LIFE’S CALLING SMH READERS IN NEW CAMPAIGN VIA WHYBIN\TBWA SYDNEY
Whybin\TBWA Sydney has launched a new brand campaign for The Sydney Morning Herald.
The re-brand seeks to strengthen Sydney’s emotional connection to The Sydney Morning Herald and establish an ongoing commitment, by increasing readership frequency, from ‘light’ or occasional consumers of the newspaper.
The new Whybin\TBWA campaign, ‘Life’s calling’, embodies the spirit of getting out there, doing new things and being part of the story. It positions The Sydney Morning Herald as the one, all-encompassing media that stimulates the lives of Sydneysiders by offering rich content across lifestyle, entertainment and current affairs.
25-49 year old socially active white-collar professionals, who are usually the first to know about news and events in Sydney, are targeted for the ‘Life’s calling’ campaign.
According to Whybin\TBWA Sydney managing director, Paul Bradbury, the ‘Life’s calling’ campaign ignores market conventions: “We have found a complementary place for the newspaper in people’s lives, without having to replace other media. The Sydney Morning Herald isn’t about taking time away from life, it’s about enriching it. We want readers to take well-spent time to discover something new about life in Sydney, and be a part of it, by reading The Sydney Morning Herald.”
The TBWA campaign launched with a TVC, followed by an outdoor, online and press campaign.
Client: Fairfax – The Sydney Morning Herald
Agency: Whybin\TBWA Sydney
Creative Director: Garry Horner
Creative Team: Garry Horner, Matt Kemsley, Dave Lidster
Agency Producer: Sean Ascroft (Broadcast) & Jessie Williams (Print)
Account Service: Paul Bradbury, Asher Taylor & Melissa Monaco
Planner: Matt Robinson
Director: Fabio Nardo
Production Company: Film Graphics
Editor: Sean Ascroft
Post Production: Frame, Set & Match
Music: Song Zu
Media Planning: Initiative Media
Media Buying: Initiative Media
103 Comments
That’s an animatic by a junior team, right?
Where’s Gaz & Kemsley’s slick, insightful and contemporary offering?
Way to get down with the kids, dudes.
I particularly love the ‘Audioslave’ power riff circa 2001.
This TVC is a brilliant representation of what The Sydney Morning Herald has become.
Shallow, badly put together, unimaginative, and suffering from budget cuts.
Fuck you who wrote that 1st comment.
This is fresh – go Gazza.
This flicker-book style of animation is old skool and clean
fucking gr8 compared to the sunday tele shite
Real job for a real client! Wow! So that’s what it looks like! i need a chair…
incredibly generic advertising.
change the logo and it’s for any newspaper brand in the world. except the british tabloids – you’d need tits for that one.
How bloody woeful. Considering what the Indian Newspaper did at Cannes.
This is a Newspaper for god sake. People connect with their newspaper. It’s a major part of their lives and this is all they could come up with?Have these guys quit or what?
it’s quite nice as a piece of film. like the new rave colours.
quite similar to the work from the observer in the UK.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAej9pEaWLM
My only problem is “life is calling so sit down and do nothing all weekend and read the newspaper.”
active people don’t have time to read the paper. it’s lazy bastards like me who read the paper.
this has to be said. i am sad.
just using an artists body of work…OLIVER LARIC no less and just sticking a logo on it is NOT creative it is LAZY.
i am appalled at such appropriation.
i am letting the world know…but most of the creatives in the world know this piece of reference. this will go no where in awards.
so fresh you could find it on youtube 2 years ago
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7K9SOy-ObI
OMG. This is just lazy…..check this out:
http://www.oliverlaric.com
Oh…the credits should read to be totally honest:
Client: Fairfax – The Sydney Morning Herald
Agency: Whybin\TBWA Sydney
Creative Director: Oliver Laric
Creative Team: Oliver Laric
Director: Fabio Nardo.?????????????? Oliver Laric.
Editor: Sean Ascroft for adding in a logo and subhead.
Love the proposition.
The rationale pushed all the right buttons.
Sadly the execution left me emotionally cold.
Fairfax should spend more time examining its shitty distribution. History has taught me if you want the SMH before 9:00am on a Saturday in the CBD, that you are shit out of luck. Lame. That’s why I buy something else.
