Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Awards, Cannes, Colenso, Colleagues, Comment, Confidence, Contribution, Creative Development, Creativity, Culture
This is kinda related to yesterday’s post. Kinda.
So after Cannes, Si – Colenso’s CCO and annoyingly wonderful human, albeit with a dash of mischievous evil – posted this photo.
Attached to it, he wrote the following:
We had a great year on stage at Cannes. But instead of posting a photo of the high, here’s a photo of the low.
I snuck this photo a few months ago. We were mid-production on Pedigree Adoptable, which won 4 lions this week including the Outdoor Grand Prix 🏆🏆🏆🏆
I love Duncan’s turmoil in this image. Not because I’m a psycho, but because that’s how much he cared about every detail.
The other thing I love is Hadleigh laughing in the corner. Comradery and fun in the hard times is the only way you make it through.
Frankly, among all the Cannes backslapping posts across Linkedin, it was a welcome relief.
But it was more than that. It was an important comment.
A reminder that the role of creativity – especially commercial creativity – is fucking tough.
And while you tend to forget all the pain and hassle you have gone through when you win, the reality is few get to. And even fewer get to do it with a Grand Prix, the creme de la creme of a category.
So I loved Si posted this. That he acknowledged it. Especially given we had a good Cannes – winning our 2nd Grand Prix in a row – so it would have been dead easy for him to bask in the glow of victory rather than highlight the hardship and pain of reality.
Because what’s often not discussed around awards – or the industry as a whole, for that matter – is how fucking stressful it is.
Don’t get me wrong, compared to the stress a nurse, a single parent or someone experiencing unemployment faces, there’s no comparison [unless you’re working in this industry and are a single parent or are going through unemployment] however, that doesn’t mean the stress you feel doing your job is any less real.
But while the impact of stress can be devastating – causing adverse effects to our health, our wellbeing and to our relationships – not all stress is equal.
At least in our industry.
Sure, there’s the really bad kind of it … the stuff that appears on the Corporate Gaslighting blog … but there’s another sort too, and that is very different, even if at the time, you may not recognise it.
You see, when the stress is born from the desire to satisfy your own, or shared vision/curiosity, for an idea – rather than succumbing to the pressure and isolation of others – it can, as Si points out above, be a sign of you simply giving a fuck.
As I’ve written before, it’s not cool to talk about ‘graft’ these days [which is very different to the dangers of ‘hustle culture’] … just like being ’emotional’ at work is a negative … however in our industry, graft … emotion … giving a fuck … are still the ingredients you need to stand any chance of making, doing or creating something special.
We don’t talk about that enough.
Don’t get me wrong, I never want to advocate for stress, but I do want to celebrate craft, creativity and care.
Or should I say, I want the people who act/claim they have all the answers, to respect and acknowledge it … especially as they’ve never made any actual work and haven’t got the faintest fucking idea what it takes or costs to make something proper good … be it commercially, creatively, emotionally or artistically.
And that’s why I want to end this post – and this week – by saying a huge well done to anyone and everyone who put their work out there to be judged and criticised, regardless of the result.
Few would.
Few do.
And that’s you should never feel bad about what you felt or went through.
Because even though what we do is business, the reality is, it’s always personal.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Attitude & Aptitude, Brand, Business, Cannes, Chaos, Context, Creative Development, Creativity, Culture, Effectiveness, Emotion, Empathy, Honesty, Innovation, Insight, Marketing, Marketing Fail, Martin Weigel, Mediocrity, Metallica, Nike, Paula, Provocative, Relevance, Reputation, Resonance, Respect, Sport, Strategy
It is pretty obvious I have a major issue with a lot of the ‘best practice’ processes and practices certain members of my industry love to bang on about.
Not just because ‘best practice, is past practice’, but because these individuals position their approach as the legitimisation of the discipline they claim or suggest they are an expert in. Implying that anyone who does not strictly adhere to their process is an imposter and a danger to whatever organisation they’re working with.
