Above: Shorts Steet in Covent Garden. Location of advertising agency Beattie McGuinness Bungay. The damp narrow street had a Dickensian feel, so that I felt as if I had tracked Fagin to his den.
To pursue the Dickens metaphor, BMB are the best of agencies and the worst of agencies. They have won awards. Their work is technically outstanding, their brand characterisations are fully developed and with depth and empathy, their conceptual ideas are exceptional.
For instance, their work for Carling is funny, visually stimulating, and noticeably well-executed (there is a slight 1990s-noir-ish tinge to the campaigns, but this may reflect aspects of the age groups that are being targeted).
Their work for Walls (“the two best bits”) sparingly demonstrates the power of gestalt theory.
Their Virgin Money ad takes the selfishness implied in capitalism and accentuates the self-serving altruism that capitalism can sometimes deliver.
But their work is also nihilistic and lacks any inherent morality.
Does advertising lead society or merely hold up a mirror to it? Trevor Beattie is an intelligent man, so when he says “Eastenders is pretty much representative of British life” we can no longer dismiss it as offensive trash and look away. Beattie McGuinness Bungay is one of the two hundred or so reasons society is in the mess it’s in.
More: http://www.bmbagency.com/
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