I saw some Haier billboards when I was back in my hometown, Ponsonby, which is now over run with hipsters.  At first I quite liked them because they do exactly what advertising should do; make a purchasing decision easier for the target market.

But then I thought you can’t really claim to be a hipster if you buy cheap Earth-hating appliances made in China.

Or if you drive a car:

This ad like the Haier ones has some fantastic insight into the target market. Probably because most ad creatives are hipsters themselves. But my guess is the target market simply isn’t looking into those categories.

Hipster ads can be great if your product is organic or eco-friendly.

And small bright blue cars were best advertised when everyone was into azn street battles:

I love beer ads, it’s probably the only category which is consistently awesome. I was never allowed to work on the beer accounts when I was at S&S, because I was 16-17 at the time. (Although no one stopped me drinking the stuff in the office.) Can’t wait to do some work as awesome as these:

Brew Dog

A full social media experience based around a couple of Scottish lads (who are part time furries) brewing the strongest beer in the world. There are different stories around each of their different lagers, and the one which has really taken off is “The End of History” which literally puts the stout in stoat. These limited edition taxidermy beers made the  sm rounds and quickly sold out:

Dos Equis

Following on from the Chuck Norris meets Old Spice guy TVCS > is this online treasure hunt. I pitched an idea similar to this a little while ago so it was a pleasant surprise to see it executed well by someone else. The premise is treasures are hidden in adspaces on different sites and there are rewards for collecting them:

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Pacifico

This is simply brilliant, just a webcam on a sign in Mexico. I’ve always liked the idea of having a real life billboard used as a website, but the crucial element I was missing is the live webcam on it. You can’t help but watch intently to see if someone will come to clean the “website’s fountain” or repaint the “website menu”. Love it:

Yesterday I won a dozen cupcakes thanks to @TheRocks, by posting a picture of my favourite tea (Lady Grey on the left) in their #Aroma competition. Twinnings may now ditch Lady Grey to make way for their new flavour, Lady Gaga.

“The idea is to have tasting sessions in which she would participate… They want to market tea to a new, younger generation – particularly in America, and Gaga is making drinking tea cool again.” via Stuff.co.nz >

(News to me and all the teacup collecting hipsters that drinking tea is not cool.)

It will be a great success for anti drinking campaigners if Lady Gaga gets American teenagers drinking tea instead of booze. However Long Island Iced is probably the closest compromise they will come to.

Any guesses as to what brewed Lady Gaga will taste like?

Sad to hear the Goldstein ads are over, but there are a few funny suggestions on how to end his career >

Or rather, I used to wonder how I could work in the Google offices without knowing software engineering… and doodling was the answer. Although creative labs would probably be a better fit.

Bompas and Parr have a very interesting company, designing food. When I first read about their jelly I was instantly reminded of The Simpsons episode where everyone brings a bowl of jello to the company picnic. That scene fascinated me as a child, trying to imagine that much jelly in a room.

B&P don’t just deal in jelly, but make all sorts of fascinating feasts and foods. The above jams are Absinthe and pineapple with sand from the Great Pyramids, Plum and Oak with wood from Nelson’s ship The Victory and Milk Jam infused with a speck of Princess Diana’s hair. Simply amazing.

They have done there is everything from a 12 course Victorian breakfast to a gin infused room where you can get drunk just by breathing in the air. Go to Jellymongers.co.uk to see more.

Commonwealth have released a ridiculous bank ad. Their agency hired the director of Amelie (a movie I really love) and some how they made this complete garbage:

I thought that was bad, but I just saw this ad on a real estate site. I am a bit confused about the messaging, to me it reads as “No cash deposit. Actually just kidding mwahahaha”.

Cardon Copy is a project taking crappy street posters about lost pets etc and redesigning them.

See more including a lovely maths tutorial poster here >

I was reminded of these today after reading an email thread which made me cry with laughter while at work today. Ok just read it again and still LOLing. I usually find David Thorne’s emails too forced to be funny, this however is the most I’ve laughed since January >

My RSS reader has been filled with hate lately, more specifically hate about Cannes. I agree with the general rage especially when people can win by creating a campaign for an obvious product running it once and entering it every year until it wins.

