BLOGCAST: Graham Watson #2

I met Graham 33 years ago.
My partner and I desperately wanted to work at BBH.
At the end of a book crit, Graham gave us a brief and told us to come back the following week.
We left excited.
Maybe this test was our way in?
The following Thursday we lugged a stack of ideas back to Graham detailing how we’d make Bama Thermal insoles the season’s must have for fashionistas. (Bama Thermal insoles? is there a less BBH product out there?)
Graham leafed through the stack – ‘Boring…ok-ish… don’t understand it…’ and so on.
He then gave us another brief for the following week.
Mmm?
I guess we didn’t blow his socks off, but on the bright side; he wasn’t appalled.
It felt like a process, like we’re on a conveyor belt, heading somewhere.
The following Thursday; ‘Boring…ok-ish… don’t understand it…’.
This went on for a number of weeks.
It was frustrating.
We didn’t feel like we were getting closer to wearing a BBH blazer or learning anything new.
We got the same feedback every week – ‘Boring…ok-ish… don’t understand it…’.
It felt a bit basic.
I don’t know what we were expecting? Maybe the scales falling from our eyes? The feeling we’d been slipped some kind of secret? Who knows?
But the result was that about around the six weeks in, our meetings fizzled out.

Looking back, I have two observations:
First, the best feedback comes from the best people.
There’s no magic bullet.
If Bill Bernbach says ‘Nope’, that’s great feedback.
Second, if you have a weekly meeting with one of the best agency’s on the planet, don’t stop going.
Force them to hire you.

I caught up with Graham recently, we had a great chat, full of that blunt, down to earth, Yorkshire advice, hope you enjoy it.

THE BOOK.

I’ve also just had a book published called ‘Location, Location, Location’, it’s the stories from the shoots of the making of 35 award-winning commercials from people who were there.

They’re really interesting stories and prove that we had such a great time during the golden period of advertising in the years between 1972 and 2006.
After which CGI came to the fore and the locations weren’t as vital.
It has now been printed in a hardback form, after wWe launched the softback version at the D&AD Festival in May 2023 and has now been printed in a hardback.
To order a copy go to https://www.ypdbooks.com/film-radio-and-tv/2225-location-location-location.html

THE ANNUAL.
‘‘I joined the D&AD Executive in 1991 and was asked to design the annual.
One problem, money was very tight that year, and Edward Booth-Clibborn said we couldn’t afford to pay for a photographer for the jury photos.’’

‘‘So I arranged to hire a photo booth and we got some hilarious jury shots.’’

THE INSPIRATIONS.
LEVI’S 1.
The inspiration.

The ad.

LEVI’S 2.
The inspiration.

The roughs.

The ads.

OLIVIO.
The inspiration.

The ads.

WALLIS.
The inspiration.

The ads.

MURPHY’S a).
The inspiration.

The ads.

SPEEDO.
The inspiration.

The ad.

MURPHY’S b).
The inspiration.

The ads.

LEVI’S 3.
The inspiration.

The ad.

The BBH Art Club.
In the early days we’d set up an arts club and we were doing life drawing in the agency, using Ros Henry, the receptionist, as the life model (fully clothed, of course!). And organising trips abroad. Lots of people in the business had second homes and we got the use of them, so long as we gave the owner a choice of any painting featuring their house.’
We did 12 trips altogether to France, Italy, Spain, Majorca, even a trip to the Hampton’s in the USA.
We didn’t take ourselves seriously, we had exhibitions and swapped each other paintings.
Mike Cozens called us the Lonely Arts Club, which was far from the truth really. We had a great time!
I’ve still got a Martin Galton, a Dennis Lewis, a Larry Barker, a George Underwood and a fine Gary Denham painting.

The Malapropisms.
‘‘As a leaving present from CDP I was presented with a book of my malapropisms, which I had become famous for at the agency. Mike Cozens gave me a book of them, when we celebrated my 20 years in advertising.’’