Filed under: Advertising, Audio Visual, Brand Suicide, Context, Creativity, Design, Distinction, Marketing Fail, New Zealand
Over the years, I’ve written many an ode to design.
Not just because Jill is a designer, but because I believe the discipline has demonstrated its power to create change of cultural opinion and behaviour to a much greater extent than the ad industry has achieved.
From making sound, visual … pasta, stylish … to a nations pain, united … it has consistently found ways to answer problems that deeply connect to our soul.
Hell, they even found ways to encourage inclusivity that doesn’t make bigots and Tories scream we’re in a world of woke.
Incredible.
What has been interesting how been seeing how national symbolism is increasingly being brought into design.
Of course this shouldn’t be a surprise because we’re living in a much more nationalistic World.
And while being proud of where you come from is a good thing, this is less about that.
What we’re seeing more of is jingoism dressed up as patriotism.
Politically ignited racism and prejudice, disguised as heritage and protection.
It’s pretty blatant.
Now don’t get me wrong … I’m definitely not saying any design that incorporates nationalism means it’s for a racist company.
Nor am I saying any company who celebrates a ‘born here’ message is prejudice.
But I am saying that if you’re going to do it, you better do it well because not only can it have big implications on how you’re perceived … you can end up making yourself look the least inviting company in the country.
Which is my insanely long-winded way of posting this logo from a company just down from our office.
Honestly, I don’t know if I should be impressed or horrified.
But I definitely can’t stop looking at it.
And while some would say, “well that’s a good thing”, I can assure you, it’s definitely not.
I find it amazing they value highlighting they’re a NZ company more than a good hair transplant company.
I mean, look at it?
It’s fucking horrific.
It makes them look the poundland of hair ‘restoration’.
I also should point out I didn’t find this company – my wonderful colleague Henry did, and he’s blessed with beautiful locks – so don’t think I’ve suddenly decided I want a full head of hair.
I know how much you’d love that so you could take the piss out of me, but sadly – for you – that dream is not going to be answered.
So all there is left for me to say is this.
Design. It’s amazing. But pay for a good one or you may end up looking like a bald man in a badly fitting, badly made wig.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Attitude & Aptitude, Audio Visual, Authenticity, Comedians, Comment, Content, Context, Craft, Creative Brief, Creative Development, Creativity, Culture, Documentary, Entertainment, Immaturity, Mischief, Netflix
Congratulations on surviving the first week back of this blog.
Remember, the good news is there’s no more posts till next Tuesday thanks to yet another holiday in New Zealand. If I knew I’d be having this big a break at the start of the year, I’d have moved here 6 years ago when I first had the chance.
It’s utterly mad, which is the perfect segue to another example of madness.
Have a look at this:
That, my friends, is apparently a genuine tweet.
Someone believes a video made by Mr Beast somehow proves the creator community is the ultimate in power, influence and success because – according to them – it got more views in less time than the original Netflix show.
How many flaws can we spot in that statement?
Look, I’m not doubting the creator community can have incredible influence over culture.
I’m not doubting the creator community can attract incredible amounts of ‘views’.
I’m not doubting the creative credentials of Mr Beast [who I do enjoy following].
But apart from the fact the Mr Beast video actually took 10 years and 7 weeks to make as it required Squid Games to be written, produced and streamed prior to Mr Beast being approached by a company to ‘re-create it’ for his channel … not to mention it didn’t make nearly as much money, or have as great an impact on sales of Van’s as the original … literally copying something someone else created is the absolute opposite of what ‘creator community’ is supposed to mean.
Don’t get me wrong, the creator community is a brilliant thing.
I genuinely love it.
But there are millions of people who are putting in so much effort to make ‘content’ and often only end up with a few likes rather than real revenue. And even those who do make it big, still earn less than the biggest stars of ‘traditional’ film making – so the promise of the community may not be as bright as some think it is.
At least right now.
I’ve blanked the name of the person who wrote the tweet to protect their delusion, but it kind of reinforces my post from last year about the fine line between entrepreneurs and parasites.
In the 80/90’s, a number of UK up and coming comedian created a group called ‘Comic Strip ‘.
The comedians were Rik Mayall, Jennifer Saunders, Adrian Edmondson, Dawn French, Nigel Planer, Peter Richardson, Jennifer Saunders and Alexei Sayle.
So basically the foundation of British comedy television for the next 30+ years.
Anyway, Comic Strip was basically a creative vehicle for them to make a bunch of programs for Channel 4.
