Things that caught my eye over the last six months

I send a weekly things-that-caught-my-eye email to my colleagues. Here are all those things from the second half of 2019.

July

This important report on the crisis in creative effectiveness

This update on the “great” creative I shared a while back…that didn’t work at all

This music video with more than 3,000 drawings by children

This amazing true story about a nursery school in Brooklyn

This ice cream truck that got fed up with influencers asking for free cones

This Ikea sofa font

This…love story

These 16 levels of piano composition

This tool from Firefox to fool advertisers

These chalkboards from 1917

This DEEP dive on the streaming wars

These maps (boy, I share a lot of maps)

This idea for the scaffolding around the Notre Dame rebuild

These lessons from 2019 Cannes Lions jurors

This critique of a North Face/Wikipedia marketing stunt

This brain-exploder about how we can now grow edible cotton

This article about how we actually make decisions

These recaps of what makes an effective Effies case

These presentation skill reminders

This, one of the most inspiring books on creativity (and it’s application to our business) that I’ve read in years

The five ads that were nominated for an Emmy this year

This music and soccer fusion (which sets a new standard for music partnerships, really)

The Comic-Con 2019 trailers all on one link

This smart “anti-influencer” campaign from Kahlua

This interesting hire from Facebook (are they about to launch a TikTok killer?)

This “fix” for airline middle seats

The pitfalls of having a fundraising campaign go viral

This art project where they added sound to paintings

The new Twitter website UI and this deeper dive about why the new Twitter website UI might be a good thing

This new campaign that makes good use/reference of the pre-roll format

This reminder that a little animation can help tell the story and sell a solution

These changes to FB mobile feed coming in August and this take on what those changes might mean for us

These photos

These acronyms spelled out

These kids from around the world photographed with their weekly diet

This new gem from McSweeney’s which may be the most honest cover letter ever

This new Old Spice campaign

This great video essay on how the camera work on The Office played a bigger role than you might imagine

This everybody-is-on-their-phones spot (which gets pitched all the time as a creative idea — I made one myself a few years ago, myself; maybe we can retire it)

This photoshop-on-demand guy (which I’ve followed on Twitter for years and is always good for a laugh)

This new Cheez-Its and boxed wine combo

This pizza pop up

This review of a new book (which I haven’t read yet, TBH) that argues that the Internet is making writing BETTER

This reminder that the Internet is a magical place and nothing we can ever pitch to any client is “too weird”

These 7 articles from BBH’s Tom Roach on ad effectiveness

This more-interesting way to shoot a food still life

This Arby’s Area 51 food truck stunt

This new show based on an NY Times column/podcast (because somebody saw that they’re not making romantic movies anymore)

These five ways you can train your brain to be more creative (and, no, I don’t reco microdosing)

These 135 amazing facts for people that like amazing facts

This BIG tiny desk concert from Lizzo (she da real deal, y’all)

August

This lovely little film called “17 Small Ideas”

This NSFW pepper

This research that shows that BRAVERY is a key component of effective marketing

This photographer who asks older couples to pose for engagement-style photos

This new font to call attention to the scourge of gerrymandering

The latest shot-on-an-iPhone campaign

This see-saw installation at the border (more coverage here and here)

This coming-soon pop-up experience for Friends’ 25th anniversary

These Thai real estate ads (for which I am, clearly, not the target market)

This piece where Pinterest’s CMO says that the digital platform is going to advertising on (gasp!) non-digital mediums

This charming animation that brings a straightforward first-person narrative to life

These always-up-to-date social media specs

These Disney movies as corporate logos

This award-bait-y-but-still-interesting purpose-driven activation around consent

This 3-minute+ ad from a direct-to-consumer brand that touts itself as the “last bottle of soap you’ll ever need.” (I’m sort of obsessed with all these new Facebook-infomercial-ads-for-the-DTC age because I think they have a lot to teach about storytelling and advertising. Even though it’s not the type of work that we do at DC, we ignore these lessons at our peril.)

