Grey Amsterdam sounds pretty dull and.. yes, grey - but the local Dutch arm of the network located in an old Waterworks building creates work that is anything but watered down. With a swift injection of international talent and leadership, this hybrid international/Dutch agency may be the one that will finally bridge the gap between the internationals and the locals in the Amsterdam advertising scene.

When the British ECDs - Colin Lamberton and Seyoan Vela - went to Grey Amsterdam they needed an MD who was sharp as a tack like themselves, and with MD Hazelle Klønhammer from Australia they got it. As bonus she brings an even larger international perspective. Hazelle Klønhammer has not only worked at international agencies such as 180, Wieden+Kennedy and Modernista! in Amsterdam since the nineties, she has also wisely taken breaks from the grind to immerse herself in other cultures on travels to exotic destinations, from Vietnam to India. Her outlook is one of permanent curiosity and genuine interest in people, fresh and eager to learn more, and she is totally unfazed by cynical ad manners that so often dog those at the top. She still falls in lust with every product or service she is working on, learning everything she can about the history of a company and loving every minute of it like a kid just out of ad-school. Make no mistake though, she is a people-person, not a product-pusher who fails to see where the brand lives: which is in peoples minds.

DB:- "We were talking about travel, it made me wonder if to be a successful MD, is there an advantage to get a fresh outlook by experiencing different cultures?"

Hazelle Klønhammer: "Absolutely, I just think people are fascinating you know, to see how some people process different information, and their reactions to things."

"When I moved from Australia to Holland, when I worked at Weiden with all these different nationalities - French, Italian, Spanish - you'd get so many perspectives on a brief. Working on a beer brief, say - beer culture is different in Italian, Australian and Swedish. The more you travel, the more people you meet, you just learn about how people operate. I think that's very helpful in business, because everybody comes with own their set of expectations, their way of doing things. And if you can take a step back from that, try and understand how they are perceiving things from their perspective it really helps so much. Not just in any new business, but also in dealing with staff.

Because what is an agency? It's a bunch of people. What are clients? A bunch of people. How can you make connections with them, how can you understand them? Just by paying more attention to how they work culturally..where they are coming from.

At Boards Summit this morning, Cindy Gallop ( @cindygallop1 ) spoke about her subjective ideas on the future of advertising, adding "Anyone who disagrees with me, we can take it outside later". With real time reactions to a clients work, transparency isn't just a catch-phrase, it changes the way the industry operates. You can no longer be inconsistent, everything your brand does you're accountable for.

Ed Ulbrich, the EVP/President Commercial Division, Digital Domain, held a seminar this morning at the Boards Summit Europe. With the case study of Tron he showed us that one can make lemonade out of writers strikes (as they dug through the dusty movie-script vaults to find the Tron gem), and that the way forward is creating a multi-faceted world, which in turn creates new opportunities for marketers. All these ideas they learned from Tron prompted the company to launch a sister entity, Mothership, focused on the transmedia opportunity.

Ed: "This was birthed from the commercial division of Digital Domain. "

"How many of you have seen that? Do you know what that is? A lot of people believe it's a trailer for a movie. But it's not. There's a lot of work that's been done about two and a half years ago. This was done before there was a movie, before the game - what you just looked at was a protype of an entertainment property."

The way movies usually are created is by a script traversing the ladder of approval, but with this visual feast Digital Domain had something to show the game creators, the movie creators, the amusement park designers and each audience in turn could take from it a film, a game, a ride.

"That's why I'm saying Tron is not a movie, because that's not a movie. It's the starting point of everything."

The Boards Summit Europe takes place in Amsterdam tomorrow. Cindy Gallop, @cindygallop1, will speak on "The future of advertising .. and porn". Gustav Martner, Karen Corrigan, Andy Fackrell, Mark Chalmers, Jeff Kling, John Weich, and Nick Bailey will present in pecha kucha format "7 ideas to improve the world". Gustav von Sydow will talk about media, creative and the missing link - plus much more. I'm quite exited to be there, even if the Boards Press pass says * PANTS REQUIRED dangit, and I'll be bambusing some chats live for y'all so that you can have a peek too. See you in Amsterdam!

