DESIGN

Two Megabytes Of KesselsKramer

iconoclastic, creative communications company, kesselskramer, is featured in a retrospective book, weighing in at "2 kilo"

The agency was founded in 1996, in a former church on Lauriersgracht in central Amsterdam. A golden horse and horseshoe name plate hangs on its door - which could be read as tacit acknowledgement of the company's good fortune. Through that door have walked several of the best clients an agency could hope for - many of whom have indulged KesselsKramer's particular, often peculiar, brand of communication through some of the most highly original campaigns in recent memory.

With clients ranging from Diesel fashion and Absolut Vodka, to Oxfam and the City of Amsterdam, the creative agency has been responsible for many highly effective communications efforts. Their work consistently has a distinctive wit, honesty and humanity to it - rare qualities in the advertising industry. Rather than applying, ad nauseum, predictable advertising methods and imprinting glossy, stylized and idealized brand-image associations, they opt for an unconventional, more realistic solution.

For Nike, rather than focus on the fastest runner and star as would be expected of the brand, KesselsKramer's campaign centres on unknown Heinrich Blumchen, the oldest participant in the Berlin marathon. But perhaps most striking is their unmistakeable respect for the intelligence of the audience.

KK communications tend to show the world as we know it, albeit slightly altered, often to humourous and humanist ends. T heir work assumes an intelligent, socially conscious viewer, far from the "idiot public" presumably targeted by most advertising agencies.

In campaigns such as the "=" sign promoting fair trade for Oxfam and an upcoming communications effort on the necessity of action to reduce climate change, the agency shows a social and cultural engagement, and willingness to apply their persuasive talents to the greater good.

Their work for Diesel is perhaps one of the best examples of KK satirizing the deceptive tactics of the traditional advertising world, which are insultingly transparent to most of us. Among the most memorable is Donald Diesel, a bloated, bizarre, malevolent Ronald McDonald-like cartoon character, stimulating fake emotions in those around him. The tag line reads "Pleasure is now sponsored by Diesel".

Like subversive anti-magicians Penn and Teller, KesselsKramer take pleasure in lifting the curtain and showing up their sleeves, revealing the hidden tricks of their manipulative profession.