furtherandfaster

Digital Nativity Story

 

I rather enjoyed this - so here it is to add to the Christmas films I posted last week.

 

Two Christmas films to put you in the mood..

this one from the ChurchAds group running advertising in the UK. And the 2nd from New Zealand where I shall be spending Christmas

Christmas Jihad

I commented on the NZ Christmas poster campaign on Tuesday - raising enquiries from NZ about how we knew about it because it hadn't been put up yet (that's global news for you!) Well the poster went up on Wednesday and was defaced by an objector with brown paint, then attacked by a knife wielding Christian and then what was left was ripped down by a mob (but not necessarily in the same incident. The church has decided not to replace the poster in the interests of public safety.  They also opted to tell us that it wasn't nearly as offensive as  other ideas they might run for example a sperm coming down from heaven singing Joy to the World. Honestly you jokers need to learn to quit while you're behind..

Kiwis are such a mild bunch (All Blacks honourably excepted of course) this burst of fervour really does make you wonder what exactly the Christmas spirit is these days. How fortunate that fanatical Jews didn't take a similar approach in the first century AD. Oh apart from King Herod. What interesting company fundamentalists find themselves in.    

sacred art sacred artwork

Had a Christmas lunch today in Chinatown with Francis Goodwin and the ChurchAds team who are just getting poster sites sorted out for the Christmas advertising campaign which local churches are encouraged to contribute to. Send money. Get a poster near you. There's still some unsold sites out there (it has been that kind of a year) but they won't stay unbooked for ever. So get stuck in. The plan is to build a much more consistent campaign theme and look from year to year than there has been to date.

Andrew Gadd the painter of the image was also there showing proofs of his painting for the Easter campaign. I can't go into details much less show it because it is still under wraps. But I found it really interesting to be involved in an argument about the meaning of an image and the effect of an image with a painter rather than an art director.  Painters organise their material to create meaning. So the connections and relationships were all there - even down to how the hands were placed and who and how many people were where and where they were looking.  But from an advertising perspective I didn't want balance in the painting. I wanted what happened inside the painting to unbalance the viewer and to push them from where they were. Standard sort of a discussion in an ad agency. But an interesting one to be having with an artist who was defending the aesthetics of the painting but clearly wasn't used to considering the effect of his painting.   

You can find out more about the campaign here.

Ads in church - its a small world after all..

Went to a nearby church on Christmas morning. The service was dominated by 2 items - an alternative version of the Nativity story which was shown at a drive in cinema on Second Life last year. My name turns up in the credits - I was rather surprised to be mentioned - I'd only gone along for a coffee to the planning meeting. And the 30 second version of the Christmas story which 8 people then tried to beat with their own personal 30 second take on the story with 3 kings acting as judges. It was a lot of fun. All this multimedia courtesy of the Church Advertising network where a team from the London ad agencies make ads for the churches every year and shows them in unusual places. I never expected to see one in church.  

I saw 3 ships come sailing by.. on Christmas day in the morning

Rather strange to wake up every morning including Christmas morning looking at the sea. And here are the 3 ships of the Christmas carol. Only they aren't sailing by. there were 6 of them actually - anchored off the Devon coast to stay in shelter. All cargo vessels with no cargoes. There's a global credit crunch remember. It costs more to tie up by the dock. So they stay at sea and the crews stay with them.

Happy Christmas...

And that's all from me folks until after the great day. Have a good one won't you? I'm off to Christmas by the seaside!! Back in a week without a tan!