1 and 2? Well, it came in at just under four hours. Tell me about it? I tried cutting it. Maybe I could’ve edited out the pre-directing bit? Lost the chat about growing up; the nine months in walled hospital room with one wall missing or the time he appeared on national tv as a puppeteer. Or cut the bits about his endless list of non-directing jobs? Maybe trim the stuff about his previous bosses? But his previous bosses areRead more
Posts tagged: #TBWA
COPY SAFARI THOUGHTS.
Last week, Vikki Ross asked me to do one of her Copy Safaris. A stroll around London judging advertising in the wild, then posting on Twitter. One of the good things is that you don’t pick and choose, you comment on everything; the good, the bad and the fugly. One of the benefits of having to give an instant take, often on the move, is you can’t overthink it, you react more like the rest of the people on theRead more
THE MOST UNFASHIONABLE FORM OF ADVERTISING?
What was the last product demo you saw? Not on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, they’re all over those, but on tv, billboards or press (does press still exist?). You just don’t see agencies doing them anymore. Odd, because, and I hope I’m not giving away any trade secrets here, the goal of most advertising is to persuade people that the product featured is good. Ideally, REALLY good. So showing it in action, performing well, seems like it might be aRead more
BULLSEYE!
I worked with Sean Doyle for roughly 12 years. One morning, about six years in, Sean threw a scruffy ball of paper over to my side of the desk – ‘I did us a logo’. It was like a miracle; Our names fit together perfectly, symmetrically, what were the chances? It was worth putting it together even if just to enter for awards. I turned the scribble into type. That wasn’t how Sean had imagined it. DYE was too dominant.Read more
PODCAST: David Kolbusz.
When you start out in your advertising career, Pentel in one hand, MacBook in the other, you seem to be surrounded by good work. Awards books are choc-a-bloc with it. As you go on, year by year, you seem to see less and less. For example, the first D&AD Annual looked at probably had an 80/20 ratio of good to bad. 10 years later those percentages are likely to have flipped. As you move on you become less swayed byRead more
The fewer words you use
the more impact they have. Read more
PODCAST: Trevor Beattie.
‘Recorded any new podcasts lately?’ I get asked this a few times every week. The askees range from college attendees to retired adman. As I pick the people I interview, they seem as famous as The Beatles to me, but they’re often unknown to the askees. After offering up a name and watching a blank expression appear, I reach for a quick handle, something from culture that I think they’ll know. Occasionally it’s an ad fact; ‘Set Up Fallon beforeRead more
Hands Up Who’s Heard Of Frank Budgen?
We’re smack bang in the middle of the age of collaboration. Any press release for a creative hiring now contains that reassuring phrase ‘Known for being collaborative’. (To me it always reads ‘We’re pleased to announce we’ve finally found a creative who will listen to us’.) The feeling the team had creating the work is as scrutinised as what they created. But collaboration means different things to different people. For most of the team it conjures up enjoyable meetings onRead more
PODCAST: Ben Priest.
The arc of most creative agencies tends to be very similar; start idealistic and creative, become less principled and duller over the years as the realities of finance, earn-outs and fatigue start to kick in. Adam & Eve are like the Benjamin Button of ad agencies. They started burdened by the financial realities due to a situation called ‘Sorrell’. Having come through the early sensible years they seem to grow more creative as each year goes by. They won noRead more
PODCAST: Peter Souter
My 7th boss. Former hitch-hiker. copywriter. Frankenstien re-animator. ECD. David Abbott replacement. D&AD President. Sitcom creator. Radio 4 drama writer. Showaddywaddy singer’s cousin. DELANEY FLETCHER DELANEY. South West Thames Regional Cancer Organisation. WOOLAMS MOIRA GASKIN O’MALLEY. Eurax. Tri-Ac. WCRS. Lunn Poly. Lego. Electricity Privatisation. ABBOTT MEAD VICKERS. R.S.P.C.A. British Telecom. The Economist. Volvo. D&AD. Pizza Hut. Sainsbury’s. Nicorette. The Queen Elizabeth Foundation For Disabled People. CREATIVE DIRECTOR. Make Poverty History. Guinness.Read more
INTERVIEW: H before BB, (John Hegarty).
I joined the business in 1985. The best agency seemed to be Bartle Bogle Hegarty. Every year ever since they’ve been in the top five, sometimes they’ve been in the top one. Their success has been very well documented, what did Sir John did before that hasn’t been. So… Where were you brought up? I was born in North London, although at that point Edgware wasn’t in London, it was in Middlesex, which doesn’t exist anymore. My family was living inRead more
IN-CAMERA 6: Barney Edwards.
”Question why anyone would be interested in this picture? What should be excluded or included to make it a better picture?“ – Barney Edwards. Where did you grow up? In my head, on the road, to a soundtrack. 04:00 Pre- Dawn. Sinai Desert. Cold. Dark. The door of our tin roofed Nissan hut thrown open wide. Shoal, a massive, Romanian-Israeli Army Dive Master towered over us, in Buddy Holly specs, accompanied by his growling Alsatian bitch. Shouting in broken English and Israeli.Read more
HANDS UP WHO’S HEARD OF: John Fuckin’ Knight?
A few years ago I needed an old beer poster for a presentation. I knew the Art Director’s name – John Knight, so headed to Google – nothing! I then searched the agency name, the year, the writer’s name, the photographer’s name – nope! Desperate, I googled every every miss-spelling I could think of – diddly squat! I eventually found it after trawling through a ton of old awards books. While leafing through all those award winning ads from theRead more