Today, trademarkDM was announced as one of six international judging hosts for The Global Awards.

We’re proud to be hosting the Melbourne leg of the world’s premier healthcare communications awards program.

Entries are now open, so click here to download your entry kit.

Naturally, we hope see some great pharmaceutical work.

We hope to see a healthy amount of entries, too.

It’s not often you get to call work and say, ‘I’m not coming in because a volcano erupted.’ But that’s exactly what happened to Pauline Ahola.

Pauline’s taken over production duties while our production manager David Findlay terrorises the Maldives and Bali in his Speedos.

Or she was supposed to anyway but Eyjafjallajokull had other ideas.

Although she did make it to work eventually, she was forced to spend four extra days shopping and sightseeing in Paris, instead of here at THE DM GROUP.

But who could blame her?

When was the last time you felt so strongly about one of your ideas you threatened to jump out of an office window if people in your meeting didn’t listen to it?

‘We should be in charge!’

On Monday night we saw people like George Lois, Mary Wells, Hal Riney and Lee Clow in Art & Copy.

‘That’s advertising, baby!’

They didn’t worry about awards, or being the coolest kids at ad school. They just came up with some of the most disruptive and successful ad ideas ever.

‘Creativity can sell anything!’

Like Apple’s ‘1984’, firing the first shot in the PC vs Mac wars. Or Nike’s ‘Just do it’ attitude. Or the ‘Morning in America’ TV ads that helped Ronald Reagan win a second term in 1984. Uhh, thanks for that one.

But proper thanks to Junior for organising the Melbourne screening.

Now, in the words of George Lois, ‘Let’s sell that mutha—!’

Lucky for us – especially Ian Ross – advertising has mostly avoided the scourge of political correctness.

Which is just as well because often the best advertising is about finding, then celebrating or confronting the truth in all its messy human inconsistency and frailty.

It ain’t always pretty.

Or PC.

Which is probably why Mad Men is so loved.

Not only because it celebrates the golden age of advertising. But because it captures an era when men were men and women were – how did they put it back then? – dolls.

Which makes it very fitting that Mattel has announced the addition of Mad Men characters to its equally un-PC Barbie range.

As the New York Times reports:

The pairing of Barbie and “Mad Men” is more interesting than the typical licensing agreement because of their shared history. Barbie was introduced in March 1959, and the first episode of “Mad Men” is set in March 1960.

“‘Mad Men’ represents so beautifully the universe that created Barbie,” said Robert Thompson, professor of television and popular culture at Syracuse University, because the series is about the selling of the American consumer society.

To be included are Don Draper, wife Betty and colleague Roger Sterling. Oh yeah, and Joan Holloway, the agency’s office manager and Roger’s one-time mistress.

And who could blame him?

She really is a doll.

After 180 years Cadbury has been swallowed by Kraft.

And while the iconic confectionery brand won’t disappear from our shelves, it’s worth reflecting on its place in advertising lore.

Take ‘A glass and a half’ for instance.

While Cadbury has now turned to an emotional selling proposition of ‘joy’, it’s the unique selling proposition that will be forever etched in chocolate lovers’ minds.

Which, of course, has also led to the label ‘Cadbury girl’, applied to those amongst us more easily prone to the influences of alcohol.

And who could forget the award winning ‘Gorilla’ TVC above?

(The John Farnham version is however best forgotten…)

But perhaps most interesting observation in The Age article about the Kraft takeover is the following:

Kraft’s revenue from its Australian operations was nearly $620 million in 2008, while Cadbury’s revenue was $985 million in the same period…

Which goes to show our love for a glass and half of goodness is much greater than our love of yeast extract.

Bon appetit!

Healthcare advertising is one of THE DM GROUP’s specialities.

So over the break we were pleased to read that pharmaceutical companies are now our biggest exporters of high-tech products.

With drug and vaccine sales exceeding $4 billion, it’s the first
time in years the automotive industry hasn’t topped Australia’s
export sales list.

As Mark Metherell reports:

‘The pharmaceutical industry contributes about $7 billion a
year to Australia’s economy and its $860 million research
and development sector.’

Even more pleasing, the biggest sellers are treatments we work on regularly in the fight against influenza, cervical cancer and HIV.

But now we know our campaigns aren’t just looking after the health of our clients and the community.

They’re looking after the health of our economy too.

Today, the last edition of the Trading Post hits Australian newsstands.

The bible of classified advertising since 1966, it’s given everyday Aussies a taste of the advertising world for over 40 years.

Its iconic cultural status was confirmed with a starring
tell-’im-he’s-dreamin role in The Castle.

From now on, the Sensis owned title will only be available online.

And while it’s the way of the advertising world, it’s not quite the same as newsprint.

As one commentator observes:

Many people don’t want to read page after page of classified advertising on a web browser. It’s much easier to read in a newspaper and they also enjoy scanning the ads.

RIP.

Yesterday Casey Stoner won his third successive MotoGP at Philip Island.

We celebrated not only because he did Australia proud. But because he did our client Swann Insurance proud too.

Swann has been Casey’s only personal Australian sponsor since 2004.

It’s all part of their commitment to being a leading advocate for motorcycle safety. In fact, Swann appointed Casey their Motorcycle Safety Ambassador in 2007, so he can help them unveil the Motorcycle of the Future – a motorcycle that’s been designed and engineered to reduce the likelihood of accidents.

If you ask us, anything that keeps riders safer is worth celebrating.

One thing trademarkDM head of art Andy Harrison and creative director Stephen Flewell-Smith hadn’t counted on when staying back last night was seeing more stars than usual.

But they did.

Parked out front was C1 – Kevin 07‘s very own Commonwealth car – complete with driver, flag and security.

For those familiar with our agency’s neighbourhood, rest assured the PM wasn’t repeating his Scores faux par of 2003. Instead, our inhouse German spy Kristin Tomuschat has discovered he was visiting the good neighbours at Melbourne Citymission.

It’s just a ruddy shame Andy and SFS didn’t have a camera handy to capture the day the PM dropped by THE DM GROUP.