Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Attitude & Aptitude, Confidence, Content, Context, Creativity, Culture, Distinction, Diversity, Family, Happiness, Imagination, Innocence, Innovation, Jill, Mum, Mum & Dad, My Fatherhood, Otis, Paul, Relevance, Resonance
Can you imagine what it must have been like growing up in the 1920’s and living in the 1960’s?
The things you have seen, endured, been challenged by?
The advances in technology, social mobility, medicine?
Wars, depression, liberation, love.
It must have been amazing …
Well, the reason I say this is because it’s exactly the same if you were a kid in the 80’s but are around today.
OK, it’s not identical … but the cultural shifts have been, in many ways, just as dramatic.
Wars. Economic highs and lows. Medical and transportation revolution. The internet.
Huge shifts in expressions of creativity – from music, art, film and TV to fashion, food, technology and sport.
An endless journey of exploration, discovery and adventure.
And while it can all feel daunting, the reality is the changes are rarely night and day.
More like a steady stream of progress, even if not always in a straight line or done with fairness or equality.
Throughout her life, my Mum was very much about embracing the present.
Not in the sense that she was trying to mimic Cher [though I also love Cher] … nor that she didn’t value the experience and lessons of the past … but because her view was that if you embrace the times, you live a more fulfilling life.
It’s why she was always interested in what others were interested in.
Music. Art. Film. Culture.
Because even if she didn’t always understand it or like it, she felt it was important to appreciate it. Though, you would be amazed how much she did like it. Love it even.
It amazes me how many people don’t seem to follow this view.
Who think that actually, you can turn back time.
Like Republican/Tory voters. Or Daily Mail readers.
Stubbornly trying to maintain or recreate a time where they felt more ‘in control’. More important or valuable.
And while I appreciate change can be scary, it can also be exhilarating and that’s why the idea of living in the equivilent of the 1920’s to 1960’s has never made me feel so old, it’s also never made me feel so lucky.
I hope with all my heart I get to experience the World when Otis has gone through the same period of time.
It’s unlikely, but I hope he embraces it.
Not just for his happiness, but for what it could inspire him to do.
To discover.
To learn.
Thank you Mum.
Filed under: Attitude & Aptitude, Comment, Culture, Digital, Diversity, Social Media
I am part of the last generation who experienced life before the internet while also being able to embrace it as an integral part of our life.
It has been amazing and as an [over]user/sharer on pretty much every platform out there, it’s fair to say that I am a big advocate of it.
However things have been changing.
Maybe it’s due to the hell of 2020.
Maybe it’s because we live in such political times.
Maybe there’s simply more pricks out there these days.
But it’s not nearly as nice as it once was.
It’s been happening over some time, but the warm, supportive nature of the mid-2000 blogging community has definitely gone.
I loved that time.
It actually was a community rather than just a bunch of people being on the same platform.
And while people disagreed with each other, there wasn’t the spite you see today.
OK, sometimes there was – but when it happened, the community united to stamp it out.
The attitude was ‘by all means have a different point of view, but maintain respect for the other person views as well’.
It was self-policing … a community who openly opposed anyone who was being toxic towards another, or being condescending or desperate to not just ‘be right’ but wanted to ensure the other person looked foolish to all around them.
But that’s the environment we have on social media most days.
All social media … from Twitter to Linkedin and everything in-between.
Sure, sometimes the internet reveals it can be a community again.
United for something good or meaningful.
But sadly that’s now the exception, overtaken by a bunch of arrogant, condescending, self-righteous pricks.
Who are mainly men. White men.
Who are happy at the destruction of another.
Ridiculing them.
Humiliating them.
Of course trolls have been out there since the earliest days, but we are witnessing a new breed. They’re not the people who we can easily dismiss as vicious fools simply seeking attention.
No, this lot are much harder to spot.
Because they’re able to be personable one second and destructive the next … leaving a stream of people confused and broken from the experience of the interaction.
Broken in terms of who they are.
Broken in terms of what they believe.
