My application for the 2013 Adelaide AWARD School. I was lucky enough to be successful and to be accepted into that year's course. The application brief consisted of 5 questions and these were the responses I submitted.

A.) I’m more than a graphic designer and I want to prove that.

A.) The Commonwealth Bank’s campaign by M&C Saatchi was an ad I found particularly engaging. I encountered the ad first through environmental displays - walking around CBD Melbourne and at tram stops - and then through print and digital. I liked this ‘teaser’ as I felt that the campaign was vague enough to arouse my curiosity and affect my behaviour (to the point where that I checked out the URL on the posters and followed the campaign until the reveal). I felt that, after the reveal, the feelings evoked by the ads - of positivity, possibility and capability - transferred easily to the Commbank brand. Admittedly, the following campaigns (Ode to Can and related Olympics advertisements) became irritating and trite, but the initial advert still retained it’s impact and feeling. The ‘CAN’ campaign also challenged and reversed attitudes I’d formed towards Commbank through their previous advertising (i.e. they were out of touch, focused on bottom line rather than providing service to their customers). This campaign presented the relationship between the customer and the bank as one of partnership, rather than an oppositional, unequal one, which I feel is more authentic and more likely to lead to the customer feeling that they are being treated with respect.

A.) I dislike this ad for a number of reasons, but mostly because it wastes most of its air time insulting and pidgeonholing its target market as clichéd chumps - nothing more than a list of demographic details. The copy is also a rip-off of counter-culture comedian George Carlin, which is neither ironic or clever but just confused and poorly executed. There is also no clear value proposition and the product and brand aren’t even shown until the last 10 seconds of the 45 second spot.