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Time to say something nice about 2016…

… as it was very kind to me. After a pleasing Christmas at the ancestral hall, bolstered in no small measure by Ancient Mother’s culinary prowess, I headed back to the Mystic East and to my old stomping grounds in Bangkok for a month. Having lived in Asia since ’88, I try to get there every year but I didn’t manage it in 2015 which made my return all the sweeter. Wonderful to catch up with old friends, haunts and habits. A top chum flew in from HK for some intensive taste testing at Artur Restaurant and a surprise visit to see my gorgeous friend Charlotte at her restaurant,  Bangkok’s finest Italian, the luxurious Sensi. Then we kicked off on a search for the best brunch in Bangkok which I can now confidently assert goes to the Four Seasons. (Get there early or book). Suitably chilled and tanned, I shot back to London to put together a film establishing myself as ghostwriter to the gentry. Thank God the talented Marcus Boyle was there to direct and to stop me acting the prick. Big kudos to Catherine for making sure the whole shebang ran wonderfully and with no fatalities. While we were cutting, I shot off to Birmingham for a jaunt to the northern badlands. Much fun! Then with the edit approved, I jumped aboard NZ1 for the big trip of the year – a couple of months in Lala Land for the LA Film Festival. That was the excuse but basically coz I just love LA and the feeling seems to be reciprocal. Caught up with heaps of clients and with my tribe to get my mojo recalibrated at Joshua Tree with a bit of desert magick. I also discovered the healing balm that is green juice. It was then that I first caught a glimpse of the first spot of 2016 to really send me into a tizzy. Behold the brilliantly, breath-taking Kenzo spot, My Mutant Brain from Spike Jonze 
with a dazzling Margaret Qualley spasming amongst the glitterati and firing laserbeams out of her fingerstips. An homage to his former “Weapon of Choice” video for Fatboy Slim, it is defo in a category all its own. I arrived back to London for a couple of weeks in early June and then it was time to dig out the resort gear which seems to have been discovered by every single Essex boy now – I see them mincing down to the pub in pink pastel shorts and Gucci espadrilles. I had a blast at the Lions in Cannesand you can read all about it here. Post Cannes recovery was spent in the Riviera: mostly in Vieux Nice with jaunts to Monaco and Antibes. It was there that I was blown away by Nike’s Da Da Ding from the superfabulous François Rousselet. Powerful game-changing stuff as girls in India are not encouraged to do any kind of sports but rather concentrate on school and marrying a nice Indian boy from a good family. The brief set out to give this notion a complete makeover by making it cool, accessible and fun and starred the supreme squad of Indian women athletes and celebs in a freewheeling, joyous rebuke to that thinking. A marvellous debut for Nike from W+K’s Delhi office. Back from a week in Berlin and that’s when I started my blog, and occasional vlog.  That’s when I first I caught a glimpse of Audi, Duel from arguably the best director on the planet right now, Ringan Ledwidge. I’ve watched it again and again, right way and reversed to enjoy the spectacularly staged and gleefully fun extravaganza as hotel valets do battle, entirely in reverse, for the right to park an RS 7. Great choreography, eye-popping stunts, perfect payoff—and a genius media buy around the three presidential debates.  And now before you know it, it’s Christmas time again. For me, the clear winner of the crop of Yuletide brand comms is Marks & Spencer nailing the feminist zeitgeist and winning back its core customers by casting Mrs Claus as a stylish, festive, 55-year-old woman in its latest lavish Christmas campaign. Shot by King’s Speech director, Tom Hooper features a young boy, Jake, writing to Mrs Claus on Christmas Eve for urgent help to make peace with his sister, Anna, by replacing some dog-eaten trainers. Glorious stuff and a graceful end to a rambunctious year.

May 2107 be awesome!

 

Paul Regan

Paul Regan is known as the world's #1 TVC Treatment Writer. He provides training, consulting, and director treatment writing services that win pitches for directors and production houses worldwide.

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