(Thanks, L & D.)
Oh, and I deleted the Tony Kaye/Paul Arden thing because, on reflection, I don’t think I’d boo someone who sang a song at a funeral. If you want to see it you can check it out here.
Creativity Online has posted some interesting interviews with big chief creatives.
I haven’t read them all, but in the ones I have looked at I noticed a phrase cropping up:
‘I solve clients’ business problems‘, or some variation of that.
Now, I wonder when that became a reasonable thing for ECDs to say?
Some time over the last five years the job of a certain kind of creative director has changed from ‘I make sure the creative output of the agency is top notch’ to something broader and more business focussed. It also encompasses the less conventional side of advertising, where the solution might be product development, movies or different staff uniforms.
I suppose it’s also indicative of a change in the business, either because these guys are now closer to the results end of what happens, or they feel the need to make it clear that that’s the case.
I’d have thought that in some way that’s always been the job of a good CD (and when did everyone start becoming ECD’s? There were none ten years ago; now every old CD is now an ECD and the CDs are what group heads used to be. Why did that happen? Another post, perhaps).
Only now, with the chance that your client may read this interview, it’s good to make it clear.
Is a good blog.
It’s where I found this video.
For what it’s worth, I have a kid about the same age as the one that’s featured, yet I spent much of it laughing my head off.
?
Daryl and I have a code phrase for bullshit ad ideas that have never really seen the light of day. When we come across one, we just show it to the other and say, ‘Throughout the month of June…’
That’s because agency films all have a voiceover that says something along the lines of, ‘Throughout the month of June hundreds of bollards were painted pink…’ or ‘Throughout the month of June we placed sandwiches near all the penguins in London Zoo…’
It’s the description-y bit that seeks to give size and status to ads which have none, and are the explanatory equivalent of the obligatory shot of three people WHO ARE IN NO WAY MATES OF THE AD CREATIVES looking at the brilliant ambient idea with an impressed smile on their faces.
LOOK! PEOPLE SAW WHAT WE DID AND LIKED IT! WHILE WE WERE THERE TO CAPTURE THE MOMENT WITH OUR CAMERAS! THIS IS NOT, I REPEAT NOT, BULLSHIT!
This will be closely followed in the agency video by a V/O that says, ‘Hundreds of websites picked it up’ over a shot of many websites that the agency in-house dept have fabricated to cover up the foetid stench of indifference from a sensible public.
Then there will be a newscaster from a minor TV channel (possibly a TV PA who has been made to look like that in the agency basement) who explains how traffic ground to a standstill while Johnny Cockbreath danced on a motorway to publicise My Little Pony, or how the police were called to a fake horse wanking ring that was set up to publicise Pantene Pro-V.
Then there will be some specious stats that claim enormous success for the camel that was glued to an artichoke in Trafalgar Square in aid of Oxfam, or the helicopter that dropped lamb bhuna all over Buckingham Palace for Marmite.
In short, the whole thing will almost certainly be 94% bullshit.
Just a quick one.
The Fireflies are on their annual ride across the Alps in aid of leukemia charity Leuka.
Why not sponsor them?
It’ll make you (and some leukemia sufferers) feel better.
Over the last few years D&AD has given its top award to some incredible things: Millions, The Great Schlep, The Millau Viaduct, The Millennium Wheel, The iPod etc.
But are they really D&AD?
I only ask, because to me, they are all so beyond D&AD that it almost seems sad to include them in such a limited awards scheme.
All of the above are so goshdarn amazing that they exist far beyond the worlds of advertising and design.
For a start, everything is designed in some way, which means that anything can surely be included in the remit of D&AD.
But the above work (even though it has been entered into D&AD) is not advertising or design: the individual pieces are just entities on their own, existing outside the remit of ‘design’ and ‘art direction’. After all, in what way is Millions a piece of design or art direction? Ditto the Millennium Wheel? You might as well include the internet.
Oh, they did (President’s Award 2007).
This may be the problem with D&AD. When something exists within its remit it is probably too narrow to be worthy of the Gold. But if it is worthy of the Gold, it is probably beyond D&AD.
