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As Bambi’s pal, Thumper, says, ’If you can’t say something nice,

don’t say nothing at all.’ So no snide remarks or petty nit-picking in

this review. Tango may have turned the Regent Street lights into a

tawdry mess, but we’re going to embrace the spirit of the season, knock

back the Bristol Cream and be as constructive as we can about other

people’s best efforts.

Sort of goodwill to all DM.

HMV’s ’top dog for Christmas’ is a cracker. Cute dog, bright, colourful,

simple messages. It all works together and you can’t miss it. Powerful

retail advertising with a bit of style.

The posters are good and the commercials fit with the theme, but the

best piece is the little voucher book they give out at the till. It’s a

smart little format. We’ll definitely nick it.

Shame none of it has anything whatsoever to do with direct marketing,

but hey ...

Hewlett Packard’s ’missing persons’ has a brilliant envelope. It looks

like one of those re-usable internal mail jobs, with your name on the

circulation list. You couldn’t resist opening it.

There’s a missing person’s file inside, something to do with the time

you waste waiting to get stuff printed. That’s quite clever.

And then there’s a product leaflet.

Great envelope, though.

Moving on to Microsoft’s ’which side are you on?’ We’re in envelope

heaven today. This one cleverly opens on both sides to reveal two

different personalised letters, one appealing to your cool, rational

left brain, the other to your crazy, creative right brain. It’s to

dramatise the benefits of using Visual Studio 6.0. The rest of the pack

continues that intriguing dialectical theme.

Haven’t we seen that idea used for Microsoft before?

Yes, brilliant isn’t it!

Now Cable London Business’s ’nothing’. Right. We’ve got a lot of stuff

here, including two posters with the headline, ’Nothing. That’s how much

business connections cost.’

Okay.

One has a picture of a section of tree trunk on a drain cover. And the

other has a red hoop cemented into the pavement.

Why?

We really don’t know. In fact, we can’t make head or tail of it.

But it’s probably our fault.

Happy Christmas one and all.

CREDITS

HMV

Brief: Promote HMV as the destination store for music, games and videos

this Christmas

Agency: BDS Beechwood

Copywriter: Derek Hayes

Art director: Simon Carter

HEWLETT PACKARD

Brief: Highlight the time wasted by waiting to use office machinery,

emphasising the benefits of the 1100A machine

Agency: Perspectives

Copywriter: Michelle Teboul

Art director: Mike Garcia

MICROSOFT

Brief: Launch Visual Studio 6.0 to developers

Agency: Joshua

Copywriter: Justin Moore

Art director: Steve Robertson

CABLE LONDON BUSINESS

Brief: Recruit new subscribers and increase awareness of Cable London as

a business telephone supplier

Agency: Thumb

Copywriters: Simon Carter, Steve Rowland

Art director: Simon Carter.