But I want one. I have made it my goal to have at least one lion on my shelf. Even if the good creative directors, decent clients and angry blog writers don’t care about awards. Why shouldn’t I be sipping Perrier-Jouet next to the French Riviera? That sounds awesome!

But I’m not going to cheat to win, I want to create a the kind of campaign which inspires this in it’s audience:

(Disclaimer: for me to win without cheating the judges will need to learn something about digital.)

I have been given a fantastic opportunity to move to London and attend the famed School of Communication Arts.

Seeing as I can’t seem to hold down much more than contract work at the moment attending the school would be a smart career move. I need to make a decision this week about whether I am going, right now it looks unlikely as the course fees are so expensive. I’m not too worried about the “the high cost of living” in London. If I can stay in Hilton on Park Lane for 50 pounds, surely rent is going to be cheaper than here in Surry Hills. What worries me is that I already owe $25,000 for my bachelors degree and I will need to borrow that much again to pay the fees for the school.

Is a few years of this worth that much money:

Probably. But how am I ever going to pay that off? Useful advice come hither!

What would happen to us if politicians decide to lift whaling sanctions in this weeks talks?

A lack of whales could lead to some bad scenarios. One recent study suggests whale poo is crucial to slowing down global warming, however another threat to our environment looms; the terrestrial beings who communicate with Earth’s whales. If the whales all die and that communication ceases, these aliens may come looking for their fat friends… and destroy our planet in the process.

Leonard Nimoy understood this threat to our existence and made a documentary about it in 1986. In Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, Captain Kirk manages to to travel back in time, meet the mum from 7th Heaven and beam some whales to the future thus stopping our otherwise inevitable annihilation:

Some people say Captain Kirk is not a real hero, but an aging man with a talent for beat poetry. If these accusations are true then who will save the whales from their hunters?

That’s the job of the politicians we elect and we can not let them decide that commercial whaling is ok.

Please do something to save whales

Watching these inspiring ads it’s funny to think that AT&T (and Apple) are now so slow at adopt technologies which have been around for years like “face time”.

It’s also funny to think back when these ads were made I was playing Heaven and Earth on my Dad’s Mac and none of the other kids at my kindergarten even had computers at home.

Not the Bill of Rights or the Constitution, but a photograph of President Nixon meeting Elvis. Fuck yeah.

More photos from the event are here >

On 18th of March 2010 I photoshopped and posted my idea for Calvin Klein to use Chatroulette to promote their products. This was three days before Merton made Chatroulette a household name and every advertiser jumped on the bandwagon

Word spread fast(ish) and by May sites on the other side of the interwebs had reported about this “fake ad” without any attempts at journalism.

It was a just an idea. Calvin Klein did not create or implement it.

If you think it is clever you are more than welcome to contact me about offering me a job!
point_your_broswer [at] annaosekerr.com

I love the Let’s Colour Project and this video. It’s always nice to see brands using their resources to help people in need, and this is such a delightful way to do it. It reminds me of the Bras for Africa project or the story of the Red Cross delivering a truckload of lipstick to holocaust victims.

People will always need food and shelter, but sometimes the most powerful gift is a dose of hope and humanity.

See more about the Let’s Colour Project here >

In Paris I had the pleasure of seeing BSS play live. It was a great night out with two of my favourite people in the world. Had a bit of a nightmare navigating the metro and got there quite late so had to stand at the back, squished up against the sound desk. Seriously French people suck at shows. They didn’t dance, they didn’t want an encore and when Kevin Drew promised to play one more song on the condition no one took photos or video during it… some idiot started taking photos.

Oh well I guess it’s people like that who enable me to share video of the show with you.

Probably the best thing about the show is I managed to buy three of their records which I didn’t have yet for the price I would pay for only one in Australia. They are a band I highly recommend having a listen to if you haven’t before >

This ad is beautifully shot, but makes little sense. It plays on the fact that St Mark’s square is filled with pigeons and when the world warms up those pigeons will be replaced by tropical birds. Sure St Marks square has more pigeons than Trafalgar (which has none), BUT when they leave they will be replaced by whales.

