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The Guardian/The Observer. For a simple brief on a weekend supplement that I imagine was something like "Thanks to our great new supplement, there are so many new things to discover every weekend, you’ll want to do it all", this film is a piece of creative bravery. It would have been easy to imagine a positive ode to the pleasure of doing things. Instead, we find ourselves in a nightmare à la The Shining, hilarious and without much sense.

To sell a "negative" approach is an achievement in itself these days. But, in this case, the execution is also extreme – extremely intelligent in its construction (the way the sequences are shot makes you imagine the frenzy of the guy, on his own, trying a thousand things at the same time), extremely thorough in the details (you want to watch the film again and again to study them), extremely well-executed (excellent casting, superb filming) and with an extreme final scene with the burning shed and the half-naked man who looks like he’s straight out of a zombie movie. The whole film has a touch of a gore B-movie, from the voiceover – a disillusioned spectator of an apocalyptic horror film set in an ordinary suburban home – to the hard-rock soundtrack and the ventriloquist doll on the couch.

Quite the opposite of the Hive  spot – a charming little internet-style tutorial (complete with pretty drawings and cute guitar music). I don’t really have very much to say – it’s nicely done and, for what it’s trying to sell, it’s not bad at all. I can’t imagine that the brief was very exciting, so the creatives did a decent job with it. Sure, you get the impression of being five years old when watching it, but that’s another thing.

Speaking of being five years old, let’s talk about Innocent. OK, the name is appropriate, but where the execution of Hive reminds us of childhood, the Innocent film seems to take us for children. The good guy who drinks his good smoothie that will help poor Africans to buy a cow. Tricky. Since when is the world that simple? As for the representation of Africa (the mud huts, the dispensary, the tiny classroom), it’s Tintin In The Congo.

Either I didn’t get it and there’s another level to it (not very well done, in that case) or it’s quite a disturbing condescension of African people.

Not much to say about Kingsmill – I don’t know the actor (remember, I’m French), so perhaps I’m missing the jokes.

However, I get a sneaky feeling that’s not the case and that the problem rather is that they’re not very funny. Perhaps it was the "crusty" joke that put me off. Either way, I think we can move on.

Gocompare.com has an ambitious idea, playing on the name and imagining a bus that will bring you to the land of good deals. The execution is rather ambitious too; the characters are pretty insipid and the inside of the bus is quite surreal. I’m not familiar with the saga (remember, I’m a frog-eater), but the singer feels like an in-betweener – he’s there, but only in an anecdotal way. I’m not sure what the director wanted to do, but it feels like a brand that is looking for a new tone of voice. I’m a big fan of animals in ads so I loved the shot with the sheep, but it took me a while to make the connection with the Welsh…

 
Let’s start with what is, possibly, the toughest brief in our industry. The kind that hurls the feeble aesthetes of adland, in their hundreds, towards the open arms of therapists and publicans.

How do you help Gocompare.com navigate its way around a podgy Welsh opera singer in order to leapfrog a Russian meerkat? Surreal as it sounds, that’s the essence of the task.

For a few years now, we have watched as, not just two brands, but two schools of advertising have battled it out for the great British wallet.

In the "wear ’em down with TVRs" corner was the big Welsh warbler and in the"win ’em over with wit and charm" corner, the diminutive Russian rodent.

Now, there’s no doubt Gio did a job to begin with. But once irritation levels hit a point where viewers were prepared to self-harm rather than watch another ad, the question arose: where do you go next? And just as important: what do you take with you?

Well, it seems Gio has still got a seat on the bus. And the bus is taking us to a whole new place – where Gocompare is, literally, a physical destination you visit to save money. The idea is interesting enough, but it’s going to be all about the execution. And, if the current ads seem laboured, it’s probably because they’re still transitioning – using the old idea to introduce the new one. Hopefully, this vehicle will soon arrive at a simpler, happier place. Good luck.

According to this jaunty little animation from Hive, you could be having "a kick-about with a team of giant trout" while Hive is controlling your heating at home. While it may not have set out to grab you by the knackers at all costs, it’s got a devilishly catchy tune and is clearly an ideal service for fishy football fanatics and users of potent hallucinogens.

Innocent "tastes good. Does good". It’s a nice thought that plays directly to what I want from my smoothie. It also unpacks a new layer of loveliness for Innocent. The execution is top, even if it feels a tiny bit familiar in parts. Might be that the track is a tad Müller-ish, or that the voiceover goes a bit Moneysupermarket at the end. Or it might just be that I need to get out more.

Kingsmill is a classically scripted set piece with the bloke from Cold Feet. Personally, I’m not a huge fan of ads like this. But I’ve sat through enough research groups to know that Middle England will eat it up, 50/50 fibre and all.

"Shed’s On Fire". And so, gentle reader, is The Guardian/The Observer. This ad is good. Really good. It carries a fair bit of information but it is, first and foremost, fresh enough for me to want to hear it.

Have you noticed how often the client/agency process can conspire to diffuse ideas rather than make them more explosive? Often, it’s clever people being too clever. Boxes get ticked, messages made a little too slick, rough edges knocked off and glib endings added. And the work disappears because it has become too tidy, too safe or too samey.

Not with The Guardian, though. This ad has been done by clever people being silly and it’s all the better for it.