Filed under: Comment
So last night I went out for dinner with some dear friends of mine, Jonathan and Truus.
Given I hadn’t seen them for almost 3 years, it was fantastic to catch up and at the end of the night, we decided to go for a walk along the canal and grab a night cap.
As we were strolling along the beautiful streets, we passed a pub and by pure chance, realised that inside there were 2 planners we both knew from our time in Singapore.
Let’s get this in perspective …
I haven’t been to Amsterdam for almost 12 years – and by pure chance, I happened to walk along the right street on the right day at the right time and with the right friend so that he spotted 2 planners we both knew, who themselves had decided to go for a late tipple on a Thursday night.
On top of that, the 2 planners – one Scottish residing in Singapore and one Dutch, residing in Delhi – had met each other by chance as one was there on holiday and the other was there on a stop-over before going on to India.
And to make it weirder is that the reason we all know eachother is because at one point in the past, we all worked in Singapore – even though now, only one of us is still there while everyone else lives in a different country.
They say it’s a small World and that adland is a small industry but even if I take on board those considerations, it still blows my mind that situation could happen.
Saying that, it feels kind of good.
Thanks to technology, the industry I work in and my loud, opinionated gob … I can feel pretty much assured that wherever I go in the World, there’s probably someone there I can call a friend. Well, maybe not a friend [I have weird ‘rules’ about when that word can be used] but someone I know, who I can share some time with.
However it also raises another consideration …
Thanks to technology, the industry I work in and my loud, opinionated gob … all the fights I pick and all the bollocks I talk can be heard, discussed & reacted to in the blink of an eye … so if you’re anything like me and have an inability to keep your opinion to yourself, then may I suggest you find something that can overcome any/all negative views, because if you can’t, then even Osama Bin Ladin can’t hide your dirty little secrets from adlands wide circle of eyes and ears because the buggers are everywhere, not just connected online, but in little pubs on little streets in Amsterdam.
Anyway, to my colleagues at W+K, Niko, Jonathan & Truus, Gavin and Dede [plus Katie Dreke, who I’ll be meeting before I go to the airport and head home] thanks for ensuring the shitty experience at the Pulitzer didn’t overshadow the wonderfulness of being back in one of my favourite cities in the World … Amsterdam. It might of been a short time, but as the prostitutes in Thailand say, it was a special time.
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You’ve managed to do OK without having anything to overcome your mountain of negative views so how does that work with the Campbell master plan of professional planning conduct?
Comment by Billy Whizz October 15, 2010 @ 12:25 pmAre you awake or is this one of your usual autoposting posts?
Comment by Billy Whizz October 15, 2010 @ 12:27 pmNo pre-posting Billy … I’m awake … and yet in a twist of irony, I’m absolutely knackered so you get away with your z-grade Andy impression especially given your first comment is pretty accurate or at the very least, fair.
Comment by Rob October 15, 2010 @ 12:33 pmJust realised this post is only partially right [like all my posts] because there are countless examples of agency folk who have been able to hide perfectly well for years and years … mainly inside big multinational agencies and mainly in mid-level management positions where the only time they come out from their dark little corner is to stick their tongue up the CEO’s ass to ensure they’re not looked at more closely for another 12 months.
Comment by Rob October 15, 2010 @ 12:39 pmComparing me to Andy is like normal people being compared to god.
Comment by Billy Whizz October 15, 2010 @ 12:49 pmThink BDAs attract the best hide & seek players in the World.
Comment by Billy Whizz October 15, 2010 @ 12:51 pmSpeaking just for myself, I know if I saw you coming down the street while I was on holiday. I’d be ecstatic. It would make my trip.
Comment by DH October 15, 2010 @ 12:54 pmWell, you are a strategist, so consider this: You all fit the basically the same demographic and psychographic. You all work in ad agencies, top tier, most located around the same areas. Being in those agencies, you likely frequent many of the same bars, restaurants, clothing stores. Couple that with the fact that people in our small industry, after about 10 years in the biz, are likely just one to two people away from each other…and you realize you’ll be running into people until you’re 50. At which point, most of us will leave, be forced out or die of stress-related causes, so people will be less familiar. Though about three will stick around past 50 to become multi-millionaires and everyone with ‘know’ them, but they won’t know those people.
But I digress.
Comment by tim October 15, 2010 @ 12:55 pm“Being in those agencies, you likely frequent many of the same bars, restaurants, clothing stores”
You’ve never met Rob have you.
And forced out at 50? Try 30. Unless you’re Rob and somehow can still fluke relevance at 40.