Don't forget to follow @adland and if you wish @dabitch on twitter for real-time gossip.

As more than half the world has already welcomed in 2010, we bring you a master list of all the posts we've been doing here at Adland.tv wrapping up the past ten years of advertising. Something to enjoy as you recover from your hangover or as you prepare to get your drink on. Enjoy!

Adland's 10 by 10 - Top ten Viral ad campaigns in the past ten years.

Adland's 10 by 10 - Top Ten Marketing Mishaps in the past ten years.

Adland's 10 by 10 - Top Ten Banned ads in the past ten years. (NSFW)

Adland's 10 by 10 - Top Ten Freakiest Ads of The 00's

Adland's 10 by 10 - Top Ten new ad space ideas in the past ten years.

Adland's 10 by 10 - Top Ten Escalator ads in the past ten years.

Adland's 10 by 10 - Top Ten Spec ads that went viral in the past ten years.

Adland's 10 by 10 - top ten celebrity ads/campaigns in the past ten years.

Also don't miss:
Soap predicts 2010 for digtial
Mini Tribute to Celebrities Who Have Passed On in 2009
Adland's top ten (well, twelve actually) sexiest ads of 2009.

1. Orange's campaign featuring many many celebrities over the years, including Macaulay Culkin, Snoop Dogg, Mena Suvari, Darth Vader among many others like Verne Troyer, Patrick Swayze and Sean Astin.

2009 saw the passing of quite a few celebrities. Here is a selection of a few who had appeared in ads during their careers.

Brittany Murphy

#1 Ten years ago, Paul Malmström and Linus Karlsson (Now Mother New York ECD's) shot a few purposely crappy films during their lunch break, went home at night and built even crappier homepages for them, emailed their pals and before they knew it as the pages spread to places like Losers.org and beyond, they had kickstarted a viral teaser campaign for a Buddy Lee jeans. The pages spread like wildfire, and the Swedish idiom in literal translation on Curry's page "Do you think I'm out bicycling" tipped me off to the creators being fellow Swedes. The servers were slammed and eventually the films had to be removed due to their popularity. Rubberburner will never die. Long Live Rubberburner.

There are three ways to get your ad banned. Have sex, religion or suicide in your ad. If you managed all three, you'll be insta-banned. These are the funniest or craziest banned ads reported here in the past ten years. As you might expect, this list is NSFW if nudity is NS where you work.

#1
First out (above) are Sofa King who managed with the feat of getting their slogan banned. What's wrong with an endline that fulfills the client critera of having the brand name in it, and touting their low prices? Nothing, except, their brand name is Sofa King. Our prices are Sofa King low read the ad, and all the noo yawakas thought it was Sofa King funny. The ASA didn't laugh.

---

In no particular order...

In 2008, Nike Brand Design EMEA showed us how much like second skin their shoes where. Literally. The result was a bit disgusting and freaky.

---

November 2007...we all knew French ads have a tendency to be a bit odd. We thought we knew just how odd. Oh, how wrong we were. Fred & Farid of FFL PARIS brought out the freaky guns with their ad for Orangina that gave homage to (at least what appeared to be) furries. Now oft referenced with any new furries-like spot that comes out, this is definitely worthy of the top ten for the decade.

#1 Cole, Russel & Pryce launched their agency web site by mailing out a chopped off lamb's foot to their pals and potential clients, but their pro-bono client "Djurens Rätt" (animals rights) were not in the least bit amused and soon the Creative Director had to become the sacrificial lamb; he was axed.

---

#2 johndoom posted the most bizarre ad for toothpaste we've ever seen and all the collective adgrunts scratched their heads. Why is the kid so amused at seeing his presumed mother naked? Why is she in the shower, yet not wet? Where's the towel? What does this oedipal scene have to do with white teeth? Not a marketing mishap as much as the best worst ad we've ever seen, and it has yet to be topped.

