labeled as works of art available to buy via britart, gets a slight backlash in the Guardian.
"There are signs that Britain is beginning to rebel against the rising tide of advertising. Figures recently published by the Advertising Standards Authority show complaints about ambient advertising have soared from just six in 1999 to 61 last year. "
Aw shucks, kids, they ain't falling for it! Now what do we do?
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"Ambient advertising contains the seeds of its own destruction, he says, because once the approach is copied and becomes commonplace, it ceases to surprise."
[Guardian, August 1997]
They never really did like ambient ads, now did they?
In http://www.campaignlive.com today a headline falshes past stating "D&AD Blasted for Britart flyposters".
Someone have a reference number so that we can read some of that?
No reference number (Now now, you aren't suggesting we'd cheat steal and be nasty are you?) sorry - but:
D&AD blasted for Britart flyposters
Thu, 07-Jun-2001 09:42:34 GMT
LONDON (Campaign)
The outdoor industry has lashed out at D&AD's decision to
award its only Gold Pencil for advertising to Mother for its Britart.com campaign,
accusing the design body of condoning the illegal practice of flyposting.
... you can by that small snippet already see, that yes, there is a slight backlash against "ambient" media currently going on in the UK. That might be an understatement. But advertising and it's tradepress is fickle, we'll see who next weeks bad guy is.
On Thursday they (campaignlive) catch up. The mag I have to pay to read - even on the web.
Despite the same news being reported here first. Now, why would I want to pay?
..no the Guardian was first! :-)
It is not suprising at all that, in the wake of "No Logo", Seattle, Fight Club and countless other things lately that ambient media - or for that matter *any* new media - gets a lot of slack as the punters paranoia is making itself heard. In the u.s. you can barely walk down a street without being assaulted with Logo's and witty sponsorships.
Though Britart is as DB points out - one of the much better ideas lately (I do not agree that it is a GOLD winner, however. A silver, sure - but if some of last years best TV and Posters can't get gold neither should a five minute clever media idea - D&AD shape up) advertising is creeping too close for comfort and too fast into public space.
I think we are only witnessing the beginning of this backlash.
Do you think the trend will be restricted to the U.K?
pandora's box is open. ambient media is out there - trying to restrict it is like trying to ban the proliferation of (crap) tv/cable channels. i'm not saying it's a good thing but if it's going to happen then let's try and give it some wit, humour, intelligence, etc. should britart have received a gold pencil? wrong question. should any advertising receive any award? it's not art and of course any creative judgement is subjective. what criteria are used to define a 'good' ad anyway? popularity? brilliant direction? great writing? technical superiority? nice strapline? all of the above? if it's a piece of work that captures the public imagination (as both Guinness 'Surfers' and Britart did, albeit to differing degrees)and uses a certain amount of intelligence and wit in the selling process - ie it becomes an example of simple but smart, emotive advertising - then, yes, it probably does deserve a gold pencil. but then, i would say that; I worked on Britart.
The only thing that deserved a gold pencil in Britart (Very clever, Very Funny, and as I saw it live, pretty darn noticeable - any advertisers dream - understand that I really liked the campaign before I say this) was the media.
The media was the only idea in it.
Compare to the design of iMac's and other supposedly innovative Goldwinners of the same year.
Where's BritArt's innovation? The media. Where's BritArt's breakthrough idea? The media.
Where might they have made one mistake? The media.
I agree that ambient ads should be embraced with wit intelligence and smarts - but at the same time I wonder..... Should we really be spreading new media this thin?
"but if it's going to happen then let's try and give it some wit, humour, intelligence, etc." - Hear hear! *golf applause*
Curry rocked when he was the first to arrive on the scene.
Got Milk Banana stickers were funny. Britart "lamp post" *(complete with dog urine) - stickers had me laughing out loud.
The next "virus email homepage" had me yawning.
"Need a Lawyer" Banana stickers had me crying.
"Go to the Optrician" lamp-posts were just lame.
Since ambient media is so scrutinized it is the place where GOOD IDEAS must thrive - any crap and the backlash from the punters will hit like a tidalwave - their eyes will glaze over and they will become immune to these new tricks. Congrats. Britart is a good idea.
what - the "backlash" against nambient media? I don't think it will last long to be honest.
Ten years from now, whan someone flicks through this years D&AD award book, and most of the ads and commercials in it are cheap gags, old tricks, stiff and unimaginative (as we think, when we read old books), the Gold winners of this and previous years will stand out for their innovation. The iMac radically changed computer design. The BritArt campaign just put a huge dent in the word "campaign" and our concept of media. Think people. It deserves a gold.
You must have been hiding under the same Rock as the D&AD Judges if you belive the Britart campaign was the first to change our concept of "media".
Brilliant ambient media ads have been made for the past five-six years, and it's only when Mother does one, that it wins the precious Gold - the only gold in the book.
Had it done so five years ago I might have agreed with you. Now I look at a good campaign reciving an award normally reserved for absolutley brilliant campaigns. They don't always give out the gold - and they shouldn't have done so this year either.
"but then, i would say that; I worked on Britart. "
So which one are you - Mr/Ms Anonmymous?
.......- I just noticed that in the ambient media category - it won silver - were the judges drunk or just stoned? SIlver? Gold? Make up your minds.
Mothers ambient 'brit art campaign" was an astonishingly mediocre peice of work. See just any student portfolio for similiar. The fact that it picked up a d@ad was more to to with the agency it came from than the quality of the work and the insightful strategic thinking (not).
It meant nothing to anyone interested in buying art, it was self indulgent and i suspect drummed to purely to satisfy the NEW d@ad ambient catagory. Pathetic.
you are a wise man my friend