Creative Skirts

Top 10 Ads of the Year

AdWeek published their Top 10 Ads of the Year, and I'm happy to say that the number of female creatives on the list has grown. Last year there was only one (congrats, Susan Hoffman), and this year there are TWO (out of 35 total creatives).

Danielle Flagg, CD at Wieden+Kennedy Portland

• P&G "Best Job"

Susan Hoffman, ECD at Wieden+Kennedy Portland

•     P&G "Best Job"
•     Chrysler "It's Halftime in America"
•     Nike "Jogger"

The good news is, 3 of the 10 spots were stamped with a female creative name. Here they are:

 

 

 

Hopefully Danielle and Susan have given each other a high five. 

Crazy Cat Ladies

I never thought I'd care about a cat, but this spot changed that (for 30 seconds at least). 

Pretty nice work Sarah Litwin-Schmid and Emily Drake of Saatchi & Saatchi New Zealand.

 

Thank you, Richard Neill.

Last week Richard Neill left a pretty fantastic post on Bodyform's Facebook page lamenting the fact that while he was growing up, the company's advertising made women on their periods seem so happy and full of energy that he was acutally jealous. Now that he has a girlfriend of his own, he's realized this is all a carefully constructed roux. (He had 87,047 likes & 3,744 comments after 9 days.)

Bodyform retorted with some pretty great sarcasm of their own:

Hi Richard. We loved your post on our Facebook page. We are always grateful for input from our users, but your comment was particularly poignant. If Facebook had a “love” button, we’d have clicked it. But it doesn’t. So we’ve made you a video instead. Unfortunately, Bodyform doesn’t have a CEO. But if it did, she’d be called Caroline Williams. And she’d say this.

Do let us know if we can help you further…

Regards, The Bodyform Team

Fart consultant: Mike Koenig

 

After just 16 hours, it's already at 2,392 likes (full disclosure: one is ours) & 1,119 comments. Way to take advantage, Bodyform.

All Hail Susan Hoffman

I was in the mood for something uplifting today, so I went in search of a woman to inspire us all.

The search didn't start particularly well—on Adweek's full credits list of the top 10 ads of last year, only one woman was credited in any sort of creative role. ONE. 

But the one was Susan Hoffman, and she's plenty enough inspiration for us all. Here's some of her work as partner, ECD, and 8th employee of W+K Portland:

 

 

  

The spot she did with Janet Champ that made me go into advertising:

 

And finally, a few wise words from the woman herself:

 

Cheers, Susan Hoffman. And thanks for the mid-week pick-me-up.

Mad Woman

Inspiration for the day:

A WOMAN copywriter sold the “I <3 New York” campaign in the 70s. She was working at Wells Rich Greene at the time, and worked with graphic designer Milton Glaser (who did the work pro bono, thinking it would only run for a few months) to get the campaign sold to the city.

Her name was Jane Maas, and she’s also written a book, Mad Women, at the spring-chicken age of 80. (check it out in hard copy or iPad-style)

Makes me think I’ve got plenty of time …