This mustard ice cream and this HOT-DOG-FLAVORED ice cream sandwich and we are clearly living in the end times now

This campaign to get people to stop pissing in public

These 2019 Project Isaac winners (some of the most innovative ideas in advertising over the past year)

This stop-motion film about a bird

This website with the world’s worst UI (and what it says about web design in 2019)

This photo gallery of what people looked like thousands of years ago

This crazy hypothesis that half of all colleges will CLOSE in the next decade because of demographic reasons (click-baity and not really true, but interesting trend)

This piece about VW putting their name on Porsche (as a way to poke at Facebook for putting their name on Instagram)

This guy inside a clock at an airport (which I feel like I post every 9 months, but here it is again)

This Hotels.com stunt to get their brand into your wedding vows

This troubling look at WeWork’s ambition to not just offer private offices, but private CITIES

This cool 3D rendering of a chapel ceiling

This article on the attention economy crisis (and it’s implications for all of us who create things we want people to watch)

This article and interview with Gerry Graf about the closing of his agency and this, my all time favorite BFG spot

September

This tweet about what we can all learn from Brooklyn copywriters

This peek inside Starbuck’s new brand guidelines

This article about how meme accounts surface the meanest part of TikTok

This BMW that got painted with vantablack

This exhibit

These 3 ways to come up with creative ideas (without overthinking it)

This short doc about a “commercial archeologist” who is obsessed with one commercial sign maker

This reminder that we shouldn’t put crap out into the world

This half-and-half hotel room

These four ways to make your brand “lit” (whatever that means) with GenZ

This news that robots are probably maybe not coming for the copywriter jobs just yet

This twitter thread about great movie posters

This campaign from our friends up the hill that doesn’t use the client’s logo (at least that’s the PR pitch)

This article about CMO tenure (and how it’s getting shorter in some industries)

These army men

This ad that captures the true “fun” of camping

This use of tech to protect forests

This article about the developer of the Emoji Mashup Bot

These “history” plaques popping up in Berkeley

This new cheese ad (sometimes you just need to sing the product name a whole bunch)

This article about how vertical video is changing music videos (and even concerts)

These two ads that show opposite sides of the same story

These Green New Deal posters (and the inspiration behind them)

This paper organ

This balloon-killer dude…is now at war against uncooked pasta

This creepy-as-hell experiential activation

The fact that Facebook is introducing its own dating app and that fact that several people have pointed out that Facebook might not be the company that you should trust with your private love life info

These five conditions that help innovation thrive

This provocative take on online ads (and the media people who sell them)

This look inside the Friends 25th Anniversary experiential pop-up

This interview with Nick Law about the future of creative agencies

This mama who keeps going

This boy who was bullied about his homemade t-shirt

This tweet

This guy’s candy photography

This forest “pop up” experience

These cool innovation-by-design award winners

This new campaign ad, this old campaign ad, and this old campaign ad

This new campaign from Twitter

This news that W+K just won McDonalds away from DDB

This look at all the new product announcements from Apple this week

This piece wondering when Apple got so terrible at naming stuff

This rooftop ad

This history lesson about the power of a single great billboard

This new brand campaign from Lego

This, the complete beginner’s guide to TikTok

That Facebook is rolling out new “more playful” ad formats

This device from Philly Cream Cheese

This Instagram account

These delightful OOH ads in the UK for Spotify

This story of the two-year packaging re-design that resulted in…sorta the same package design

This reminder that the brief is “the first ad” and a creative’s job is to beat it

This behind-the-scenes story about the viral “climate stripes” graphic

This new “back to school” PSA from Sandy Hook Promise

These paintings

This podcast

This article about the power of telling your most embarrassing story

October

This new Nissan spot (you can see the “product demo” brief a mile away, but they found a not-horrible way to do it)

These street-post wire sculptures

This new TV ad format that starts with a blank screen

This climate pen

This OOH idea is ON FIRE (sorry)

This idea to put AmazonGo’s inside sports stadiums

This 11-years-old-but-still-smart-and-effective pixelated wildlife campaign

TFW you have an experiential idea for a pitch and then somebody, basically, does it before you

