3 great ads Leon Jaume had nothing to do with

By Suzanne Bidlake, campaignlive.co.uk, Tuesday, 05 February 2013 10:50AM

Leon Jaume, the WCRS executive creative director, has picked out TV spots for Carling Black Label, Ronseal and John Lewis as three great ads of recent years.

Leon Jaume: executive creative director at WCRS

"Perfection", "simplicity" and "commercial genius" variously underpin Jaume's choice of ads to praise in this short film, created in association with Thinkbox and Brand Republic.

With not a CGI in sight, but with a big brand confidence and the accomplished director Roger Woodburn on side – plus the gag of the scrambled pilot's voice – 'Dambusters' is "just perfection", Jaume said. Even after 22 years.

Ronseal's 1994 ad for woodstain by HHCL does just what it says on the tin. Yet Jaume claimed it does everything wrong in advertising terms.

He said: "It doesn't look very nice, the bloke is a lugubrious, dour individual. And yet there's this compelling simplicity; it's all about this product and what it does."

The tagline has itself become stained into the public lexicon – the prime minister, David Cameron, quoted it when talking about the coalition recently.

For Jaume, TV advertising has to be one of two things: entertaining or useful. "Ronseal is the absolute exemplar of useful," he said.

Jaume admires the John Lewis Christmas ads for both their "sense of team" – director Dougal Wilson is a regular feature – and also their innovation. But what particularly excites him about 2011's ad ‘The Long Wait’ by Adam & Eve is that "there's a commercial genius in what's at the heart of it".

At Christmas, "the most complicated and messy time for all commercials and brands", he said the ad suggests that buying from John Lewis is "not about acquiring stuff but about generosity and giving stuff. I love that."

This article was first published on campaignlive.co.uk