Filed under: Comment
How sweet is that eh?
No I haven’t been at Mountain View … well actually I have, but that’s purely coincidental … the reason for showing that video is because in the fast-paced World of adland, it’s quite easy to forget the general masses are touched, influenced and inspired by emotions and feelings … so it might be useful if every once in a while, we put aside the pads featuring ideas for sponsored jokes and/or youtube rip-offs and actually started listening, watching, learning and communicating with the real World, you’d be amazed how smart many of them can be.
If you need a quick ‘health check’ on the validity of your ‘human race’ membership, please answer the following:
1/ What percentage of your friends work in the advertising / marketing / film / music / gaming / fashion industries?
A: 25%
B: 50%
C: 75%
D: What other kind of industries are there?
2/ What sort of magazines do you read:
A: A wide range of titles covering a wide range of subjects
B: Gossip trash
C: Anything where your photo may appear
D: Read? That’s such an outdated bloody concept
3/ Do you know people called:
A: Pete or Sally
B: Roger or Elizabeth
C: Sebastian or Jemima
D: Tarquin or Mercedes
4/ What does lunch consist of:
A: Whatever you’ve brought from home
B: Whatever you and your colleagues decide to eat
C: Whatever your secretary has been told to go out and get you
D: Whatever restaurant has been labelled as ‘the place to be seen in’
5/ What does “Creche” means:
A: A place where babies are left by people struggling to make their mortgage payments
B: A place where babies are left by people who don’t want their uber-cool lifestyle disturbed
C: What people who can’t afford a live-in Swedish nanny have to use
D: The sound 2 cars make when they collide on your street located in the fashionable part of London / NYC / SF / LA / Sydney / HK / Singapore / Shanghai etc
Finished? Cool, now find out how ‘real’ you truly are …
MOSTLY A:
You are have a great grasp of what is going on for many people in society from what they do and what they are thinking.
MOSTLY B:
You are pretty normal with your friends defining you as a person rather than an adman/woman.
MOSTLY C:
You are think you’re a special talent and as such, live in a carefully crafted bubble that basically keeps ‘normal life’ out.
MOSTLY D:
You are the CEO/ECD/EPD or a multinational advertising agency who thinks you know it all even though the only exposure you have to the average persons life is through the people you hire to drive your car and wash your house.
You know what, I can just about accept it when clients, suits, creatives and senior management fall into category C and/or D – but not planners – planners are supposed to understand and represent the masses, not be islands of self appointed, pseudo intellectual superiority or worse, pretend rock stars … so whilst I am not really suggesting you can’t be a good planner/adman if you live in a nice house, in a nice place with nice things … it is worth remembering that interacting with the everyday life of everyday people is way more valuable than simply reading about it in reports or blogs.
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what the fuck is that video about? its sickly sweet with a great big fucking dollop of emphasis on “sick”. hes either dog whisperer genius or the canine gary glitter.
and you writing a questionaire on how human are you is like getting adolf to do a fucking quiz on open mindedness or brian may on musical taste.
the only reason youre not getting a fucking good kicking from me is because for once youve written a post with a fucking half decent point in it and like you, im also reeling from a fucking overload of mountain view peace, love and pissing happiness.
consider yourself very fucking fortunate campbell and your quiz sucks because it says im not the very fucking picture of down to earth genius.
pile. of. shite.
ps) where did the creche joke come from? theres no fucking way you came up with that yourself.
Comment by andy@cynic April 27, 2010 @ 6:56 amYou mean their “don’t be evil” spirit [finally] penetrated your cold, cold heart?
That’s undeniable evidence of just how good they really are … inform the PR department immediately.
As for the creche joke – you are a cheeky bastard. You’re also [sadly] a fucking cheeky correct bastard because it’s an old Willy Rushden gag from the radio show “I haven’t got a clue” which is a much more detailed answer than I really needed to give.
Comment by Rob April 27, 2010 @ 8:28 amIs it very sad that I’m quite proud I scored mostly ‘A’s’?