This new branding for Twitch

This comparison of the new Twitch/TikTok/Netflix/YouTube campaigns

This top-shelf advice from a mid-level creative

This guy who took the Anna Wintour MasterClass (so we don’t have to)

This crazy story about AI learning to play hide-and-seek

This behind-the-scenes look at how one Instagram influencer takes photos

This campaign about FB/Insta stories (which is interesting because of the campaign AND because of what it says about stories)

This OOH campaign that tattooed synthetic skin

This take on how ill-conceived “purpose” ads are ruining advertising

This beautiful short film from Chanel Miller (warning, this is about about the Stanford sexual assault case, but Miller’s film is quite moving)

This blatant self promotion…today is my one-year-anniversary as ECD here at DC and I wrote about the five things that I learned over the last 12 months

These eight imaginations of the U.S.-Mexico border without walls

This footage of SF’s Market street from the late 1960s

This new Instagram account for Instagram creators

These 10 ways to become a creative legend

These batshit crazy whiskey Tide Pod things

These charming, quirky little OOH/social ads for Sprite

These print ads that were made by blindfolded artists

This insane Times Square digital board takeover for Harry Potter

The news that Kit Kat replaced their plastic wrapper with paper in Japan

This interview with the head of design for Lego who says that creativity is being brushed aside by digital media

This epic spot for Smirnoff

These edible cocktail dresses

These WONDERFUL posters that our very own Madeline and her sister made for Rocky Horror Picture show

This fake political ad on Facebook to prove that they don’t police fake political ads

This epic 700+ tweet thread from Disney+ to announce every title that’s going to be on the streaming service when it launches next month:

This Conan O’Brien podcast with Tina Fey

These short animations for Johnnie Walker

These sculptures of wolves mauling tourists in NYC

These crocheted baked goods

This interactive map of fall foliage

This piece on what creative account leaders bring to advertising today

This apocalyptic choose-your-own-adventure from…Tinder

This VFX artist explaining what’s wrong with modern CGI

This talk from the Target CMO about how they got their mojo back

This 1928 pamphlet on “How to write telegrams properly” turns out to be a pretty decent guide to how to write ad copy more economically

This subway station takeover idea

These scientists who studied 400 logos and what they discovered about good design

These stop-motion card tricks

These five brands and how their using Instagram Stories (and, yes, I know this is sponsored content from Facebook)

These product announcements from Google today

This link-o-riffic compilation of political branding stories for the 2020 election

These Thomas the Train stunts

This new Porsche ad

This admission by Adidas that they over-invested in digital advertising

These hyper-truthful real estate ads

This research on what makes people click “add to cart”

These new spacesuits

These 10 writing tips from Phoebe Waller-Bridge (also, everyone should watch “Fleabag,” it’s amazing)

These Caravaggio works of art performed by live actors

This news that LinkedIn is getting into the events business

This new HP ad that covers the well-trod ways-tech-is-taking-over-our-lives territory and is probably just the pitch manifesto video that the clients wanted to see on TV, BUT it does it with a lot of style

These new print ads (a similar “tech isn’t everything” message, but a beautifully simple execution)

This interactive digital installation in Vegas

The fact that Japan is making the 2020 Olympic medals out of recycled phones

This 30-year time-lapse project

This agency that let another agency make an ad for them

These behind-the-scenes stories of some iconic ad campaigns

The 8-year-old me is very excited about the new Star Wars trailer (which has 7M views in less than 12 hours)

This mom (sweet Jesus, there’s something in my eye)

November

This commercial that uses the flawed first take to make a point

This cautionary tale about selling your agency to a holding company

This film that comes out in January that is one long take

These overprint poster designs

These mundane Halloween costumes

This article about why long-term brand-building is so hard to do

This article about the resurgence of print magazines

The power of paint and color

This video from the New Zealand PM that feels like a pretty effective way to list your accomplishments

This drone footage chasing a rollercoaster

This lesson on turning a real-life viral moment into a branding win

These teen history memes on TikTok

This provocative Twitter thread suggesting that NO ad should be targeted based on personal information

This animation about motherhood that struck me as incredibly insightful and honest (and scenarios I’ve never seen animated before)

This recycling stop-motion animation

This crazy-ambitious AR project that mixes a whole bunch of genres

This new identity from Facebook, er, FACEBOOK (and the resulting memes)

The arrival of holiday cup season

This interactive ad that lets you style an outfit

These museum patrons who accidentally match the artwork

These fallen leaf art pieces

This Thanksgiving conversation generator from…a pest control company

This woman who used Cameo to have Mark McGrath dump her boyfriend?!?