It’s the sort of deluded arrogance that people who describe themselves as an ‘evidence based’ strategist embodies … attempting to infer everyone else is simply making things up and don’t give a fuck what happens afterwards.
It’s everywhere. Twitter. Linkedin. Conferences.
You name it and someone is bragging and banging on about it.
But what makes this hilarious is that many of these self-appointed experts have never made any work of any repute whatsoever. Nothing. Nada. Zilch. Which means their entire viewpoint is either based on their own post-rationalised evaluation of another persons work or their narrow, naive and/or skewed viewpoint of what constitutes as ‘good’.
Don’t get me wrong, process matters.
In no way am I advocating you just chuck it all out.
However the difference is my processes does not require me to outsource my brain, imagination, curiosity, gut or ambition to fit into a format whose goal is to deliver a standardised, consistent response rather than enable the opportunity for greater possibility.
And that’s the big problem for me …
Because so many of these ‘models’ seem to care more about the process than what the process is meant to help enable. Actually, even that is wrong … because more and more of these models don’t even care about ‘enabling’ anything … they instruct you to simply follow the format and then do whatever the fuck comes out the other end.
No questioning.
No challenging.
No pushing.
Just blind adherence.
Martin and I talked about the folly of this approach in 2019 with our Case For Chaos talk at Cannes for WARC and then – in 2023 – Paula joined us on the same stage for our Strategy Is Constipated, Imagination Is The Laxative presentation.
But still this approach and attitude goes on … and while I don’t deny it can be effective, it rarely has the impact or influence as work that comes from a process shaped and flavoured by ideas, imagination or ambition.
But then I wonder if that is the goal anyway … because frankly, the obsession with efficiency means more and more companies don’t want to move towards where they could be and just want to optimize where they’re currently at. Adopting an attitude of ‘when we fall behind, we’ll simply catch up’.
Though they will never admit that publicly – oh no – what they is they’re investing in ‘business transformation’.
Hahahahahahahaha.
A while back I met one of these ‘dot-to-dot’ advocates at a conference I was attending.
Early in the discussion, they said their company had pioneered a process that “guaranteed success”. And then proceeded to talk about their system that ‘removed the risk of contaminated thinking’.
They literally said that.
I looked around the room waiting for someone to say something. Anything. But no one did.
Worse, they seemed to be nodding their heads in agreement. Or awe.
So I stuck my hand up.
Eventually I was seen and asked if I had a question, to which I replied:
“I was just wondering if you know what the words ‘guaranteed’ and ‘success’ mean?”
Yes, I know that was a total asshole move.
It alienated me immediately.
And while I regret how I asked my question, I don’t regret asking my question because that sort of declaration is insane. Not just because it’s not true, but because their ‘examples of proof’ are rarely more than a brand doing a bit better than it has before.
Now I appreciate that’s nothing to sneeze at, but it’s hardly Metallica is it?
A band that plays a niche genre of music, has pensioners as members and yet is the 2nd best selling American group in music history. MUSIC HISTORY!
And I can tell you, that didn’t happen blindly adopting the latest best practice process.
Where are their examples of that sort of impact?
Oh I know … in the hands of the fuckers who do shit, not spout it.
Look, I am not dismissing process.
Nor am I devaluing rigour.
But I am redefining what they mean in comparison to how more and more people seem to be interpreting it.
As we said at Cannes, strategy is the first creative act.
A chance to leap not step.
An opportunity to leave the category behind rather than reinforce the category.
But you don’t achieve that by simply ‘filling in the blanks’ with your functional and rational data.
No … if you really want to have a shot at changing where you can go and where you can be, you have to heed the advice of Rob Strasser – the iconic Nike exec – who said this:
“A shoe is just a shoe until someone steps in it”.
By that, I mean don’t just follow a framework, put your whole self into it.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Attitude & Aptitude, Comment, Content, Context, Craft, Creative Development, Creativity, Culture, Emotion, Empathy, Music, Queen, Resonance
Of all the terms banded about by the creative industry … craft is one that is spoken about a lot.
