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 That’s such an outdated bloody concept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.