Six Favourite Advertisements from my Reading Week Books

So during my reading week on my course, we were set the task of reading four different books based on the skills that a person needs to do well in the creative industry and in their future careers. The books I read were 'Damn Good Advice' by George Lois, 'Hegarty on Creativity' by John Hegarty, 'Whatever you think, think the opposite' and 'It's not how good you are, it's how good you want to be' which were both by Paul Arden. Whilst I was reading these books I came across some really intriguing advert campaigns which had been developed and executed by the authors of these books who had previous careers in the advertising industry and I thought they would be really interesting to share on here since I am part of a communication and promotion course. Furthermore, some of the campaign's I came across were really inspiring and I thought would be helpful for future ideas on my course as a few of them actually included the advertisements for top fashion brands, popular culture, entertainment and art.

Here is a look at some of the adverts I chose from the books which was I really intrigued by. Hopefully you are to!

Levi Straus advert campaign in 1982 by BBH (Hegarty on Creativity)

One of BHH's clients ever was the brand Levi Strauss in 1982 who were looking for an innovative way of advertising their black denim line. Although there are no black jeans or denim apparent in the advert, the advert communicated the message that by wearing these black jeans from Levi Strauss you will be different and stand out from the crowd. Similarly to the attention given to the black sheep in the advert who is different to every other sheep in the image. Therefore, by the company BHH looking in a completely different direction they were able to communicate a campaign which was distinctive, individual, memorable and not what you would usually expect from a denim brand.



Avedon’s iconic photograph of model Iman for an Alexon campaign 1987 (It's not how good you are, it's how good you want to be) Paul Arden

During 1987, Paul Arden had been working with the famous photographer, Richard Avedon on a fashion editorial for an Alexon campaign. The theme for this editorial shoot was African print dresses and the given brief was Leni Riefenstahl's Nuba woman therefore, to visually interpret the culture and identity behind this brief, Arden suggested that the woman should appear oily and dirty to replicate the stereotypical vision of a 'Nuba Woman'. However, the shoot had a creative twist which shocked many as instead of wearing the skirt in the normal way a skirt should be worn, Avedon placed the garment onto the head of the model for a fashion forward effect. Therefore, although the given brief was based on historical and contextual references of a specific society, the pair created an alternative and modern way of advertising or communicating the pattern of a garment to engage viewers with the fashions of a Nuba woman in a bizarre way.




Leni Riefenstahl's autobiographical photographs of the Nuba People in the 70's

Esquire March 1965 cover commenting on the oncoming of women’s liberation movement in 1965 by George Lois (Damn Good Advice)

This advert by George Lois for Esquire magazine in March 1965 was inspired by an article by the editor of the publication, Harold Haye called 'The Masculinization of the American Woman'. However, in this advertisement, Lois wanted to capture a woman being manly but who was beautiful at the same time to create a spoof of Hollywood glamour in the 60's. The model in the advert was Virna Lisi, an Italian actress who loved the edgy idea in comparison to Marilyn Monroe and Jayne Mansfield who immediately declined the controversial role that portrayed an untraditional concept of a woman's identity.



'I want my MTV' 1985 by George Lois (Damn Good Advice)

What started out as a chant by rock fans down the phone to their local cable operators yelling "I want my MTV" in 1985 has truly became one of the biggest popular culture slogan's to date. The campaign was led by rock-stars Mick Jagger, Peter Townsend and Pat Benatar who shouted 'I want my MTV' down the phone during the campaign and urged their fans to also do this so that 'MTV' would be picked up as a cable channel in America even though the operators believed it was for a generation of 14-28 year olds who loved to rock and were only interested in sex and drugs. Therefore, the operators believed that this could send out bad messages to future generations and the public. However, through George Lois' advert and the help of popular rock stars this negative conception of the channel was turned around and the TV channel was seen as the "most spectacular pop culture phenomenon since the advent of cable television and arguably the invention of the tube itself" as stated by TIME magazine and making it one of the most successful music channels across the globe.



Tommy Hilfiger's advert campaign on Times Square, 1985 by George Lois (Damn Good Advice)

In 1985, the young Tommy Hilfiger launched his first store on Manhattan's Upper West Side and needed an eye-catching advert to get his brand on the high end fashion map. Therefore, George Lois came up with this challenging advertisement which named all of the greatest American designers for males during the eighties in a 'hang-man' format. Obviously, Hilfiger was just starting out at the time but by placing his name next to these other successful fashion designers, the advert was already communicating to future consumers that Hilfiger's brand was going to be just as superior and successful as the likes of Calvin Klein and Ralph Lauren in terms of male high fashion. It states at the bottom of the advert that ' This is the logo of the least known of the four' however, Tommy Hilfiger instantly became famous after this advert and gained so much publicity across American within just a few days of the billboard going up and even infuriated his new competitor, Calvin Klein whilst enjoying his new found fame.



Andy Warhol's cover on Esquire magazine in May 1969 by George Lois (Damn Good Advice)

Another one of George Lois' iconic Esquire magazine covers was this one that featured Andy Warhol in May 1969. The front cover depicts an image of the pop art artist, Andy Warhol, drowning in a can of Campbell's soup which had been a muse for his famous painting of thirty two Campbell's Soup Cans in 1962 and therefore, allowed his to become a walking logo for the canned soup. However, the front cover can be perceived in very different ways; many may see the advert as comical on Warhols behalf but some may see the use of Warhol in the can as imagery to represent celebrities being swallowed by the things that have brought them fame and the absurdity of it. To create this front cover during a time when applications such as Photoshop and computers did not exist, Lois had to take two separate photos of the can of soup and of Warhol looking terrified and as if he were drowning then take black and white stats and paste them together, and have it printed on one surface. This was called C-Print in the 60's.