Comment by Billy Whizz October 15, 2010 @ 12:58 pmI’d say a mixture of brands pushing global campaigns and cheaper airfares has more to do with people bumping into each other than hanging around the same restaurants or bars. Reason versus result.
Comment by Pete October 15, 2010 @ 1:06 pmLook at Pete getting all planner on our ass.
Comment by Billy Whizz October 15, 2010 @ 1:07 pmFor once I agree with you Billy.
Comment by Rob October 15, 2010 @ 1:12 pmHi Tim, even though you’ve painted quite possibly one of the most depressing pictures that has ever entered my head, it is good to hear from you. Ha.
Comment by Rob October 15, 2010 @ 1:09 pmWith you Dave. II’d like nothing more than be far away from home and see Rob pop up and start talking inane planner shit. Would be great.
Comment by Billy Whizz October 15, 2010 @ 12:56 pmAt least you’d have alcohol close to hand.
Comment by DH October 15, 2010 @ 1:00 pmThat’s the only way I could stand it.
Comment by Billy Whizz October 15, 2010 @ 1:06 pmDon’t worry boys, if I was to see you guys while away on a business trip, you can be sure as hell I’d walk right on by rather than right on in.
Pain goes both ways you know. Ha.
Comment by Rob October 15, 2010 @ 1:10 pmBig talk there Rob, but we all know you wouldn’t be able to resist ruining our holiday.
Comment by Billy Whizz October 15, 2010 @ 1:12 pmMake that twice I agree with you. Right, now I have to go pack, ruin someone else’s day [Katie] and then fly home to mayhem.
Ta-ra.
Comment by Rob October 15, 2010 @ 1:13 pmPoor Katie.
Comment by DH October 15, 2010 @ 1:15 pmAre you saying this Katie bird is coming to meet you of her own free will? Impossible.
Comment by Billy Whizz October 15, 2010 @ 1:16 pmUnless she’s a planner.
Comment by Billy Whizz October 15, 2010 @ 1:16 pmShe is and she is.
Comment by Rob October 15, 2010 @ 1:17 pmProves planners are as brainless as the rest of us.
Comment by Billy Whizz October 15, 2010 @ 1:21 pmI’m going to take a slightly different angle. There was a long time when explaining what we did for a living was the in-joke. It couldn’t be done. “He does things in advertising”. I only went up in my sisters estimation when one of her friends explained that the job I did was interesting and that HHCL was top notch. Before that I could have been selling Yellow Pages for all she cared.
But then St. Russell started blogging. And there’s no escaping that a audible convergence happened. It was evident at the time. It’s still evident now. I roll out of random ahem ‘places’ all the time and meet planners or people who know exactly what I do.
Whatever. This isn’t about perceived coolness it’s about, well maybe there’s a reason for this collision of the plannersphere internally and maybe there’s a reason for the integration of the job externally?
I wont give my theory but it’s worth thinking about. PW Bridgman defined a coincidence as “What you have left over when you have a bad theory”
Excuse the link but it’s pertinent. http://goo.gl/NkuM
Comment by Charles October 15, 2010 @ 1:41 pmI understand the point Charles and it’s a valid one but it brings to mind the expression “I want to be different like everyone else.”
Comment by Pete October 15, 2010 @ 1:45 pmBTW all planners hit that little street with the S&M and Ladyboy hookers. It’s no big deal.
Comment by Charles October 15, 2010 @ 1:44 pmthats the transparency they all keep talking about isnt it. im not convinced it is a bad thing. at least no one can start any rumours about the views they read on your blog and heard from your mouth. or have the pulitzer read a dubious email with a link to ‘the post’ and now youre in trouble
oh, and are suggesting to be a yes man? i mean, im all for the yes men anyway…
seriously though, as long as you are aware of what you are saying and that it stays in the open until electricity is too expensive, i think its good, even if its negative.
Comment by peggy October 15, 2010 @ 3:27 pmI haven’t seen any planners at Sing and Sign yet
Comment by northern October 15, 2010 @ 4:28 pmYou live oop North, we all know real planners only reside within the M25.
Comment by Rob October 15, 2010 @ 5:41 pmSo it’s only a small world if you live in places where planners are as thick as thieves then
Comment by northern October 15, 2010 @ 6:07 pmI said only “real” planners reside within the M25, us fake versions are everywhere.
Comment by Rob October 15, 2010 @ 6:10 pmSo to summarise for any non-planners in the audience – ‘Some planners met in a pub’.
Comment by researchgeek October 15, 2010 @ 5:02 pmgold.
Comment by lauren October 15, 2010 @ 5:32 pmThat’s the sort of deep and penertrating insight you get from a researcher. It could be worth more because with each planner living in a different country, it could be classed as ethnographic.