This must be so reassuring to Fairfax’s advertising clients 🙂
Sorry folks but this is an exact rip off from an artist’s quicktime I’ve had on my drive for several years. This is not an original idea in any way – it’s stolen . I don’t remember where I got it from exactly – but i still have it. It does work well.
Truth.
This clip looks very familiar.
http://www.everyoneforever.com/content/2007-09-13/787_cliparts/
6.26pm.
I believe you are incorrect.
Go fuck yourself.
fuck, i really hate this work.
8.31pm
“Go ahead make my day” you nasty piece of work.
In all fairness….C’mon guys. Tell us how you sold this in? What did you say? Why did you do this? What were you thinking?
You have the right to reply. We are all waiting……
Oh my. What would Lee Clow say? Thats just embarrassing
I smell LAWYERS
you are going to jail!
I don’t mind if an ad is influenced or inspired by works of art (ie cog). And I don’t mind if the team and CD take a credit for it.
But this is simply plagiarism – why the creative actually put his name to it is beyond me, not to mention it’s actually against the law, no different than petty theft.
The advertising business has truly become disgusting.
So agree 8:11
Whybins – You simply CANNOT charge Fairfax one dollar in creative fees for this work. If you do it’s tantamount to robbery. This is no different to a thief stealing a painting off one person and selling it to someone else.
When will you babies learn that is just fine, nay noble, to borrow from other fields and artists?
Can we get someone from Whybins to confirm whether or not they paid this guy for ripping off his idea? If they did, fine. No worries. If they didn’t, they should be taken to task by the AFA and the ASB. That’s just not on.
As a CD I find this site really enlightening.
It’s ok to borrow, but to rip off the same sequences and a music track that’s almost identical to audioslave, which you probably saw on sports tonight, is woeful.
It’s good to see the herald are trying to tap the gay market with all those lovely hard to read colours and shit typography.
I agree, fucking appalling typography, I think I’m going to vomit.
I think its an o.k. spot . It stood out on the television and i checked out that Laric guy. Sorry ,but all he did was take….or borrow…. existing clip art and cut it together for no one in particular. Why aren’t people having a go at him for ‘ borrowing’?
What’s with the 50 logos? Or is this the ‘agency version’?
It’s got plenty of cut through, you cut throats! And hey, I even got the idea.
Good one.
I think it’s great for the category, even TV. Shame about product shots but knowing the client they’ve done pretty well. Well done Gaz.
“Another warning sign that should send your Hack-O-Meter into the red is how they talk. And how they do talk. In fact, talk is all a Hack can do, being incapable as he is of producing an ad that a fly won’t lay eggs on. He’ll know the buzzwords. And worse, he’ll have a few of his own.
“At this agency, we believe in advertising with Clutter-Busting® Power.”
If you hear something like this, just drop your portfolio and run. You can put together another book. Just run. Don’t risk the elevator. Go for the stairs.”
One thing is for sure, it jumps off the screen on TV, and the press that’s been running recently is bloody brilliant.
And no, I would never, ever work there.
Oh give me a break.
Laric was inspired by clip art, Whybins were inspired by Laric and clip art. They changed all the images and added a music track. Although some of you children think you can’t use certain types of music either.
How is this different to the Schweppes ‘Burst’ ad which was also inspired by a Youtube clip? Or Flat Eric? Or ‘Cog’? Or ‘Balls’? Or ‘1984’?
If it’s not an ad, it is fair game to use it.
At least it isn’t like the BankWest stuff which ‘homaged’ another advertising campaign.
This is what advertising does. We steal from popular culture.
Get over it.
Meh!
“Bad artists borrow. Great artists steal.”
– Pablo Picasso
Yeah, it’s got an idea. Somebody else’s idea. I’m so glad these guys were stupid enough to sent this into the blog so we can all see what thieving hacks they are. Well done. And to think I was all inspired to do better work by Cannes only a few days ago.
I’m just appalled. To 12.47pm – Are you really that ignorant … Or MAYBE are you the creative team trying to turn the tide anonymously? What’s wrong with ‘borrowing’??!!?? This is tantamount to Fraud, Plagiarism, Theft.
And kind of foul and off brand anyway. Gives me motion sickness too, just as an aside. I would bet the agency fees they charged the client that they did not pay the real artist.
Lovely to see the CD and MD of this agency are behind this work.
Or at least claim to be.
3:25 – Not knowing the difference is going to cost someone a fuck-load of money very shortly. If you think this will go away quietly into the night I think you’ll be very sorely mistaken.
