Somers Town

For years my Dad threatened to buy school books for Christms and dare I say it, this year was the first where I actually quite appreciated the idea. I got books on branding, typography and illustration, but my favourite by far is Guerilla Advertising 2 by Gavin Lucas. The book highlights some of the best creative advertising I have seen, one of which being Somer Town.

Here's a trailer for the feature film Somer Town developed by Mother advertising agency for the Eurostar. Directed by Shane Meadows whose previous works include This Is England, the film tells a story of a young runaway from Nottingham who arrives in London and makes friends with Marek, a polish teenager whose father is working on building the Eurostar terminal. The two boys bond together and fall for a french waitress working in Kings Cross cafe. Towards the end of the film the boys travel to Paris (by Eurostar) in search of the waitress who has returned to france.

What's so refreshing about this piece of film is there is no overbearing Eurostar branding, no logo and not even a mention in the opening credits. They only feature in the small print on the films promotional poster, yet the train forms part of the story. I am aware that brands funding feature films isnt a new idea, but this is so subtly done, its worth writing about. Hat's off to Mother for producing such an effective piece of advertising.