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. 

Street Art to Save Lives

Here's a great installation from street artist Ernest Zacharevic (hired by Happiness Brussels) for Toyota. Apparently in the US alone, 2 kids are killed and another 50 are injured each week in accidents involving reversing cars. 

It's hard to tell in the photos, but the objects are real, while the kids are painted, so a car can actually run into the installation if the driver doesn't see it. While that helps the concept, I'd be pretty pissed if I ran into a shopping cart that was part of an ad for Toyota.

Agency: Happiness Brussels
ECDs:
 Karen Corrigan & Cecilia Azcarate Isturiz (what! ladies!)
CD: Peter Ampe
Concept Provider (that's a title I've never seen before): Gregory Titeca
Artist:
 Ernest Zacharevic

Ladies making out. Anybody? Anybody?

3 floors of Beauty? Great.

By Harvey Nichols? Good to know.

"Love Thyself"? Nice expression of that.

And yet, this was the chosen execution of that insight?

Seems like it's not quite directed at the right target. I expected more from a bunch of guys who can do better (and did, just last year):

 

Credits:

adam&eveDDB
ECD: Jeremy Craigen
AD: Rob Messeter
CW: Mike Crowe

A pageant & ad campaign ahead of its time.

In 1941, the New York Subway System needed an ad campaign to draw attention to the ad campaigns posted in its cars.

"Miss Subways" ran from 1941 to 1976, and was deceptively ahead of its time. Other beauty pageants were still proudly featuring swimsuit competitions, but Miss Subway's bio always told of her career asipirations. 

 

Meet the 1st Miss Subways, writer and illustrator Mona Freeman:

And Frances Smith, Army Nurse:

And Helen Lee, Columbia grad and 1st Asian-American Miss Subways in 1949:

From the beginning, Miss Subways was lobbied by local groups to include black, Jewish, Catholic, Asian, Hispanic and even Scandanavian women. Racial integration happened fairly quickly, with the first African American crowned in 1948 (the news was so big, the NAACP magazine did a feature story). An African-American Miss America wouldn't be crowned for another 35 years.

Decades later when Marcia Kilpatrick was crowned, she had her skin darkened in her photo. “I looked too light; I didn’t want any confusion,” she said. 

That way, she said, “People can say, ‘That’s one of us.’”

An exhibition is running on the Miss Subways at the New York Transit Museum from October 23 - March 25. 

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.