This is blatant plagiarism. If this was legal, we’d all be making ads with edited together clips of The Simpsons, adding a music track and revoicing the characters so they sound 10% different.
I don’t think a judge will take “Oh give me a break, what about Balls, get over it” as a defense.
Surely it must physically hurt to be that dumb.
advertising is not art.
This is wrong on so many levels.
I’m writing to SMH, Oliver Laric and your mothers.
How to turn a world class newspaper into toilet paper:
Have a shit strategy, done (most recently) by Virgin ‘Pre-packaged’.
Spend fuck all money on it to the point it really shows.
Take a shit typeface from 1999 and make it multicoloured as shit.
Art direct the outdoor so you have to stop your car for ten minutes to see what it is.
Get your grandma to shoot the outdoor.
Save money on research because you’re so hip with the kids you don’t need it.
Coffee’s calling.
5.50
You really are a thicko. The Simpsons use characters created for the Simpsons.
Laric used generic characters created for all to use. Do you think he asked the permission of the artists? Do you even understand the point of his art? It’s all about appropriating the images of others.
I’m sure he’s chuffed by what Whybins have done.
As far as I am concerned, Whybins have trumped his appropriation by using a similar idea for a real client. It’s like when Marcel DuChamp and the Dadaists created works of art by simply declaring that found objects were in fact art. Or when Warhol used Campbell soup cans.
Except this is for advertising.
I think its great.
that’s another one for the wall of shame.
am i the only one who thinks the print work is scarily close to that virgin campaign with the guy escaping from the toy packaging?
and here’s the link to the virgin campaign – more originality from whybins
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQkUawr-D0Y&feature=related
8:31, your excuses are a pathetic stretch. Seriously. You flatter yourself. I mean whybins.
8:31 – I think those artist all had given some sort of reasoning behind the work they produced, it wasn’t to sell anything but themselves or a social commentary. The issue here is what plagiarism really means (and please excuse the cliché dictionary form).
Plagiarism
noun
The practice of taking someone else’s work or ideas and passing them off as one’s own.
And that’s what’s happening here. I didn’t see any credit or mention of Oliver Laric.
Hence FOUL!
7:50
You are truly ignorant.
How is ‘get what you want’ (Virgin) anywhere near the same strategy as the SMH?
Obviously you are some junior dispatch kiddie or work experience creative who hasn’t worked out how to separate a strategy, from an idea, from the execution.
And as for the photography, I’m sure you take great sunsets with your camera phone, but that doesn’t mean you have any idea about what’s good or not. Just so you know, the outdoor is bloody excellent.
Keep trying.
i think cunts should feature more heavily in advertising, i would support the use of more cunts
Hey Whybins – here’s one for you to rip off
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=to99C-0cLGE
go fetch!
Somebody mentioned the shit type. The Guardian UK did similar stuff with their work [type] and it did wonders for their brand according to client. Done by W+K London, I think.
I think the spot has energy, thanks in part to the coloured type.
I’m with 8.31.
Oh dear. Big mistake. The team didn’t change it at all. Except place a logo in it…Twice!!! HA. Twice!!!! HA HAH AHAHAHAHAHAHAH.
So. Whybins, please tell us. Why did you do this? This is an open forum. You should defend yourself. So we can have the full picture. Even if you didn’t steal this…tell us how you came up with this.
so 2:10, you’re saying that what we thought was the only original thing in the spot was in fact ripped off from another ad for a newspaper and done first by another agency?
that helps.
Forget the plagarism aspect. It’s a technique searching for an idea. A ‘LAME’ idea.
Says nothing about the paper. It’s just another bit of hog wash bullshit.
‘What kind of tomorrow do you want?’ was a great campaign for the Sydney Morning Herald. Tomorrow’s newspaper was the line. ‘Topical’ Engaging and thought provoking. Felt like a big idea for a newspaper. Then you’ve got the ‘Times of India’ stuff that just won at Cannes. Truly brilliant.
This however is a shiny, shiny turd. Nothing more.
Whybins, sorry guys, but you just aren’t trying.
8:31 – Who’s the biggest thicko, the person who gets fined $200,000 for breaching the advertising standards code, or the person warning them against it?
It’s a blatant lift. A rip off. It’s not borrowing a style. It’s not an homage. It’s theft.
