PRIVATE VIEW: Linda Locke, regional head of creative at Leo Burnett

When I was asked to write this review, the world felt a far safer

place and advertising seemed to have a place in it.

On Tuesday night and for quite a few nights after that, it disappeared,

replaced by the devastating and horrific images of the atrocity wreaked

on America - filling our eyes, our minds and our hearts.

And then, bit by bit, ads started to reappear and for the first time in

days, I started to feel calmer for it seemed to signal the first signs

of normalcy, of getting back to business. And so we shall ...

JTC International Business Park: Two ads that seem to have little in

common, save the logo. The first ad featuring a man on the beach with

the suggestion of his office drawn in. Wow, an office by the beach I

thought, but I read on only to discover no, it's actually in the middle

of an industrial park - but, they assured me there is a real park there

- enough said.

The second ad featuring a lot of different light bulbs and a headline

that talks about "letting your ideas take off" - cliched. Such a shame,

the park is really set in a park. Now there's a story waiting to be

told.

Chow Sang Sang: There is a nice visual device in the sunburn shadow left

by the jewellery, but it's a bit of a stretch to suggest the wearer

loves the jewellery so much she never takes it off. Too complicated and

so is the layout.

Oxygen: It's quite a clever ad - a roomful of children being asked

general knowledge questions while a computer loading symbol appears on

the child's forehead. It takes forever to load information to answer the

questions an off-screen teacher asks. The idea that broadband is as

quick as a child's mind is a very human way of selling the benefits of

broadband and a compelling way to sell technology.

Dao Heng Card: A beautifully-shot film with wonderful art direction

touches and great music. It makes me want to pick up the phone and book

a holiday immediately up until the couple's kiss on the beach; when it

tried to tell me that if I sign up now I'd get free Samsonite bags, it

brought me back to earth with a bump. The hard sell supers also seemed

unnecessary. I just needed to know that with a Dao Heng credit card, it

could be me on that romantic holiday. Everything else should have been

relegated to a print ad.

Jurassic III: A fun ad that communicates simply and graphically great

art direction and leverages the previous two films well.

Samsung: A good product trying too hard to get its message across so

much so it feels like it's yelling at me. The idea of higher

'rinsability', if such a feature really exists is a compelling one. The

art direction does little to help tell the story. I'm afraid it's an

opportunity missed.

JTC INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS CENTRE

Project: International Business Park

Client: JTC Corporation

Brief: To inspire people to carve a niche in the growing knowledge-based

economy.

Agency: Mandate Advertising International, Singapore

Creative director: Paul Hume

Art director: Eric Chow & Jude Castillo

Copywriter: David Goh

CHOW SANG SANG

Project: New Shop Opening

Client: Chow Sang Sang Jewellery

Brief: To promote a shop opening in Hong Kong

Agency: Lowe Lintas & Partners

Creative director: Kinson Chan

Art director: Bunzz Ng

Copywriter: Helen Chan

OXYGEN

Project: "56K Kid"

Client: CLP TeleCom

Brief: to launch the Oxygen Broadband service

Agency: Saatchi & Saatchi

Creative director: Francis Wee

Art director: Maurice Wee

Copywriter: Renee Lim

Production House: Film Factory

DAO HENG

Project: Dao Heng Holiday

Client: Dao Heng Credit Card

Brief: To stand out from the extremely competitive local credit card

market by giving the brand a unique personality as well as offering

consumers distinctive product benefits.

Agency: MK2 Communications

Creative director: Kasey Lin

Art director: David Cheung

Copywriter: Joe Chan

Production House: Odeon

JURASSIC III

Project: "Eggs"

Client: Smart Telecom

Brief: To serve as a teaser for the upcoming movie "Jurassic III".

Agency: DDB Philippines

Creative director: Roger Pe

Art director: Juan Paolo Tana

Copywriter: Roger Pe

Production House: Calypso, Makati

SAMSUNG

Project: Washing machine

Client: Samsung India

Brief: To move away from advertising generic benefits towards

communicating a message that has a greater emotional appeal

Agency: Triton Communications

Creative director: Atanu Chakravorty

Art director: Atanu Chakravorty

Copywriter: Shashank Gupta

Production House: Thomson Press