Filed under: The Quest To Progress
Throughout my life I’ve met, worked with and worked for people who have stated they want dramatic change and then – in the same breath – announced how they want to protect what they already have.
From the person who hates their job but doesn’t want to take a pay cut to the client or colleagues who want to accelerate their growth but don’t want to risk doing something new.
Don’t get me wrong, I get it.
I totally get it.
But here’s a little secret that you should all know.
Growth and comfort can never co-exist.
Never.
Never, ever, ever.
I know that sounds scary and horrible and countless other things, but the fact is it’s true.
It doesn’t matter if you want a new job, a new client or a new agency … it is impossible to achieve one if you don’t want to let go of the other.
Of course, part of the reason it’s hard for people to embrace that is because while the goal of growth requires uncomfortable decisions, actions and experiences … it does not automatically mean the outcome will be positive.
But by the same token, it doesn’t automatically mean it will be negative either.
In fact, the only sure thing is that if you don’t do anything, you won’t get anything.
Other than a feeling of resented contentment.
Which, for some, is the worst feelings of all.
Filed under: Comment
A few weeks ago, I was in Portland.
It was – as it does 9 months of the year – raining, so having had dinner, I decided to go back to my hotel room and see what American television had to offer me.
I find American television fascinating because there seems to be only 2 states it operates in: awesome and horrific.
For every Damages or Silicon Valley … there’s 10,000 Gracepoint’s – the terrible remake of the UK’s Broadchurch.
Of course, there are occasions when they do a great remake – House Of Cards for example – but they are much better when they just create their own stuff. Or should I say, when HBO creates their own stuff.
Anyway, I was flicking through the 8 million channels when I came across PBS … the Public Broadcast Channel.
I have always loved PBS, their podcasts are legendary, but I’ve never really had a chance to watch their television show.
So I started watching and it was a show about American baby-boomers.
All the people they interviewed had impacted or changed culture in different ways.
Actors … astronauts … designers … it was a real hotchpotch of ‘talenty’, but what was great about the show was that the people weren’t talking about their achievements, but just the issues that either influenced them or shaped them.
From racial and gender prejudice to war, parents and stubborn teachers.
So if you have 10 minutes, check out some of the stories [you can do it here] and you will be reminded how the little decisions we make, often are the ones that can affect our lives in the biggest of ways.
Filed under: Comment
Is it any wonder so many women are wracked with so many insecurities when so many of the magazines they turn to, fuck them up with this sort of shit.
It’s not just men who treat women so unfairly.
Filed under: Comment
I still can’t get over that Gerard Butler ad for Boss aftershave.
Seriously, I can’t.
It’s been a long time that an ad has been so bad, that I can’t stop myself watching it over and over again.
Apart from the desperate attempt to convey an oh-so-serious delivery [as if he thinks he’s auditioning for a part in Game of Thrones] the script is soooooo bad, it makes Sesame Street look like Shakespeare.
Let’s have a look at some of the shit he spouts.
“I don’t believe in less, I go all the way?”
Eh???!!
Is he – perhaps – trying to infer he’s a sexual beast who never suffers from performance anxiety or excessively quick climax?
What about, “you can see it in my stride?”
Is this his attempt to say he is hung like a donkey and when he walks, his massive penis swings side-to-side in his trousers like the pendulum of a massive clock?
Then there’s the “you can see it in my deeds”.
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.
What?
What the hell does that even mean?
Seriously, that’s almost as bollocks as “be true to yourself, makes me a man of success”.
Especially when it’s being delivered by an actor who is paid to not be true to themselves.
And why the hell does he keep saying “I say” at the end of sentences … like he’s trying to come over as some sort of z-grade Yoda doing a bad Sean Connery impression?
In some ways, this ad is mesmerising.
Seriously.
Of course I’d rather drink bleach that buy – or wear – the smelly shit, but it has held my attention like a Birkenstock convention.
However – and this is the kicker for Boss and anyone who says it doesn’t matter what you do, as long as you disrupt – when Mr Gerard assertively [but with more than a hint of annoyance or desperation in his voice] states, “I am a man” [at 21 seconds] I can’t help but feel that if I was forced to make a choice, I’d much rather be like the man this man smells like this.
Boom Tish.
Filed under: Comment
Ages ago I wrote about how fucking mental aftershave ads were.
How the creative brief must be, “do whatever you want as long as it’s either contrived or a ridiculous take on masculinity”.
In all honesty, I thought there could be nothing else in this category that could surprise me … especially after Chanel Number 5 used Brad Pitt – in his ‘greasy’ period – in their 2012 campaign.
But I was wrong, because when I went to the UK recently, I saw an ad for Boss aftershave that transcended everything.
That became the new blueprint for complete and utter bollocks.
You want to know how bad it is?
2 words.
Gerard. Butler.
But it’s even worse than that … it’s Gerard Butler spouting pretentious, machismo, ad-manifesto bollocks about being ‘the man of today’.
The man of today?
Are you kidding me?
He wasn’t even the man of yesterday and this is coming from the man that – based on his dress sense – was the man of 1986.
I cannot tell you how bad this ad is.
It’s almost an anti-ad because while it might attract some sad wankers who want to kid themselves into thinking they’re some sort of honourable warrior [or something] when really they’re either a steroid-sucking meathead or a shiny-Burton-suit-wearing accountant from Slough … it is also guaranteed to keep any man with an ounce of sense, miles away from it.
If you are a woman going out with a man and suspect he is wearing the Boss aftershave being promoted by Mr Butler … then run.
Run as fast as you can.
Because not only is he full of his own self importance – while being in possession of a personality that is brimming with cliche and contrived behaviour – he is bound to have a minuscule cock and offer you all the sexual satisfaction of a sherbet dib-dab.
And if you’re man and are given this as a present by a woman.
Hide as quickly as you can.
Because not only is she the sort of woman that aspires to be either on Big Brother or a WAG for a 3rd division, mid-table football team, midfielder [who sits on the bench] … her version of ‘the perfect man’ is Gerard Butler, a man who makes Fabio look like Einstein.
Don’t say I didn’t warn you.