(By the way, the two other Golds this year, coins that make up a coat of arms and BMW light sculpture aren’t design or art direction either. One is crap and the other is art rather than design.)
I’m just not sure that claiming everything that’s good (and entered) does D&AD any favours. It seems to make the organisation look like it is basking in the reflected glow of the work, which in turn reduces the significance of the award scheme.
Of course, it would take a brave D&AD to turn down such brilliance, but if it carries on like this, they might as well not bother with press, posters and TV ads.
They simply won’t be able to compete.
When I worked at Y&R back in 1996 I was once sitting at my desk reading Lolita in the middle of the afternoon.
After about five minutes, one of the senior copywriters walked by and said, ‘Never books.’
I asked him what he meant and he explained that you could get away with reading anything at your desk except a novel.
Magazines were OK, newspapers were OK, art books were especially OK. But not novels.
I understood what he meant: it looks very lazy and indulgent because it appears to have nothing to do with work.
Of course, I could have been reading it to get into the rhythms of Nabokov’s language, or been thinking about a paedophilia-based script for HP sauce, but on the surface it simply looked like I was just loafing off for an hour (which is what I was doing. Maybe that’s why I got sacked from there. Although in mitigation there was never any work to do and my AD wasn’t even in the building).
But as a copywriter, immersing yourself in the very best of the English language ought to be a great idea. After all, the visual/AD equivalent of flicking through art/photography books is not just permitted, it’s positively encouraged. ‘Go to Zwemmers (RIP) or Magma,’ that’s what some CDs advise. But ‘read some Kafka’? Not bloody likely.
I think that it’s all part of the visual bias that advertising is currently taking.
There is no justifiable reason why copywriters shouldn’t attempt to hone their craft by experiencing the best writing has to offer, just as there’s no justifiable reason why a copywriter shouldn’t be able to call on the services of a great jokesmith or speech writer if their script requires it. After all, what’s an art director doing when he uses a designer/illustrator/photographer?
I guess it’s just the way things have been set up.
But I’ll tell you what: it fucking stinks.
As you can see in the post below, I had an odd D&AD because I had a list of the winners before it began.
I was told to blog it, but Jesus Christ, I have better things to do (of course I don’t).
I’m not sure I’ve mentioned this before, but Daryl and I (and several of our co-creatives, including the primary originators and main designers of the work, Mark Denton and Dave Dye; our old Lunar team who now work at DHM, Chris and Fran; typography and design guru Andy Dymock; copywriter extraordinaire Sean Doyle; some lovely creatives from Saatchis and, I think, Paul Silburn) were nominated tonight, and, having discovered that we didn’t win, I sat through some quite dull awards then relieved my babysitting mum.
Richard E. Grant died on his arse as compere, but you want to know the winners, don’t you?
Well…
I can’t be arsed to type them all out, but here’s a few:
Integrated pencils to Droga 5 for Millions and Lowe Bull for Wally’s Heart.
The Orange cinema ads got a writing pencil (yawn), as did this work of fucking genius:
(By the way, that’s why D&AD is A GOOD THING. It shows you how to take a generic brief and make a great ad out of it.)
Press: Wallace and Gromit campaign and Alka Seltzer.
Art direction: Alka Seltzer and Jeep campaign.
BBH got a pencil for the Break The Cycle website (nice one all involved, especially the gals at Sonny London and Jeff Labbe).
Posters: Wallace and Gromit campaign and Nova Radio Le Grand Mix.
TV: Skittles Pinata.
I love this:
Viral Writing: The Big Schlep:
TV Crafts: It’s Mine (Special Effects)
That’s it. If I didn’t put yours up, I didn’t care enough about your category.
No radio or ambient Pencils.
Goodnight.
UPDATE: two Golds for Droga 5 for The Great Schlep and Millions (congrats to my old AD, Cam, who got at least one of those.) Another two Golds for other things that I’m not sure about, one of which was some coins that make up a coat of arms, or something, and another, which was a BMW thing with some lights , or something. Congrats to them.