---

We want the world to know what "Adland" - the mythical worldwide land where adgrunts reside - looks like on New Years Eve. Fancy being our fly on the wall in your part of the physical world?

All adgrunts can connect their accounts to Bambuser - just go to user/me/bambuser and hook it up. Once you have your adland+Bambuser account set, you needn't worry about hashtags, everything you Bambuse will end up on Adland's Bambuser page. Live! As you broadcast it. So please do share, and show us what New Years eve looks like in the part of Adland where you are.

You can use your webcamera or cellphone, and joy, the iPhone Bambuser app is now available for you folks who didn't want to jailbreak, or break, anything. For all other phones, check out the phone list to see if yours is on it. While you're there, peek at the getting started page for a quick how-to, as my talkative demo below might not make too much sense. ;) Come midnight and 2010, I'll be Bambusing to the front page, will you?

Another countdown to 2010, in the past ten years the internet (and this website) has matured its way up to "2.0", everyone on earth learned to play along in the security theatre at airports and advertising has broken new grounds offline, these days its not so much ad creep as a great wave of advertising molasses seeking to cover every inch of the earth. Lets see the top ten oddest and most innovative new ad media ideas in the past ten years, shall we?

#1 Eggvertising. You can have your egg and brand it too. Egg ads media in Canada sold this space alone, meanwhile some folks in London decided that the sandwich wrapper made a great unused ad space, and now no food was safe - we had Printed pringles with logos straight on them, Nanner ads on Bananas, Gourmet impressions - selling ad space on pizza and even ads inside your Tokitos. It was enough to make us loose our appetite.

---

Welcome to that odd Monday where everyone in advertising goes to work but nobody really knows why.

As a distraction, I offer you the sexiest ads of 2009. Since I find good ads sexy, we're not going by my standard but by the most common standard. In short, here are the ones with the most nudity.

#1 PETA came out early this year to try and grab the crown, they had models frolicking with asparagus and being "so smitten that she makes herself part of a steaming "orgy" of mixed vegetable soup." In other words, they had models and phallic symbols, lots of skin and suggestive moves and then they press released the hell out of not being allowed to air during the superbowl. "Banned" they called it, even though it's simply "rejected by network".

PETA - Veggie Love (failed superbowl ad) - (2009) :30 (USA)

#2 "Becoming a donor is probably your only chance to get inside her", sexy and it stings.

Another countdown to 2010, lets look at how creative escalator advertising has become in the past ten years, shall we? From worst to best, here's the top ten (well, eleven actually), escalator ads in the past ten years.

#1 The Nivea shaving ad [video] from DRAFTFCB switzerland uses the time spent on the escalator to make people read, and wait, for the point. Meanwhile the Revita beauty center ad from Brazil has people walking on the models back. Both of these are.... nice but no cigar, as the first one feels a bit too forced hoping people will read all that, and the second one just weird as I doubt anyone thinks "ah, how relaxing" when walking one someones back.

What is the future of advertising and communication in the remix culture of today? What can advertising learn from the new pop culture?

"I'd say, do something, learn, and then improve it" asserts Gustav von Sydow, founder and CEO of Burt.
"Advertising is much more about keeping momentum" offers Gustav Martner, the Executive Creative Director of Crispin Porter and Bogusky, Europe.

We delve into strategy, and product development as an answer to a communication brief, possibilities that are within reach today thanks to improvements in technology. Who owns the idea these days?

1. Lego: Rebuild it. First it was posted on various adblogs as if Saatchi & Saatchi, Guangzhou, China really had Lego approval on this image. But they didn't - and Lego was furious. The team that created it, Black Wu and Darren Cheung, crafted an apology letter in both English and Chinese stating that they were very sorry for causing the brand damage with their "naive and irresponsible behavior", before getting the sack from Saatchi China. Where they are now is anybodies guess.

