Russell Ramsay left as ECD of JWT at the end of 2016 to be replaced by the agency's digital ECD, Lucas Peon. We'd won a WWF project at the end of the year and spent 2017mainly creating TV and print for HSBC and OXO. We were also CDs on Shell Aviation, Listerine and Ribena.
OXO: Valentine's Day OOH
The joy of being CD on a brand as famous as Oxo is that teams love giving you ideas for it. This was one of the best ones and won a FAB award. Created by Simon Sworn and Kat Thomas.
OXO: Quiet night in
The next outing for the Oxo family was dad's quiet night in. However, as everyone else's plans start to fall through, Dad finds himself having to cook for five which, thanks to Oxo is a walk in the park. Critics approved of a dad who knows his way round a kitchen and who isn't completely at sea when plans change.
Shell: Gravity Light Stories
The big story here was Shell's Gravity Light, a device that uses bags of flour as weights to power a light so that people in developing countries stop using dangerous kerosine lamps. The lights give enough light to read a child a bedtime story and I was commissioned to rewrite 50 classic folk tales from around the globe for the project. Here is a small selection, the rest I am slowly putting on YouTube.
The overall Gravity Light project won a Cannes gold award and one of the films reached 8.5million views before Shell took the campaign off YouTube
HSBC: Swimmer
By now, the main HSBC client had left the building in disgrace and his number 2 proved just as unable to buy an idea. Dave arrived in South Africa with the script still not signed off. This was our last ad before a regime change at the bank, after which they brought in Richard Ayoade, filmed ads in the UK and started using English. Created with Naz Nazli
OXO: Reindeer
Another gem handed to us on a plate while we were Creative Directors on Oxo. This festive joy is by Mitch Brock and Chris Dickson.