No need to respond, I think I know the answer or at least what I think your answer will be.
Quiz aside, the point of the post is great. It’s sad you have to write about that but the industry seems more focused on making ads in isolation than making ads that reflect a deep level of social understanding and needs. I’m with Andy on dog man though, that’s freaky sweet.
Comment by Pete April 27, 2010 @ 7:12 amProud that you scored mostly “A’s” in the World’s most stupid quiz?
Sure Pete, you have every right to feel very proud indeed.
Comment by Rob April 27, 2010 @ 8:19 amyou know how much i believe in giving constructive feedback pete so i think its important to tell you youre not being fucking sad, youre being fucking pathetic.
hope that helps.
Comment by andy@cynic April 27, 2010 @ 7:22 amI’ve forwarded the quiz on to my secretary so I’ll let you know what I am once she’s finished.
By the way – is that video part of the new Xbox campaign? It’s amazing – can’t wait to see the next episode.
Comment by grumblemouse April 27, 2010 @ 7:56 amyou forwarded your own email? you mean you dont have someone to do that for you? im sorry, i didnt realise you were living on the streets and work for a media agency. my heart goes out to you, well it would if i ever frequented the sorts of places you lot live which of course theres no fucking chance of that ever happening.
Comment by andy@cynic April 27, 2010 @ 8:04 amIt’s very disappointing that the value of emotional communication still has to be debated, but I find it more alarming that so many agencies have allowed themselves to be turned into little more than a propoganda department for their clients blinkered view of the World and their brand.
I scored “b” by the way.
Comment by Lee Hill April 27, 2010 @ 9:34 amI’ve banged on for years how I find it astoundingly horrifying that adland has happily moved away from being seen as the recognised experts on understanding, exciting, energising & motivating people and cultures … so it’s little surprise that in many cases, they take whatever the client wants to say and just put some glittery wrapping paper around it.
[The “propoganda” department as you so nicely put it]
Whilst this approach can work in the short term – longer term everyone loses out and yet the only people who seem to learn from these “mistakes” are the general public whereas the marketing & ad communities carry on as before even though one of them [the client] is spending ever increasing amounts of cash in a desperate attempt to make any sort of impression on the population whilst the other [adland] just reduces their fees to [1] make up for the fact they’ve allowed themselves to be passive participant in the whole marketing game and [2] counter the great agencies who are doing work that genuinely makes a difference because they took the time to find out what is going on in the world rather than simply execute whatever ad campaign their clients wants.
We help business by understanding people, not by ignoring them … hence my absolute distain for the whole ‘service industry’ term, unless it reflects being the service industry to the general population.
Phew. I feel better now.
B? Quite disappointing – I’d of thought you’d qualify for a ‘C’ by now. Ha.
Comment by Rob April 27, 2010 @ 9:59 amI forwarded this to my mates at the agency where I used to be in the planning team. Ain’t nothing worse than a planner who thinks he’s too cool.
But your quiz is silly, and the creche joke sucks, sorry.
I’m an A and I quit advertising recently.
Comment by New High Score April 27, 2010 @ 10:30 amNew High Score … congratulations on leaving adland but it appears you’ve not been free from their clutches for very long as you sound like I was suggesting this quiz was some kind of carefully developed human characterisation insignt tool when it’s plainly just a pile of pisstaking bollocks, even if the underlying message of the post is meant to be serious.
And I think the creche joke is great – which proves I’m not a planner who thinks he’s cool. Ha.
Comment by Rob April 27, 2010 @ 10:49 amfrankly, anyone who actually did the quiz has a problem.
Comment by Marcus April 27, 2010 @ 1:46 pmYou scored mainly ‘D’s’ didn’t you Marcus.
Comment by Rob April 27, 2010 @ 1:55 pmdouble D
Comment by Marcus April 27, 2010 @ 2:18 pmBoom Tish!
Comment by Rob April 27, 2010 @ 2:44 pmExcept for question 5, I don’t see any answers that fit me.
Comment by niko April 27, 2010 @ 2:26 pmSwedish Nanny by any chance?
