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Deep down

I've just written my column the Christmas issue of Idealog (happy birthday Idealog - has it really been a year?). Matt, our editor, asked me to write a piece about advertising. I wasn't so keen, I tend to be thinking about where advertising is going, rather than the latest, glossiest ads on TV. I wonder if I begin to sound like a guy with a sandwich board with 'The End is Nigh' on it. That's not really what I think. In fact, the opposite. The beginning is nigh. Things are changing fast in the world of communications and I am excited at the prospect of it. Excited in a bungie jump way. You know, your lizard brain is telling you that you're going to die when you jump off, but your rather more sensible mind is reassuring you that the rubber bands around your ankles will protect you from real harm...

But anyway, I am reminded how much I really do enjoy advertising when it is crafted with care and has some form of intelligence present. By that I don't mean that it is intellectually clever, but that that the creative shares something useful with us.
I've put in a lovely ad from Volkswagen to illustrate the point. They share the feeling of driving on a balmy night, being followed by the moon, and how much nicer it is when you are sharing it with friends or people who are like you. Not complicated. But then, the best communications never are.



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