To Anyone Who Describes Themselves As A Nerd …
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September 14, 2012, 6:12 am
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Get it?
You’re not a nerd – you’re a just another wannabe fucking hipster trying to elevate yourself above the common hipster.
Pathetic.
Based on what really constitutes a nerd, very few people in adland are it or probably would want to be it [Steve, our old IT guy definitely excepted] but hey, this is just another example in a long line of examples where adland tries to repurpose the meaning of a word to suit their own ego, delusion and agenda.
A bit like rebellion.
Or innovation.
Or boldness.
Or creativity.
Or strategy.
Or bravery.
No wonder this industry is in the state it’s in if we can’t even be truthful to ourselves.
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Comment by John September 14, 2012 @ 6:29 amI work with nerds. They look like albinos because they’ve never seen the sun. No one I ever met in advertising, except Steve – who didn’t really work in advertising, was a nerd.
I like this post far too much for what it actually is.
Comment by Pete September 14, 2012 @ 6:32 amsteve scared me more than the exes fucking lawyers. he was more than a fucking nerd, he was an assassin nerd. whatever the fuck that is.
Comment by andy@cynic September 14, 2012 @ 6:42 amBecause he saw what you were searching for online?
Comment by DH September 14, 2012 @ 6:53 amWay to make friends Pete. Even Andy was more considerate than that. Well, after the “leave all your tech at the door and say fuck” meeting.
Comment by Rob September 14, 2012 @ 7:59 amI don’t say this often Rob, but nice work. Another positive for you is the BBC called and they’d want you for the lead role in their remake of “one foot in the grave”.
Comment by DH September 14, 2012 @ 6:37 amAt least I’m qualified for that job.
Comment by Rob September 14, 2012 @ 8:02 amDoes anyone know where Steve is?
Comment by DH September 14, 2012 @ 6:38 amHe’s at google. I see him occasionally. He says hello when he feels like it. Basically, he hasn’t changed.
Comment by Pete September 14, 2012 @ 6:44 amthe most miserable fucker on earth is at happy clappy towers? thats made my fucking day. its also time to sell my google stock. say hello to the black fucking cloud for me. theres no fucking way i want to do it.
Comment by andy@cynic September 14, 2012 @ 6:47 amThat’s brilliant. Especially as I don’t work there.
Comment by DH September 14, 2012 @ 6:52 amI saw him today Dave. He didn’t send you his best.
Comment by George September 14, 2012 @ 7:40 amlooking at those drawings and seeing how they look and dress, ive just fucking realised campbell is a proper nerd. sorry rob, i just thought you had no fucking taste whatsofuckingever.
Comment by andy@cynic September 14, 2012 @ 6:41 amand i like this post campbell. but it could be the effect of canadian fucking air forcing me to be nice than me actually liking some bollocks youve written. got to go. got maple pancakes to make while riding a moose and saying hello to every annoyingly nice fucker i pass on the street that says hello to me. which is every fucker i pass on the street. why cant they keep their heads down and ignore you like every bastard in ny.
Comment by andy@cynic September 14, 2012 @ 6:51 amHe does. He really does.
Comment by DH September 14, 2012 @ 10:30 amOn top of nerds who aren’t nerds, can I include people who call themselves geeks just because they have a particular interest in a particular subject, regardless of what that subject is? They’re very annoying as well.
Comment by Pete September 14, 2012 @ 6:56 amYou mean I have to stop calling myself a porn geek?
Comment by Billy Whizz September 14, 2012 @ 6:59 amBased on your habits and obsession, I think it is a perfectly acceptable to keep referring to yourself in that way.
Comment by Pete September 14, 2012 @ 7:09 ami dont know who is writing your material today pete, but that is fucking excellent insulting.
Comment by andy@cynic September 14, 2012 @ 7:35 amI believe the youngsters call that being “owned.”
Comment by George September 14, 2012 @ 7:48 amYou’re all jealous.
Comment by Billy Whizz September 14, 2012 @ 7:52 amVery good comeback there Billy, you really nailed Pete with your intellectual spite. You’re basically the love child of Stephen Fry and Oscar Wilde.
Comment by Rob September 14, 2012 @ 8:01 amSocial appropriation wrong!? Izzit coz I is a nerd?
Comment by Sid September 14, 2012 @ 8:31 amNerd.
Comment by Marcus September 14, 2012 @ 3:46 pmUsing tilt shift doesn’t make you a photographer either (insert smiley face emoticon, etc.)
Comment by Marcus September 14, 2012 @ 7:53 pmAgreed. But it does make the average person take much better looking images!
Comment by Rob Mortimer September 14, 2012 @ 8:01 pmDamn you Marcus Brown.
Comment by Rob September 14, 2012 @ 8:42 pmYou wanted to call. Etc.
Comment by Marcus September 14, 2012 @ 9:10 pmI can blame Jill for being ill.
Like that?
I’ve become the Shane Warne of China.
PS: She’s just hit me on your behalf.
Comment by Rob September 14, 2012 @ 9:14 pmprick.
