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

Fuck me, how quick has this year gone eh?

So no doubt, from tomorrow, blogs around the World will start doing ‘annual reviews’ – stating the good, the bad and the bollocks from the previous 11 months.

Well I’m not going to be one of those people, because I’m going to do it today instead.

2010 has been a good year for me.

OK, so Forest fucked up the play off games, but all in all it’s been a very good year.

Apart from the fact I and my loved ones, have been happy and healthy – I entered a new chapter of my life which is proving to be interesting and exciting – which is really great given I’m an old fart at 40 years of age.

Without doubt moving to China and starting at W+K has been great.

I must admit I was a bit nervous.

Not of moving to China … but starting as an employee again after almost 9 years.

Now while some people may think I am of the opinion the company is called Wieden+Kennedy+Campbell [Andy!!!] I’d like to think I’ve adapted to my new circumstances and situation fairly well … and I am certainly very excited about what we can [hopefully] achieve together in the next 12 months.

However if I was to pick one thing that stands out for me as the best point of 2010, it’s my birthday present to my beloved Paul.

Seriously, it was wonderful and turned out way better than I could ever have hoped.

The look on his face – especially when he realised it was in every paper, not just a one off – will stay with me forever, however the real reason it’s the best thing of my 2010 is that I know he knows how important he is in my life and that’s really important, because he’s done more for me than he’ll ever know and I’d never want him to think I’ve taken him – or his actions – for granted.

I can hear you, “Oh god, Rob’s going sentimental again”.

And I guess I am – but in an industry that it supposed to be all about understanding and empathising with people, I find it amazing how little we talk about this sort of thing and while I appreciate a lot of it is personal and private, it should still be something we discuss openly especially when so much of the ‘cutting edge thinking’ that gets the focus and the applause is often hardly new and hasn’t involved all that much thinking.

I’m not saying everyone in adland is like this – maybe it’s just me and the shit that I think & spout – however it is the reason why I find hearing Marcus talk about life in a funny farm or NP write about how his son has changed his life or how Lauren is finding her dalliance with Berlin or basically anything Charles writes about that’s not linked to adland [amongst the many blogs/magazines/people that I could quote] far more interesting and educational than 99% of the stuff that gets promoted in the industry press or amplified via the ‘Rockstar’ blogs.

But then I like Queen …

So here’s to 2010, a great year by anyones standards, and may there be plenty more of them in the years to come for all*.

That’s not to say I don’t like Shanghai – I bloody love it – but for some reason, Singapore feels more like home than pretty much all the other places I have some sort of direct connection with, so it’s good to be back.

And this leads to the point of this post: belonging.

The reality is I have spent my whole life feeling like I don’t belong.

That doesn’t mean I feel – or have felt – alienated, isolated, uncared for or unloved … it’s just I feel I have never really ‘fitted in’ with certain groups or situations that have ended up dominating large parts of my life.

Without doubt, some of this [most of this?] has been self inflicted.

Not because I am someone with a self-destruction switch but because I have certain needs and insecurities that have led to me making personal choices that has resulted in my feelings of disconnection ending up as a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Which leads me back to Singapore.

Despite so many things that annoy me about the place, it feels like home.

OK, so for me, the true definition of home is always going to be where my wife [and cat] are … but interms of a place that feels like I have some definitive and active roots in place, Singapore is it.

At least currently.

I wish I could truly explain why that’s the case but I can’t.

The embodiment of young and successful.

All summer clothes, fancy haircuts and perfect teeth.

A couple of couples enjoying a casual moment in summer – BBQ, wine, laughs and a dog stealing some sausages from the BBQ.

Does this make anyone else want to go over to this fictitious house and stab the adults in the eyes and burn the house down?

Don’t worry, I wouldn’t touch the dog, he/she is innocent in all of this … but the people who created this pile of ‘lifestyle shit’ are guilty and I’ve just sentenced them to a damn good kicking.

What bothers me about this ad?

Everything.

I know I’m being irrational and that I can’t give you a good reason why it makes me ill, but it does and there’s something about the casting of the talent that especially gets my goat.

The guys in particular are just wrong.

Apart from the fact they just don’t look like they’d go out with the women in the ad, they certainly don’t look like they’d drink the fucking wine [?] that they’re supposedly supping.

The man whose jumper is so low you can see his bollocks, looks in particular about as comfortable as a backpacker in the company of Ivan Milat [look it up] … though I also find it rather disconcerting that he [and the other bloke] seem to be looking rather dreamily at the dogs ass rather than anything else.

Everything about it annoys me

Things that could make them better, more relevant, more profitable.

In essence, research was a torch that shone a light on the murky to help show them a better way forward.

Zoom forward to today and research is quite different.

Nowadays it’s not about shining light, it’s about wrapping them in a warm blanket.

It’s more about confirming what they know [which does have it’s place] or confirming what they want to say – regardless of whether that is the right thing they should be doing or not.

There’s lots of reasons for this, but one of them is that research companies are now so focused on maintaining their big annual contracts, they will – like many agencies – say or do whatever they think will keep the relationship alive.

Sure not all of them are like this – and as I said, there’s a whole host of other reasons for this to happen of which clients have to take more than their fair share, especially in Asia where the basic construct of decision making is “what will my boss want to hear” – however when WPP has more research companies in it’s roster than comms companies, you know the pursuit of profit … and the ramifications of not achieving that … could influence how a company responds to the brief as much as the brief itself.