Plagiarism wouldn’t be tolerated on the pages of the Herald. I wonder how they feel about their comms being so ‘inspired’. Can’t be long before this is up for pitch.
Whoever said it was noble needs to waddle back to AWARD school and learn how to generate some ideas of his own. Or just settle back into hacksville…. now….. please… off you go.
10:59pm obviously doesn’t work at a big agency. Plenty of C___s at big agencies.
There should be a free database of them on this blog, giving us all a headsup on those for who whom defecating down the backs of others is pretty much an involuntary action.
Couldn’t have happened to a bigger bunch of losers. Just pathetic on all fronts.
To all you self-righteous c’s talking about rip offs,
I presume that means you abhor Honda Cog as an ad?
Or the TVC voted ‘best ad of the 20th Century’ – Heineken Photo Booth.
Or endless other ads.
IT DOESN’T REALLY MATTER- WE ARE SALESPEOPLE, WE THEREFORE HAVE THE MORALS OF SALESPEOPLE / BUSINESS PEOPLE. WE CHOOSE TO DO THIS INSTEAD OF STARVE IN A GARRETT. THAT AND BECAUSE WE’RE NOT CLEVER ENOUGH / ARTISTIC ENOUGH / BRAVE ENOUGH / ORIGINAL ENOUGH.
BUT THAT’S OKAY, IT’S OUR JOB.
I’m not convinced this is actually plagiarism. The two are so alike I think they could argue they’re actually the same, and therefore not copied. They’ve just added their logo at the end.
Therefore its not plagiarism!
At least that’s the only reasoning I can think their legal department could have possibly given them when they approved this ad.
All advertising is theft, you stupid little cunts.
That’s what we do.
and what creative doesn’t take inspiration from youtube etc. Nothing in this industry is original you mindless twats.
I meant ‘Hamlet’ photobooth.
8:31, 10:57, 2:10am (ooh that is sad), 12:13, 2:48, 4:57, 11:47pm (same sad guy again) obviously work for whybins.
You can tell by their agressive tone, fruitless optimism and inability to take criticism. My guess is they work near the top or are the ones responsible for making this campaign.
It’s not our job to steal in advertising, that’s what hacks do. Our job is to inspire consumers to buy what they otherwise wouldn’t.
And that type, is awful for two reasons. Good typography, in communications, the business we’re in whybins, is readable typography. Anyone that did first year typography at a reasonable design school knows changing colours reduces readability by up to 90%.
The second reason is it (and everything else) try’s a little too hard. I’d rather it didn’t try hard enough.
This in fact isn’t a campaign.
Show me 3 TVCs that work. Show me 3 print that work. Show me how the print actually works with the TVC. The TVC doesn’t make sense on its own. It’s rubbish.
I don’t care what Whybins say, the outdoor is rubbish and the photography is shit. My cat can do better retouching than that.
I think some people need to go back to school.
So plagiarism is OK. Well that’s a free for all – remember that when someone steals your idea and it winds up on the tele and YOU DON”T get credit for it.
Nothing is original in this business – I agree with that. But have some fucking morals and at least have the balls to say “this ad has been inspired by…” – instead of – “look how fucking creative I am”.
Maybe we should change the title of creative to bullshitter. Oh no – that would be wrong.
Oh dear, the agency response has degenerated into name calling. I guess thats what you get from these original minds. Keep it up you big thinkers you. Convince yourself that its ok to not have you own ideas if it helps you sleep.
I have to wonder – would Droga do something like this?
11:10 don’t start – it’s bad enough we have to shit on Whybins!
Would Droga5 do something like this?
You mean would they appropriate an ‘underground’ artform for commercial gain? Would they exploit a subculture to sell the clothes of a multi-millionaire? Would they ‘trick’ punters by pretending an ad was ‘art’?
Well, yes.
But back to the thread.
I wouldn’t call the commercial or the inspiration art. But some of you kiddies are. So how about all those tired retreads of famous works of art that get trotted out.?
Let’s take, for example, the complete cliche of Michelangelo’s Cistine Chapel mural.
You would think this image has been used to death, but lo and behold it was exploited in last year’s AWARD annual for ice cream. Did that team credit or pay Mr Michelangelo?
Or does the death of the original artist make it OK?
Plagiarism. For sure.
Own up.
This thread proves that bad work generally gets the thumbs down from the bloggers, slagged for being unoriginal and boring – and rightly so.
