Great advocates of our time No1.

dibnah.jpg
Fred Dibnah – steeplejack and an advocate of Britain’s industrial heritage. He would have hated all of us but that doesn’t stop us loving him.
After a feisty exchange about Honda it is time to think about which campaign to advocate for October.
The rules are emerging slowly.


It needs to be a campaign that you admire rather than despise. The emphasis is on understanding the role for advertising and judging the success of the campaign against this rather than accusing it of failing to live up to expectations that the Client and Agency never had.
Strategy Cows are awarded either for conclusive proof or simply for weathering the storm. Stuart Smith is now the proud owner of a new look Strategy Cow because I make the rules and I felt he deserved one so there.
Current nominations are:
Sony Bravia – “Balls”

RAC – “more know how”
Still struggling to track this down

Geico – “B-list celebs”



VW Golf GTI – “Unpimp your auto”

Innocent – “Nothing but nothing but fruit”

Persil – “Dirt is good”
Can’t find this so here is a 1958 commerical for a laugh

Nominations close on Wednesday 27th September

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...

Discover more from

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

21 Replies to “Great advocates of our time No1.”

  1. I’d go for the RAC “more know how” if you can track them down.
    Failing that Dirt is Good

  2. Isn’t there a problem with Dirt is Good? If we’re evaluating strategy then fine, but if we agree the execution fell short of the mark, that strikes it off the list for me. I thought it was about testing a campaign that we admired.
    Or am I getting the rules wrong?
    So I’m voting for Sony I guess, (unless I have)…

  3. Oi stop messin’ with the ill defined rules.
    Its a very holistic and generous idea.
    What do you like?
    Would you like to know whether it worked?
    So you could say the stuff (copyright R. Davies)you liked worked

  4. Oh alright ; )
    Sony for me then. I think it gets a bad rap for lack for style over substance, but I reckon one of those crafty planners at Fallon came up with the idea of communicating colour in itself as evocatively as possible. Can’t have all have been a one Juan band.
    So maybe it does score on both levels.

  5. bravo bravia, for no reason other than it makes me feel better about the world, sort of like saturn’s sheetmetal spot a couple of years ago.
    what’s a steeplejack?

  6. Adrian – a steeple jack is someone who specialises in building and maintaining chimneys and other tall structures (from church steeple). Such is the nature of de-industrialisation Fred was most famous for destroying disused chimneys by removing a section from the base, propping up the structure with wood and then burning the wood to bring the chinmey down.

  7. Fantastic
    “destroying disused chimneys by removing a section from the base, propping up the structure with wood and then burning the wood to bring the chimney down”
    is a great metaphor for some of the things that happen in this industry.
    Just looking back we’ve already had a bash at ‘Dirt is Good’ on a previous thread. Might it be nice to pick something else?

  8. Well, I have to say that Sony… is the only one with a great concept but also with a rather good execution…

Comments are closed.