PRIVATE VIEW: Kate Stanners, the creative director at boymeetsgirlS&J.

One of this week's ads made me even more aware of the director. I always remember the brilliant Jeff Stark saying: 'You can shoot a piece of shit beautifully, but it is still a piece of shit.' I'm not sure if that's true. The choice of director can make or break an ad.

The ad for Adidas features Muhammad Ali in his prime, in the ring waiting for his opponent; the fight begins and it's a while before we realise he is fighting his daughter. The voiceover starts as if it were Ali senior but ends with Ali junior talking as a female boxer. This is a great idea and it should have been a great ad, but somehow it isn't. I can't put my finger on why. Is it the fact that the actual fight doesn't feel real? Is it the post? Is it the editing? Is it the music?

It's probably a bit of everything - all I do know is that I wanted it to send a shiver down my spine and it didn't.

I saw the 3 mobile ad starring Anna Friel on TV the other night and, yes, it's engaging and very watchable. It's about evolution, Anna talks about going from amoeba to actress via a frog, 'like mobiles', Anna says, 'from phone to mobile to 3', which gives her a 'chance to be where she wants, when she wants', and it seemingly gives us a great opportunity to see Anna's tits (well, almost). OK, so it's not the best idea in the world, but hey, you've got Anna, you've got evolution and a fair bit of cash, so couldn't it have been a little more interesting in its story-telling? The best bit is the subtle glimpse of her feet ... honest, boys.

The Diet Coke ad has been helped by the director. It's well-worn territory.

Doing something, in this case a couple of girls window dressing. While having a Diet Coke something happens, in this case a mannequin falls over on to another, in a rather compromising position, etc. 'It's a Diet Coke thing,' apparently. The end result is not nearly as painful as it sounds.

I had the disadvantage of first seeing the ads for the Learning Skills Council up on posters; it took several sightings for me to understand what was going on. This is because the ads have been cropped (I suspect to make the badges bigger), and in doing so lost some of the communication.