Just Another Social Profile Really

The Times have an interesting advertising campaign running at the moment. It started with very arresting posters which featured nothing other than eye-catching photos which had no branding of any sort on them. After a while the posters were replaced with exactly the same images, but with the words The Times added. The picture above is one of the latest in this campaign, which I took at Oxford Circus tube and shows a blurry David Cameron walking past a portrait of possibly the greatest every Tory leader, Winston Churchill.

I do like the campaign but have to say that I really hope The Times aren’t comparing Cameron & Churchill: that would be a bit like comparing an African lion with Garfield. Whatever the case it’s certainly interesting.

As is their new TV campaign: in keeping with a number of other recent campaigns, it’s been inspired by internet memes. In this case the ad is simply a clip from the footage that’s become a YouTube phenomenon showing amateur English baskbetball trickster Stuart Tanner putting one over on NBA superstar Devin Harris.

The Guardian have all the details and it’s a really lovely story: needless to say the comments on YouTube, fast becoming the social network of choice for xenophobes & racists, have descended into filth. Luckily The Times ad doesn’t have any of those, so we can all simply enjoy some delightfully lighthearted fun. I have to say that I think The Times ad agency were pretty sharp to associate the brand with this footage, though the fact that they appear to have had their version removed from YouTube suggests a certain lack of sportsmanship on their part.