---

2. The Bic Wite Out ads. Yeah, there, I said the name. SO SUE ME! First we had these terrible Bic ads submitted by the creative team Miguel Angel Barahona and Gabriel Gomez at TBWA Chile. Then, Bic's US Headquarters tells us to take them down. When that didn't work, the agencies creative director begged us to remove the ads. OK, fine, so the images were removed. But that wasn't good enough, as BIC Headquarters in the United States were pissed and the agency risked a lot of business, so the CD asked me again to please remove the brand name. Everywhere. Not happy until I had whited out every single mention of BIC® even in the comments, which of course bought these ads more blog mentions elsewhere on the web not to mention pissed off adgrunts. You can't put the toothpaste back in the tube folks.

---

People don't like new. In fact, I always wanted to start an agency called HACK. We should do the worst crap, just get the job done, real fast, and just get out of there. New is more challenging to sell.

Right after Paul Lavoie, Chairman and Chief Creative Officer of TAXI, was done with his creative solving problem lecture at the Eurobest 2009 in Amsterdam, where he had a pornographer, a knife-thrower and a Dakar Rally driver as guests, we dragged him aside and wanted to talk with him about trust, the must-have building block to create great ads. We ended up talking about the biggest deception of them all in adland, scam ads, and why they are made.

It all started with Mathijs Kraai and Bas Uytdenhouwen, who had set a goal for themselves to graduate from the Communication & Multimedia Design programme at the Avans University in The Netherlands in a spectacular manner. In contrary to the individually performed internship and thesis, the ‘free project’ offered the option to form a team and formulate a worthy project to graduate with.

Mathijs’ and Bas’ first task was obvious: finding the best and most ambitious Communication & Multimedia students of our year. It didn’t take long for us to get Bart van Delft on board, who Mathijs and Bas recently did a project with for Philips Design. They also followed a half year long minor program with him at the University of Twente.

Mathijs and Bas both chose the specialization Interaction Strategy, which focuses on strategic aspects of campaigns, but also on marketing, management and concept development. Bart chose Information & Interaction, with which he specializes on converting the above to the real world.

After the first brainstorm session, organized before the project itself had started, the three decided to present themselves to the ‘real world’ and potential employers in a highly distinct and unique way.

Even though there were no concrete plans yet, they realised that designers should not be lacking in this project group. Hence, the search for new blood continued, which resulted in hooking up with Hester Naaktgeboren and Jeroen Bijl. Both of them have specialized in Multimedial Design, and it shows. The composition of this group that would operate under the name ‘De vijf van morgen’ (The five of tomorrow) was born.

This is brought on by Her morning Elegance trend & the recent straight style copy of "Sorry I'm late".

Badlanders as the examples I promised: Dexim ad vs Jamie Nelson - This is what we call "demo love" - and what lawyers call "copyright infringement". and Double BLT magazine covers, NYT's "T" vs Coast a.k.a Toast.. This is not to be confused with obvious parodies that mimic a style on purpose to be funny. Like when John Cleese & Schweppes copied the style of CK perfume ads at the time.
Homages to other ads are a long-going tradition in UK advertising, but it's difficult to make them work in their own right so be careful with that.
The all time low is when ad agencies in far off lands re-use photographs they have no rights to use in their own ad campaigns, and this one tops them all as the mummy in that photograph is actually the copywriter of the original ad. When it comes to design you need to be inspired but watch out so it's not too inspired by all the great designers who came before you.

Clients will get in trouble for straight-up rip-offs. As they did in the case of Coke mimicking Joel Veitch's ninja kittens, and when Nike copied a chinese flash animators stick figures. These cases were won by the original creators, which is rare, but the bigger worry is when you piss off someone elses fanbase which may also be your customer base. Like when Nike copied Minor Theft or Jamba Juice borrowed heavily from Get Your War on. There is bigger danger in copying than simply being called a hack.