Archive for November 7th, 2009
I Want My Ca, and I Want My Mtv
November 7th, 2009 | Author: Super
Recently, the Communication Arts Advertising Annual showed up in my mailbox. Like it does every December. I’ve been a subscriber since 1993.
With each passing year, though, I find myself spending less and less time looking through it. The work that’s showcased this year is…well, it’s all pretty good. Nice art direction, a few clever things, some cool visual weirdness, a fairly thick “integrated” section I don’t recall seeing much before.
But like I said, just pretty good. Nothing more, nothing less. Is it me? Why am I not blown away by today’s work?
Then in a flash, I suddenly realized why. It’s Huey Lewis’ fault.
Or maybe it’s Michael Stipe’s fault. Or maybe Bryan Adams’.
You see, I’m a huge fan of music – and I started buying records when I was 7 years old. To me, nothing will ever replace the music I heard in the few years when I was 13, 14 or 15 – smack in the middle of the 80’s, which many older people considered to be a musical wasteland at the time. But damnit, I wanted my MTV, and I still wish they had World Premiere Videos. It’s not that I don’t like new music. The White Stripes, Franz Ferdinand, Madele ine Peyroux – all are good, but none of their CD’s get under my skin the way “Life’s Rich Pageant” did. Or “The Joshua Tree.” Hell, I’ll even cop to being a fan of “Reckless.”
Likewise, no recent ad has gotten under my skin the way Nike’s “If You Let Me Play” or the beautifully black & white Norwegian Cruise Lines ads with the non-linear, poetic copy did. For me, those were the seminal ads that showed me what was possible in advertising. I vividly recall seeing those ads, reading them, re-reading them, and aspiring to write something that would rise to that level.
Read the rest of this entry »