Moustache - EINSTEIN'S WAS SMALLER THAN MINE. HIS IQ WASN'T.

Since our return from Europe and more recently South Korea and Japan, we have decided to catch up on some of the TV series we missed in 2012.

Not surprisingly one series I have always enjoyed is Mad Men, a period drama about the New York advertising industry in the 1960s’.

New York was at the centre of what was called the Creative Revolution during these halcyon years.

The ad agency Doyle Dane Bernbach (DDB) developed ground breaking campaigns for clients like Volkswagen and Avis during this time.

Mad Men was created and produced by Matthew Weiner, an exceptional screen writer who was also involved in the highly acclaimed HBO series The Sopranos.

Having been inducted into advertising at the end of that amazing era and being a student of the ads of that period, I was intrigued as to how Weiner got his material.

It turns out that one of his main consultants was Bob Levenson, a veteran ad man from DDB. Levenson, together with Bill Bernbach and art director Helmet Krone produced some of the most well know and enduring campaigns of this golden age.

It’s not surprising that Mad Men has become such a hit, as it offers the viewer a real insight into the lives, work, frustrations, faults and foibles of the men and women of Madison Avenue in the 1960s.

It’s been another 3 weeks of staying up late watching the Tour de France.

This is its 100th anniversary.

The countryside was constantly changing, as they moved from Corsica, through the Riviera, the Pyrenees, Brittany, the Alps and then on to Paris.

Unfortunately the ads, unlike the views, all had a boring similarity.

Except for one charminmg little spot for H&R Block, Tax Accountants.

It was simple. Two guys on their bikes.

It was relevant. Two guys on their bikes.

And it dramatised the proposition. Two guys on their bike with one making complex stuff look really simple.

My bertet goes off to Us Sydney, who created the spot and Plaza Films who produced it.

I will be away for the next twelve months, living and traveling in countries that don’t have English as a first language.

Also countries that have very different cultural and commercial values to what I have been used to.

Firstly North Africa, Jordan and Turkey, then the Balkans, Eastern Europe and finally into Western Europe.

Well that’s the plan.

This will be a challenge for my blog as I usually write about communication.

And, as I believe that most good communication involves both visual imagery and the written word, I think that I will be dealing with half a deck of cards.

It will be interesting to see if the contemporary approach to advertising, of more visual than verbal solutions, has really become global.

Will I just gravitate to visual solutions, because language will no longer play a part, or will there be genuinely good work that transcend language?

Toyota have always been more innovative marketers than vehicle designers.

The Prius is a notable exception.

They were amongst the first to develop a web presence and then very quickly followed that up by making it interactive.

Now they are at it again, this time with iPad ads.

This one popped up on The Age the other day.

I flip past most ads on The Age iPad App, as I would have done in their traditional broadsheet newspaper.

However this one stopped me because it was involving.

The reader was asked to tap on the screen to see the effect a smash would have on their internal organs.

The heart, lungs, liver and kidneys would all crack, like glass, when you tapped them.

Tap them harder and they shattered.

This ad involved the consumer in the idea.

Good ads have never been static, even if they were only in print form, they have always had the ability to bring the punter along for the ride.

Oh what a feeling.

I was at a birthday party just before Christmas and one of the guests suffered a massive heart attack.

Four people, including myself, gave him Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation. It was later discovered that none of the four had ever done CPR before.

We managed to crack a couple of ribs but we kept him alive until the MICA unit arrived about 25 minute later.

We were all working on this poor guy by trying to recall what we had read in books, seen on TV or in the movies. All four of us thought that the others knew what they were doing and just followed suit.

While we were pounding his chest another of the guests was in contact with 000 where a paramedic was giving him instructions on what we should be doing.

We were being told to depress his chest 100 times a minute, this was far more that I remember, but we weren’t going to argue.

I only wish that this ad had been running, at some time, before I needed to do CPR for real.

It’s a great example of perfect casting, a very appropriate soundtrack and a simple, well told narrative.

What’s even more important, is that all these separate elements combine to make this spot stick in your memory.

And isn’t that the sort of recall you want when it’s a life and death situation?

Our ‘victim’ is recovering well and can’t wait to get us back for cracking his ribs.

Vinnie Jones Hard and Fast