Stephen was the 25th employee of Bartle Bogle Hegarty, which means he saw it grow from a very good agency to the best in the country in a few short years.

After a stint on Audi he became the first account guy on Levi’s, so we talked all about that. If you grew up in the 1980s that was probably the biggest, best ad campaign you’d ever seen. It made a whole country change their choice of underwear, its soundtracks routinely went to number one, and every new execution was news. Actual newspaper news, nor ‘a little column in Campaign’ news.

Here are some of the ads we discussed:

But as he rose to board level, appropriately enough, he got bored. So he decided he liked the idea of working on the production side, jacked in his high-flying job and went right back to the bottom again as a runner, taking out the bin bags.

But then he ended up running a large production company called Large, before founding his own companies. He’s currently the founder/owner of Unltd Productions, with a stable of excellent directors.

Here’s the iTunes link, the Soundcloud link and the direct play button thing:

If This Is A Blog Then What's Christmas?

ITIAPTWC Episode 61 – Stephen Gash

Play Episode Pause Episode

Mute/Unmute Episode Rewind 10 Seconds 1x Fast Forward 30 seconds

00:00 / 1:05:47

RSS Feed

Share

Link

Embed

Rich and I started in advertising at the same time in the same place.

He won a Cannes Gold in his first year. I was laid off.

Now we’re back together having a delightful chat about those intervening 24 years.

He’s a top bloke, and still has those great creative chops, as evidenced by this, one of the few decent ads of the Pandemic so far:

Here’s some of his other work (check out his search page in the D&AD archive for several others), including the classic Old Lions ad for Carlsberg:

Here’s the iTunes link, the Soundcloud link, and the thing where you just press the play button. Enjoy!

If This Is A Blog Then What's Christmas?

ITIAPTWC Episode 60 – Richard Denney.

Play Episode Pause Episode

Mute/Unmute Episode Rewind 10 Seconds 1x Fast Forward 30 seconds

00:00 / 1:08:37

RSS Feed

Share

Link

Embed

Jean-Louis is the Chief Strategy Officer of The Concept Bureau. (Slight aside: I wonder why job titles are sounding increasingly military.)

I asked him on the pod because ‘strategist’ is becoming a very common word in advertising-adjacent job titles. Jean-Louis is a Brand Strategist, so what does that mean, and what is a Creative Strategist, and where do their jobs cross over with that of, say, a comms planner? What do these very smart people do all day, and how does it relate to what you do all day?

We talk about all that and much more, and if you want to know about my Butterfinger Theory, and how it relates to 2020 branding, have a listen.

Here’s the iTunes link, the Soundcloud link, and the thing where you just press play on this page:

If This Is A Blog Then What's Christmas?

ITIAPTWC Episode 59 – Jean-Louis Rawlence

Play Episode Pause Episode

Mute/Unmute Episode Rewind 10 Seconds 1x Fast Forward 30 seconds

00:00 / 1:04:31

RSS Feed

Share

Link

Embed

Rob McFaul is the founder of an organisation called Purpose Disruptors:

A network of advertising insiders whose goal is to create a visible, large scale, bottom up movement within the industry, that will act in solidarity to meaningfully tackle climate change.

I’m very, very interested in this subject. It’s both immensely interesting and immensely intractable. In some ways it’s the ultimate brief.

Have a listen and dip your toe in the waters of capitalist hypocrisy, corporate morality, regenerative leadership, universal stardust, and much else. (Or maybe your toes are already in. Maybe you’re up to your eyeballs. Have a listen anyway.)

If you’re interested in getting further involved, email me at bwmkay@gmail.com, or contact Rob via Purpose Disruptors.

Here’s the iTunes link, the Soundcloud link, and the direct player:

If This Is A Blog Then What's Christmas?

ITIAPTWC Episode 57 – Rob McFaul of Purpose Disruptors

Play Episode Pause Episode

Mute/Unmute Episode Rewind 10 Seconds 1x Fast Forward 30 seconds

00:00 / 1:03:24

RSS Feed

Share

Link

Embed

I loved chatting to Trevor.

We’d never met before, but he was a warm and lovely fella.

His first Tango ad broke the mould, as popular with kids in playgrounds as it was with award jurors. But then there was the weird, pervy Apple Tango ad. And the weird, pervy Pot Noodle ads: as popular with sex fetishists as they were with award jurors.

Then he created a new kind of ad agency that is still going 25 years later.

Then he won an OBE.

And he helps prove the benefits of diversity, both in terms of race, and background. Take a bloke from a South London council estate and add him to a bloke from Scotland and you get the kind of magic that only happens when two plus artichoke equals hen night.

Here’s the Soundcloud link and the iTunes link. The direct player is at the bottom of the post.

If This Is A Blog Then What's Christmas?

ITIAPTWC Episode 55 - Trevor Robinson

Play Episode Pause Episode

Mute/Unmute Episode Rewind 10 Seconds 1x Fast Forward 30 seconds

00:00 / 1:08:03

RSS Feed

Share

Link

Embed

At last!

Paul is one of the people I’ve most wanted to interview. He’s arguably been responsible for more classic advertising over the last 30 years than anyone else.

Whether it was for Stella, Nike, Playstation, John Smith, John West, Adidas, Levi’s, Scalextric, Olympus or dozens of others; with a very talented art director or on his own; at Simons Palmer Denton Clemmow and Johnson, BBH, Lowe, Leo Burnett, Leith, TBWA, Fallon, Rainey Kelly Y&R, freelance, Saatchis or BBH (again)… His hit-for-shit ratio is second to none.

But he’s also a thoroughly good bloke: always helping younger creatives (myself included), always up for a chat, always ready with a massively inappropriate but very funny joke in the middle of a creative review… I can’t remember how many times I’ve asked for his advice, but he’s been the first person I’ve spoken to at several career crossroads.

So here’s two hours where you can find out why he spent a year and a half working in Glasgow, why John West Bear was shot from so far away, why he booed his own Stella ad when it won a Gold at Cannes, what happened at Fallon, and dozens of other inspiring, illuminating and fascinating tales of one of the great creative advertising careers.

One small thing: we chatted so long that I had to upload the episode in two parts. You can listen to the whole thing in one go on Soundcloud here, or listen to the first half at the bottom of this post, and the second half here, or find both halves on iTunes. Apologies for the inconvenience.

Here are some of the ads we discussed. You can find others here.

There’s also a ton of excellent print ads but WordPress seems to only allow me to add them in tiny thumbnails, which seemed a shame. The proper versions can be found here.

If This Is A Blog Then What's Christmas?

ITIAPTWC Episode 54A - Paul Silburn, from beginning to Lowe.

Play Episode Pause Episode

Mute/Unmute Episode Rewind 10 Seconds 1x Fast Forward 30 seconds

00:00 / 1:13:08

RSS Feed

Share

Link

Embed