For many people, they interpret this in terms of executional quality and without doubt, that is a part of it, but it is so much more.
In fact, craft starts at the thinking phase … before a single thing has been defined or committed to paper.
I’ve written a lot about craft over the years, but I recently read something that for me, is a wonderful expression of its role and power.
Now, I get there’s going to be a lot of moaning when you see what my example is – or, should I say, – who my example of craft is coming from. But hang in there. Please.
Are you ready?
OK, so it comes from Queen’s Brian May.
I know … I know … but there’s a reason for this.
You see he was recently asked about the lyrics to one of his songs called ’39.
This song appeared on their 1975 album, ‘A Night At The Opera’ and it is a song about space travel through different dimensions.
For haters of Queen, just description probably justifies all your loathing … but there is method in the madness.
You see Brian May has a PHD in astrophysics.
And while he gained that qualification in 2007, the reality is he was a leading researcher in the field prior to joining Queen.
In fact the only reason he didn’t gain his PHD back in the 1970’s is because the band took off and so his studies stopped.
But even then, his love of astrophysics was a key part of who he was – especially the relationship it had with the dimension of time – which is maybe one of the key influences behind this song.
To understand the rest of this post, you should hear it … paying particular interest to the lyrics. So click here.
Did you do it?
Did you bollocks.
OK, then just click here to read the lyrics.
Did you do that?
Hmmmmn, OK … I believe you even if no one else will.
The point of this is because Brian May was recently asked about the story of the song and his reply is fascinating.
Fascinating in terms of where and how song writers get their inspiration …
But – to link back to the point of the post – fascinating in terms of how this crafted how he specifically wrote the lyrics …
How amazing is that?
I love how he explains why the tenses are mixed up in his lyrics.
How it is integral to the idea he had for the song.
How it is an example of craft in motion.
Sure, there’ll be some pricks who will claim its ‘post rationalized justification’, but that’s because they are confusing their ego with their ability.
Because here’s the thing with craft …
In many ways it is not immediately obvious to the recipient … they may not engage with it in the detail and care that went into it. They probably encounter it as a singular, all-encompassing experience. But to the creator, everything will mean something. Not in terms of ‘contrived, focus-group instruction and manipulation, but in terms of ensuring their creativity is crafted to represent their idea in its purest, most honest form. All the while embracing – and valuing – that the recipient may interpret and connect to the work in different ways than intended. Taking it to somewhere new, different and personal.
It’s a beautiful and generous act and why one of the most important questions I ask in any initial creative meeting is ‘what’s the story behind your story?’.
I don’t mean that in terms of them reiterating the brief or conveying some ‘insight’ they’ve defined to answer/justify their solution … but the journey they have been on in terms of inspiration, consideration or history that has led them or shaped what they are going to show.
Mainly because at this stage of proceedings, it’s got less to do with ‘answering’ the brief, but understanding how they see it.
A glimpse into where it could go, rather than what it currently is.
It’s why we need to remember craft isn’t something to wrap an idea in, it’s what informs the entire expression of the idea.
Because even if people don’t recognise it, they will probably feel it … even if they can’t explain why.
And that is the power of creativity … something we need to protect, especially from those who try to present it or define it like its engineering and their master mechanics. Which is ironic, given they’ve never created anything with it.
Last week was shit for me.
I lost my beautiful and beloved Rosie, and I also lost Jim Riswold … arguably the father of post-modern advertising.
He was a true one-off.
A brilliant, challenging, provocative, confronting, funny, sweet, determined human.
He – like Rosie – had been ill for a while so his death should not have been too much of a surprise, but it was.
It knocked the air out of me.
I know life goes on and I’m incredibly fortunate for the life I have, but sometimes it’s shit.
