Dear readers,

I've always wanted to say that. It makes me feel like a magazine. Who am I kidding? I am a magazine. Woo! OK, so this month's feature is also the final issue. We're moving to bigger premises you see. Offline and online. Pretty exciting.

Here's the thick of it:

I am about to trade my hometown, Melbourne, for New York City. What treasures I will uncover there, no one knows.

But you know who will know? You, dumbnuts! Sorry, that was a bit harsh. You had no idea I am moving the blog to a new host. Here's the address: taitischia.com/blog

So that's it. Say goodbye to the old blog (which will be archived at taitischia.com/old) and say hello to the new blog. It's prettier.

Yours apologetically,

Tait Magazine.

Here is a letter I wrote to Ronald McDonald recently.

"Dear Ronald,

I love you. I really do. You’ve been like a father to me over the years and for that I think you deserve respect. Sometimes I think you’re cooler than Jesus, but even He got it wrong occasionally. I know, I know - you’re just a couple of dudes searching for meaning in a strange world. I do see the similarities between Judas and The Hamburglar for example. You think you can trust a guy and what does he do? Betrays you/steals your junior burger. That sucks.

But today I have a pickle to throw at you and I’m afraid it might stick on the window to your soul. For that I apologise, but I think you need to hear me out.

Yesterday (Sunday April 13, 2009) I was refused a Happy Meal™. I know. WTF? I was served by Jane, a man-ish looking beast from some distant planet, maybe Zorgona, or another similar moon. I was polite and asked why my age could not be accommodated. To this she replied in a deep and humiliating delivery, “aren’t you a little old, buddyyyy?”

Those words were like eye-lasers eating my mind. I’ve been eating Happy Meals™ since I was eight, and I don’t plan to stop now. I may be twenty-three, but I still have the entire set of 101 Dalmations™ toys from 1998. Doesn’t that count for something? I plan to use Pongo and Perdita on the top of my wedding cake. I don’t have a wife yet but when I do I know it will be a Happy Day™. As you can see, Happy Meals™ are a big part of my identity, so I hope you can appreciate how upset this made me.

I did some research on the interweb and found that in 2004 you invented a Happy Meal™ for adults named Go Active!™ I’m glad I never saw one of these because it confuses me. Why would an adult want a Happy Meal™ that tells me what I should be doing? I want to be happy, not active. And no toy? At least you could have made the pedometer look like, I don’t know, Krang from the Ninja Turtles or something. I hope this was a funny joke. If it was, I was pleasantly amused.

Sorry Ronald, I just thought you should know what happened and I didn’t know who else to tell. Maybe you could send me some coupons. If not, I am missing the ‘Gonzo’ Happy Meal™ toy from the popular 1996 film Muppet Treasure Island. He’s tied to a mast and has a pink crayon box. I was in hospital at the time and they didn’t have McDonalds.

Oh, and fire Jane. She works at Mooroolbark McDonalds and looks like a man. You’ll know her when you see her.

Yours truly,

Tait Ischia"

I sent it in the mail to a Mr. Peter Bush, the CEO of McDonalds Australia. I thought that he'd have to know Ronald personally, seeing as he runs the business and all.

So to make sure Mr. Bush passed it on, I left a small note inside the envelope along with the letter.















Just today I got a response. Not from Ronald, but from Laura Aubusson, the Customer Service Coordinator at McDonalds Australia.

I thought maybe Ms. Aubusson is a pseudonym Ronald uses when speaking to his fanbase. Because that way he'd get less return mail. And he could relate 'one-on-one' with his followers.

So I looked the name up on Facebook. I don't know which one she is but none look like Ronald. How disappointing.














Click on the image of the letter below to read the response.




























If anyone knows how I could get the ‘Gonzo’ Happy Meal™ toy tied to a mast with a pink crayon box, please let me know at t@taitischia.com. I will trade you one of my doubles.

