Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Attitude & Aptitude, Authenticity, Chaos, China, Chinese Culture, Creativity, Culture, Cunning, Devious Strategy, Fashion, Love, Marketing, Marketing Fail, Otis
Of all the places I’ve lived, China is the one that has left the strongest mark.
Frankly I absolutely and utterly loved my time there.
Sure part of that was because of Wieden – I loved and will always love them – but it was more than just that.
It was the people, the madness, the history, the chaos, the energy, the values …
Yes there were some things that bothered me immensely, but overall, I was intoxicated with the place and will always be that way.
I believe you can tell how much a place gets into your soul by how you react when it’s under attack. Not by guns, but by media and politicians.
If I look back on my 7 years there, I was very quick to jump to its defense when Western media decided to take an isolated incident and claim it represented the beliefs, behaviors and values of over a billion people.
Were there some shit things that happened there when I was there?
Absolutely.
Were there moments of madness and sadness that will never leave my memory?
100%
Are there some terrible restrictions on people lives and opinions there?
Sure.
But these are not isolated to China … every country has bad people doing horrific things, every country is creating an increasing division between rich and poor and in terms of government, countries either are doing their own version of ‘inflicting their will on the people’ or wishing they could get away with the stuff the Chinese government get away with.
I’m looking at you UK, Australia and the land of ‘the free’.
And that’s why I can still truly love the place and feel privileged for the experience it gave me.
I have absolute pride my son was born there.
Whatever happens in his life, he was born in China and for me, that means our links to the country will always be strong.
And while I will always be passionate in the pursuit of changing Westerners perceptions about the Middle Kingdom, there are some things that I just stand back and accept will just reinforce certain prejudices.
Some – like Uncle Martian – are terrible, especially as it was a conscious decision.
Some – like this, below – are perfection, especially as they were done in innocence.
[And if not, that’s even more genius]
China, I love you.
Lose the bullshit but please never lose your beautiful madness.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Agency Culture, Attitude & Aptitude, Authenticity, Brand Suicide, Comment, Confidence, Corporate Evil, Crap Campaigns In History, Crap Marketing Ideas From History!, Creativity, Culture, Emotion, Empathy, Fake Attitude, Honesty, Insight, Interviews, Management, Marketing, Marketing Fail, Perspective, Planners, Planners Making A Complete Tit Of Themselves And Bless, Planning, Point Of View, Resonance
Purpose.
Planning.
Both have had a lot of debate about them in the past few years and both have their cheerleaders and detractors.
The reality is they both have incredible value but – and it’s a big but – only when used responsibly.
Of course, what ‘responsibly’ is, is often in the eye of the brand owner and that’s where the problems starts … because too often, the focus is appealing to the ego of the company directors rather than the pulse of culture which is why we’re seeing more and more ‘purpose work’ that communicates in the corporate monotone of egotistical, bland, business-speak.
The client doesn’t think that of course, they think they’re doing an amazing thing and that people will really believe Hard Rock Cafe’s want to stop hunger or a plastic lighter company in HK wants to save the rainforest [which is true, but I can’t find the post about it, mainly because it was back in 2010] or – hold on to your hats – this …
WHAT. THE. FUCK.
Yes, that really is an umbrella company claiming their purpose is to offer lifestyle solution and protection for the public.
Are they insane?
Even if that was true – which if it is, means they’re bonkers – then the way they’ve written it means the umbrellas are to save you from marketing bullshit raining down on your head.
Purpose has a really important role for brands … but you don’t just ‘make it up’.
I am utterly in shock how many companies sell ‘purpose’ to brands and yet never investigate the soul of the brand.
Go into the vaults.
Look inside every single box.
Discover what made them make their decisions.
Understand the values they lived by and fought for.
Talk to the people who have worked there or shopped there since the earliest of days.
Basically discover their authenticity rather than what they wish their authenticity was.
And yet a lot of companies are paying a lot of other companies to literally make up a bullshit story about them.
Something they think makes them sound good.
Something they think will make people want to choose them.
And while we are definitely seeing more and more people choosing to associate with brands that live by a set of values and beliefs, the thing the brands who ‘invent a purpose’ fail to understand is that this audience seeks truth, not bullshit and so what they’re doing with their make-believe is actually achieve the absolute opposite of what they were trying to do.
Purpose matters.
Planning matters.
But the moment you let ego drive your ambitions rather than your authenticity, you end up being a brand that is flying extremely high on the Planning Purpose Twatosphere.
Remember brands, by being yourself you will be different.
Stop inventing bullshit and start acting your truth in interesting ways.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Agency Culture, Attitude & Aptitude, Authenticity, Cannes, Comment, Communication Strategy, Creative Development, Creativity, Culture, Emotion, Empathy, Insight, Marketing
As you know, I recently went to Cannes.
It had been 12 years between visits and I must admit I’m quite conflicted with how I feel about the experience.
OK, so I was always in the skeptical camp.
I appreciate the need and value of celebrating ‘the best of creativity’, but I have long felt Cannes was less about that and more about celebrating the celebrity of advertising.
That said, while there were some differences, some had scarily remained the same.
The biggest difference was who were the big boys in town.
Last time I was there it was the big network agencies.
Massive venues.
Big Boats.
Grandiose parties.