One of them was called Bad News, a ‘rockumentary’ about a fictitious heavy metal band trying to hit the big time. Yes, the premise sounds awfully like the movie ‘Spinal Tap’ … however Bad News came out the year before that seminal movie, so it’s just a bizarre coincidence.
So in the show, the guitarist, Vim Fuego – played by Ade Edmondson – tells the interviewer that he is a better guitarist than Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page.
His reason for saying that is because he could play the solo to Stairway To Heaven when he was 13 but Jimmy couldn’t even write the song until he was 26.
Later in the program, he said John Lennon had visited him in a dream and gave him a song. He decided to call it Imogen. And when the interviewer said the name – and the melody – were suspiciously like the Lennon classic, Imagine … he claimed he’d never heard of it.
Of course, all of this was supposed to be great comedy, but with views like the twitter writer above, apparently it was simply an example of future human delusion.
Filed under: Advertising, Attitude & Aptitude, Audio Visual, Colenso, Comment, Relationships, Relevance, Resonance
So today was supposed to be my first day at Colenso.
It would have been so appropriate.
But it’s not.
Instead it’s going to be next Tuesday – because there’s a long weekend in Auckland.
Which means it’s even more appropriate.
April Fools Day was a day where companies used to show they weren’t cold and clinical beasts … but organisations with a sense of humour and self awareness.
Will that happen this year?
Can that happen with all the stuff going on with COVID?
Who knows, so instead I’ll leave you with something that sounds like a joke – but isn’t.
For reasons you don’t really need to know, I spoke to a hostage negotiator recently.
Obviously I was fascinated with what they had to say but then they said something that I’ve not been able to stop thinking about.
He said,
“If you have clients that think words – and how you say them – don’t matter, bring them to me. My job is marketing too”.
He wasn’t being facetious.
He wasn’t trying to be funny.
He meant it.
And I guess when your marketing is literally a matter of life or death, you both know how important it is and really care about how important it is.
Maybe more clients and agencies need to remember this, because based on so much out there, they would be the worst hostage negotiators ever hired.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Attitude & Aptitude, Audio Visual, Authenticity, Chaos, China, Colenso, Comment, Confidence, Craft, Creativity, Culture, Emotion, HHCL, Imagination, Innovation, Insight, Marketing, Marketing Fail, Martin Weigel, Perspective, Planners, Planners Making A Complete Tit Of Themselves And Bless, Planning, Point Of View, Relevance, Resonance, Shanghai, The Kennedys, The Kennedys Shanghai, WeigelCampbell, Wieden+Kennedy
A while back, I did a presentation for the Brazilian APG about the dangers of perfect.
Or more precisely, the boredom of it.
It was my usual rambling mess of random pictures that goes off on tangents a protractor would find hard to calculate … but I still liked the underlying point that perfection stops possibilities whereas acts others may view as stupid … creates them.
[If you’re mad, you can see a static version of the presentation here]
I say I liked the underlying point until I saw this.
I really, really like this.
I love the idea that flaws help us connect.
I love that imperfection can make us feel normal. That it is something to aspire to.
Of course, the reality is perfection is just an illusion.
One persons definition of what is the ultimate expression of an idea.
A temporary moment, where they believe nothing better has been explored or revealed.
The problems start when that definition starts being challenged.
While some embrace it – seeing it as a way to push the boundaries of what they thought was possible – many fight it.
Using their definition to control, limit or devalue the work of the challengers.
Sometimes it’s due to ego.
Sometimes it’s due to money.
But everytime it aims to oppress rather than liberate.
It’s happening everywhere.
From technology processes to agency ‘proprietary’ tools.
And while there is a lot to be said for being proud of what you have done, when you use it to stop people creating their own version, it’s not.
I’ve seen too many people in too many companies follow the orders of their bosses simply because it’s easier to do that. Where they know expressing a different point of view will be seen as an attack rather than an attempt for everyone to be even better.
So while perfect might be nice and shiny and make you feel good, it also has the power to stop progress.
Or as the brilliant chart at the top of this post states, stop feeling you can relate.
Not because it’s so far ahead, but because of the speed society evolves, it’s too far behind.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, America, Apple, Attitude & Aptitude, Audio Visual, Australia, Authenticity, Business, Chaos, Charinee, China, Chinese Culture, Colenso, Comment, Confidence, Creative Development, Creativity, Culture, Differentiation, Diversity, Emotion, Empathy, England, Equality, Experience, Facebook, Innovation, Insight, London, Management, Marketing, New Zealand, Paula, Planners, Planning, Point Of View, Politics, Relevance, Resonance, Rodi, Ros, Shanghai, Singapore, The Kennedys, Wieden+Kennedy
I recently saw the above quote in The Athletic magazine.