These three reasons Target is on top of the retail biz

This $200 ad made for a local church that got written up in Forbes (and would have been better as a :30, but whatever)

This holy-shit statement that Indiana University put out about one of its professors

This paper art

This pizza chain wrote a Christmas carol and makes the pizza box sing it to you

This new “stagecraft” production technology

These launch videos for Motorola’s re-intro of the flip phone

The Super Bowl commercial inventory is already sold out

This speech and op ed from Sacha Baron Cohen about the social media companies

These miniatures

This recap of classic Broadway choreography

This 3-minute holiday ad from Apple

December

This is a softer gentler version of something that is AMAZING and I CAN’T BELIEVE THEY DID THIS!!

This site of good news infographics

This Xfinity/E.T. four-minute spot from GS&P that dropped over the Thanksgiving holiday and got all sorts of buzz (even though the Facebook/YouTube reps probbly would have told them they should have started with the logo and made it a :06 instead)

This experiential/theater takeover/projection mapping/VR pop up

This article that says drawing is the best way to learn

This article about W+K, which just one Agency-of-the-Year…again. (Deservedly, IMHO)

This meme redesign

This news that Old Navy is going to return to brand building

This trend that may eliminate the expression “stick it where the sun don’t shine”

This behind the scenes look at UK holiday advertising (which is their Super Bowl)

This is from years ago (and I may have shared it before) but this is the artist who draws all of his art…in Excel

This reminder of how expensive it can be to run a commercial just ONE time

This changing graph of the most popular TV shows

This new recyclable mailer from Amazon

This (which I would give a C…maybe a C-)

This “2019 Year in Creativity” report from Muse by Clio

This illustrator who tried to draw the Internet

This insane “brand Twitter” thread that Netflix started (“what’s something you can say during sex but also when you manage a brand twitter account?”)

This completely unsurprising news that TikTok may not be a very secure platform

This, the longest walkable distance on earth

These brands that we lost in the 2010s

This (*chefs kiss*) Twitter thread of “the best-selling single of every decade all the way back to 14,000BC” (the magic really starts in the 1970s)

These photographs of items collected from migrants

These illustrations of what love is REALLY like behind closed doors

This report on how 20,000 creatives “ideate” (a word I hate)

This new series on Disney+ is a deep-dive on “The Imagineering Story” and has lots of great stories about the creative development of Disney

This list of ad industry buzzwords for 2020

This aerial embroidery

This toxic work environment story that made me very glad I don’t work at Away

This “guess the hex” game that art directions will dig and the rest will ask “what’s a hex color?”

This world record “elephant toothpaste” stunt

This tweet thread about Disney’s recent past and probably future

These papercraft birds and butterflies

This year-long Burger King prank that they just revealed today

This top 7 motion graphics trends for 2019

The best social purpose campaigns of 2019

These bottles made out of soap

The top 25 graphic design stories of 2019

These five facts from AdAge’s 2020 Marketing Fact Pack (including that the Internet will claim HALF of all ad spending next year)

And in a final bit of shameless self promotion, links to the AdAge and Adweek “favorite ads of the year” wrap up where I picked my faves (the Skittles musical and an Australian ad about camping) plus my picks for albums of the year

Want to see the links from the first six months of the year? Here’s the January to June list.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

John Kovacevich is a creative director in San Francisco. He publishes a weekly newsletter with bits of creative inspiration, just like the stuff above. You can see the newsletter here and subscribe if you’d like.

You can read all his musings about the advertising biz here.