Alex Woodruff Biz Buzz

On the last but one MBA course, participants were keen to emphasise the fact that England was not taking part in the European Championship finals (funny, nobody mentioned it on the last course after Germany’s poor showing). The critics liked the latest posters for Lucky Strike, rubbing in the English absence. It certainly plays to [...]

One sure-fire way to capture interest is to hijack it from somewhere else. This falls into an area of advertising where you do a spoof or pastiche of an established campaign or concept. If you do it well your audience will smile and go with you. And Interest very quickly becomes Desire. If you do [...]

I’ve been waiting with baited breath to see how the German cigarette companies would deal with the smoking ban in bars. Trust my favourite brand (NO, I don’t smoke) to strike the right chord. Here’s how they dealt with it in Baden-Württemberg, which implemented the ban last year. Mocking the powers that be Rather than [...]

This scan from a German magazine is instantly recognisable to most Germans as advertising for the cigarette brand Lucky Strike. What it demonstrates is that campaigns that stick consistently to the same format get remembered. The brand is almost no longer needed, it stands in the room like a ghost. The ad was placed by [...]