Some of my favourite adverts that pop into my head whenever I think about great ads, or buy new shoes, are those by Clarks.
Unfortunately, I can’t find my favourite anywhere. There is a chance I’ve made it up, but judging from all the other Clarks ads from around the same ear, I don’t think I did, as it’s very much in line with the overall direction.
The one I remember is – and bear with me as it’s a little hazy – a TV ad where we see someone admiring their new shoes in the reflection of a window. We see it from the owners PoV, and they’re doing that thing where you twist your foot so you can see the side of the shoe, and so on. I think they’re at a cafe, but they’re definitely outside. In the reflection, we also see some chaos unfold behind the shoe owner. Possibly an explosion, sirens – the kind of thing you’d immediately turn around to look at. But the owner doesn’t because they’re so preoccupied with their new shoes.
Genius.
I have searched and searched for this particular advert, but no dice. Instead, I found some others I fondly remember, just not quite as fondly.
Anyway, they’re all brilliant pieces of advertising that tap into such a basic feeling: the joy of new shoes.
Here they are for your viewing pleasure. If anyone has any others, please let me know.
I saw a post on everyone’s favourite social network, LinkedIn, about how people are hating on Benetton using AI in their latest campaign. And then I, inevitably, as someone who remembers the 90s loud and clear, thought of their advertising heyday. How the mighty have fallen.
Here’s the latest campaign, overly ecstatic faces and all.
But do you remember the old ads?
The ones that stopped you in your tracks (or from flipping over the page in whatever physical magazine you were reading)? The ones that made you feel physically or emotionally uncomfortable and made you question what the hell they were thinking but why are you feeling the way you feel? I do.
And I’ll tell you what, that AI garbage will be instantly forgotten. No stopping in your tracks. No pause in page-turning. No stopping the scroll.
It’s blink and you’ll miss it. It’s shitty product marketing vs balls-to-the-wall branding. It is, as my friend Kate so rightly said, “a bucket of slop that they’ve thrown at their visual heritage and the space they once stood so proudly in.”
I saw something the other day that reminded me of Herb Ritts. He was a great, great photographer, and not a bad video director either. His photos, or posters of his photos, adorned the dorm walls at school, and later, the glossy pages of The Face and countless other magazines. They might reek of the 80s and 90s, but they're still beautiful. Here are some of my favourites.
