Lighter Note: Blokes in adland think big

THE Note is a major admirer of all those who work in advertising. One of the best places to find out about adland in WA is trade mag Campaign Brief. It’s full of all the cheeky stuff that makes ad people what they are – pretty blokey if you ask the majority of females in the industry, who mainly make up the bottom two-thirds of the employment hierarchical pyramid (a bit like journalism). But we loved Campaign Brief’s effort to redress the balance with a 12-page feature entitled Advertising Women – full of big stories like The Female Revolution in Adland, The Brand Agency’s Working Mothers, and Women: The Natural Communicators. But you have to give it to a mag that knows its market to make sure the there’s not too much balance. Next to the cleverly titled Women On Top story was a half page ad for Malaga sign-maker Kingman. Above the ads headline ‘think BIG’ was a near full-length model in, guess what, lingerie. But we thought the real balance was in the items relating to the Oasis Ball. Firstly, near the front of the book there was a lovely thank you house ad featuring a woman clad, apparently, only in paint. At the back was a real pendulum swinger: a two-page spread on the really big news from the ball – the inaugural Campaign Brief ‘Best Dressed at the Oasis Ball’ Award. Yes, really, pictures of 10 women, looking glamorous in their ball gear. Here we were thinking that beauty contests had disappeared in the dark ages. In a parting note, let’s juxtapose the provocative comments from Marketforce’s Derry Simpson published in that very magazine: ‘‘What I do see is an opportunity for us, as an industry, to evolve in our thinking and our culture; so we can make the most of women’s ‘natural’ communications talent.’’