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

Snowing.

Sure, that might help hide the shit on the street and give the whole place a more scenic appearance, but the real question is:

WILL I HAVE TO WEAR SHOES TOMORROW!

I know … I know … if I was a real tough, Northern bastard it wouldn’t matter – but I’m half Italian and have spent the last 15 years living in anti-snow climates – so whilst I’m OK at walking in the cold and the rain [and in public] in my Birkenstocks, there’s a limit to how far my loyalty will stretch and that limit is walking around in fucking snow.

So find out tomorrow if I break almost 15 years of habit by wearing shoes to work – and more interestingly – find out if I actually have any bloody shoes to wear in the first place.

This is what it said.

We’re angry that many companies treat the public like morons.

We’re angry communication companies don’t seem to care about people … the men and women of the World who spend 8 hours a day working in a job they can’t stand just to pay for a bloody air freshener they’ve been told they have to own.

And you know what, I’m still angry about those things.

Very angry.

Not just because these things still exist – which means in the big scheme of things, cynic failed – but because it is still pretty much the norm almost 8 years later.

But if I was starting cynic today, there’d be some more things I’d be adding to this list and that would include the following …

I’m sick of adlands celebration of digital campaigns that are really just a TV ad that’s been placed online.

I’m sick of adland acting like storytelling is a new pheneomenon that can change the world of business and creativity.

I’m sick of adland treating ‘content’ like it’s nothing like an ad when in the majority of cases, it’s just a longer, more convoluted and – sadly – more mindnumbingly boring version of the ‘classic’ 30 second spot, which at least had the decency to be over in the blink of an eye so we could get on with the stuff we really were interested in.

The thing is, I love this industry.

It’s been very good to me and I know – thanks to the many very clever people in it and a few special agencies/companies – that it can make a massive difference, not just to companies, but to the wider community as well … however with its obsession to achieve quarterly targets at any price, that potential is not just being pushed to one side but being forgotten.

Of course money is important, hell, I’m a big fan of money – and hopefully making as much of it as I possibly can – but if the powers-that-be carry on ignoring the fundamental elements that can prove and celebrate our value and just choose to either [1] get their end-of-year bonus &/or [2] focus on things that make us feel better or more important … then we’re in danger of not having a business that is worth being part of in the next 20 or 30 years.

I know I’ve said all this before.

I know some will think I am being overly dramatic.

I know some will say I only do this because I’m too thick to come up with something original and exciting.

Maybe that’s all true … maybe I’m just in a pissy mood after reading another industry mag that is basically a PR outlet for agencies egos … but I’m over these fundamental issues being ignored by the wider industry, so if you guys can tell me any things that you think adland are happily ignoring – even though they are actually fundamental to what we’re supposed to do – let me know and I promise you I will use them as the basis of any presentation I am asked to do, starting with this one.

Yes, I know after a litany of madness I should know better, but they still can do things that makes me look on in amazement.

And despair.

In public, they talk an amazing game – professional, business focused, open to new ideas – and yet when you see the majority of their actions, you realise they are intent on fucking everything up, including their – and the industries – credibility and relevance.

There is a television show in Australia [and I believe it’s in other countries now as well] called ‘The Gruen Transfer’.

It’s basically a show about adland where a smug host and his panelists [featuring someone who I am not a very big fan of at all. Clue: It’s not Russell Howcroft] talk about ad campaigns – either criticising them, analysing them or celebrating them.

Now that bit is OK … the bit that shows how fucked adland is, is the bit where they ask agencies to come up with ideas to address a particular subject matter or issue.

And after watching them, the key out takes appear to be …

1/ Adland has about as much understanding of real life as the Queen.

4/ Funny is more important than effective.

Or said another way, in their quest to appear – or encourage – a sense of self importance … or fame … or intelligence … or any other chip-on-the-shoulder attribute commonly found in the industry of the ego … they will publicly piss on all their talk of being commercially minded by showing how they believe the answer to almost any problem – regardless of audience, situation or circumstance – is an ad and that it can be churned out in less time than it takes the Australian cricket team to be beaten by the Poms.

Oh hang on, there’s something else they say to.

Yep, adland will do all this for you, for free.

YES, FUCKING FREE!

[Which is handy, because the way they/we present themselves, no one would actually want to pay for it]

Now I know they say all publicity is good publicity but try telling that to Gary Glitter.

I know adland is in a bit of a state, but it’s not due to lack of awareness, it’s due to lack of relevance and responsibility [at least to business] and if I was a client watching this show, I wouldn’t come away thinking …

“Those adfolks are a clever bunch, I should talk to them because that would make a difference to my company”

… I’d be looking at their approach, attitude and ideas – ideas the ad industry likes to celebrate and pat themselves on the back for – and be asking …

“Why the fuck would I hire that bunch of one dimensional, deluded pricks?”

But hey, who the hell cares about the industries issues and situation when there’s fame and publicity to gain – even if its the sort of fame and publicity that ensures the masses [and the corporate world] think you’re a car salesmen who deserves a good kicking, rather than a slap on the back.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not advocating adland should talk and act like they are bland business people, but for fucks sake, if we want to get back at the boardroom table, a demonstration that we can walk the fine line between corporate need and audience need & desire would help, but then the best way to do that would be to not appear on a show that has been set up to ridicule, rather than inform.

Note to people in adland.

12 years.

So much has happened in that period … good things … bad things … things I wish I could have talked to my Dad about and things I’m glad my Dad wasn’t there to see … but as I establish my second decade without him, I have to say I feel I am entering a new stage of the grieving process, a stage I didn’t know existed.

Guilt.

You see the thing is, I don’t think I think about my Dad enough.

When he first died he was always, obviously, always there … behind every thought or conversation … but just recently, I realise I don’t talk or think about him as much as I once did.

Now you could say that after 12 years that is only natural – and maybe that’s right – however it’s only until about a year or so ago that just the thought of my Dad had the capacity to make me cry.

I’ve written many times how I felt I kept the pain of his passing hidden inside a dark box that I didn’t want to open … not just because I didn’t want to come face-to-face with the pain, but because I still didn’t want to accept the fact he had really gone.

Really, truly, undeniably gone.

But for some reason that’s changing.

Of course he’s still in my consciousness, however I now can openly refer to things he did or said without the emotional being revealed in all their painful and overwhelming glory, which is both a good thing and – as I said – one that makes me feel racked with guilt.

You see my Dad – like my Mum – was everything to me.

He guided me, nurtured me and – when necessary – bollocked me and without his influence and, if truth be known, safety net, I always felt I was walking a life of illusion where the next step could lead me into a dead end both personally, professionally and emotionally.

But now it’s different.

I still would give anything to hear his views and advice, but I feel a bit more in control of what I am trying to do … even though I still don’t really know what that is.

A lot of this change seems to have come after he came to say goodbye to me.

Remember that?

It’s the post where I said things that I naturally would consider madness?

Anyway, maybe that – and the simple fact 12 years is quite a long time – is part of the reason I feel a bit different, but whilst I know my Dad’s mischievous side would have loved that he could stop me in my tracks with just a memory or a stare, he’d be far happier to know his son feels a greater sense of optimism and encouragement about all life has to offer – and what he wants it to offer – than he has for quite a few years, because that was one of the key hopes and values he [and Mum] wanted/instilled in me.

So I guess he is still with me after all.