Creative Ambiguity

Advertising creativity calls for a frame of reference. It must be to a purpose or the work can be questioned.

This week's 50th annual Clio Awards show has sparked some discussion along these lines. Here's the work that won the Grand Clio for print for CLM BBDO, a Paris agency. It is a charming page.


Here's how art director Bill Taubin presented Alka-Seltzer during the creative heyday of that brand. Bill's name is in the Art Directors Hall of Fame (1981).

This spot was on Bill's last reel.



Of course the commercial is of another era. Yet its content reminds us of David Ogilvy's bottom line advice, "No sell, no eat."

Copyright © 2009 by John Eighmey. All Rights Reserved.