Broken in terms of thinking they can contribute.
The ‘I-am-better-than-you’ attitude is everywhere.
It is social bullying of the highest order … where groups form around cults of personality and feel it is OK to ignore pleasantries, debate or reason and feel it is perfectly acceptable to revel in trampling on another.
No one – or very few – would ever dare do that to someone face-to-face and yet they think this is perfectly acceptable behaviour on social platforms.
Well it isn’t.
We have enough hate and anger in the World without us happily adding to it.
And while some may say, “it’s only a small minority doing it”.
They’re confusing the small minority who do it all the time with the large majority who do it some of the time.
And while I appreciate we can all make mistakes or have a bad day – and those so people can show incredible compassion towards others at certain times … the fact is, when we fail to acknowledge our bad behaviour – whether through embarrassment or arrogance – we are showing others it’s OK.
To not care about others.
To think our views are superior views.
Which is why we should maybe all practice something Jill has told me since we got together.
Never do or say anything to someone you wouldn’t do with your significant other next to you.
Because if you do, you can’t complain when you’re punched in the mouth.
Filed under: Advertising, Agency Culture, Attitude & Aptitude, China, Comment, Context, Creativity, Culture, Distinction, Diversity, Emotion, England, Equality, Experience, Family, Food For Thought, Friendship, Fulfillment, Home, Hong Kong, Hope, Imagination, Immaturity, Innocence, Insight, Italy, Jill, London, Mum & Dad, My Fatherhood, Otis, Paul, Planners Making A Complete Tit Of Themselves And Bless, Point Of View, Relationships, Relevance, Resonance, Shanghai, Standards, Wieden+Kennedy
A few weeks ago, my friend – Philippa White, the founder of TIE – spoke to me about my life.
While many would say that is the single worst idea anyone could have, Philippa – for reasons that still escape me – thought differently.
TIE – or The International Exchange – is an amazing thing.
They link people from the commercial world [from big organisations to people from BBH and W+K] with social initiatives around the world, providing unique opportunities that will transform the lives of both parties.
It’s an absolutely amazing organisation and the people who have done it talk about how it has had a profound affect on their lives – for the experience they had, the realisation that their skills can benefit people in different ways that they ever imagined and the lessons they learnt about what they’re good at, what they want to be good at and the future they can now envision for themselves.
I have not done TIE, but Philippa and I bonded when we met over the power of overseas experiences and learning and for some reason she wanted to talk about my journey.
We cover a whole lot of topics, from family to friendship to failure and while it may only be interesting to those looking for a cure for insomnia, if you’re looking for development, growth and having more meaning and value from your life … I can assure you TIE is definitely going to be of interest to you.
Thank you Philippa. Thank you TIE.
You can be disappointed by it here.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Attitude & Aptitude, Brand Suicide, Comment, Content, Corporate Evil, Crap Products In History, Daily Fail, Daily Mail, Diversity, Home, Marketing, Marketing Fail, Prejudice, Viz
The Daily Mail.
God, how I hate it.
Pedlars of hate, half-truths and prejudice, while all the time claiming they are a ‘family newspaper’ that practices the highest standards of journalism.
For anyone who may be in doubt of how bollocks that is, I suggest you do one of four things.
1. Read a single edition of their rubbish.
2. Read about some of their biggest lies, that they tried to claim were true.
3. Read how they – and others – value convenience over journalism.
4. Read the rest of this post.
OK, I know I’ve written a lot about my hatred of the Daily Mail but just recently, it appears their arrogance of getting away with any old bullshit is reaching new heights.
I absolutely appreciate how hard it must be to fill a newspaper every day.
I can’t imagine the pressure they must be under given they always start from zero.
But I still don’t get how they can consider themselves a serious journalistic force when they post stories – on their front page – like these …
… and …
I mean, come on.
This is what they consider news?
A ‘find the obvious soldiers’ game and a ‘grey is the colour of chavs’ article?
