Scamp
A few years ago I started to write the agency blog at Lunar BBDO.
Not sure why. It just seemed like a good idea at the time.
I didn’t read or even know about any other blogs written by creatives, but a friend told me about Scamp, which turned out to be written by a bloke I’d met a few times over the previous years.
I got in touch with him and he couldn’t have been friendlier or more helpful.
Anyway, in the following years his blog seemed to go through the roof (you might find it interesting to check out his posts from the earlier days and the responses they received. Something definitely happened to make it reach a tipping point), eventually resembling a giant medieval church hall where people threw mead over each other’s heads as they rowed over the origins of some Fallon blockbuster, or called for supposed YouTube thieves to be drowned on the ducking stool.
Axes were ground, people pretended to be other people as they complimented their own work, there was swearing, bitching and personal attacks by the bucket load.
In short it was a lot of fun and made the sometimes lumbering industry we work in take on a sprightlier step, providing instant reaction to the good and bad ads that were significant enough to spark a conversation.
Then there was a bit of trouble. Expecting advertising creatives to behave with maturity or police themselves is an exercise in futility, but even after Simon had to switch to comment moderation it was still essential reading.
I just wanted to say thanks for making me up my game. The races we had to be first to the new Guinness or Sony ad made a few slack mornings go by a little faster (although there was no real point in hurrying; 90% of the chat would happen on his blog whether I won or not). And knowing there was (before the days of Dave Trott’s brilliant blog) another person barking up a very similar tree made the experience easier and more enjoyable.
Ta very much, Simon.
Now I can relax.