Comment by Rob April 27, 2010 @ 2:45 pmactually Levantine is de riguer and Baltic the new Swedish..
so out of touch with the real world..
Comment by niko April 27, 2010 @ 3:04 pmThis from the weirdo in Amsterdam!
Comment by Rob April 27, 2010 @ 3:28 pmRotterdam.
Such a poor listener.
Comment by Niko April 27, 2010 @ 3:40 pmAs I think I mentioned in a post last week, I switch off when I’m bored. 🙂
Comment by Rob April 27, 2010 @ 4:03 pmTwo simple tasks to stay in touch with real life. Take public transport to a popular shopping centre, read a tabloid on the way. Look in the shops you wouldn’t be seen dead in, in a McDonalds. Get public transport home and watch the most popular programmes (especially the ones you wouldn’ be seen dead watching)
Comment by northern April 27, 2010 @ 4:23 pmKeep your eyes and ears open all the while.
Work part time in a local shop for a month – I learned more on the checkout of Morrisons when I worked on the brand than pretty much anything since (apart from being a dogsbody in hairdressers for a day or two)
Absolutely right Mr Northern … with the key element being just because you did it once doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it again, especially as society has this pesky habit of evolving/changing/having different views.
I am alarmed at how few planners actually spend time out the office … but then too many companies evaluate commitment by how long you sit in your chair, not what you do.
Comment by Rob April 27, 2010 @ 5:02 pmmy daily life says yes & yes to everything but the rubbish on TV. I’d rather inject sulfuric acid into my eyeballs than watch that crap.
Comment by adlandplanner April 27, 2010 @ 6:20 pmThat’s the stuff the people you want to surprise and delight are more interested in. Agency types could learn a lot from X Factor
Comment by northern April 27, 2010 @ 7:18 pmthats what campbell uses as his excuse for watching/listening to shit telly and music but we all know he watches it because he loves it because his taste is so bad it makes heidi montag look sophisticated rather than a skinny plastic bitch with a big pair of fake tits.
Comment by andy@cynic April 27, 2010 @ 9:31 pmI knew it, underneath the Birkenstocks and vigilante antics, there’s a bored housewife just itching to get out
Comment by northern April 27, 2010 @ 10:04 pmthat explains why he sits on his arse all day doing fuckall and then whines like a bitch when we ask if hed be so kind to get on our fucking daily video conference.
Comment by andy@cynic April 27, 2010 @ 10:31 pmeveryday people living an everyday life. that sounds like average people to me. do they exist? im just being a pain 😛
how could anyone have elaborate opinions about an issue, if they willingly only ever look at one aspect of it. ‘open-mindedness the key is’, as yoda or the dalai lama might say. maybe lol
Comment by peggy April 28, 2010 @ 6:11 ami think campbell means anyone who doesnt live in the fantasy fucking bubble of advertising peggy but you knew that, you just wanted to be the female doddsy but the problem is that position has already been filled because doddsy is a big fucking girl just not as big a fucking girl as campbell and his bored housewife impression.
Comment by andy@cynic April 28, 2010 @ 6:34 amI get scared when [1] you defend me [2] explain what I actually wanted to say.
We’ve been working together way too long …
Oh, and just for the record, I am not a bored housewife – though I do aspire to that because amongst many things, I love trash and I don’t care who knows it.
[Except my Mum, who brought me up to know better!]
Comment by Rob April 28, 2010 @ 8:26 amI seem to remember you being pinned to the floor by a boxer dog many moons ago!
Comment by BTBB April 28, 2010 @ 9:04 pmthe dog wasnt trying to pin campbell down, he was trying to snog it.
Comment by andy@cynic April 28, 2010 @ 9:40 pmprobably they were both virgins 😉 and yes the dog was a bitch!
Comment by BTBB April 28, 2010 @ 10:28 pmso it was last week then.
should introduce the boxer to niko, hed sort her out.
Comment by andy@cynic April 28, 2010 @ 10:37 pm