Filed under: Advertising, Attitude & Aptitude, Creativity, Culture, Human Goodness, Wieden+Kennedy
news of The Queen – I was still shocked.
But while the Queen had been in my life for all my life, the loss of Dan – like Dave before him – was much more personal and emotional.
And while over the coming weeks there will be many stories about Dan Wieden that will all be amazing to read – from his brilliance to his humbleness – I thought I’d write about something else that made him special …
His ability to unite a culture while encouraging the individuality of that culture.
That’s an amazing thing to achieve. To build something united by the same passion and values wherever in the World you are located, but still be able to – encouraged even – express your individuality, even if it would be in conflict with what he would have chosen.
But then, when you got to know him, you realised he craved creativity, not conformity, and suddenly everything makes sense.
I have a bunch of stories about this brilliant man … and while the one where he held my hand and told me “never leave”, despite having just belly danced for him [long story] is one I love, this is probably my favourite.
For reasons I don’t need to go into, Wieden wanted me to feel some major love.
So one day, I got whisked from W+K Shanghai and plonked in front of Dan in Portland.
I think he was as surprised as me to be there, but we chatted about all manner of things … from why he thought it would be great for me to run The Kennedys [which was the highest compliment, given I was a planner] to how on earth he had managed to have offices in China, Japan and India – which still blew his mind.
After 45 mins, he asked if I fancied lunch.
Of course I said yes to which he told me to follow him as we walked to one of his fave local restaurants.
Nothing fancy. Just lovely.
We had an enjoyable lunch and he told me he was glad I was there. He even sounded like he meant it, haha. So when the bill came, I asked if I could pay.
He looked at me like I was a lunatic and asked why.
“Well …”, I said, “… my friends think you’re mad for hiring me so I want to get them back and paying for this meal is my way of asking you for a favour”.
[For the record, of lot of those ‘friends’ were regular contributors to this blog, when I allowed comments – which I miss. Damnit]
He looked me dead in the eye and replied …
“Should have known there’s no such thing as a free lunch. OK Campbell, tell me”.
So I asked if I could have a photo with him … but I wanted him to look like he was bollocking me, so I could show my friends and pretend he’d just found out they were right.
His eyes lit up.
“That doesn’t make much sense to me but let’s do it” … which explains the photo at the top of this post and why every single time he saw me from then on [and I mean EVERY time] he’d say, “I thought I fired your ass” … thankfully with his eyes shining their infectious, mischievous sparkle, so I knew I could come in the next day.
I’ve been very fortunate in my life to have so many brilliant people shape it, and Dan was one of them.
In many ways he changed my life. Certainly the trajectory.
That may sound huge, but the opportunities he gave me through the company he co-founded resulted in a life I never could imagine and will always be grateful for.
Dan was a legend.
Not just in creativity or advertising but in so many other ways.
From his ability to be a huge presence in any room but never make anyone feel small, through to his beloved Caldera, which helped – and will continue to help – so many who may not have had many chances to see what they can become.
But if you told him he was [and I did] he would wave you away, refusing to acknowledge or accept it.
[And don’t get me started on his reaction when he discovered people had W+K tattooed on them. Often as part of some founders day shenanigans. He literally couldn’t understand it]
So that just leaves me to say a huge thank you to you Dan. For everything.
Your legacy lives on through your work, your agency, your impact and the people who were so lucky to work for you and with you.
You probably would tell us to “stop talking horse shit and go make your own legacy” … and while I know we all try and do exactly that, it will all be the better for the time we learnt from you.
Deal with it Dan.
To his family, friends and W+K peeps past and present, I send you my love and deepest condolences.
Filed under: Advertising, Attitude & Aptitude, Comment, Human Goodness, Wieden+Kennedy
Yesterday, David Kennedy – creative partner of Dan Wieden and founding partner of Wieden+Kennedy, sadly passed away.
There will be so many people deeply saddened by this news for a whole host of reasons, but I’m pretty sure common to all will be stories about his humanity.
