Diederiekje Bok grew up in The Hague, for the most part in the gallery of her mother – portrait painter Marike Bok. Regardless this inspiring background, Bok decided to choose for a relatively rigid study after secondary school; Fiscal Law. During her studies however, her genes started to itch and she subscribed for the Academy of Arts in Rotterdam – evening hours. It is this double education that taught her the importance of a balance between sense and intuition. She still uses it today. Her professional career started as a copywriter at KesselsKramer. In 2001 she founded John Doe with Hein Mevissen. A versatile couple; they create advertising, produce and direct commercials (Mevissen also directs for other agencies), and invent new products. Their first product was released in 2005: ‘Water From The Supermarket’. And most recently they very successfully introduced John’s Phone – dubbed ‘dumb phone’, since it’s the simplest mobile phone on the market. (more…)

This very basic phone, branded John’s Phone, was created by Amsterdam agency John Doe. As it is the most simple mobile phone you can imagine, it is dubbed ‘dumbphone’ – you cannot even text with it. But it’s also made with a sense of humour, since it carries a pen and small address book (at the back) to write down (sic) mobile numbers. The phone’s simpleness gives it a stand-by time of three weeks. And since the phone is also made of soy it’s (partly) bio degradable. John’s comes in different colours and this week a golden limited edition (picture) will be released at the luxury department store De Bijenkorf. The phone is not the first product John Doe has created. With the brand From The Supermarket (“Buy it, and it’s yours”) the agency already made Japanese styled water cartons, t-shirts, and even a scooter called Toni Electroni. John’s Phone could be very successful for its simplicity and the fact that it combines design with eco, but its limited ‘smartness’ could just as well be the nail in its coffin. Only the future will tell. In any case John Doe has once more put itself on the map quite smartly.

We’ve always found it difficult to understand alien humor. Especially the kind that comes from the planet Comedy Central. Making holes in the earth; that’s ridiculous! Here’s another one talking about trying to get Schwarzenegger back on earth (?). And it doesn’t help that these creatures look like a scruffy version of ET, drink beer all the time and burp in their speech. The campaign consists of five commercials, of which one is a short film that will be shown tonight on Comedy Central. In this skillfully made long form film one of the bad mannered aliens borrows the body of ‘John from Burlington’ for a year, changes his job, stocks his fridge with cans of Budweiser and gets his white trashy neighbor pregnant. That is pretty funny – even for our Earthy standards. It could easily be a pilot for a new TV series. The campaign is created by John Doe and directed by Hein Mevissen. Through its long lasting relationship with MTV John Doe has specialized itself in making absurd channel bumpers. And since Comedy Central is a MTV Networks brand, that’s probably how they ended up replacing Comedy Central’s bankrupt agency Modernista! Great campaign that has lots of mileage and will easily build Comedy Central as a loveable brand.

Let’s start with the good news. Internationally renowned production agency Hungry Man opened an office in Amsterdam. Director Hein Mevissen – who has already worked with HM for a few years now – will lead the Amsterdam office together with Denise Stork en Diederikje Bok. Mevissen and Bok already own John Doe, one of the more creative agencies in town. And the bad news is: after recently having lost big clients Vodafone and Rabobank, Ubachs Wisbrun/JWT is in heavy weather. A second round of lay-offs took effect last week. The agency fired another 36 people and has now a mere 50 employees. In 2007, directly after the merger of Ubachs Wisbrun and PPGH/JWT (JWT basically bought UW to incorporate fresh creative blood), the agency counted 188 employees. It seems that all the international network juggernauts are being brought back to more flexible sizes in these times. A curing trend, really. We all know what happened to the dinosaurs…

Our last Shoptalk reported about a brand new Amsterdam agency: Nothing. In last week’s Adformatie the founders, Bas Korsten and Michael Jansen, announced yet another label; Nothing Ventured. With this parallel proposition they want to introduce new products and services for existing and potential clients, to prove that the essence of their added value is creative power. The idea is not entirely new; agency John Doe already introduced ‘From The Supermarket’ products (“Buy it and it’s yours”) and Rotterdam agency ARA Cardinal Condoms (“The safest way to heaven”). However, Jansen assured us that it’s not about quasi humoristic one-offs, but about serious, relevant product propositions. We like the idea very much and suspect it could even be a future trend in the world of advertising. After all, online is dramatically changing the way many companies do business; the medium is their product, which makes it harder to seperate business development from advertising.