I bought a copy of Frankie last week. Strolling to the office, an annoying and small piece of advertising fell to the ground from inside the magazine's pages. Upon opening I see Hunter S. Thompson, Karen O and Sid Vicious, amongst others, staring back at me with that type of attitude always used to sell something. "Pfft!" I say with fervent annoyance. "I cannot be sold!" But the closer I got to work, the more I began to fool even myself.

I have read Fear & Loathing, I felt uniquely hip when I first listened to the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, I even spent a whole night watching YouTube videos about John Lydon and Sid Vicious to feel closer to that now ancient scene. I have also had a pair of Converse shoes - something each chosen 'star' seems to be wearing, and the brand that I soon realise is trying to influence the burning hole in my pocket. The part about the shoes is not why I feel connected to these people, but is surely a connection Converse is trying to cultivate.

To be completely honest, I don't really care what Converse want to say to sell their shoes. I feel as if the shoes have enough of an identity in their own right without the corporate side feeling the need to be involved. If the shoes were to speak, I'm sure their disconnected sole would flap, "We're not related!" As far as brands go, it is one of those rare icons loved so much that it becomes practically owned by its consumers, rather than the corporates swimming in the cash it shovels them.

What I am interested in however, is the agency that brought this campaign to life. And I have since found it truly is a campaign, not just a crappy, flappy, piece of rubbish magazine insert.

This is where I introduce the agency responsible, Anomaly. And yes, they are one of those agencies. In the vein of KesselsKramer, Mother, Taxi, Fallon, Strawberry Frog, etc; Anomaly are one of the many new model agencies making a name for themselves.

I should really start at the beginning. A few months back, I saw a billboard at South Yarra station for The Converse Century using the connected converse stars imagery you see at the top of this post. To be honest, I thought it was a complete wank. Associating the Converse brand with 'cool' people was to me not too dissimilar from putting Ray Ban Wayfarers on a kid and calling them cool. It was easy, it was a cheap idea (not in the monetary sense of course) and it presumed the cool kids would associate with cool people on face value alone. No wonder I had such pre-conceived ideas of the campaign when I opened Frankie months later.

A few weeks ago, I was flipping through Creativity Magazine and stumbled upon an article heralding the acquisition of Urban Outfitters (America's General Pants) Creative Director Kevin Lyons by Anomaly. I presume around the same time as this happened, Anomaly landed the Converse account. Before Urban Outfitters, Kevin had worked as Art Director for Tokion Magazine, AD for Girl Skateboards (Spike Jonze's company), Design Director for Stussy and Senior Designer for Nike. A pretty tight heritage if you ask me. From that point on, Anomaly had no excuse not to make some genuinely interesting cultural work.

I've mentioned the billboard and magazine insert already, but what else have they done to get inside the minds of hip kids globally? I thought you'd never ask...

The campaign website, ThisIsTheIndexPage, is a genuinely original and well thought out idea. Basically, Anomaly bought a whole lot of domain names and made them all unique, simple and enjoyable for impatient Gen Y'ers like me. But what is even better, is that in this post-Web 2.0 climate, they have made an entirely bloggable range of sites that can be debated and discussed in the many forums created by the Web 2.0 phenomena. I've heard it called Web 3.0 before, but that's a debate for an entirely different post. Bottom line is: simple idea, clean execution, made specifically for the medium and completely digestible for the target market. Personally I believe it spells the end of the 'viral video' era, and heralds the official beginning of the 'ideas that go viral' era. I suggest visiting the Converse Spelling Bee page to see the best example of this.

But the fun doesn't stop there.

They made a song. But not just any song mind you. A pretty good pop song. Which is the most you could hope for when making art to sell a shoe I'd say. Just like choosing the right photographer to shoot your precious print ad, choosing the right producer to make the perfect pop-tune is an important choice. Anomaly's choice? Pharrell Williams. Who is in my mind the most successful pop producer of the last decade. Along with his successful 'band' N.E.R.D, Pharrell has written or and/or produced some of this century's most successful and half-decent pop tracks including Kelis' Milkshake and Justin Timberlake's Justifed album. And yes, I know. The answer is 'yes they are' and 'no I don't'. But never underestimate the sound of amazing production and progressive music-making. Big tick for choice of producer. Oh and he performs in the song too.