Proper painful shit. So please excuse me if this weeks posts are a bit all over the place, because it kind of reflects how I’m feeling. Especially as this time next week we face another challenge – albeit this one hopefully will have the happiest of endings.
So with that, let’s get on with this week shall we? Even though it’s a ridiculously long post about me. One that lets me feel a bit proud of myself, rather than glum with myself.
So when I was growing up, I loved sport.
Football.
Running.
Rugby.
BMX.
You name it, I did it. To excess.
But as I got older – and stuff like exams, playing the guitar and video games took over – my love of being physical fell away.
The final ‘nail in the coffin’ – so to speak – was when I was in my late teens had an accident.
While I was patched back together, I was told by Doctors I could not put myself in positions where I lifted anything of considerable weight or put myself in situations where my head could be aggressively shaken as it could cause permanent blindness in my right eye. [It currently only has 12% vision]
Obviously, the idea of that was terrifying, so I took their advice seriously … replacing what little exercise I was still doing with eating.
I can’t say it was a hardship because it wasn’t.
I loved it.
And that was the problem, because I couldn’t get enough of it … even when I would occasionally get on the scales at home and get alarmed at the number I kept seeing rise.
I still remember reading an interview about Queen’s bass player, John Deacon, and being confused how he could be 5 foot 11 and weigh 10 stone/63 kilos when I was younger and shorter than him, and yet still weighed more than him.
Of course, the reason for it was obvious, but I mentally didn’t want to accept that, so instead I just carried on in my delusional state and tried to put it out of my mind.
And as much as I was semi-successful in achieving this, I wasn’t totally successful. Because as I wrote previously … it was an issue that continued to affect me, or should I say undermine me, but I just felt helpless to be able to properly deal with it.
I know … that sounds pathetic, but it’s true. So, I just tried to distract myself with other stuff – which often revolved around doing things involving food. Again.
Sure, there were the odd occasions where I found the strength to try and deal with my situation – and it had a positive effect – but I could never keep it up beyond a few weeks because, well … the temptation of kebab and chips with salt and vinegar was more seductive to me than a room full of the latest Wi-Fi enabled gadgets.
But 10 and a half months ago, something happened that fundamentally changed my mindset.
And so instead of knowing I needed to do something about it, I decided to do something about it. Albeit for 3 months.
And that changed everything … because suddenly I accepted I would have to make ongoing choices rather than expect change to happen by itself.
It’s part of the reason I was so open about what I was doing, because I felt the more people who knew, the less easy it would be for me to just walk away from doing it.
And it seemed to work because the people I was surrounded by, played such a big part in my ability to stick with it.
That and my bank balance.
Because everyone – and by that, I mean my family, my work, my clients and my Doctor – rallied around me to not only offer support, but to try and make it as easy as possible for me.
Organising food … making food … identifying food … and even – thanks to my fashion client – sending me a copious amount of ever-smaller sized free designer clothes to keep me motivated in my challenge. Meanwhile my bank balance allowed me to keep buying the bloody expensive ingredients – and sweet treat alternatives – that ensured I didn’t feel I was completely denying myself as I kept choosing the smarter choice.
I do not underestimate the impact all this had on me, because without it, I don’t know if I could have kept going as consistently as I did.
Not just because they helped make it easier, but they helped me keep my resolve when we’re literally surrounded by temptation.
Fast food.
TV shows.
Social media.
Endless online food reviewers.
The rise of competitive food gluttony … which, I must admit, I torture myself with watching, whether it’s Rate My Takeaway, Beard Meets Food, Erik The Electric, Harrison Webb, Sir Yacht, Gary Eats, Jolly, JacksDiningRoom, HowKevEats or Leah Shutkever.
But despite all that, 3 months turned to 6 months which turned to 9 months.
I bought a treadmill that [eventually] encouraged me to start doing a bunch of walking which turned into a bunch of running.
And 11 and a half months later, I write this being able to say I have not only lost 42kg, but I’ve achieved healthy’ status on the BMI scale.
