First of all, I want to point out this has absolutely nothing to do with the post of yesterday – that situation is something I am still ‘dealing with’ and hope to be able to name and shame very soon.
On the plus side, I feel more fired up than I’ve been in a long time so there’s definitely a positive in being subjected to corporate mediocrity and small mindedness. Ha.
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So recently I was approached by a very wonderful ad agency to see if I’d be interested in coming over to work with them in the UK on some new role they were looking to develop.
Now I am a big believer that you always explore opportunities – whether you are interested or not – so we had a couple of chats and all was going nicely when one of the guys asked me this …
“You’ve been out of the UK for a while, how do you feel you’ll cope with the standards of advertising you’ll be expected to achieve?”
After a couple of seconds of insulted shock, I responded …
“Oh I know it’ll be tough, but I’ll just have to lower my expectations till the UK ad industry stops believing its own shit”.
Unsurprisingly, the ‘conversation’ ended soon after and I am not expecting [or wanting] it to continue anytime soon.
OK … so maybe I was a cheeky shit, but this arrogance that only the UK produces great communication is ridiculous.
Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate the wonderful heritage it has [and in the hands of some agencies, continues to have] … hell, I worked there for long enough and loved it … however where the World has changed, alot of the UK ad scene – at least to me – hasn’t, and I find it both sad and frustrating to hear/see so many people still acting with a British-Empire-kind-of-arrogance when alot of what they are creating is well below the standards being set by agencies in the rest of the World.
Of course this post will piss a load of people off … and I am know I am being generalistic when not every person/agency acts this way … but unless certain individuals start pulling their heads out of their collective myopic and prejudice arses, they’re in for a very, very nasty surprise – because they’re already being beaten for hunger, passion and drive and soon – with the talent certain regions are attracting – this will [fingers crossed] eventually manifest itself into better, bigger, braver and more motivating creative ideas that could put England in the same situation they’re experiencing in categories like manufacturing and shipping!
I hope not … I really do … but if they carry on at this rate, it could happen – and to truly put the fear of God into them, the rest of the World probably has a better grip of English culture than English agencies have of the rest of the World … so when looking for a lead agency to run global accounts, clients could quite possibly start looking to companies located OUTSIDE of the UK [or the West as a whole] because they appreciate, understand and embrace the [subtle and not-so-subtle] differences in culture, values and media rather than just running off and doing whatever their personal agenda and/or arrogant attitude desires.
I hope I’m wrong – but if I’m not, I hope I play a big part in the change. [Cue: Evil Laugh!]