Salman Rushdie in 1989

What do John Milton, Salman Rusdie and Frank Zappa have in common? They’ve all written adverts.

Yep. It might come as a surprise to the purists amongst you, but there’s a whole raft of notable novelists, poets, scriptwriters and lyricists who cut their literary teeth as copywriters. So what could advertising have offered these talented writers, aside from a steady income?

There is a theory that John Milton, author of the epic poem, Paradise Lost, was also the writer of the first ever trade advertisement to appear in the UK press. In September 1658 in Mercurius Politicus, the progovernment newsbook of which he was editor from 1650, there was an advertisement for a ‘China Drink’ with purported health properties:

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You, your wand and an adventure. Sounds deeply suspicious. But actually it’s the basic principle of a new live-action role-playing game called MagiQuest.

MagiQuest is your story, your adventure, your imagination brought to life. So says the blurb. It’s certainly unlike anything you’ve encountered before. Playing the part of a ‘Magi’ – kind of like an apprentice wizard – you have to complete quests, find gold and, here’s the really good bit, challenge your mates to wand-to-wand duels.

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Barbara Kruger was the first truly postmodern artist that I discovered as an art student. Being a fan of thought-provoking art and literature and having experimented with text and image collages I was immediately struck by the power of her work. Barbara Kruger is a conceptual artist known for her stark photo-and-text collages that appropriate the language of consumer culture to comment on it. She became an artist in the early 80’s after working as head art director on Conde Nast magazines. Her art continues to speak the language of magazines and advertising, and, in addition to appearing in galleries and museums, it can be found on billboards, T–shirts, and shopping bags. She used the skills she gained as a commercial art director to stunning effect with her provocative ‘found’ black and white photographic images, slashed with red stripes of text bearing now instantly recognisable slogans such as “I shop therefore I am” and “Your body is a battleground” delivered in her trademark Futura Bold Italic typeface. These iconic works masterfully employ the look and feel of propaganda, but directly raise questions with the viewer about values, taste, stereoypes and materialism.

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Inspired by the pioneering design work of Paul Rand, Herb Lubalin, Wally Olins,  Saul Bass, Milton Glaser and Neville Brody I became a graphic designer and worked primarily in branding for the first 10 years of my career. This was back in the day when the ‘designers are gods’ mentality still held true and being a bit ‘precious’ was the norm… which suited me fine, thank you very much.

Doodling away in a sketch pad (usually in the pub) and hunched over a drawing board armed with paper, fine point pen and a steady hand didn’t really feel like work to me (the apple macs were still not commonplace in design studios at this point). The process fascinated me and still does to this day.

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The benefits of a student placement vary greatly depending on who you speak to, to me personally it was just a part of my course, one that I was considering foregoing just so I could graduate sooner.

When I eventually found my placement at Red C I soon realised how vital the experience was, not just academically but also personally. Red C is a company that, as it says, strives to get under the skin of its clients. It’s a bold statement to make but it’s certainly true in every imaginable way, I know from personal experience – trust me!

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Say Google to almost anyone and they’ll know what you mean. OK, so great grandma Ruby may look at you vacantly, but that’s about it. Google has become synonymous with the web and the term ‘google it’ is now an everyday phrase. Google became the No. 1 brand in the world in 2007, according to Millward Brown Brandz Top 100.

But start to talk about the Google logo to someone and they will immediately have a favourite. A version of the logo which has stuck with them. They may have hovered over to see what it’s all about, clicked through to find out more or discussed it with colleagues and waxed lyrical about how clever it all is.

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A company’s Branding is fundamental to consumer recognition and symbolises the company’s differentiation from its competitors. That’s why a Brand Identity is more than just a logo; it’s a collection of ideas, images and verbal attributes that convey the essence of a company, product or service.

Your Brand is your promise to your customer. It tells them what they can expect from your products and services, and it differentiates your offering from your competitors’. Your Brand is derived from who you are, who you want to be and who people perceive you to be.

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As the end of year approaches everyone takes the opportunity to look back before we look forward into 2009. So I thought I’d take some time to highlight several key achievements made by Red C this year in the world of Direct Marketing and Advertising. Here’s just five reasons why this has been a vintage year for Red C.

1. An award winning direct marketing and advertising agency

This year Red C achieved something that we have never done before. We became finalists at the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) Awards in two categories. An achievement not matched by any other Direct Marketing or Advertising agency outside of London this year.

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How do you change the behaviour of an audience that is quite literally stuck in their ways? An audience that has got to the age where telling them what they can and cannot do, will only result in the failure of the marketing message.

That’s the task we at Red C faced when Manchester’s NHS Primary Care Trust came to us with regards promoting responsible drinking to the ‘Over 50s’. At the time of briefing there were wide reports of what were known as ‘Saga Louts’, with Alcohol Concern reporting that more than one million over 65 year olds exceed recommended alcohol limits – a 75 per cent rise in women and a 31 per cent rise in men since the early 1990s.

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In less than a decade, blogging has grown from a niche interest to an influential worldwide phenomenon that is challenging traditional media assumptions. Facilitated by the introduction of simple to use blog hosts, people with no technical skills except the ability to write well or passionately can find an audience for their views. Read more…