Here at Sabotage Times.

I agree with what he’s saying, but there are so many other factors involved:

1. Money. Of course people in advertising have always wanted it, but now it is the sole imperative for the vast majority of decision makers in the industry. The rise of the holding companies, who only tolerate creativity as a means to a financial end, has stifled those parts of the business where the magic happens. You need a bit of indulgent wiggle room to let talent breathe, but that is a grey area that is impossible to quantify. As a result, the leash is let out only so far and the ads stay just that bit safer.

2. Vicious circles. …And when the ads get a bit safer, they get a bit safer than that, then a bit safer still and on and on… If the gold standard of Ker-azy Kreativity is 20% duller than last year, then most agencies will work another 20% below that. Risks cost cash, so let’s have no more of the pesky things.

3. Globalisation. The more people you aim at, the less accurate your aim. If you have to hit 500,000,000 people who speak fifty different languages and have infinite cultural differences between them, one message will manage a 6/10 reaction from most of them but nothing more. But now, thanks to that financial imperative, consolidation and globalisation is where it’s at. Otherwise the shareholders might get a penny less in the dividend and the man at the top of the enormous corporation might earn a seven figure bonus instead of eight.

4. The talent drain. Either out of the country, out of the industry, many of the most creative people no longer see advertising as a job that will allow them to express themselves in a way that is properly fulfilling. If you spent your day making Drugstore, Surfer or Cog, you’d rightly feel pretty pleased with yourself and would happily pour every ounce of your thinking into the next ad opportunity. But now it seems pretty obvious that great ads are much fewer and further between (partly due to budget cuts). In addition, we now have excellent people working in the industry who get their creative kicks outside it. They know there is no chance of greatness in the day job, so they pour skill and intelligence that they would once have used for ads into some other project. And the ads get worse, and the circle gets more and more vicious.

5. The downgrading of creative status: relatively far less pay is one thing (in real terms, top creatives are paid 8 times less than they were in the eighties), but now CDs are mere employees, hired by the financially-minded people higher up the chain to produce something, anything that they can charge for. Is it good, or is it great? Who knows and who cares, as long as the money is coming in. Go Compare is a massive success, so why beat ourselves up trying to make Sony Balls? Why indeed…

So some fear of conflict might be a factor, but it’s a small part of a bigger story.

When these won a silver:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4KE_9BVbFg

Here’s a post I meant to do last year:

I cycled past this poster last summer and thought it was the best one I’d seen in ages:

So I went back a couple of days later intending to photograph it, but alas it was gone.

Earlier this year it won a Gold at Creative Circle, but I still didn’t get round to getting hold of a shot of it for the blog.

But last week I began a freelance ‘stint’ at 4 Creative and, even more conveniently, I was placed at the desk next to Molly Manners (her real name), the creative behind R eye P.

So there it is: the best poster of last year.

While I’m here, I’d like to direct you towards a couple of excellent promos, also from 2011:

Love Lost by Temper Trap, shot by the always brilliant Dougal Wilson.

And click here for the uncensored version of Blind Faith by Chase and Status, directed by the also always brilliant Daniel Wolfe.

Reggie Watts vs My Little Pony:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJfZTr8zMsc

And possibly even better is Wu Tang vs My Little Pony:

And Sleeping Beauty And The Three Lesbians:

T2 trailer animated (thanks, J):

And something similar-ish: it’s like the Bunny Suicides, but with a human. It’s the Suicides! (Thanks, K.):

The five funniest Monty Python sketches.

Waste a ton of time (thanks, S).

Watch someone eat a massive jar of Nutella all in one go (thanks, J).

Well, the guy is Steve Jobs, the premises are the new headquarters of Apple in Cupertino and it’s really damn interesting:

Do you get the impression the Cupertino council members like Mr Jobs?

(Thanks, S.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGJNk-80lsE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Go_VtqtxCHY

Happy Tuesday.

I often find myself writing that I often find myself writing something that I’ve already written.

Well, here’s something I’ve written about a few times, but this time it’s backed up by some proper analysis by some actual clever people (who don’t just pretend their stuff is all true just because they’ve written it on a blog, like what I do).

Anyway, here’s an article about Speed Up.

It’s the concept of companies making huge amounts of money by laying off lots of employees then making the people who are left work much harder to cover the shortfall. So they take loads of cash off the wage bill but still get the same output.

Ever worked very long hours?

Ever worked weekends?

Ever wondered if you could stop doing that if only your boss employed some more staff?

That is Speed Up, my friends, and it’s killing people.

And now I wonder if that’s another reason for the ‘ageism’ of advertising (and other jobs): perhaps it’s just the industry compressing a 40-year career into 30 years. Perhaps people end up so burnt out by what they’re asked to do that they’re too shite/disillusioned/resentful to carry on.

Or perhaps we’re all big jessies and if we had to go down t’pit for 18 hours a day for 2 and 6 we’d know what real work was.

One of the two.

Pornographic images of Terry Wogan (thanks, T):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wr7IJCdqZ-Y

Someone who is better than your kids (thanks, J).

Diesel turns Facebook into an Excel spreadsheet so you can be stupid at work (thanks, M):

The 25 gayest animals (thanks, M).

Great behind the scenes pics of Taxi Driver.

An excellent idea for Summer (thanks, P):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-PG_OKjw4o

Bulgaria’s Banksy is braver than ours (thanks, P).

UPDATE: I meant to put this priceless cat video in, but I forgot:

I’ve been writing this blog for about five years with nothing to show for it (nothing tangible, anyway. The feeling of warm satisfaction I get from connecting to four or five readers through cyberspace is a thing of utter wonder).

Well, that all changed a few weeks ago when I received a 3M PocketProjector MP180.

Now, I know what you’re thinking: whore.

And you’d be right.

Except, I wouldn’t witter on about something I didn’t like (Jesus, you should see some of the ads people send me that I don’t pass on to you. Like someone’s put a turd in bag of vomit and flung it at my inbox), so I’m kind of like a nymphomaniac whore. Does that make sense? Maybe I should use a different analogy.

Anyway, I had a go on it and have to say that I was very impressed. The darn thing is conveniently light and Wi-Fi connected, so you can just splash the interweb onto the nearest wall without the need for a computer. Hooray.

But the thing is, I don’t need it as much as the local primary school does, so I’ve donated it to them (tart with a heart). I did explain to the lovely George at 3M that I wanted to do that and he was fine about it.

That aside, if you’d like one (and they are very good), you can use the code below to get a discount and an iPhone/iPad connector cable.

Discount Code : 3M12

Link: http://www.personalprojector.co.uk/index.php/mp180icablebundle.html

Text : “3M have teamed up with Personal Projector, the Pocket Projection specialists, to offer an exclusive £29.99 discount on the 3M MP180 pocket projector. Additionally this offer also includes a £34 3M iPhone/iPad AV cable to connect to your projector. Enter the code supplied before August 31st”