And while all those things were still there, they were the domain of the tech giants … with agencies now occupying the odd beachside suite or – more typically – an Airbnb venue in one of the backstreets.
Don’t get me wrong, there was still some “look at me” statements from adland, but compared to what they were – and what the tech industry was doing – it was much more of a whimper than a roar.
This ‘tech industry doing a good impression of 80s adland’ was even more visible when it came to the evening festivities.
On the first night I was there, I found myself at the Carlton Hotel.
As usual, it was packed with people in jovial mood – either because they were catching up with old friends or were bullshitting network colleagues in a bid to look good to them.
Every now and then, you’d see a magnum of champagne being taken to a table. A fucking magnum?! Given my average burger and fries with a diet coke had cost me an eye watering €60 when I had it earlier in the day [not on expenses, so keep your rolling eyes to yourself], I literally daren’t imagine how much this cost.
But who would buy such an overt display of wealth and arrogance?
You guessed it – probably because you know ad agencies can’t afford that level of excess or expense anymore – it was people from our tech and media brothers and sisters … living and acting like it was still 1982.
There were plenty of other signs that revealed the tech companies were becoming the beasts they were meant to slay …
From the insanely big, patronising, condescending and delusional ego-driven ads that were all over Cannes [congrats IBM, that will be the only award your agency will win] to the gift bags handed out at every opportunity that were universally filled with Amazon rainforest worth of paper through to the overtly misogynistic atmosphere that permeated the air in the night.
This last thing upset me the most.
It’s bad enough that women had to deal with men propositioning, groping and touching them in the past, but the fact it is still going on – in this era of #MeToo – is breathtaking. Actually that’s not what is breathtaking, it’s the fact they felt comfortable doing it in public, at a global industry event, surrounded by peers and colleagues.
Nothing shows how prevalent sexist, predator behaviour continues to be in our industry than that.
One of my colleagues, Iain Preston, spotted a particularly unpleasant episode and thankfully stood in. You can read about it here.
As you can tell, I’m not a fan of Cannes.
Actually, let me be more specific. I’m not a fan of the behaviour of Cannes.
There are some amazing people there.
There are some amazing talks you get to listen to.
There is some amazing work to be inspired by.
I’m glad I went but happier I got to leave within a few days however I did come away with a very good reminder that the greatest gift you can give a client is the gift of honesty.
Honesty of the situation.
Honesty of the audience.
Honesty of the business or brand.
Honesty of what needs to be done.
Honesty of the creativity … in terms of encouraging the creatives to craft somewhere new not repackage and rehash something old.
Sadly this reminder came from witnessing too few agencies giving it &/or too few clients valuing it.
So to all the winners who wanted to make a difference in a way that was different, I don’t just say congratulations.
But thank you.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Attitude & Aptitude, Brand Suicide, Crap Campaigns In History, Creativity, Insight, Marketing, Marketing Fail, Relevance, Resonance
So as you read this, I’ll be on a plane to Portland …
While this is good news for you as I’ll be away the whole of the week, it’s terrible news for my friends at NIKE and Wieden+Kennedy as I’ll be poking my head in their lives and business for the next 5 days.
To help everyone either celebrate or commiserate over this news, let me leave you with a very short post.
I saw the above ad on the underground recently …
What. The. Fuck?
I get it’s a nice looking razor … I get some people may even want to buy it because it’s a nice looking razor … but what the hell is the point of that copy?
Seriously, what are they trying to achieve with it?
In advertising, there is a phrase called ‘see say’ … where the copy, or voice over, explains what’s being shown, despite the fact that in the main, the person looking at the communication can see perfectly well what it is.
I’ve never understood why it continues to happen – just like I’ve never understood why people do presentations then read exactly what’s on the screen – but this ad is taking things to a whole new level, or should I say depth.
What pains me more is that Boots originally were a Nottingham company so I feel some sort of responsibility to their actions and behaviours … even though they’re no longer English and quite frankly, my attitude is more mental than sentimental.
What next, fruit ads that have copy explaining the fruit you’re looking at what its colour is?
If our industry is about helping brands resonate with culture, our work seems to suggest we’re either saying people are stupid or brand managers are.
Good job I’m going to hippyville so I can calm down before I explode.
See you in a week … where it will only be 2 days till my birthday.
[Hint Hint]
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Agency Culture, Attitude & Aptitude, China, Creativity, Culture, Planners, Planning, Wieden+Kennedy
I left Wieden+Kennedy Shanghai 2 years ago this month.
I have very special memories of my time there and these two people – Leon and Carina [both circled in the photo above, which was a gift from my planning team when I left W+K, even though they forgot to put Debi in there] – played a big part in that.
Sure they were pains in the ass and opinionated as all fuck [though Carina did it in a much nicer way than Leon ever could] but it was – and still is – an honour to be able to say they were on “our team”.
Now – by pure coincidence – they’re both moving onto their next adventure and that will mean there will be no more of my mob infecting the place [though I did find Chris, even if he got away with never having to work with me] so I just want to say thank you to them for all they did for me, the team and – most importantly – the work.
Their loss is a big one for everyone but no one could be anything but excited and happy for the bigger and better things they’re about to do.
So to Leon and Carina, go have a shitload of fun … but please make sure you hide stickers throughout the office before you leave.