Add Julian Casablancas from The Strokes and international hipster-on-the-rise Santogold to the mix, and you have a potent combination of the right amount of cool and the exact amount of risk-free money making brands can only dream of.

Before I go further, watch and listen below.



Finally, the choice of Psyop as the directors for the video is as inspired as it is perfect. Psyop have for many years been innovators in the motion design scene, paving the way for the likes of Qube Construct here in Melbourne. It's all money, and no one other than a brand owned by Nike could afford to do it. But they did. And they did it well.

Surely Anomaly own some rights to the song too. Which is free to download from the Converse website and is getting a bazillion plays on many mainstream and online radio stations alike. If they don't, then I'll be surprised.

Quite seriously, I don't think Anomaly could have done any better with what they had to work with. Billboards and magazine inserts are inherently consumerist mediums that when used say nothing but 'buy my product' at the end of the day. But building new and different websites, writing songs and throwing parties are the perfect balance to all that above-the-line claptrap that they no doubt had to do, for whatever reason.

Having said all of this, I have no idea how well the campaign has tracked. I also know there are far more components to the campaign that I haven't gone into, some of which include parties and art exhibitions. But what I can say, from a completely personal view regarding the mix of strategy and creative, is that this sort of work really excites me about the future of advertising. Don't get me wrong, I still think it's all a load of money-making wank (which is important in retaining my reputation as a self-respecting hipster, apparently) but it's clever wank, well targeted wank, and the best use of the resources Anomaly had wank that will sell the most amount of shoes possible. Which is, after all, why we do what we do.

Hello all. Recent events have shown a renewed interest in The Wayfarer. I haven't updated in over a year, yet the entries posted here seem to have lived on within the 1011's of Google's servers with stoic resilience. With this in mind, I have decided to re-think and re-invigorate The Wayfarer. Stay tuned, possibly subscribe to the feed, and wait to see what The Wayfarer has planned next.

To see what I'm up to, go here.

Sometimes you see an ad on TV and think to yourself, "It's almost too good to be an ad." Take away the cheesy tagline, product shot and logo; soon enough you've got a work of art. It doesn't happen often, especially as a lot of ads are only good because they're funny. Not that I've got anything against funny ads (The Big Ad, VB Boony, etc), but too often do advertisers play the comedy card when they want to give their ad cut-through.

Advertising is a creative industry, but wouldn't you say it's at the bottom of the pile when compared to other creative industries? Time to sack the Art Director/Copywriter team, and bring in the artist.

Take a look at this brilliant ad for HP as an example. The creative team have come to Michel Gondry (Human Nature, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Science of Sleep) with a skeleton of an idea. Surely they would have said, "Salut Michel! Make us some of that 'dream' stuff you do!" This is what he came back with:



It does beg the question: Is Michel Gondry well known enough to speak to HP's market? There are millions of people who have never even seen his movies, let alone heard his name. But then again, he is a mainstream-cult figure with a legion of fans all over the world. This leads to one conclusion... HP is looking to speak to an audience that connects with Michel. Who are these people you ask? You guessed it, Mac people.

HP's new machines are interestingly slick. An obvious response to the success of Mac's consistent product design across all its hardware. I'll be very interested to see what the response is. Are we Mac users buying into the Mac brand merely because the machines look great on our desks? Probably. This may be the first test for Mac in a while. And as soon as Google releases an operating system that sinks Windows forever, the competition may get stiffer.

Before you scream nerd, let's get back to art. Another great director (and friend of Gondry) making quality ads is Spike Jonze. Everyone loved the Ikea lamp ad he did. Even more enjoyed the Adidas TVC he made to a soundtrack by Karen O. But my personal favourite was this ad for The Gap. I would have loved to be in the client meeting when the idea miraculously made it through.



I managed to see Spike speak at Cinema Nova on Lygon Street when he was in the country filming Where the Wild Things Are. Asked what happens when approached by agencies, he said (and I paraphrase): "When an agency brings me an idea, I usually tell them it's shit. I say, if you want me to film this ad, let me write it. So they do and this is what they get."

