If you are like me you have a morbid fascination with the adverting work. On the one hand it’s the engine of conspicuous consumption, shallowness and materialism that despite my protestations I really know is not sustainable and has to stop or at least change course*. Unfortunately far out weighing this is advertising as an engine for creativity, new ideas (and the appropriation of interesting ideas). Of course not all advertising is interesting, I used to place students to work on the yellow pages advert creation department – man was that a dull placement!

This link is an excellent source for interesting ads as it’s a collection of adverts that have for one reason or another been banned, its very up to date so you can find out why you can’t see the Oasis ‘Cactus’ ad anymore. The image above was a promotion for an advertising magazine that was banned after its run was complete, giving it another cycle of exposure.

* this is not universally the case, as you may know I have some loose connections to Saatchi and Saatchi, Kevin Roberts (worldwide CEO) was talking to me recently about their Blue concept (rather than green) for more go here