Comment by andy@cynic September 14, 2012 @ 9:43 pmI think what you are saying is true of the term nerd, but not of the term geek. (in my experience anyway)
Sorry Pete 🙂 but to most people I have ever spoken to (including many nerds) the work geek means someone who has a major interest in a specific topic way above that of the average person. Geek has been appropriated by geeks as a term of endearment, and the hipsters are just an annoying additional layer on top of that.
Nerd has always meant in my social experience a geek with no social skills…
Comment by Rob Mortimer September 14, 2012 @ 7:58 pmBut what is “average”?
I have to say I agree with Pete that geek is as overused as nerd and is as often wrongly assigned. In fact I am fed up of researchers, media and agencies using the term “geek” as an all encompassing definer of anyone who has a particular interest in a particular subject.
Music geeks. Game geeks. Fashion geeks. Food geeks. Everything geeks.
Infact I would say its inappropriate to define yourself as a geek. It’s as misguided as calling yourself cool.
Of course each to their own view but what I would say is that based on the amount of people calling – or being called – a geek (or a nerd), we live in a World of people with an extremely limited range of interests. Ha.
Comment by Rob September 14, 2012 @ 8:39 pmSame as any description, it gets overused and misused until the definition of the word changes completely.
Geek is overused, but it’s more accurate than nerd, and is still a relevant shorthand until we find another better term that will eventually be absorbed by the hipsters…!
Comment by Rob Mortimer September 14, 2012 @ 9:42 pmgeeks. nerds. pricks. planners.
Comment by andy@cynic September 14, 2012 @ 9:44 pm“Hi, I’m a creatiiiive. That’s right, stand back and marvel at my creative powers! I can write 10 lines of copy for deoderant in under a week! Zooooom!”
😉 😉 😉
Comment by Rob Mortimer September 15, 2012 @ 12:04 amThe first documented case of “geek” dates all the way back to 1916. At the time, the term was used to describe sideshow freaks in circuses. Specifically, it was typically attributed to those circus performers who were known for doing crazy things like biting the heads of various small live animals or eating live insects and the like. These performances were often called “geek shows”. The word itself, “geek”, came from the word “geck”, which was originally a Low German word which meant someone who is a “fool/freak/simpleton”.
It was just one year after the Dr. Seuss book, in 1951 in a Newsweek magazine article, that we find the first documented case of “nerd” being used similarly to how we use it today. Specifically, they used it as being synonymous with someone who was a “drip” or a “square”.
http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2010/09/where-the-words-geek-and-nerd-came-from/
Comment by John September 15, 2012 @ 3:50 amsounds entirely fucking appropriate terms to describe the wankers that call themselves that, doesnt it doddsy.
Comment by andy@cynic September 15, 2012 @ 7:21 amShouldn’t we all aspire to having a degree of geekiness, or nerdiness? Aren’t all these comments guilty of giving enough of a shit to be a bit geeky about the subject of geeks or nerds? To have the capacity for interest that might border on the obsessive, or socially weird (depending on context). Susan Cain describes ‘introverted’ (if you believe in extremes) Asian/Californian teens and their habit of ‘going nerding’ in ‘Quiet’. It’s a better expression – something you do, rather than something that absolutely labels you. Perhaps your hipster nerds, like to go nerding. Or perhaps they are ‘trainspotters’. A phrase that seems to have died out. Mind you, the other day I met some nerds who tried to convince me they were hipsters. And that’s really fucking annoying.
Comment by Sid September 15, 2012 @ 8:37 amYour comment that the people on here “giving enough of a shit about geeks and nerds because” that they could be interpreted as being geeks or nerds is exactly – in my mind – what is wrong with our industry.
To many – especially in adland – have claimed the ownership of these words they think it helps ‘raise’ their value in the eyes of their peers when in reality, their level of interest in a particular subject is no where near what a true connoisseur of a subject has.
We claim to achieve so much when in reality, we tend to either reframe an existing concept to suit our needs/ego or are so superficial with the description of our concepts that it is nothing short of a joke.
The World needs nerds and geeks – but I would say in proportion of how many “claim” that moniker, the real number is much, much lower.
Finally, should we “aspire” to a level of geekiness. I don’t know … but are there ‘levels’ of geekiness? Isn’t it a case of being you either are a geek or you’re not and anything else is just a level of interest?
Maybe I’m being too purist – after all I think a real brand is when people have an irrational love of something rather than simply buying lots of a product because of convenience, price or distribution.
Interesting points though Sid, thank you for the food for thought.
Comment by Rob September 15, 2012 @ 9:28 amI guess the evidence of levels would be when one geek labels another a geek. Yes, I think we should all aspire to being interested in something to the point of stupefying a 1st date.
But labels lose all meaning when they’re self referential – if I walk in a room and tell people I’m a geek, or MAD, or cool (I am btw, obviously) then my credibility is immediately destroyed. And on that level, a brand conversing in the same way suffers the same fate.
If young guns are twatting about claiming geek-ness, well – take them for a night that’s less D&AD and more AD&D. Boom! I’m a psychic warrior muthafucka – where’s your geek t-shirt now?
Comment by Sid September 16, 2012 @ 8:10 pm