the art of conversation

New bagel ad

We had a hand in this, so to speak.

We think it's come out rather well. Very ... bagel-y. Hope you agree.

Great British advertising

Another year starts, time to consider the cream of last year's crop of UK advertising. Is it more creative, innovative and mould-breaking than ever before? Not judging by Neilsen's list of the 5 most popular ad campaigns of last year:

1. CompareTheMarket.com: meerkats fighting an army of mongooses in a snowy landscape

2. Magner's Irish Cider: Clonmel home of Magners Cider; lorry over golf course; through brick wall

3. Maltesers: Two couples watch a movie; girlfriends position boyfriends so that they are cuddling

4. Santander: Family driving in car; boy falls asleep with red legos; featuring Lewis Hamilton

5. Snickers: Mr. T doing pushups; listen up, suckers; get tough, one-fingered push-ups

THE hit of last year was of course Aleksandre the meerkat. We had the lo-ong prequels to the original ads (Aleksandre's story); then the book was a massive Christmas hit and now there are out-takes from the prequel of the spin-off of the ads.

So there is a lot of talk about creativity at all costs and innovation and breaking the mould and we've had great ads like drumming gorillas and dancing flashmobs and the like. Meanwhile this poster has just appeared up the road from us.

Happy new year!