I've got a friend with an embarassing problem

It's amazing in the world of advertising how everyone wants to associate themselves with the coolest new bit of technology. Great ideas can come from anywhere but more often than not they involve some shiny new bit of kit that readers of Wired claim to have know about for months.

A few years ago I worked on the launch for 118118 directory enquiries, a category which according to research was less important than your choice of toilet paper or takeaway pizza, and yet it became one of the most succesful brand launches of the past decade (not sure what the new animated fellas are all about though).

But if directory enquiries is a category people fundamentally couldn't give a shit about, what happens if you're asked to promote something that people actively shy away from, like cures for constipation, haemarroid cream or this month's current topic erectile dysfunction.

The first few days of confronting the (communication) problem are usually filled with faint embarassment and a barage of innuendo and double entendres. And then something strange takes over - you focus on the work and not the problem - to such a point where it's no longer embarassing at all. In fact, you get affronted when your colleagues innevitably take the piss and argue back that to 5m men in this country ED is absolutley no joke.

And because it's such an important issue to those who experience it, the work itself is slowly but surely getting to be very good. We may even have another 118118 on our hands.

So next time you get a client asking for a campaign to promote their feminine itching / moob cure / chaffing cream (delete as appropriate) product by all means have a laugh, but don't think for a moment there isn't a good idea in there somewhere too.