That, for me, is literally like I’ve achieved the impossible.
I say that, because when I started this whole adventure, I looked up what weight I’d have to be to be ‘healthy’ on the BMI scale and laughed out loud.
There was no way that was going to happen.
But slowly but surely, weight dropped and my competitive streak kicked in and things went from impossible dream to focused goal.
And as the photo below demonstrates, here we are …
Now I am not going to say I don’t still have cravings.
I miss bread with every fiber of my body.
In fact, for my birthday, I bought a loaf of sour dough, salted butter and raspberry jam and ate the whole lot in a day.
And I fucking loved it.
But the difference is, as much as I could have done it the next day – and the next – I didn’t.
And it’s that enlightenment that I deem as one of my biggest successes … which you need, because the weight journey is a complete fucking rollercoaster.
So while I no longer fear getting on the scales … or taking my blood pressure … the numbers are never consistent.
Slightly up. Slightly down. And sometimes – where the scales are concerned – steadfastly refusing to reduce despite trying your hardest to be good for weeks.
Nothing tests your resolve than that, let me tell you.
But while I have achieved my goal, what is important is my ability to stay there.
My biggest challenge is winter – a time where the temptation to fill yourself with comfort food is huge – but so far so good. Albeit because of the people around me, the app ‘Lose It’, and my brain finally preferring how healthier feels rather than how temptation tastes.
I don’t mean that in a toxic way, but in terms of my emotional state.
I almost like myself. And I definitely like that I’ve increased the likelihood I’ll be around for longer for my wife and son.
And hey, they even seem to be happy about it.
So, while Monday’s may typically be the worst day of the week – especially after the week I had last week – today I enter it with a smile. Or at least a bit of one.
It won’t last, but hopefully my commitment to being kind and good to myself does.
Even if every now and then, an entire loaf of sourdough bread – with salted butter and raspberry jam – gets shoved down my mouth.
Filed under: Comment
So this is the last post for at least a week.
Maybe longer.
The reason for my vagueness is that it involves hospital … an operation … a person very important to me … and a horrible memory plus, of course, the rawness of losing our dear Rosie that adds a whole other dimension of concern and worry.
[I’m also being deliberately vague about who it is, because they don’t want their situation known by all and sundry]
And while I’m sure this op will go brilliantly – and is a very different situation to the one that ignites panic in me – it’s still something that causes me anxiety, both because I love the hell out of this person and any op involving a general anaesthetic is scary.
But it is – and will be – for the right reasons, so we just have to see how it goes.
Or they do, because after the op, they then have to contend with having me look after them – which is a whole different level of scary. So with that in mind, I just know there’s no post for next week and then we’ll see how it goes.
So to end this week on a high/laugh … enjoy these 2 photos of errrrm, me.
In China.
Being interviewed by the news, business and fashion media.
The first is a photo of all the journalists before they interviewed me.
I think I may have shown my lack of professionalism when I asked if I could take a picture of them as my wife would “find it hilarious”.
The second is what happened when passers-by saw the TV cameras and journalists and wanted to see what was going on.
Given I was at the opening of the latest SKP-S extravaganza, it was rammed with people.
So yes … all those people are there for me. Kinda.
You can just see me in the centre of the photo – hahaha.
I can only imagine their disappointment matched what 20,000+ Metallica fans felt when the band once linked a post to my instagram and suddenly they all started following me … only to soon discover that rather than it getting them closer to their idols, they got subjected to copious amounts of cat, colleague and kid pics.
So 18,000 left. Very, very quickly – hahaha.
But hey, at least none of them would be as confused as the World fashion media were when, back in 2019 – at the opening of the incredible SKP-S/Gentle Monster store in Beijing – they came face-to-face with this …
And you thought it was bad being close to me through this blog!
See, you get off lightly basically.
So have a good weekend and I really, really hope I get to bore you again with my rubbish in a weeks time.
Thanks everyone. Support your Doctors and Nurses. Especially the NHS.