PODCAST: Malcolm Venville

Whoever it’s with, whenever I do these podcasts, personal links seem to turn up along the way. Things I’d forgotten or been unaware of – Paul Weiland was once my landlord, I judged the One Show with Gerry Graf 15 years earlier, David Holmes drew a poster for me 25 years earlier. This isn’t like that, this time it really is personal (isn’t that the Jaws 2 strap line?) Malcolm and I started out together; he’d shoot pictures for free,Read more

PODCAST: MARY WEAR

‘Remember how seriously we all took it? Not that we took ourselves seriously or that we didn’t have fun, but we just tried so, so hard to make great work. It may be chip paper to most people, but we’d really sweated every last detail. Even on the bad ads, we’d stay lat trying desperately to improve them. Like we were on a mission. It seemed so important.’ I enjoyed chatting to Mary. Although afterwards, I must confess, I wasRead more

PITCH: Innocent?

The creative pitch: Companies invite agencies to present creative proposals on how to improve their marketing and therefore their bottom line. Best proposal wins. Wrong. For a start, clients run only one campaign for every 16 they are presented in pitches. (Thanks Martin Jones, AAR Guru & Brighton fan.) How can it be that fifteen of the sixteen agencies get the brief so wrong that they end up throwing their time, energy a work in the bin? Because, as I’mRead more

The bit between the Me Pt. 1 and Me Pt. 2 podcasts.

Usually when I do these an interview or podcast, the challenge is trying to find the persons work, some people have not a scrap. (Yes, I’m talking about you Jeff Stark! And I haven’t forgotten you either Sid Myers!) I also like to add a bit of ephemera, for some colour, but it’s rare to come across that.   The challenge this time was what to leave out; the CDD phone lists, the Mercedes meeting notes or internal memo? InRead 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: Andy McLeod.

Why advertising? I was quite quick tongued, bright at school, without being very academically gifted or driven. I cared about ‘stuff’ in general, zeitgeisty stuff; trends, tribes, what was cool what wasn’t, what was funny what wasn’t. I liked art and English at school and not much else. Got not very good A-level grades, which led me to Bristol Polytechnic to do a two year course in Business studies with advertising. The advertising bit of it was 1 hour aRead more