BC Lions

Seeing how I am going to Vancouver for Christmas, here are some ads from the homeland.

Candles

Fabric Softener

But I like the old one too, it's one of my favourites.

Vending Machine

Down for the Holidays

This blog will be closed for maintenance between December 22nd and January 3rd.

Now is the time to leave any comments/suggestions that you may have.

Let me know who some of you are, it would be nice to meet some of my regular readers.

Truth is Stranger than Fiction

You can't dream up headlines this bizarre.

World’s' tallest man rescues dolphins in China

The Hong Kong Work Ethic

What a crazy week. It’s 10 am Thursday morning. We were working until 4 last night and now I’m back at it. Actually Alex, Kin, Charles and the illustrators are still here, they’ve been going all night. I don’t know if KC slept at all. This is the third time this week we’ve had less than 7 hours to run home, sleep, and come back.

What a frantic city.

Leaping the Corpus Callosum

One tendency that is prevalent amongst all of the creatives I have met in advertising agencies is the ability to control focus.

It is an essential skill to go from ‘big picture’ right-brain thinking, where the mind is open to ideas from any direction, to incisive, focused, left-brain detail-orientation, where you strain over ever single word, and become intensely self-judgmental about the validity and effectiveness of what’s before you.

And this change in focus must happen instantaneously.

Often while throwing around ideas, you can see this come into play. The ability to catch onto an idea and collectively, systematically, put it through rapid-fire scrutiny, and simultaneously seek possible avenues for embellishment. It's in their eyes as they dart from one hemisphere to the next. It is an interesting phenomenon.

Copywriter Pick of the Week (again)

Some readers (like my mom!) tell me the best thing about this blog is the ads I post. Hmm. Well, fine. Here's a great one.

Clio - Slow

Tiger Beer

Here's a bizarre spot for Tiger Beer

Sustainable Advertising

My latest column about sustainable advertising has been published.

The Weather In Hong Kong

Okay, this is a mundane topic, but I have to say, Hong Kong has the best weather of anywhere I have ever been in my life. It’s early December and it’s 22 degrees, the stuff of shorts and t-shirts (although I am the only one I see in a t-shirt).

It’s bright and clear and sunny too. It only rains here about once a month, which is a treat, especially coming from Vancouver where they are having one of the worst winters in something like 100 years. When I arrived in the summer it was hot, but nothing like Tokyo or Shanghai or Montreal.

I can see why seven million people have crowded onto this little jungle covered rock jutting out of the sea.

Freelance Copywriting Blog

Now that I have signed on with Publicis for the next three months, the usefulness of this blog has changed.

I had a link in Wikipedia entitled ‘How to Get a Job As a Copywriter’ but yesterday they pulled it. It’s too bad, really, because I think that this blog is actually a legitimate resource to help those trying to break in from a sweat and guts perspective.

Just go to the first entry, you’ll see what I mean.

The link was generating a lot of traffic, but traffic isn’t really all that essential, as I don’t have any advertising on this site anyway.

Either way, the mission is still on, and it never hurts to be at the top of the listings.

Freelance Copywriter Pick of the Week

Here are two ads that Nissan will run as college football teams compete for the Heisman trophy. To compare with the action of the games themselves, these ads are high-energy, and compelling, as the mascots compete with one another.

Chase for the Heisman Part One

The second one is better:

The Chase for the Heisman Part Two

Small Victory

I started this blog to help me find a permanent job at a 4As agency in Hong Kong. After freelancing for the last three months with Publicis, I have just signed a contract, for another three months. So it isn’t a permanent position, but it’s a close.