Apparently some turn him down. Their loss I guess.

If anything, the Gondry ad for HP is a step forward. Will they be able to catch up on lost ground against Mac? Only time will tell. But I'm pretty sure Michel would have taken his hefty payment from HP and bought some new Macs.

Getting a job in the advertising industry is about as difficult as drawing a straight line while on public transport. It's a constant struggle that leads to many false starts. Even when you do make it, the ride has been almost enough to put you off forever. This coming from someone who hasn't been through the process, but plans to in the future.

There is however, reason for my pessimism. Out of every graduating year at RMIT's creative advertising course, only 10% land jobs in the industry. One such lucky team is Trent Hendrick and Celeste Millot, who just scored a dream first job at Cummins & Partners in Brisbane. This was only achieved after being knocked back by an assortment of hardened agencies in and around Melbourne. Would their arduous journey have benefited from the new book released by Sydney adman Justin Lane? The creative group head at M&C Saatchi has compiled a collection of tips into an affordable bundle called 69 Ways To Get A Job In Advertising. We're yet to know if it's a worthwhile read, but at $15 it's only slightly more expensive than an issue of Campaign Brief.


I recently stumbled upon an interview with one of the fathers of modern advertising, George Lois. If you're a bit hazy on who the hell he is, all you need to know is that Bill Bernbach was his mentor, he created the "I want MTV" campaign that changed a generation, and art directed a host of unforgettable covers for Esquire Magazine. It was conducted in 2003 by New York magazine.

Here's his story on how he made it into the agency Doyle Dane Bernbach (DDB) and made a lasting impression...

"My first ad there—my very first day—was for a CBS show about how food gets delivered to New York. So I called a photographer and told him to get a fish—I wanted to have the fish saying, “How do I get to New York?” That first day, there was a memo from the business guy to all the art directors, saying, “You got to return props. I know you guys are keeping the props. I don’t care what the props are, I want them delivered to my office.” So after the shoot, I get the photographer to give me the fish. Then at ten o’clock at night, I leave the fish in the guy’s office with a note that says “As requested” and sign my name: George Lois."

In the few places I have stumbled across successful creative people, I find they all have one thing in common. That one thing being an undeniable vision. They know what they want and how to get it. Creativity has always been a subjective business, but it shouldn't be left up to everyone's interpretation. Someone has to captain the ship. With this in mind, George Lois was the Blackbeard of Madison Avenue. This is one quote which sums him up in a uniquely articulate manner: "I know what the fuck I know, and you know what the hell you know, and I’ll tell you what I think, and you tell me to fuck off." It's about not wasting your time or the time of others. It's a clear vision to communicate in the best way possible to the right people.

Another good example of his heralded insight and opinion is in this biting comment on the 1984 Apple Superbowl TVC: "And that great Apple commercial, which was horseshit, but it was Citizen Kane horseshit. It was the kind of thing that knocked you on your ass."

George Lois is a huge inspiration to me. And I'm finding it increasingly helpful to build a database of inspirational personalities to look up to before embarking on the ad job journey. Because most of the time, it's not what you know, or even who you know, but how you can make big things happen for influential people. Like a good friend and writer told me, it's all about the tone, and these people can be the signpost to making who you are the perfect fit for a lucky agency somewhere in the world.

The State Library in Melbourne is getting better and better with age. Tomorrow (Thursday), the famous institution will be presenting a free forum discussing artists' zines and the spoken word.

The event will feature Steve Grimwade & Lisa Greenaway from Going Down Swinging, Jessica Tuckerman from City Library Street Press and Luke Sinclair from the catacomb zine palace that is Sticky.

But aside from these great talents, I am very interested to see the spoken-word performance by Sean Whelan. This poet turned an old copy of Dubliners, James Joyce's classic novel, into a modern salute called Melbourners. I hear the poetry is even better than the concept.

(I wish these people had links but it's hard to find much about them online. All the more reason to come along and see what they're really about.)