Put simply, David bubbled with goodness.
His entire ethos seemed to be putting others first. He certainly never looked for credit, accolades, awards or fortune … in fact his main objective seemed to be wanting to help others help themselves to achieving something better.
Didn’t matter if it was something big or small or if you were just starting out or an old hand … David wanted to help, whether that was by listening, encouraging, contributing or collaborating.
I didn’t see him often – only when I was in Portland – but every time he saw me, he would always say hello, despite not knowing who the hell I was.
And then one day, we were in the lift together and someone told him I was visiting from W+K Shanghai. That was it …
He asked me for coffee and then gently peppered me with questions, mainly because he was fascinated that this agency he started had somehow opened up in a land about as far away from Portland as he could ever imagine.
And when I told him I was going to be starting The Kennedys there – the creative incubator of Wieden – and I hoped I wouldn’t fuck it up, especially as I was a planner and it’s normally run by creatives … he looked at me and said …
“I doubt you will, especially if you have fun doing it.”
While I didn’t see him too many times after that, he never forgot who I was and always asked how things were going.
Kindness aside … I’m pretty sure if you were to ask others about the things they remember most about him, they’d say things like his black t-shirts, his huge bunch of jangling keys that were always hanging from his jeans and his dry sense of humour.
Oh that last part was especially wonderful.
And while there are many examples of it, Mel Myres – W+K’s wonderful global creative talent recruiter who was there for decades – wrote something on her Facebook page that captures it perfectly.
There was a founder’s day where we flew both Portland and NY offices to a remote destination in the Arizona desert, even though the NY office was told they were headed to a spa. We landed, boarded busses, drove through incredible heat and dust, and as we pulled up to this literal shit-hole, David gazed out the bus window at the desolate landscape filled with tiny tents and said, “That must have been one hell of a website”.
Legend.
While I’ve not worked at Wieden for a few years, it is a place that will always be special and dear to me, which is why I want to take this opportunity to say a huge thank you to Mr David Kennedy.
Thank you for your words, your interest, your kindness and your generosity.
Thank you for making a place so special that no one can even describe what the hell it is, let alone explain how it happens. Mind you, given your personality, I imagine that’s exactly as you’d want it … and you deserve nothing less.
While I have done many great things in my life, one of the greatest has been having the privilege, pleasure and honour of being part of your crazy, little adventure.
I mean that, with all I’ve got.
There’s many people in this industry who are talented.
There’s many people in this industry who are generous.
And there’s even people in this industry who are compassionate.
But there’s very few in this industry who who would ever have all 3 of those words used to sum them up. But then you were never like most people.
My deepest condolences go out to the family you loved so much, the Wieden family [including those who were part of your namesake, The Kennedys] you helped grow and nurture and all the people you touched who will be feeling incredibly sad at this very sad news.
I’m definitely one of them.
Thank you for everything David. I am sure one of those keys on your chain will unlock the door to another adventure.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Agency Culture, Attitude & Aptitude, Authenticity, Comment, Communication Strategy, Confidence, Creative Development, Creativity, Culture, Emotion, Empathy, Human Goodness, Innocence, Insight, Marketing, Perspective, Point Of View, Relevance, Resonance, Respect, Wieden+Kennedy
When I hear people say ‘TV ads are dead’, I laugh.
Especially when – in the same breath – they talk about the importance of content.
But what makes me hysterical is when they talk about content in terms of volume rather than emotion.
How many different ways it can be cut. How many different platforms if can be carried on. What it allows you to say and show.
That sounds even worse than a bad TV ad to me.
And as much as I love technology and what it is allowing creativity to do and impact in marketing, a great piece of film still has the power to have more impact on what people think, feel and do than 10,000 eco-systems that have all been designed to remove every possible element of friction rather than ignite it.