Anyway here is another photo of St Marks Square taken by @jonohutchison the first time I went to Venice:

And here is another photo of models with parrots:

Since I was a little kid I have always wanted to go to MD, and a couple of weeks ago my dream came true. Except instead of Spice Girls there were a bunch of pop/movie stars I didn’t know. Still an enjoyable experience, but probably not as enjoyable as it was for the people in this video (via mtlb):

Oh and our plane to Milan was grounded meaning we had to skip having dinner with George Clooney at his fav restaurant in Lake Como (thanks for the tip @handypearce). So it was good to at least get a snap with him, to show my grandkids when I am geriatric and forget that the event never actually unfolded:

I’ve arrived in Paris and out of all the paintings in this city, by far the best I have seen up close and personal is The Picnic by Manet. It is one of those paintings which can not be done justice by modern photography.

It seems quite popular with a bunch of ad creatives, because it keeps popping up in advertising. I’ve seen it in a youghurt ad, a carpet ad and most famously David Olgviy’s first ad:

While being in Italy is something special, a lot of people only do it for the tourist attractions. I can’t understand why as you can experience most of those online (unlike having dinner at George Clooney’s favourite restaurant). Here are some Italy online hightlights:

Sistine Chapel – Why wait in line like I am probably doing right now to spend a couple of minutes in the Sistine Chapel when you can see it in high definition 3D on the Vatican website here >

Pompeii – I love volcano simulators at museums, but have never cared to much about the ruins of Pompeii. However if it’s something you’ve always wanted to see why not explore it on Google Streetview >

The Last Supper – This is not Leonardo’s best work and certainly doesn’t deserve the attention it’s given. But if you do want to see it, check it out online with the world’s highest definition ever photo. It’s a lot closer than you will ever get to the real thing, see here >

Just landed in Prague.

Czech Dream is a documentary about advertisers who created massive hype about the opening of a new supermarket. Even though the location of it was in the middle of a fields tons of people came to see what they could find at the sale – what they found disappointed them all. It’s an interesting study into the power of advertising, I have the DVD if anyone wants to borrow it, or have a look at the trailer:

Right now I am in London, but because I have limited internet access I have to write to you from the past. I have scheduled some blog posts with ads, art & weird facts from the places I am going. They will come at you on the dates I supposed to arrive in those places. Starting in London with this ad about ads:

via if this is a blog then what is christmas >

According to Google people who end up at my site are usually searching for “Chatroulette boobs” and I hope those people find what they are looking for.

The people who spend the longest time on my site (on average 15 minutes!) are usually looking for cats. So below is a picture of a kitten I had called Maebe, so all you cat people don’t have to look so hard:

Pretty soon I will be getting on a plane to Europe so the regular service may be somewhat disrupted. But never fear I will schedule some themed blogs for while I am gone. I have also compiled a list of very talented New Zealanders who write about the kinds of things you find here.

For advertising lols I recommend a peek at the hashtag #overheardinthecreativedept created by the very lovely miss @bexrad.

If you want the latest breaking news, I don’t know why you would be looking here. Nevertheless may I suggest following journalist @jonohutchison, who’s stories you can find on New Zealand’s TV3.

If you’re a nerd you will enjoy David Chambers Design, where my friend painstakingly writes beautiful code.

For everything and anything in any way awesome you must subscribe to Frivolity by my favourite Poppy Gallico.

(Tip:  her boyfriend is also a fantastic tweeter.)

For music listen to Dear Time’s Waste, for arts & craft check out Craft-D, and there’s even a site to cover off the most obscure of the things I blog about weddings.

Although I prefer Victorians to any other breed of Australians (oops sorry Sydney friends), I do like this ad and how it pokes fun at one of my favourite ever TVS:

Looking forward to being in Melbourne this weekend on the way to Europe. Does anyone know where that cloister is? I have always wanted to find it.