Top tens

Let's face it, we all love lists. Top 100 albums, top 50 beaches, top 20 TV ads, top 3 things to do in Nuneaton on a wet Thursday afternoon (you mean you found three?)... they shift tons of books and magazines off shelves, as well as hooking big Sunday night TV audiences. So here's a couple we found.

The first is 10 Golden Rules of Advertising. Can't remember where this came from originally - may have been the IPA. Everybody who works in the business should know these anyway, but it's good to be reminded every so often.

1. Start with an end in mind.
2. Ultimately the aim is for somebody to do something.
3. Creative thinking is the lifeblood of advertising.
4. Identify a target response, not just a target audience.
5. Find a truth and make it matter.
6. The best advertising has a single-minded idea.
7. Be different.
8. "It's on brief" and "I like it" doesn't mean you've got good advertising.
9. Branding comes from the whole of the idea, not just the logo.
10. All great advertising has a great client.

The second is 10 things You Should Never Say to a Creative. Got to admit, this is stolen. Nicked. Ripped-off. It appeared in an ad TCS ran in the 2006 Guide to Recruitment Marketing. It's just so spot-on though, we couldn't resist sticking it in here.

1. Can you make the logo bigger?
2. I don't like green.
3. The Chief Exec's just made a few tweaks.
4. Can you give us a safe option?
5. The sell? 'You can really make a difference.'
6. Apart from that, they really liked it.
7. We really need to wow them with this one.
8. They want to use this headline with that image.
9. Can we just jazz it up a bit.
10. They're going to show it around the office.

Know any more good lists? Drop us an email and let us know about them.