British Airways’ new campaign celebrates the myriad reasons we travel

The campaign, entitled A British Original, plays on the ‘what is the purpose of your visit?’ question travellers face on landing, delving into the stories that lie behind such a deceptively simple statement.

The ads themselves are extremely minimal in design, making the copywriting the star of the show. Uncommon has written 500 individual lines for the campaign, which range from the mundane – ‘Because this weather sucks’ – to the moving – ‘I’ve had a ring in my pocket for long enough’.

According to Lucy Jameson, co-founder of Uncommon Creative Studio, it’s part of a move to focus on people instead of planes, in particular “British originality”. The airline is also currently working on a new safety video starring BA staff as well as some famous British faces.

Shelter Winter TV ad

Credits:
Agency: Don’t Panic
Creative Partner: Rick Dodds
Creative Director: George McCallum
Production Company: Academy Films
Directors: Si&Ad
DOP: Alex Barber
Edit: Final Cut
Post: Electric Theatre Company

Ikea Norway promises to buy back unwanted furniture

Following the Trash Collection 2021, a campaign and initiative that spotlighted Ikea furniture which had been salvaged from the rubbish and re-sold at its second-hand stores, the Swedish retailer has announced the launch of the Life Collection 2022.

In a similar spirit to last year’s initiative, this one attempts to save and repurpose old furniture that is no longer needed. However, this time around, the furniture is not coming from the trash, but directly from people’s homes, with Ikea buying items back from owners.

As suggested by the title of the campaign, Ikea understands that buyers often don’t want to keep every piece of furniture forever and, given that life is a rollercoaster, these items can become unwanted due to a variety of reasons. In the short campaign film, directed by Kavar Singh and Niels Windfeldt, these reasons include death, sobriety, separation, childbirth, or simply because a significant other finds it “too tacky”.

The Life Collection 2022 marks another step towards sustainability for the brand, as it continues to address the widespread issue of waste. As one of the world’s biggest buyers of wood, it has faced criticism in the past for unsustainable logging practices, and as such, has worked hard in recent years to improve its credentials.

Credits: 
Agency: Try
Creatives: Caroline Riis, Eirik Sørensen
Designers: Jeppe Gjesti, Mats Mæland, Magnus Snickars, Dennis Magnus-Andresen, Tommy Lybekk, Marthe Solli, Elise Eik Ismar
Directors: Kavar Singh, Niels Windfeldt
DOP: Oskar Dalsbakken

Opening Up the Outdoors (OUTO)

There has been a huge cultural shift in the way we view the great outdoors in recent years, particularly in the wake of the pandemic and our increased desire to spend time in nature for both our physical and mental health.

Couple that with technical outdoor retailers’ newfound appeal to style-conscious consumers (see the North Face x Gucci collab that broke the internet), and it’s unsurprising that business is booming.

“Spending quality time in the great outdoors is a right everyone should be able to enjoy, but ever since I began hiking, mountain biking and skiing I’ve often been one of the only Black or brown faces on the trail (or piste),” says journalist and filmmaker Keme Nzerem.

Recognising the power of brands to enact change, new non-profit Opening Up the Outdoors (OUTO) has been spun out off It’s Great Out There with a commitment to equity and inclusion. Founding members include leading outdoor brands the North Face, Arc’teryx, Adidas Terrex, Patagonia, and Vivobarefoot.

The organisation’s launch is accompanied by an eye-catching visual identity led by Amsterdam agency We Are Pi. The hand generated logo and illustrations evoke a DIY aesthetic, and are balanced with a utilitarian type system which nods to the design language of manuals and maps.

“The design approach goes against the established aesthetic of the outdoors, and feels like a true celebration of the new outdoor culture Black and brown communities are creating,” says the design team.

Credits:
Agency: We Are Pi
Design Director: Seth Josephs
Senior designer: Gemma Stoner
Motion Designer/Illustration: Nick Fatouris
Creative Director: Taylor Black
Creative Director: Daan van Dam
Copywriter: Maya Halilovic

Burger King’s minmal ad campaign

The creative centres on the fast food brand’s trademark flame grill lines, which are emphasised in a series of minimal graphic images that continue the vintage flavour of Burger King’s 2021 rebrand.

