Sunday 18 May 2008

The Kingly Street black sheep


Many memorable ornamental details in London are basically advertising, so it is satisfying to come across one which is an advertisement for an advertising agency.
The sheep in Kingly Street, just behind Hamley's in Regent Street, is the symbol of Bartle Bogle Hegarty, who pride themselves on fighting above their weight. Despite the relatively small number of people they employ, they get lots of awards and can point to lots of campaigns you will remember, such as the bloke stripping off in the launderette for Levis, and Audi's fixed-in-the-brain-so-you'll-never-get-rid-of-it 'Vorsprung Durch Technik'.
BBH's first campaign for Levi's was for black jeans, then unheard-of. BBH did a poster with a crowd of white sheep going in one direction, like....er....sheep. And one black sheep going in the other direction.
Suited executives at Levi Strauss hated it, for two reasons:
1) It didn't mention jeans, and
2) It didn't feature girls with big knockers.
But it was a huge success, and many years later BBH adopted the black sheep as its corporate logo. And there it is, proudly advertising their London HQ.

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