The Musings Of An Opinionated Sod [Help Me Grow!]

good morning grumpy bum! can i join you in petulance?

(and to all the advertising school kids – please take note of the following point:

“Do you not think the customer can see through your thinly veiled attempt to tap into the ‘All American’ spirit?”

can i suggest that the same would probably apply to the Hummer. And if it doesn’t, it bloody well should.)

i know you know this rob, but i fucking hate 4x4s and their ads/campaigns. 99% of the time they’re like shooting fish in a fucking barrel – encourage the most basic male neanderthal response of divide, conquer and have a toss about it, and you sell a brazillian of them. completely disregard any concern for fellow human beings, intelligent thought or environmental impact and you get a fucking gold medal.

hey age!! alive and kicking – in case you couldn’t tell from the previous comment.. ha! same to you mate! i’ll email ya soon with a london update..i’m off to watch the rest of scrubs, then to bed. interview tomorrow.

Er, compared to what I saw in the last commercial break this looks at least like an attempt to try something apart from showing the car at the sea / on a mountain / in the desert / driving through a river / in the city jungle combined with a very stupid headline that at least covers four different unique selling whatsoevers and is approved by the clients controlling, buying and legal department. To be really honest the last commercial break made me doubt what I am doing all day. This was so absofuckinglutely biggest and worst nightmare I have ever seen. Only ONE good commercial in a line of 20. Well done, NIKE. And you other 19 (hello, P&G, NIVEA, L’Oreal, KIA, Nestlé, Danone, Masterfoods…) please stop thinking that only fools or braindead idiots watch your commercials (otherwise they would be better). Grrr..angry.
I hate this advertising where client and agency show the most horrible and boring bullshit in the universe, saying “but it works!” We have a responsibility. Not only for our clients but for the consumer as well. And if it’s only the responsibility to not bore them to death, then this is 500% more than a lot of ad tossers worldwide are presenting right now.
(This does not include great agencies such as Wieden+Kennedy, Crispin, Porter+Bogusky, Mother, 180° and cynic…)

And to finish this rant here is some nice quotation from the UK’s “The Apprentice”, week 8. I think the guy who said that crap is would say he’s a Marketing Expert with in-depth-knowledge in culture-blah-blah.

“I build brands for a livin’…” and later while talking to some rapping school boy … “when you’re talking about high street fashion and corporate branding and rip off prices…say it like you feel it.”

Ah, just see (4:50):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1H0MkCe3SE&mode=related&search=

And (from 7:10, it’s hilarious):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sq2CKIbzSZE&mode=related&search=

Please say that all these people are actors…

copy by forrest gump, art direction by stevie wonder, planning by george w bush. what fucking shite especially as it is an ad about exploration and discovery and features the most cliche bollocks ive seen in a while. good luck with the job lauren, swear a lot and it should be yours. good post rob, youre back.

Thank you Seb for being so mindful of Andy’s bad language and Age, I am glad being a grumpy, opinionated shit is ‘vintage campbell’ [though I shouldn’t be surprised given this blog IS called the ‘Musings Of An Opinionated Sod’, ha]

Lauren – we obviously share the same issues with this Jeep ad but one word of caution as regards the environmental issue … as much as it is VERY important, to the people who generally buy these sort of cars [bar those who actually do use them for a rural pursuit/role] the environment has less relevance to them than other people [or they can justify why interms of cars, they need not be so concious], so whilst I encourage anyone to find a way to answer the Hummer brief with an environmental solution, the reality is that you will be evaluated on INCREASING SALES PROBABILITY, not just helping the Earth.

Harsh – but that’s life and there are ways to do it, you just have to understand society to realise how best to do it.

That’s why planning and communication is so great and exciting … making things fit and work against the odds or the actions of the competitor.

Have fun …

All bosses are fucksticks Age – ask Fred and Hari, ha!

Hello Charles …

Of course the Hummer is for arseholes but that doesn’t mean the people doing the assignment can just walk away and say it betrays their principals, ha!

Well they can, but personally I always find these sorts of briefs the most interesting / challenging to overcome.

The secret is finding a way that still achieves the client business goals whilst not making you feel ill for what you have done.

I appreciate its hard but it can be done – hell, we did/do work for both NASA and the British Military of Defence [hardly the bastions of humanity] and we feel genuinely great about what we developed for them because it not only solved their ‘business issues’, but did it in a way that benefited society rather than hindered it [which I could tell you but would be contravining the Official Secrets Act and no, I am not joking, ha!]

The reason I chose Hummer WAS because of the issues you and Lauren raised – which is why I am hoping it will lead to more interesting, imaginative and culturally insight driven solutions. That’s the theory anyway, ha!

Oh and I love “America Is Not At War, The Marine Corp Are At War. America Is At The Mall!” … that has to be a bumper sticker soon!

Its an interesting idea, but its clearly not one that people are going to do; especially not those Jeep are targeting.

Too many clients dont understand their customers. Too many ad agencies don’t understand the client OR their customers.

YAY, cousin Bob!

I’ll see you at Forest V Leeds next season NP … should be a thrilling 90 minutes of medoicrity eh.

Now are you going to start posting again please!

Its true.

And I do wonder about whether some Americans (mainly those who buy 4x4s) can actually see through the patriotic marketing routine.

Have they really?!!

