Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Apathy, Attitude & Aptitude, Authenticity, Colenso, Creative Development, Creativity, Culture, Imagination, Management, Marketing, Music, Provocative, Relevance, Reputation, Resonance, Respect, Standards, Success, Wieden+Kennedy
One of the things I’ve always rallied against is the view the advertising industry is in the ‘service industry’.
Sure, our job is to service our clients need to grow or evolve or deepen their relationships with customers and/or society at large – but that doesn’t mean our job is simply to do whatever our clients want.
In fact, what clients want is the last thing we should be doing – it should always be focused on what they need – but nothing highlights how the industry has fucked itself by adopting ‘subserviency’ as its business strategy.
Or said another way, ‘pandering for pay’.
What makes it worse is this approach – albeit with toxic organisations – tends to work, which is why I think Succession connected to so many people. Because while it was filled with the egos, power plays and delusional drama of the wealthy, the underlying message was ‘those who enable them, benefit from them’.
Which is fucking depressing isn’t it.
But it’s not all bad news because not all people are like that.
Colenso live by the belief of ‘truth over harmony’.
Wieden adopt an attitude that ‘transparency is a demonstration of respect’.
And just recently, I wrote about an artist I’m working with who was evaluating an offer to perform at a major global event based on whether they felt they could do something that would challenge them rather than simply do it for the exposure and/or cash.
Which leads me to the point of this post …
Recently I saw a post by the band, The Pretenders. It was this …
Now I appreciate to some, this may read like they’re biting the hand that feeds them … but that’s not the case. In fact it’s the opposite, because the reality is ‘performing is a two-way street’ so what they’re actually doing is ensuring they can give the audience the best performance they can deliver.
It’s kinda similar to why Billy Joel refused to sell the front row at his Madison Square Gardens residency … because he understood performing to an audience who provide energy – rather than just take it – elevates how he performs because it positively effects how he feels.
Now I get this may all sound like some happy-clappy, hippy bullshit … but be it on stage or performing in an office, the environment you’re in, dictates the level of performance you give.
Or said another way, the less oppressed you feel, the further you can go.
Sure, I get we all have a responsibility to deliver certain standards – especially when it’s your job – but contrary to what many management consultants or C-Suite execs believe, oppression and control doesn’t drive standards, it limits them.
It demands you focus on what’s been done before than what could be next.
It makes you play within the limits of the company mindset rather than culture.
It encourages you to aspire for C-Suite acceptance than debate.
It pushes you to play small, than risk swinging big.
It reinforces bad behavior, than challenging it.
Which is why I have such a problem with the whole ‘service industry’ analogy … because the underlying message is ‘conformity over creation’ and conformity doesn’t seem to take us to many places where we can show what we’re capable of delivering, changing or enabling.
And while tension can unlock the doors of possibility from a creative perspective, it’s as destructive as fuck when it exists between artist/agency and audience/client … because when that happens, you’re not working towards where you could be, you’re working on where you’ve been before.
Resulting in a culture that mistakes:
Busyness for productivity.
Acceptance for success.
Efficiency for effectiveness.
And you know who wins with this?
No one.
But do you know who wins when everyone is excited by what you can do and be together?
Everyone.
Because even if things don’t quite go as well as everyone hopes, you’re still further ahead than you’d be if you simply did what others expected or demanded.
Musicians get this.
Musicians know who you play for impacts how you play.
Which is why I find myself saying [once again] that we should follow the ‘paraphrased’ advice of The KLF – which is focus less on giving clients what they want, and focus more on giving their customers what they’ll never forget.
Or to quote Rick Rubin from my RulesOfRubin series from a few years back:
“If you’re not enjoying it, and there’s not much love in it, how can the work be good?”