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

He’s asked me Andy.

He hasn’t really Andy.
Or am I just saying that?

I’m available for the right price.

that depends if the “right price” is based on your assessment or robs doesnt it billy?

how many times have i told you to keep your trap shut when dealing in matters of negotiation?

How sweet, people fighting to be a judge as if it’s the Accademy Awards or something.

Grease my palm with high-domination US notes and we’ll see if – like the Oscars – my opinion can also be influenced [allegedly]!

That’s that sorted out then isn’t it Billy.

bollocks.

With any luck, Lauren will be able to sort the judges out so Mr Campbells’s feedback is delivered on time this time around.
I think Marcus should be a judge too.

Do as I say, not as I do

My Dad looks like Bill Clinton, and my sister in law resembles Hillary. Odd but true.

im here.
it’s just that no one can see me.

I don’t want to be a judge.
Morning.

I’m not grovelling.

that may work with Billy and the boys, but it sure as fuck doesn’t work with me.

What if I throw in some anti-woodworm for the shed to sweeten the deal?

The answer is no.

message to marcus: just spoken to campbell and want you to know anyone who attacks you attacks us so dont worry about being a judge, lets be executioners.

if theres one thing i hate more than planners its small minded fuckers and you seem to have got all the wankers in one place for me to crush, you kind bastard.

off to bitch to lee so back soon and expect me angry.

whose the idiot, the guy who intelligently questions the system or the fuckwit who produces mind numbing shit that no one notices because he is incapable of having an original thought of his own?

this isnt about advertising, its about freedom of speech and anyone who claims you need experience in something before you can question it is living in a dictatorial, communist timewarp.

People attacking Marcus? Sod the banter, this is serious. Planners and creatives, lets team up to fight a bigger foe…

I suppose I should explain. As some of you may have noticed I’ve been doing rather a lot of interviewing of late. I enjoy doing it – it’s fun and I’ve been doing in for werbeblogger which is Germany’s biggest ad blog. I really like the guys who run the blog and they have enough faith in me to just let me get on and do what I want to do. In turn, they have started running German versions of some of my ideas (Black Operatives Department etc).

Last week I decided that it would be cool to interview German Independent agencies (because there are quite a few – and some of them are really, really good). The interviews will be in English and again should be a lot of fun and interesting. Werbeblogger post a link letting everybody know what I’m up too and then all hell breaks loose.

Bascially the argument boils down to this; just who the fuck is this “Kaiser” bloke anyway? What has he done to be deserving of all this attention and what qualifies him to be talking about advertising and the what not. Apparently (and this is really funny) I’m not being transparent enough (remember the stuff about the looney bin?).

It escalated yesterday when somebody googled me and posted a large chunk of my resumé in the comments section of the post (which was then deleted by Patrick).

I’m not ashamed of what I’ve done because a) I’ve done more than most and b) what I’ve done has been fucking interesting and as far as I’m concerned qualifies me to talk about whatever I fucking well like.

But that isn’t and shouldn’t be the point.

I knew it was Germans.

Jealousy is rife in advertising but maybe if more of the fuckers realised doing something is more effective than just talking about it, they’d not slag Marcus off, they’d get off their fat fucking arses and do something other than the usual 30 second wallpaper.

No wonder Andy is so pissed, he hates people who hate people who question the system. Does that make sense?

I bet a fuckload of the inventions we take for granted weren’t created by people “in the category” but by smart people who could see the issues or opportunity because they were outside the bubble, not firmly entrenched in it.

Not sure if any of this makes sense because I’m still waking up but we’re behind you Marcus and I pity those who slag you off and don’t have the “advertising chops” to fend off Andy.

not to denegrate patrick or roland, but it’s just a blog. they’re not actively generating advertising, producing material, influencing the market or buying product in what they produce – it’s a bunch of advertising geeks (and people like me) who read it. i can almost understand the certificate idea (esp. when it comes to influence markets) but this is a blog.

New things and smart people are always scary to the ignorant or stupid.

I hope Patrick and Roland take action against those who have been nasty to you. Me and Andy will be here ready to strike if needed…

I am very sorry to hear what you’re enduring at the moment Marcus. People who are insecure of their position and talent tend to be the worst in acknowledging alternate views and regardless of your qualification to comment (which is pretty good as far as I am concerned) the fact they are shouting you down so aggressively shows how scared they are.

Having a ‘degree’ in advertising is like having a qualification in eating ice-cream. Knowing the fundamentals of communication is one thing, saying that is the only way to construct advertising is quite the other and I think Billy is right, the biggest innovations have probably come from those outside of the industry and so rather than launching personal attacks, maybe they should listen, discuss and see if there is anything they could embrace to help German advertising have a greater level of World acclaim than they currently enjoy.

My german isn’t good enough to read it sadly.

Glad to see it, you have more support than you have detractors mate.

Qualifications are important but they aren’t everything. If managers and HR don’t know that then frankly their company is fucked.

Hi there,

ok let me just write a few words about this whole shit that was going on yesterday in our blog.

I do this thing for over 5 fucking years and now we are the biggest ad blog in Germany whatever that supposed to mean. I hate it and I love it. It’s a gift AND a curse because you get in contact with a lot of people. Some are interested, open-minded and they enrich the conversation. The most important commandment for us at werbeblogger is to open up conversation with all of its variety. Sometimes they are some people whose minds are narrow and they have one big mission to accomplish: Piss off the werbeblogger crew and their thoughts.

Well we are no know-alls for sure but we love learning and discussing things. So you can’t make things right for everyone out there. If your blog gets big, people around you get envious and annoying. They can get attention with their behaviour. They try to rip off our credibility. They are typical trolls.

On the other hand there are many readers who love what we are doing, they appreciate it. But, well, Germans have a little problem with self-confidence and speaking in high terms of somebody.

So what I have told to Marcus is: fuck ’em all! You can’t be everybodys darling. Not in this shitty industry, not in Germany not on controversial A-Blogs who write what they think and who pisses the whole industry off.

I have no certificates or such crap, I broke up my studies because I couldn’t stand the bullshit school/study system in Germany. It was no fun at all. Lord thank you that you or whoever invented the web and blogs. This is my study for lifetime. Study on topics, science and people behaviour. There are things you can’t learn in school – yet.

The problem of our ad industry here in Germany? I would say: Most people close their minds BECAUSE they were in this school/university system. Because they have learned that it is easier to use known things than to rethink their old models. Times are changing. But they want to peg their learned things from school. It’s a pity but all in all it is a great chance for inspired and open-minded people like Marcus to rock the industry.

As far as I’m concerned Patrick is now officially a member of the sausage crew.

No, but I can kick you up the arse Patrick.

Should I apologise to Lee? Or were you well behaved?

lee works at virgin, a place that ignores the “rules” so he was as fucked off as me. besides i was so angry i could only eat 2 breakfasts so he saved money which always makes him smile so in other words no apology is necessary.

Andy was in fine form Marcus, though I’d of undertood if he wasn’t given what he told me you were experiencing.

May I ask if the argument is based on what was said or who said it?

I ask because if it is the former then it is a terrible slight on the “creative” industry and if the latter, I assume John Hegarty would also be exposed to a torrent of abuse given he is only in possession of talent rather certificates.

The irony is a printer (I know you are more than that Marcus, I am simply expressing this for arguments sake) is in a far better position to talk about the advertising industry than vice versa because in printing there are actual hard and fast rules that need to be followed to achieve a specific end result whereas in communication there are just core principals that can be utilized in any manner of ways because the outcome is so open to interpretation.

Don’t let it bother you Marcus and for the record I am on Jill’s side with the content of this post.