The idea that Manchester City – albeit during their less successful period – had to provide ‘rain charts’ to show potential signings that their city was not wetter than London surprised me.
Then I came to my senses.
Society has an incredible knack of trying to lift themselves up by putting others down.
Obviously racism is the work example of this, but we do it everyday in lots of little ways.
From blanket attitudes such as …
“People from the North are backwards”.
To city affirmations such as …
“Manchester is the musical capital of England”.
To hierarchy comparison such as …
“I may be from Nottingham but at least I’m not from Derby”.
It’s not only bollocks, it’s also often stated by people who have never gone anywhere near the cities/countries they are negatively judging. Now I know people will say it’s all a bit of a joke – and I appreciate between mates, it can be – but there’s a lot of perceived truth in those sorts of statements, which has been exploited by all manner of organisations, especially politics.
When I lived in China, I was shocked how hard it was to recruit people from outside of Asia to come and work at Wieden+Kennedy.
OK, it may have been because they didn’t want to work with me … but even then, the amount of people who started off claiming to be interested and then said ‘it wasn’t for them’, was incredible. [Though maybe you will still find it understandable. Bastards. Ha]
There was a time where I almost gave up wanting to hire people from outside the region due to it being so much hassle. But the reality was I always felt it important to have a real mix in the gang. Sure, the vast majority of them had to be from the country/region – but by incorporating people from outside of it, I felt it created a tension that led to better and more provocative thinking. In addition, it could also help stop the blind and blinkered views we kept seeing and hearing from the West … because the more Westerners we got to experience the crazy, infectious magic of the nation, the more positive voices we would infect the rest of the world with.
But many people we talked to weren’t interested in changing their blinkered opinion.
So many didn’t even bother to investigate more about China, they were just happy to keep making their false judgements.
Oh they were all very happy to work for Wieden+Kennedy, they just didn’t want it to be in China and would often say, “but if you could connect me to people in London/Portland/NY/Amsterdam” etc.
And if they were really interesting and had a valid reason to not leave their country, I would.
Didn’t happen often.
I find it amazing that people – especially planners – don’t want to explore the World.
Planners go on about curiosity but what they mean is they are curious under certain conditions of personal comfort.
Behind a desk.
Surrounded by people and things they know.
Never venturing outside of the bubble they’ve created.
Of course not everyone is like this, but there’s a lot who are. Viewing the world and passing judgement on it via Twitter rather than experience.
In the case of China – as with anywhere I’ve lived – if the issue became about the country we were in, it probably wasn’t going to work. Of course it was OK to have concerns and questions, but if I sensed you saw it as a hardship rather than an opportunity or you thought you knew everything when you would have to relearn everything, you were not going to be someone I wanted on the team.
I was, and still am, eternally grateful to everyone I’ve had the honour to work with – and I’ve been incredibly fortunate with the incredible and diverse talent I’ve inherited and nurtured – however those in China will always have a unique place in my heart.
Because whether they were from China, Asia or further afield, all of them knew what they were taking on with the job. Not just in terms of the standards and expectations of Wieden+Kennedy, but the inherent perceptions, prejudices and lies that existed in society – and the ad industry as a whole – towards China and Asia.
And it’s for this reason that I fucking loved seeing them do work others could only dream about, especially when the industries perception was ‘China doesn’t do great work’ or ‘there’s no good planning in Asia’ … often muttered by people who have neither been to China or done great work.
But even that doesn’t make me as happy as seeing where they have all ended up …
Not just in terms of the level they’re at – from running departments, big pieces of business or companies – but the actual organisations they work with or have worked with.
Nike. Ideo. Tik-Tok. Wieden. Mother. 72. Anomoly. Supreme. Playstation. Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Facebook. Google. Net-A-Porter. Instagram.
Not just in China but in countries that include America, Taiwan, Holland, UK, Singapore and Australia. Not forgetting the mob who decided to start their own thing and are now working on a bunch of fascinating projects from gaming to research.
I’m not just proud of them, I’m excited for them … because I truly believe they will do stuff that is interesting, intriguing and valuable for the rest of us.
And while most of their achievements are down to their talent and graft, another part is because of what China gave them.
Unique knowledge, experience and understanding of people and situations.
Some will never understand that.
Some will never value that.
But for those who were there – and the companies who hired them – they absolutely do.
Because while some make choices based on not wanting to leave things behind, this group of wonderful fools made their decisions based on what they could gain … and they didn’t need a rain comparison chart to convince them.
Thank you to all of them.
Thank you to anyone who runs towards the challenge not the comfortable.