Seriously, the wonderfully ridiculous adult comic Viz is more mature than that and they once ran a piece that said cat food manufacturers should be launching a ‘cat arse’ flavour, rather than chicken or fish or duck.
Look, I get in a war situation the enemy may find it difficult to spot a couple of SAS soldiers dressed in white from a distance when it’s snowing. But on a close up picture where they literally tell you there’s SAS soldiers dressed in white … well, it is even easier than those shitty hook-a-duck games you get at dodgy fairs around the country.
And as for positioning people who paint THEIR OWN HOME grey as enemies of British culture, well surely they’ve just hit peak Daily Mail condescending judgement?
What next, an ‘expose’ on how people’s choice of curtains, flowers or sunglasses are ruining Britain?
Christ, it’s grey.
It’s not like that person who built a fibreglass shark on their roof.
Or pained their house with red stripes, specifically to fuck-off the neighbours.
Or placed the Freddie Mercury statue from the Dominion Theatre roof in their garden.
The way the Daily Mail are going on, you’d imagine they were the national newspaper of the communist party.
If the colour of a house makes them – and their readers – so angry, it makes me want to hire a team to find the home addresses of all the editorial staff at The Mail and their readers and have them go round and paint their buildings different shades of grey and pink.
Instead, I’ll just be happy that my house is partially grey and that will deeply offend anyone associated with The Daily Mail.
And to think I didn’t believe I could love my house even more …
Filed under: Advertising, Agency Culture, Attitude & Aptitude, Audio Visual, Authenticity, Comment, Communication Strategy, Creativity, Culture, Diversity, Emotion, Empathy, Experience, Honesty, Imagination, Insight, Marketing, Marketing Fail, Packaging, Pepsi, Perspective, Positioning, Premium
One of the things I have always found fascinating is hearing how agencies explain their work.
It’s always so brilliantly detailed.
So articulate and precise.
So different to how any of the work I’ve been a part of came about.
In my personal experience, the process to the creative work has looked like this …
That’s right. A bloody mess.
Chaos rather than clarity.
Back and forth rather than a clear line.
Exploration and rabbit holes rather a smooth and efficient act of precision.
Got to be honest, I prefer it that way.
The idea of everything being so pure that you know the answer before you get to the answer scares the hell out of me.
Maybe that’s why I like giving creatives the best problem rather than a good solution.
Let them work out a way to solve it rather than expect them to just execute my answers.
The reason I say all this is because I recently saw this colour chart …
Putting aside that some of the brand/colour associations they’ve suggested make no fucking sense at all [ie: Nike = neutral/calm balance] it is interesting and frightening how much brands align with a colour stereotype.
Or should I say, a suggested colour stereotype.
OK … I’m being a dick, I know there is a lot of research in this field, but that doesn’t mean that just because your brand logo is in a character defined colour, you automatically convey that character.
But of course, this is what a branding company would say in their pitch …
“We chose orange as orange is a colour that conveys friendliness and we believe this makes you even more accessible”
But the reality is colour theory is the driving force behind logo colour recommendations, I would say it’s because of 2 reasons:
1. It’s how the brand wants to be perceived. [Ego]
2. It’s to hide how the brand is really perceived. [Fear]
Am I being a prick?
Probably. But as they say in the movie Dangerous Liaisons … people don’t answer questions with the truth, they answer questions in ways that protect their truth.
This is why I’ve always talked about ‘dirty little secrets’ … because often insights end up being about ‘convenient explanations’ of actions/behaviours/beliefs whereas the real driving force is something more personal. More conflicting. More interesting.
It’s why I find it far more interesting BP are in the green colour – nature, health and growth – than Animal Planet.
It’s also why I find BP far more differentiated than the friendly, orange colour of Gulf Petroleum.
Because while colour choice for logo design is important, anyone who tries to claim it defines what the brand is and/or how it is perceived in culture is either a fucking bubble-dwelling idiot, a ‘category convention’ sheep or someone who believes the Pepsi logo design strategy is up there with Leonardo Da Vinci.