Comment by Pete October 15, 2010 @ 5:35 pmTouché.
Comment by researchgeek October 15, 2010 @ 5:40 pmFeisty today Pete … though I think ‘meeting in a pub’ is funny, but kinda missing the point. But that’s researchers for you, ha.
Comment by Rob October 15, 2010 @ 5:45 pmYou’re right, I did miss the point a bit. How is ‘some planners unexpectedly met in the pub’?
Comment by researchgeek October 15, 2010 @ 6:24 pmMuch better … it explains the quality of research companies to a much better degree than I could have expressed. Thank you.
Comment by Rob October 15, 2010 @ 6:49 pmIf you like I could write you a 150 slide deck that still misses the point (or, indeed, doesn’t make any point at all)? I’ve had plenty of practice.
Comment by researchgeek October 16, 2010 @ 1:26 amSo have I. We could have a pointless preso-off. God, how depressing would that be eh!
Comment by Rob October 16, 2010 @ 6:25 pmChanging the point somewhat, seen this?
http://twitpic.com/2xquuy
Comment by Rob October 15, 2010 @ 6:50 pma minor joke. har har : )
Comment by peggy October 15, 2010 @ 9:33 pmHopefully missing the point slightly less – there was an interview with Simon Pegg in today’s Observer which talks about his theory of Quantum Attraction. I could not help but think if this post.
“It’s a notion that attraction might actually be maths – but chaotic, fabulous maths. Not fate as some sort of ordained puppet master, rather a consequence of millions of micro-decisions happening simultaneously, drawing people towards each other. It explains how you come across the like-minded, even if it feels like coincidence, dependent on weird things you attribute to fate, but which might actually be assisted coincidence.”
Yikes. “It’s not as crystal-precise as a timepiece,” he continues, “and it doesn’t always work. Sometimes you’re brought together, but you don’t meet – Edgar and I worked out we were in the same cinema watching the same film five years before we met. Me and Maureen were at the same gigs or dating the same people, but always missing each other. You might get to within a metre of your soulmate, but for some reason that last little inch you don’t make. I’ve met mine, and I’m very lucky. But the whole process of quantum attraction – it’s like a drunk with a shotgun.”
And before you all say it, yes, I know research is also like a drunk with a shotgun (har har). But I like the idea that because you are like minded, the thousands of similar cumulative micro-decisions you make mean it is infinitely more likely you will run into one another in what appears to be blind coincidence but actually isn’t.
Comment by researchgeek October 17, 2010 @ 4:55 pmI completely understand what you’re saying – totally do – but I still think 4 people meeting in a country that only 1 person lives in … where the other 3 are there for completely different reasons even though they all live in totally different parts of the globe and work for toally different companies – and always have – is less about commonality of thought and more about coincidence of action, but then what do I know, I still think culture and emotions defy logic and reason … hence this blog, haha!
Comment by Rob October 17, 2010 @ 5:47 pmOh yeah, I’m not saying it’s all maths. Simon Pegg is neither behavioural scientist nor mathematician after all. But there’s an element to which commonality of thought/experience/emotion makes coincidence of action at least somewhat more likely no? Then you throw in a touch of ethereal magic to make up the difference.
Comment by researchgeek October 17, 2010 @ 7:01 pmits interesting what he said. you make micro decisions (based on decisions and factors rooted in the past etc.) whose outcome is similar to those of others. et voila, youre part of a cluster. either below the earths surface, on a blog, in a cafe, a shopping mall or a researchers deck. the reasons for those decisions might vary though. which is the point of a coincidence? and makes it kinda difficult to calculate. even though, im pretty sure everything can be described using maths. but it would be utterly complicated. for me anyway.
Comment by peggy October 17, 2010 @ 10:23 pmreading this shit makes me need another holiday. and why the fuck did niko screw his credibility meeting you in fucking public. the worlds gone fucking bonkers.
Comment by andy@cynic October 17, 2010 @ 8:14 pmactually, Rob promised next time you would be joining.
trade-off: meeting Campbell, alone, once, during the day, in Amsterdam, far from the red light district, seemed worth the cred knock.
Don’t make me regret that decision Andy..
Comment by niko October 17, 2010 @ 9:06 pmCoincidences are not as rare as people think. It’s just that most people are totally innumerate.
Comment by John October 18, 2010 @ 2:27 amwell thank fuck theyre rare enough for me not to bump into campbell when im on holiday or id never leave the fucking house. half fucking finished or not.
Comment by andy@cynic October 18, 2010 @ 5:32 am