Another year of working three days a week for Dave by day and performing songs in dingy bars in North London by night..
BAA: 'Car Parks'
One of Dave's clients was BAA carparks (carparks at airports) and so I created a campaign based entirely around place name puns.
The VO we used for the BAA radio ads was John Glover, Mr Cholmondeley-Warner from our Harry Enfield Mercury ads
BBC Radio 4: Lent talk
For Easter 2007, I was asked to deliver one of BBC Radio 4's Lent talks, thanks to the work I'd done for the Churches' Advertising Network. The tobic I was given as an "adman" was Jesus and the money changers.
Church of England Paper
On the back of my Lent talk for the BBC I was interviewed by the paper about advertising the church.
Jumeirah Campaign
I helped win the Jumeirah hotes pitch for Dave. The idea was that whatever you require for your stay, Jumeirah can provide it. The work won gold at the 2008 luxury awards and was shot in Dubai, London and New York. Created with Russell Holmes and James Denman.
The hotel lobby was shot in the US. The panther was drugged and we weren't allowed to ask questions. it was so dodgy and knowing what I know now about the big cat industry over there, I don't feel good about it at all.
0.01
This should have been a lot of fun. Instead, the male model we were meant to be shooting in Dubai got caught with 0.01 grams of hash on him and was escorted straight to jail. The fallout was so spectacular that I wrote a book about it. Download it from amazon here
Ladybird 'Boys and Girls'
Ever since my BBC Internet book ion 2000, I kept in touch with Ladybird. And became an avid collector. By 2007, Ladybird finally realised that they were sitting on a goldmine or nostalgia. They brought out this book and asked me to write some chapters because I had already written a Ladybird book. Better still, they bought my entire collection of Ladybirds which was last seen in the V&A.
Blackcurrant Tango: Film Four
In 2007, Film Four voted St George the best long form commercial that appeared on British TV between 1950 and 2000. The trophy itself fell apart shortly afterwards but the memory is still there.
King.com: '20p'
Because I was only three days a week at Dave, I could still freelance elsewhere. This was for Big Al's - one of the few bits of work of mine for them that got made. I wasn't involved in the shoot but the script is mine.
Church ad: Second Life
2007 was the year of Second Life and anyone who was anyone had an avatar. We were one of the first church organisations to colonise Second Life and created a 1st century AD island complete with amphitheater. The amphitheater had a giant screen on which this film was playing. Happily it proved popular in the real world too. Music by Justin Hawkins, animation by Peter Muggleston, VO by Bobby Clayman.
