Supra 2011 European Tour

Shoe brand Supra are currently touring Europe and coming correct with it. Hitting up all the right skate spots and posting cool photos & gifs on their blog.

Stussy UK - Beat Down In London Town

Streetwear brand Stussy have recently put out this video to celebrate '30 Years of Royalty' (whatever that means) they have decided to paint 'the biggest Stussy logo ever' on a wall somewhere in London. I am fan of good graffiti and I don't mind Stussy, but this is pretty boring. Although the graffiti is fine, the video's slick and Matt Benson took some good photos of the finished wall, it's not enough. Better than watching paint dry I suppose.

HP tried.

Just seen this new Advert from HP showcasing the HP Beats technology inside some of there laptops. The advert which features Plan B takes you through the making [kinda] of his smash "She Said." Its a nice idea but I think it lacks the bite and to be honest I felt a bit cheated having watched all of it only to be greeted by a cheesy voice over bragging about the laptops audio enhanced something or other. On the release of this Cinema advert in Ritzy cinema HP invited a host of bloggers and tweeters down to view the ad and gave away two of HP laptops. Thats generous enough but I still think if you want to do cinema ad try something like this.

Or you could do what BMW did and drive your product through some concrete walls.

The Boiler Room Fives

I love football and music so this is a winner in my eyes. The Boiler Room have partnered with Umbro to bring you a very hip 5 aside tournament with some interesting teams and a free BBQ . The likes of Palace Skateboards, independent radio station NTS and Young Turks are all going to be down in Haggerston park having a kick around to a sound track provided by the Boiler Room, who know a fair bit about booking great DJ's and Producers. Its taking place this weekend and it doesn't look like something to be missed, there's also going to be an after party broadcasted from the boiler room for those who couldnt make it down. Nice.

BOILER ROOM FIVES from ISYS on Vimeo.

NIKE CHOSEN - JUST DO IT

This ad, which came out last week features a host of Nike sponsored skateboarders, surfers, snow-boarders and BMX riders doing what they do best: making death defying tricks look easy. The behind the scenes videos on the Nike Youtube channel are also pretty cool.

Nike are also running a 'Chosen' competition along side this ad, where skate, surf and BMX crews can submit videos of themselves for a chance to 'get noticed' and 'live like a pro' by winning Nike product and cash money.

Aldi Tea Advert

For my mind I have never really associated Aldi with a particularly exciting advertising background. However this latest offering of theirs made me chuckle. It is short, sharp and surreal. When I grow up I want to be like her.

Tea Towel Gang & Other hip-hop parodies.

This video parody of Lethal Bizzle's 'Pow' by the Tea Towel Gang entitled 'Poor' has been circulating the interweb for the last month and we think it's very funny. Hip -hop parodies are nothing new, some of the most popular being the songs recorded by the American group Lonely Island such as 'Like A Boss' and 'I'm On A Boat', which have clocked up millions of views on YouTube. Closer to home we've seen the likes of Shadrack and the Mandem and Jason Lewis taking the piss out of Grime emcees such as Bashy, Wiley, Ghetto and Skepta in their online series. The Tea Towel Gang are a welcome addition to such a tradition, their other videos are also worth a watch.

Quite a few brands have often tried to parody in advertisements to varying degree of success. Here are a few of the hits and misses:

MISS

MISS

HIT

WAY OFF

BONUS

Rihannas Favourite Drink

So I've just peeped this new Rihanna vid, and by just I mean on the weekend but I didnt get into the office till this morning. Anyways I noticed that Ri Ri was constantly sipping on a certain beverage throughout the video, that beverage in question being VitaCoco Coconut Water. Its pretty blatant and one of my favourite past times is spotting bait product placement, its quite sad really if you think about it. I'm staring at a pengers [Extremely good looking woman] and I'm thinking about how many times a coconut or juice carton appears in shot.

Let me give you the run down, at 1.34, 1.40, 1.45 Rihanna is seen to be enjoying the refreshing taste and natural greatness of Vita Coco, however her thirst is still not quenched so at 2.11 she grabs the real thing and just to shoehorn some branding in there's a little poster campaign at 2.23 . You cant be mad at her she must be picking up mad cake after being named the brands official spokesperson.

