Ironic as it is, many ad industry suppliers are guilty of producing ads for themselves that are lacklustre at best. Which is why the new work from Toronto-based music house Keen is so darn clever. Artfully done and in-your-face, it’s sure to get noticed by ad folks.
Three different print executions, which were sent out as poster-size DM pieces late last month, feature photos of rich, successful people engaging in typical rich-person activities like horseback riding and driving sports cars, juxtaposed with cheeky headlines like ‘Thanks Keen. You totally fucked my life up.’
‘It’s based on the insight that in this business, if you do good work, you’re going to get noticed,’ says Chris Hall, ACD at Toronto-based Arnold. ‘We played with the idea of what if you didn’t want all that stuff [glory, awards, money, etc.],’ Hall adds that they used colourful language because that’s how many people in the industry talk.
Hall says the project was especially interesting for Arnold, since they’re part of the target audience. He’s confident that the ads will stand out from the competition. ‘It’s interesting for suppliers – they tend not to do great ads. Which is odd, since they’re advertising to people who are passionate about doing good advertising,’ he says. ‘Keen is a company that appreciates good advertising.’
client: Thomas Neuspiel, owner, Keen Music
agency: Arnold Toronto
CDs: Bill Newbery, Tim Kavander
creatives: Chris Hall, Matt Syberg-Olsen
production: Jane Sallows, Oksana Oleksij
typography: Byron Yee, Chelen Hilmi
You are cordially invited to submit your new, dead clever and previously unrevealed campaigns to: editorial director Mary Maddever at mmaddever@brunico.com and CD Stephen Stanley at sstanley@brunico.com, co-curators of strategy’s Creative space.
