One from the vaults

Lee Scratch Perry. Image courtesy of Ariel Publicity

When it comes to the back catalogue of the recently departed and much missed HHCL its easy to reel off the famous stuff the agency made over the years from Tango Slap to Pot Noodle’s Slag of all Snacks but I thought I’d draw attention to some of the less famous stuff that I love.
This isn’t easy because most the work predates You Tube and so only exists where fanatics have uploaded old ads, but there is some stuff there to enjoy.
First up is a campaign for Guiness in Ireland and about the launch of Guiness Extra Cold from the early part of this decade.

The Guiness Extra Cold work is a great example of top quality thinking from the planner (I think it was Dave Cobban now the Planning Director of Wieden’s in Amsterdam but I could be wrong) and then an inspired creative solution from Creative Director Jay Pond Jones.
The thought was that ‘Guiness Extra Cold was a few degrees out from ordinary Guiness’ which led Jay to the dub reggae legend (and inventor of the ‘scratch’ turntable effect) Lee Scratch Perry whose life and reputation is anything but ordinary.
It shows that a proper strategic idea doesn’t emasculate creatives but helps them take a real leap away from a linear creative solution into the realms of the magical.
How easy it would have been to have written a strategy about Colder Guiness, and how dreary.
I think looking at them now I could do with a little more of a product focus but on the other hand its a campaign that ubderstood the demads of content way before most people were thinking about creating content properties.
There are loads of ads in the campaign, so here are just a few for you to enjoy.





And for a bit of Scratch at work here is a clip from a Jules Holland programme in the mid ’80s.