Wall's Sausage advert

I like dogs. Alot. So it would seem that in terms of advertising any campaign that features one of those fluffy fellows is always going to produce a smile from me. Step forward Wall's sausages new advert featuring a charming little French Bulldog. A charming little talking French Bulldog in fact. A rather surreal piece of film that I am completely in love with (and not just because of the small dog)

Kids & Britishness - Canvas8

Remember that quiet little weekend recently where a couple of kids got married? That weekend where we were bound by bunting and showed [in my mind] how brilliant the British can bloody well be? Well, the Royal Wedding showed up some other interesting insights, namely that the British Youth seemed, suddenly, vociferously patriotic [although, uh, it's not necessarily a word they know]... As my My latest article for Canvas8 shows:

"For a global generation, feeling part of a smaller picture – that of ‘Britishness’ - may not come easily, but tagging them all as ‘global youth’ is not wholly correct either. Yes, they’re perpetually connected, but ask a girl in Romford if she feels global, or even ‘European’, and you realise we have a tendency to falsely label a vast group of teens. How can brands build on perceptions of 'Britishness' to appeal to young people?..."

As standard, the article is only 'public' for a while, so have a read up and - if you don't have time now - sign up instead. We Ruby-rate Canvas8. Nice.

Who's Crazy Light?

A few days ago I came across this article on BNTL , it called out brands for their lack of ballsy advertising and their shyness to turn the heat up on competitors. Though this new advert from adidas basketball definitely took it to Nike and showed some kahunas, even the title of the does it for me, adidas VS the "other" guys. Its simple and in your face and the message behind it is clear. Even though its only round one the brand with the 3 stripes went straight for the head shot, I wonder whats going to pop off in round 2?



adidas follow this up with D. Rose the youngest player in the NBA to be named MVP, in which he tells you the significance of the number 9.8 in case you didnt get it the first time.

G-Shock x Nigel Sylvester and other BMX videos.

G-Shock have just put out a new commercial online featuring BMX rider Nigel Sylvester. The video, directed by 13th Witness features the Nike sponsored rider looking cool and pulling off gnarly tricks in slow motion whilst riding around the mean streets of NY. We must admit we're a tad disappointed in this latest offering from 13th Witness, especially when we're used to watching videos like the one below:

Last week we mentioned Nike's project The Pool, where they've created a special BMX park in a soon to be demolished swimming pool in Dagenham. The video below features a recap of how the course was built and some great footage of riders destroying The Pool at a competition held there. Nike showing they still know how to make a splash.

Engine enroll Tim Westwood....

The communications group Engine ("WE LOVE CHANGE"... ?... nope me neither) have today launched their graduate recruitment drive by enrolling ultra-relevant, voice of the youth and erstwhile revolutionary, 53 year-old, Tim Westwood....yeah?

The video (you can catch here at Brand Republic (who last week named us in the top 200 blogs on the planet for social influence..obviously, dun kno!)) is really quite funny so props on the execution. It features Westwood doing his now perfected schtick in self-parody, "dropping bombs", "pimping" [repeat ad nauseam]. But clearly they've used him knowingly (at least i fucking hope they have) so what could've been a complete car-crash actually turns out to be quite funny.

The problem for me is the mismatch in purpose and means. If they were trying to shift a product (which to be fair they've got a pretty good record at) I could understand it, but what you're selling here is the suitability of you're firm for the next swathe of ambitious, competitive, serious, hard working, young professionals. I really don't get it, it's not like a trendy media company is going to be left wanting for graduates; the fact that they're even running a graduate scheme is to be applauded when so many are slashing theirs. Yet running the risk of trivialising their own standing in the eyes of the very people they wish to employ is a risky look.

Just saying.

Wrangler wants more followers/Tell us what your denim's doing today

Fuck off Part I:Fuck off Part II:
You want a 'natter about fashion' you say?

Natter this: you're embarrassing yourselves. Ssh.

K Swiss, Gonzo World & The Final Sin

Hunter in his BESPOKE CHUCK TAYLORS

"In a closed society where everybody's guilty, the only crime is getting caught. In a world of thieves, the only final sin is stupidity"

Hunter S. Thompson. Not a guy who would wear K Swiss.

We were once asked to find 'cool kids who wore K Swiss'.

We turned the job down.

Back in the day, when they brought out their 'sliders' idea, they were alright. Just. [Although kids took the frippery of being able to slide the sides of their shoes up and down and turned it in to codes and signifiers that meant things like 'I'll fuck anything' and 'I am a drug dealer'. Well done K Swiss].

They're twisted tongues idea wasn't so bad either, but it was fashionable, and therefore - ultimately - temporal. The phase passed, and people moved on. Kids aren't loyal to K Swiss [their dads may be, but kids are not]. Kids are loyal to Nike, to adidas, to Converse... Outside of that, they ironically wear Reebok and Fila... Play football in Umbro... Wonder if they can genuinely get away with wearing Le Coq Sportif... that sort of thing, but K Swiss? Nah mate... Which is why the Californian based brand taking the fucking liberty of aligning themselves with the late, great Hunter S. really, REALLY angers me. To say he doesn't fit the brand is a righteous understatement.

