Things that caught my eye this month

Creative inspiration for the advertising professional | September 2020

Each week, I send a things-that-caught-my-eye email to my creative colleagues. Here are all those things from this past month.

This cool 3D journalism example

This campaign to help save bars and clubs (from my favorite spirit!) and the resulting song is bop

This mask PSA from Paul Rudd

This question: “Is San Francisco about to return to its Bohemian roots?”

This UGC contest campaign from a coconut water

This documentary about the gender imbalance in electronic music

This book about the 125-year history of the button

This interview with Ryan Reynolds and the benefits of “fast-vertising”

This way to “get back to the office”

These “blands”

This mask campaign from NYC

These short films from Yeti (and why it’s a “marketing masterclass”)

This paper mache junk drawer

The way Naomi Osaka used her celebrity platform at the U.S. Open

This look at how long it would take for a hacker to guess your password

This YouTube comment

This animation made me re-appreciate Beethoven’s 5th

The fact that we’re ALL socially awkward now

This martial art called “drunken boxing”

These optical illusions

This movie looks rad

This Lego/Ikea partnership

This VILF campaign from OK Cupid

These gorgeous designs from Zipeng Zhu

This reminder that long copy still sells

This artist who makes creations out of old candy boxes

This Hulu spot that acknowledges commercial production realities in the time of Covid

This billionaire who wanted to die broke is now broke (sorta)

This HELL NO restaurant in the sky

This charming TP

This and this social post from 7–11

This 3-minute ad from Squarespace (which is fine and all but makes me wonder who are the 2.9 million people watching a 3-minute ad)

This piece from TikTok’s marketing chief outlines their pitch to marketers

This reminder that your competitors aren’t always who you think they are

The creativity (and chaos) unleashed by ios14’s customizable apps/widgets

This reminder that if RedLobster can name its Mountain Dew margarita “DewGarita” there is, apparently, no naming idea too stupid or too horrible to pitch

These compostable coffins

These fonts for popular logos

This reminder that the stray dog you feed might be a CEO (and that many LinkedIn “influencers” are full of shit)

(Self promotion alert) This thing I wrote about turning heartbreak and rage over RBG’s death into ACTION

This, the greatest song ever recorded about September 21st, and a guaranteed mood-elevator

This extraordinary 32-post series on Humans of New York (do yourself a favor and read all 32…and then click through and see how much her story raised for her care)

This terrific puppet fashion show

This bitmoji partnership

These portraits from Kip Omolade

The welcome death of this arbitrary “rule” from Facebook

This guy who spent the last six years scaring his wife

This TP ad featuring…butts. Lots and lots of butts

This new book on non binary pronouns from my friend Stuart

These pumpkin carving ideas

These VHS tapes

This charming spot that reminds us not all stuck-at-home ads need to be sad

This clever video game activation from Burger King

This study that says that the way to get people to be positive at work is NOT to tell them to be positive

These illustrations (today’s tech in a 1990s world)

This look at the future of tattoos

This take on the future of tech journalism (and any creative person taking control of their career)

This explanation of why oil paint is so expensive

This case study about the design thinking behind a Google live event

These Ikea posters

These dancers/runners/performers who clearly don’t get motion sickness

This look at the feminization of alcohol marketing

(Another self promotion alert) These 10 webisodes, the complete “first season” of Web Series

These deepfake ads featuring Kim Jong-Un and Putin

This historian’s take on the first presidential debate of 2020

These Zoom backgrounds from Studio Ghibli!

This cranberry juice drinking skateboarder might be the happiest thing to happen in past six months

Previous things that caught my eye: Early 2019 | Late 2019 | Early 2020 | June 2020 | July 2020 | August 2020

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.