CONTACT WITH WK: WEIDEN AND KENNEDY

For my essay I have been in contact with a freelance copywriter Laurence Blume whom has helped more than any other creative I know. I originally got in contact with him in October, as he was a student at the Manchester Polytechnic in 1978 he was eager to help out with my essay. Since then, he has been keen to respond and get me in touch with fellow Creative Directors that he knows. He forwarded my email onto two top Creative Directors: Tony Davidson from WK: Weiden and Kennedy and Nick whom I am still waiting a reply.

I am hugely grateful and the responses were just what I needed to develop my investigation into the Bill Bernbach quote.

So, after getting the responses I wanted to find more out about Tony Davidson, who is a Creative Director at WK. Weiden and Kennedy is a creative advertising agency that has offices in New York, London, Tokyo, Shanghai, Portland, Amsterdam and Delhi. I looked on the London page only to find out they have done some incredible work. Isn't it funny, you see an advertisement and wonder who created it, but never really find out who did it.
Well I'm proud to say that WK: London designed the Honda Effect Campaign last year, this creative work celebrates the credit crunch and how it affected Honda, but the ways they overcame the recession. I love this campaign and remember telling my tutor Liz about it!




Some info from their website:

The Honda Effect
June 15, 2009
"The Honda Effect" was an expression coined in the early 1980s as part of the exploration of Honda’s entry into the motorbike market in the USA. Back then, Honda took potentially risky and swift business decisions which were perceived to be taken against the grain—but which ultimately paid off. This year, Honda shut down their Swindon factory for four months to prevent making permanent redundancies in the face of the financial struggles of the car industry—which turned out to be another expeditious yet sensible strategy.Temporarily shutting down a factory was no easy decision but in typical Honda style they used the "downtime" to totally reinvigorate the facility and put in place new technologies that were planned long before the market tumbled. Furthermore, Honda associates themselves painted, tiled, plumbed and scrubbed the Swindon plant to create the feeling of a new workplace come June 1st. The campaign celebrates the associates and the knock-on effect we hope will occur now that they are making cars again.

They also just recently designed a piece for the Guardian on the Second World War:

The Guardian marked the 70th anniversary of the World War II outbreak with a seven-part editorial series free with the newspaper.

The work they create is effective and such an inspiration to look forward to when graduating this year. Still having doubts about where I want to go/to do this brought it all back home that this is where my heart lies and maybe the connection I have with Tony now could come in handy in June. Crossed fingers.