On the other hand, good work (like the latest Four ‘N’ Twenty campaign) gets the thumbs up. It was the same for Schweppes ‘Burst’ when it first appeared on the blog (I estimate over 85% approval from the 91 comments).
I bet the Four ‘N’ Twenty work also gets awarded, and EBay and SMH bomb. After all, the bloggers have the same instinct for good and bad work as any jury.
Let’s hope more good work gets on the blog because Australia needs it.
I think it’s wonderful they let special people make ads.
4:57/11:47 I think you should change half of your title on your business cards.
http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/creative?view=uk
And calling people mindless twats or stupid little cunts because you’re wrong is silly. We’re all adults here, you don’t have to abuse us.
it doesn’t matter if something is ripped off from popular culture or not. The only thing that matters in our business is whether the end result is up to scratch.
Sony Balls – ripped from popular culture.
Sam Kekovich – ripped.
Schweppes – ripped
Go onto canneslions.com and check out the winning print and tv and play ‘spot the cultural reference’. You’ll be up to your fucking neck in them.
Who are these naive people who believe that adfolk are here to invent shit? We’re here to REINVENT. Always have, always will be.
Juniors. pffft.
What a depressing thread.
The sooner it disappears into the Archive section of the blog the better.
Depressing work = depressing thread
Great campaign – love the outdoor and press. TV is fresh. May not win awards but public will like and will be noticed. Good work for a tough client.
I think this campaign was really excellent, and the guys who worked on it obviously worked really hard. Good on you guys! Great thinking!!
http://youthoughtwewouldntnotice.com/blog3/?p=1117
12:11. I appreciate your condescending tone, but all of those ads borrowed, as in they took something, crafted it and did it better.
This took the exact clip and fucked it with two logos and 500 product shots.
Catch you at the seniors club?
Oh boy, 6:29, you’ve cracked it. That’s utterly damning.
Dear All
All of the above criticism for one of our TVCs as part of the SMH ‘Life’s Calling’ campaign is completely unfounded. We worked with and paid Oliver Laric for the use of his animation technique as part of the production process. Of course Oliver used royalty free images of clipart to create his work. We created our own clipart, set it to a soundtrack, but without doubt was inspired by Oliver’s work in terms of technique.
That should set the record straight. Thanks
Paul
Managing Director
Whybin TBWA Tequila
Thanks Paul, that’s what we’ve been waiting to hear.
did he take cash or back-dated cheque?
So why was it pulled/changed then?????
response is very late, why is it not on air anymore, replaced by another version?
Because, fairly obviously, there are two (and possibly more) TV executions in the campaign.
All that fuss for nothing then….although it does focus on an interesting area for creatives,that of originality and sourcing of ‘inspiration’
Still i actually like the spot….and lets be honest there are far, far worse TVCs on air at the moment…..the Volvo ‘special agent’ spot and the Mitsubishi ,incomprehensible ‘Nigels’ birthday.’ one…to name but two.
Twats!
Good point, 11:40.
Can anybody explain WTF the Mitsubishi spot is about?
Anybody?
I would not believe any advertising agency that clearly nabs an idea, and then when the forge is discovered, replaces the ad with an obviously very provisory look-alike and after time passed, comments written, declares this campaign as a collaboration?!? I’d love to hear the story from Laric.
“but without doubt was inspired by Oliver’s work in terms of technique.”
i think that should read “but without doubt was taken by Oliver’s work in terms of idea.”
this sort of advertising gives creatives a bad name.
LIFT YOUR GAME.THINK FOR YOURSELVES. STOP LOOKING AT YOUTUBE FOR “INSPIRATION” PLEASE. BEFORE WE ALL GET LOBBED IN WITH THESE SHMUCKS.
If you’re CD is old enough you can steal from youtube because he doesn’t know what that is.
For fuck’s sake 12:31, it’s your, not you’re in that particular usage.
You’re an embarrassment to the industry.
THE APOSTROPHE POLICE.
1:26 if you use an apostrophe on ‘fuck’ as in for fuck’s sake, shouldn’t you use a capital as if Fuck were a proper noun?
As in, for Pete’s sake? Or are you trying to say ‘for fuck is sake’?
Or am I completely wrong?
THE NERD POLICE.
Put the dunce cap on and sit in the corner, 5:27.
Pete is a name, therefore it starts with a cap.
T.A.P.
The cool kids are making stuff and putting it on youtube these days not the other way round.