The URL Gonzo World is now owned by K Swiss. They have also put out a magazine using ambassadors more commonly aligned with other brands... The writing, [I'll give 'em this], isn't bad, but to find [and work with] writers who can write like that, who know what they were talking about, I'm surprised these people didn't say 'hang on a minute here K Swiss, I think we're aiming a little above our station here, huh? What about just re-positioning ourselves in a logical way, that makes sense, starting small and working our way up... Surely you're having a fucking laugh trying to stand for the artistic endeavor of Gonzo? We're, um [shuffles from foot to foot]... shit".

But alas, no. No one piped up. No one blinked. The campaign ran on.

K Swiss had found some money and God dammit they were going to spend it. "Lets spend it big John! Lets spend it now John! Who are kids in to at the moment John? Black Lips? Let's use them! Get them hanging out of the back of a white van with K Swiss on yea John? YEAH! What they played a Doc Marten's gig last week John? Ignore that! After all, we're using Tempa T and he's NIKE!! Oh, and about that - Lets get him doing a premier of 'his new skank' John! Yea! Skank! You know, skanking John! Hey, I heard from our writers that kids are watching Tempa T on SBTV John, lets interview them too, we are going to look HIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIP John!".

So hear this:

You don't look hip, you look uncomfortable, as if you're wearing shit shoes too small for your greedy feet... You look like Alan from the hangover tossing his fringe whilst wearing a man bag... You look like a liar, an idiot, a try-hard, a fool. How dare you do what you have done...

Hunter once said: "Fiction is based on reality unless you're a fairy-tale artist, you have to get your knowledge of life from somewhere... You have to know the material you're writing about before you alter it..."

And so I have one last comment for you Kunt Swiss:

HUNTER USED TO HAVE CONVERSE MADE ESPECIALLY FOR HIM FOR HIS DRUG ADDLED FEET THAT HE ALWAYS WORE YOU FUCKING IDIOTS.

He was right, the final sin really is stupidity.

Grrr etc.

Pseudo.

Image taken from here, thank you, sorry, etc.

Nike 6.0 - The Pool

Nike might have smacked it. They've taken over a derilict public pool in east london and turned into an amazing BMX park. Not nice Shoreditch/Dalston East london mind, but Dagenham. The East London I cant be bothered to go to at the best of times. The Pool will be open for a whole month for the public to come and ride and for those kids that dont even have access to BMX's Nike have shelled out on some bikes to give them to use.

“Riders of all abilities need to be quick as this fantastic building is set for demolition. The Pool will be free to ride, take lessons or just watch the action with local school sessions starting on May 16. The 4-week program of core events, community interaction and beginner workshops run through to June 12 with bikes, supervision, pads and helmets available for those who need them,” says Nike 6.0"

It looks deep.

Obama Stole Laura.... Oh, bit mean...

This is clever, I like it.

That is all.

Pseudo.

Eye-catching Billboards

In this age of social media and iPads it's nice to see some effective traditional advertising.

We've noticed a few cool billboards and posters around town recently so we'd thought we'd share them with you.

Umbro billboard in East London

Tyler The Creator billboard in East London

OFWGKTA painted wall at Village Underground, East London

Puma phonebox ad

Coca-Cola advert in Camden.

The Royal Bandwagon

Its the biggest wedding of the year. Fair. It will probably bring in the biggest revenue of any Royal event in the next decade. Apart from any Royal babies. Possibly.

To some people it's a huge celebration, and one to be proud of. To others, it's just a bank holiday. Nonetheless, it's EVERYWHERE.

I have brought together a collection of advertisements that make use of the country's.... wait, the World's... obsession with Will and Kate's April Wedding. Here are just a few. Some good, some bad and some just insane.

I'm not telling if I'm on it yet [the bandwagon I mean]. I haven't decided.

Enjoy....

The Freeview HD advert, which we discussed earlier here.

Green & Black's tastefully made print advert plays on a really traditional Wedding theme which I think we can all appreciate.

Ancestry.co.uk playing on a less obviously Royal wedding theme, but a wedding theme nonetheless.

Do I even need to explain? Wow. Saatchi & Saatchi went all out here playing on the recent trend of choreographed wedding dances.

Mr. Men and Little Miss commissioned this title in Spring of last year, and David Riley, managing director of Egmont Publishing Group, said: "It wouldn't surprise me if Prince William had heard about our plans and arranged his wedding to Kate accordingly." Hmmm.....

And Freddie Flintoff, getting into the spirit.

Ray Ban; Never Hide

I must say I am a big fan of the new Ray Ban advertising campaign, particularly the Tomatina video. Check them out.