A Penguin Viewing Party
Waddle on!
A large number of penguins can be called many things. A colony. A rookery. Or a few other collective nouns.
If that is not fun enough, we find some cheery brand freshness from Penguin Random House this week, so we can camp out with the birds and watch a bunch of nice videos.
Waddle on!
The Colour Bar today is a collage of brands, creativity, expression, and…me.
A colony of Penguins: The venerable book logo gets a family.
▶️ Curated/Cuts: Lots of eye candy this week! Coinbase’s brilliant escape from a video game ; Canal+ blends F1 & Mario Kart ; GAP continues its affair with dance ; M&S hires a different kind of ‘CCO’.
About writing: Is writing with AI just a question of utility vs expression?
This Week That Year: The Colour TV.
➕ FIFA x Youtube · The polarising Twitter algo · A Book You Shouldn’t Steal ·
☝🏽Busy? Lazy? Multitasky? Click play above and let me read this to you.
1. A colony of Penguins
You know this penguin. Whether you read a lot, or not a lot, you are likely to recognise the long-standing Penguin Books logo (we are told he might be called ‘Alan’ in those hallowed halls.)
In 1935, founder Allen Lane had apparently decided for some reason that his new publishing house would be named after an animal. Company legend has it that his secretary suggested ‘Penguin’ as a “dignified, but flippant” name for the new company.
Now that the company is a nonagenarian, it has decided this is the decade where old Alan can be given some life (and company).
Happily for us, they teamed up with illustrator Matt Blease- and we are treated to some delightful new avian friends.
Now please, good people! It is important to note- these are not versions of Alan. Indeed, the brand required that they be distinct from the venerable ‘master’ penguin. Blease likens these to an extended family of sorts, that might well be “guests at Alan’s wedding.”
All images from Penguin Random House. Illustration: Matt Blease
Creative Direction & Design: Derek Man, Jodie Wightman
Head of Brand: Zainab Juma
Grace Snelling fleshes out the penguin’s journey a bit more here on Fast Company.
Fun fact: The collective noun for penguins depends on their activity: a ‘waddle’ is used for them walking on land, while a ‘raft’ refers to them swimming in water. You may then use a ‘colony’ or ‘rookery’ for large breeding groups, and a ‘huddle’ for keeping warm. A group of penguin chicks is called a crèche.
You’re welcome.
2. Curated/Cuts
· Your Way Out ·
Get out! Get out of there, Truman! Or I could say ‘Run Forrest Run’ - not sure which film metaphor suits this better.
Ladies & gents, please- step into this game world. You might feel like you’re in the 2000s, but in a good way.
This here protagonist is bumbling his way through yet another day in anonymous-game-land. Then, something snaps him out of this jail-like life, and prompts him to go… the other way. His way.
Coinbase (now hold on, whatever your cryptocurrency leanings might be)... Coinbase launched this spot during the Oscars.
Titled ‘Your Way Out’, it is a fine take on the product *and* the message.
We are all trapped in a financial system! It is old! It controls us! It renders us bland, anonymised, nobodys! NPCs (non playing characters, yo).
Here’s the liberating financial solution- Coinbase!
(That’s the pitch anyway)
But the best part? This whole video game feel is done in-camera. Not CGI.
Real people, real sets, real costumes and real weird walking steps
There is a longer version with more pixelated goodness, and one where the narrative flows quite wonderfully. Watch here!
And here is the BTS this really needs, though I am hungry for more- especially for the set and props!
Director Oscar Hudson · Agency Isle of Any ·
· F1 x Mario ·
Canal+ goes all in with the Mario Kart feels in this spot for the Japanese GP coming up this weekend. I enjoy the take, appreciate the commitment to really go all-in, and wonder how much the creative had to convince the suit to actually go for it. (Also, I wonder if ‘true’ F1 fans are amused or put off or couldn’t care less.
· Wassup ·
Wassup? Beats and Breaks, is what.
All American apparel brand Gap returns with some music & dance love, this time featuring Puerto Rican rapper Young Miko.
They’ve been consistent with this strategy of bringing together popular music and choreography to sync with a line. This round is all about sweats- hey, they can be not just cool, but ”a bold expression of confidence and authenticity” too. All set to Young Miko’s track ‘Wassup’.
The shapeshifting dancers are pretty arresting, and I’ve seen reactions like ”hypnotic’, “mesmerising’. Have a look and decide if the buzz is worth it.
Director Bethany Vargas · Choreographer Zoi Tatopoulos ·
Here are the previous iterations with Troy Sivan and Katseye.
· Love That! ·
It might be a bit on the nose, but there’s something appealing about Marks & Spencer’s outing with their new CCO aka ‘Chief Compliments Officer’ Gillian Andersen. It could be the honest, charming reactions, or maybe it’s just Scully’s polish.
It comes with the Spring collection and a little page where you can replicate her look, if you so wish, or anyone else’s from the spot.
3. Writing about writing
Writing for marketing, vs writing for narrative. Or literary prose. Or just, for expression.
I have been in and around many discussions on the use of generative AI for writing recently. Clearly, I have skin in the game. Yet, I can still state, somewhat dispassionately, what notice in these conversations. Often (mostly), they don’t seem to differentiate between the two kinds of writing efforts I describe above.
Those engaged in functional, utilitarian writing- say, for sales or corporate or legal copy- are likely to find genAI useful more easily, and embrace it more readily.
Most of the resistance, on the other hand, comes from those who write for expression, storytelling and- dare I say it- pleasure.
By no means do I mean to belittle the first set, much of that is central to many industries, and many fine creative folk are involved in them (yours truly not excluded). I do feel that this first category (and the people who are in that line of work) are already showing a certain comfort in slipping to the median in favour of speed or ‘efficiency’.
What couldn’t be done, what had to be outsourced, or was tedious to do, can now be banged out with an LLM. It’ll be ‘good enough’.
On the other hand, there are those who write to flesh out their thoughts, craft a narrative, tell a tale, make a unique point, say something fresh (or say something freshly). Many of them might even overlap with the first bunch, believing (as do I) that text that’s written, not generated, has a fundamentally better chance of being effective / achieving the objectives it is intended for.
Now this group? It is less likely to see the value in handing over the pen to a predictive machine, and clutch their own pen more passionately.
But these are merely my musings. What about your world? In marketing, B2B, advertising, promo work, content management, branded entertainment; is what you are seeing different, or does this sound all too familiar?
4. This Week That Year
This is The Colour Bar, so I feel compelled to briefly note something about the Colour Television this week. Here you go.
➕ Quick Hits
In a pretty significant deal, YouTube and FIFA have teamed up for the upcoming World Cup, making content available to creators, unlocking the FIFA archives, and opening up Youtube for broadcasters as well.
X fla Twitter ‘revealed’ their algorithm some time back. Nelson Fraser, columnist for The Times UK, analyses it and argues X is an engagement-driven engine that polarises users by heavily favouring outrage and argument.
Don’t Steal This Book is the title of a symbolic book released by authors in the UK, as a protest. The list of nearly 10,000 authors include Kazuo Ishiguro, Philippa Gregory, Mark Herron and Richard Osman. This was another call for the UK government to not choose the so-called ‘preferred path’ of letting AI firms use copyright-protected work without the owner’s permission– unless they have actively opted out. Composer Ed Newton Rex brought it together.
Subsequently, there was a “u-turn” of sorts from the government, agreeing to open up to all other options. Not a win by any stretch, yet.
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