(I KNOW….i know… im just setting you up for the punch line)

Lauren … not all agencies sell their souls [ours for instance] but unfortunately a lot do.

To be fair, not all of them do it with smiley faces – they do it because they need to keep bringing in the money to keep paying their employees who entrust them with their livlihooods.

The issue – at least for me – is whether the concerns you have with the brand in question can be solved through clever thinking [ie: Hummer] or whether you have to walk away from the opportunity in its entirity because it goes against fundamental values you hold dear [as I did recently when offered a job running Phillip Morris]

It’s tough – but it is probably not that different from you being commissioned to do work then have the purchaser want to make significant changes.

Unfortunately we live in a World of compromise – the issue is how far is too far.

There is a difference between principals and perspective.

A principal is something you are willing to let cost you something because the issue is so important to what you believe … a perspective is about differences-of-opinion which tend to be able to be managed.

Hummer … for me … is about perspective, Fags is about principals … but I appreciate I could be alone in that view.

Yes … a small ad agency, ha!

I joked when I said cynic was set up to be the Betty Ford Clinic for the Disenfranchised Ad Person – but there’s abit of truth in it because as much as we all want to be disgustingly rich, we don’t want to do it by just chasing the cash, we want to do something with value … something with soul and something we can be proud of, or what is the point of doing our own thing?

If it all fell apart – at least we tried – but so far so good, but that’s more because of the people and clients we have attracted than anything George, Andy and I did – even though I am sure they think differently, ha!

You’re right Rob … the best thing we ever did was decide what sort of clients [rather than what specific brands] we wanted … which is why we know our ‘offer’ was always going to be more attractive to brands that were/are

[1] run by an entrepeneur
[2] challenger/hungry to grow
[3] want to understand people

And that is reflected in our client list … even though we have also attracted other types of brands [ie: Coke etc] who want some of what we do – even if in practice, they’re not that keen on doing any of it, ha!

I think in just about every job you can compromise your values someway. I’m not saying this is ok, but it is a fact. I think what is strange is seeing a value driven org in Ad world. I think this is great & you guys should be very proud of what you have done – it would be great to see this model adopted more broadly.

I think the HHCL spirit was best summed up by mass theft of office furniture on the last day.

I’m sitting in Jim Kelly’s chair as we speak.

And yes Rob (Cynic), I’ve seen the Howell Henry Show.. the blackmail material is endless.. endless I tell you.*

*It was an inhouse show, produced once and a while.. featuring current industry luminaries doing silly things. It was bloody fantastic, and one of the reasons I imagine HHCL was so great to work at.

I bet Colombian Marching Powder inspired most, if not all of the sketches. Made me laugh.

Will, theres a great part about office chairs in the book “Then we came to the end” by Joshua Ferris (i reviewed it lol)… worth a read!

Sounds interesting Rob!

haha! nice.
Yeah, the book has some good chair related stories!

If you got a job at Philip Morris / Shell or Radioactive-Waste-R-Us … I don’t know whether I’d laugh or cry.

Actually I do. Guess … 🙂

For me.. ad folk have to sell stuff, so morals have to be (sort of) checked at the door. Much better than it used to be though.

And now it’s coming full circle. Eventually we’ll have ‘green’ niche agencies, I’m sure.

Blasted roof.

Maybe Hummer aren’t as bad as I first thought on the environmental stance – or maybe this has just been spin doctored: http://www.caranddriver.com/dailyautoinsider/10871/doubts-cast-on-hybrid-efficiency.htm

Oh, Jade, Thank’s for the birthday shout!

Well, I don’t mean that in a ‘let’s see how many baby seals can we club’ way of thinking.

No, I mean in terms of an agency as a collective, and the agency exists to turn a profit – but of course, depending on the founders (W&K springs to mind, as they are still independent), they can choose to not get involved.

Big, massive corporate agencies on the other hand – not a chance in hell.. but I think that’s changing, and I’m very pleased about it.

I know something that MIGHT happen that you don’t Rob.

The emphasis is on ‘MIGHT’ at the moment, ha!

I have done NOTHING today … not a bean … and yet I have tons and tons and tons to do. So I’m going to say thanks for all your comments and go home to eat dinner with Jill then – being the mature couple we are – play GUITAR HERO 2 and re-live the days when I was paid to be a guitarist to errrrrrm, Rick and Terrance. BOO!

Night all … hope you have toptastic days.

[and Lauren – hope you have good job news too!]

No prob Marcus, tried to say it on Sunday, but wordpress ate my words & I was in a bad mood – being at work on a Sunday and all.

Rob, if you are talking about my Hummer post – you can’t really believe me. I don’t even drive and am the only western person I know who catches a bus in Dubai – even though I know most of the precious expat souls here catch them back home.

Rob, good luch with your plans, sounds very interesting.

Lauren, I wish you all the best with your interviews. I should really be doing the same thing, rather than resigning and then waiting for the stars to align.

Lauren – hope it goes well.

And as for dropping pants on stage not deploying star power.. no, but it does give people a view of the moon.

Thank you, I’ll be here all week. Don’t forget to tip your waitress. Try the veal.

Hi Ian … you are absolutely entitled to your opinion, and if you like it, then great – Jeep will be pleased.

I think I’ve expressed my view on why I don’t like it so we should just ‘agree to disagree’, 🙂