A series of accompanying taglines – woven into the stripy grill marks of the burgers – mock fast food competitors, with outdoor ads strategically placed near Mcdonald’s, KFC and Subway restaurants. The campaign’s echoed in limited edition Whopper wrappers, also emblazoned with grill lines, and BK employees at London’s Leicester Square restaurant will be decked out in stripy shirts.

While it might seem that Burger King is following where McDonald’s has led, it’s all part of a wider trend of simplified branding, with businesses in all areas adopting more stripped back approaches, in part to make imagery and logos work better in digital. It’s yet to be seen if the pendulum will, at some point, swing back towards maximalism.

Credits:
Ad Agency: BBH
CCO: Alex Grieve
ECD: Helen Rhodes
Deputy ECD: Felipe Serradourada Guimaraes
Copywriter: Marcy Rayson
Art Director: Callum Prior
Designer: Christian Kolodziejski

Apple channels its classic iPod ads

Credits:
Agency: TBWA\Media Arts Lab
Directors: Gal Muggia, Vania Heymann
Production Companies: Iconoclast, Versatile

Least favourite fish gets a rebrand

Ever heard of Patagonian toothfish? Slimehead? Peekytoe crab? All of these none-too-delicious-sounding fish have been the subjects of successful rebranding campaigns, becoming Chilean sea bass, Orange roughy, and mud crab, in a bid to get people eating them.

Chicago-based practice Span Studio is hoping it can work some similar magic on Asian Carp – an invented, catch-all name for various types of carp which escaped from fish farm retention ponds in the 1970s, and have since taken over the Illinois River. The fish have impacted biodiversity and ecosystems, and there are fears they will go on to damage America’s Great Lakes.

The logo appears on a set of concept packaging designs, which envision how Copi might be sold – all emphasising the locally caught aspect. The ‘Eat well, do good’ tagline is the final element, with the rebrand designed to get people buying the fish at the supermarket, or ordering it from restaurant menus.

Plum Guide’s new ad campaign

Plum Guide is a travel brand which proclaims to curate stays in the “world’s most remarkable homes”. Its new campaign, by Stink Studios, doesn’t waste time trying to seduce audiences with visuals of these destinations though, and instead points out just how many holidays you are likely to have left, depending on your age.

The campaign is rounded off by the tagline ‘No time for average stays’. It’s a different approach for the holiday industry, which can often feel awash with identical campaigns showing palm trees and immaculate beaches. Though it might also make you feel like time is running out, a point brought home by Ali Lowry, chief brand officer at Plum Guide.

PayPal puts people first

Online payments platform PayPal has unveiled a new brand strategy and visual identity, developed by it’s in-house brand team in collaboration with New York-based design studio Gretel.

Starting with brand strategy, Madeddu explains that the team focused on PayPal’s role as the “empowerer” and “enabler” of opportunity for people. “The new brand strategy puts the stories of PayPal customers — millions of individuals and businesses who trust, rely on and use PayPal every day — front and centre, championing their needs and wants.”

The new visual identity is inspired by one of the brand’s most recognisable assets, the payment button, which has become synonymous with PayPal itself over the years. “For many people, it is the confirmation of a transaction in a digital commerce environment. It connects function with emotion — linking PayPal with the success of a secure transaction on both merchant and consumer sides. We decided to leverage this powerful equity,” says Madeddu.

Historically part of the PayPal checkout experience, gold is now included in the brand’s primary palette along with blue. The brand’s existing monogram, featuring two overlapping Ps that are locked together, is now also used as a framing device – “turning individual users, small business owners, or CFOs of large corporations into the protagonists of their story,” says Madeddu.

B&Q poster campaign

Shot by photographer James Day, who is known for his work for the New York Times, New Yorker and Wallpaper, the new B&Q ads are simple yet beautiful.

Each features a mobile phone with a B&Q product bursting from it, including paint, a roll of wallpaper and a bloom of flowers. The only text accompanying this is the brand’s web address, which alongside the image of the phone is enough to send home the message that you can order all these products digitally.