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I was trying to log onto Flickr but mistyped the URL, typing www.flicke.com
Please go and check it out … for a company that claims to provide a wide range of services like web site design, script integration, business identity, and ecommerce … it’s not exactly a great ad for their talent!
Abit like this company, haha!
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The smarty-pants John Dodds has just brought my attention to a short film entitled ‘If Business Meetings Were Like Internet Comments’
Having watched it, it does seem awfully like the day-to-day shenanigans that occur on this blog … infact, it’s so bloody accurate, you can even tell which character represents which individual.
What does this all mean? I’ll tell you – we’re all bloody walking, talking, typing clichés!
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… because I get to meet lovely people like Age – who not only went out of his way to come and see me in the city, but brought me pressies as well!
If this is ‘standard’ behaviour, then can you all please organise your visits to Asia quicksmart!
Age, it was bloody tops meeting you – thanks for the books and your time and I hope to see you again very soon.
[PS: please spare a thought for Marcus who is copping the brunt of German ‘humour’ after another brilliant demonstration of mediocrity by Steve McLaren’s bunch of prima-donnas]
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Wayhay!!!
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.
One For The Ladies!
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!]
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Tomorrow [Friday] is a big day for a bunch of us as we’re going to try and sell a client their first major campaign change in FORTY YEARS.
There’s actually a hell of a lot more relying on this than just a bunch of ads as it potentially allows a few ‘scores’ to be settled … scores that are way, way, way overdue and relate to the situation I wrote about a few days ago.
[Please note this has absolutely NOTHING to do with the client in question who has been brilliant throughout the whole process]
Look, even if you can’t stand my guts [and I know there’s alot of you that feel that way including my business partners 🙂 ] please cross your fingers because I desperately want to see one of the great bits of ad copy be turned into reality …
“Italian men may be stylish but they have all the temperament of a 5 year old child coming down from a sugar rush while holding a bazooka”
Given the last time we presented to this client he climbed over a table to kiss me, I can only hope he feels equally romantic after he’s seen and heard what we’ve come up with.
I’ve got the lip balm ready … I hope I need to use it!