Once upon a time, back when I was young and carefree, I dreamt of being an advertising creative. An art director to be precise. There was something about getting paid for drawing pictures at the pub that really appealed to me as a university student… I forget why.

It was during this time that I took a trip to the Tate Modern to get some inspiration for a Yellow Pencil winning idea. After an interesting half day I ducked into the gift shop and found myself  face to face with this weeks’ book; ‘No Copy Advertising’ by Lazar Dzamic.

Opening it, I discovered a collection of advertisements from around the world with imagery so powerful, they required no further explanation. An image and a logo, the ultimate in brand advertising.

There’s some classics in there, ads that you’ll probably remember for Mercedes and Smirnoff plus some ones you might not have seen from brands in other countries. And that’s the real beauty of course, it doesn’t matter what country they originally appeared in, ads without copy work in any language.

I was so impressed that I simply had to own it. I used what remained of my hideously overstretched student overdraft to buy the book and took it back to my digs to wait for some of the genius to transfer itself to my right-brain. Unfortunately, it transpired that I was lacking a crucial ingredient in creating award-winning advertising; creativity. It was a harsh lesson.

These days I get to make the lives of creative people a misery with difficult briefs and tight deadlines, which makes me feel better. But the book still has pride of place in my bookshelf and has been well thumbed over the years as you’ll see. Take a look through yourself, perhaps it’ll finally get to inspire that Yellow Pencil winning idea after all.

Tags: Advertising Agency, Advertising Briefs, Adverts, Award Winning Advertising, Creativity, D&AD, Direct Marketing Agency, Direct Response Advertising Agency, Lazar Dzamic, Logo, London Advertising Agency, Manchester Advertising Agency, Marketing Agency, Mercedes, No Copy Advertising, Online Agency, PPC Agency, SEO Company, Smirnoff, Tate Modern, Yellow Pencil

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