What’s also amusing is that while the industry loves to focus on the new, new thing – even though in many cases, the new thing is simply an old thing, albeit with a new name – it’s the same, arguably ‘older’, agencies who use creativity in the most consistently powerful, thought-provoking and emotionally igniting ways.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not knocking them – quite the opposite actually – and I bloody love them all, however while everyone justifiably talks about the Wieden’s, Uncommon’s and Mother’s of the world, I think we should all take a moment to acknowledge the incredible work AMV is doing right now.
Of course they’ve always been one of the best but right now … they’re coming out swinging.
Not only did they make the best Christmas ad ever written for Plenty paper towels – yes, a bloody paper towel brand – and the incredible Wombstories for Bodyform, they’ve just launched this masterpiece for MacMillan Cancer Support.
Amazing isn’t it?
Almost 2 ½ minutes long and yet it never feels it.
In fact, you watch it over and over again.
Even though it makes you cry.
Properly sob.
Maybe it’s because in this repetitive life of isolation, it lets us feel human … connected to someone or something in a way that we’ve not had for a long time. Or maybe it is a reminder of how fragile life is or how lonely it can be.
Whatever it is, this is more than just ‘an ad’, and so, so much more than the contrived content designed to work across multiple platforms that so many people in the industry seem to think is the way forward … because this incredible piece of film allows us to glimpse the fine line that exists between life and death and the amazing souls who do their absolute best to try and keep them as far apart for as long as possible.
It had a huge impact on me.
Because like AMV did with Plenty – albeit from a VERY different perspective – their eye for detail was immense.
You may not notice all of them.
You may only notice them if you’ve lost someone.
But they’re there and they’re real in all their beauty and tragedy.
The exaggerated happiness to try and disguise the worst situations for the sake of those who don’t quite understand.
The need to be strong for those who know their reality but don’t need that being brought into their reality.
The joy of giving someone a second of happy distraction in a life surrounded by bleakness.
The despair of seeing a child come to terms with their parents mortality.
The elation and gratitude of victory.
The intense fear you think this may be the end and you are petrified you may be alone during your final moment.
But it’s the last scene – where the family say their final goodbye to a woman they obviously love so much – that truly ripped me apart.
From the hand reaching out, struggling and desperate to find the hand of the person they love – a final touch before they slip away – to the intense, shocking loneliness that engulfs you when you realise they’ve taken their final breath.
It reminded me so much of my Mum.
As I sat next to her, after she had come out of her operation, only to see everything collapse in front of my eyes.
The attempt to make sense of something that made no sense.
The shattering of life as someone I loved with all I got went away.
A death that was as unfair as it was untimely.
And what’s strange is I keep watching the ad to relive that feeling.
To be reminded of that final moment with Mum. The sadness and the pain.
Because while it makes me cry deeply every single time … taking me to a place I never want to relive … it has this weird effect of letting me feel closer to her.
A moment where we are together again.
Some kind of private moment.
So I look at it again and again and again. Not just that final scene, but the whole thing … watching events unfold in front of me as if it was for the first time seeing it. Being moved, uplifted and devastated at the exact same moments every single time.
Until that final moment.
Where even though the music reaches its crescendo, everything feels silent.
Where I gasp for air while wanting to scream to try and break the reality of what’s happening in front of me.
Where I feel my whole body is tightly wound in a futile bid to hold things together.
It’s a tragic feeling of familiarity that I wish wasn’t.
And yet I am grateful for it. I truly am.
Because despite all this raw emotion, I never feel the ad exploits.
Yes, it challenges and confronts, but it never ventures into shock while also – somehow – never feeling like it is keeping anything back either.
It is an extraordinary piece of film that reminds us the people who try to keep the thin line between life and death as far apart as possible for each and every one of us, are also people.
Doing whatever it takes to help the people suffering and the people watching, move forward to wherever a better place exists.
It didn’t just make me send it to people, put it on social, look up the team behind it and write this post – it made me sign up to make regular donations to MacMillan Cancer Support.
Don’t tell me TV ads don’t work. When they’re like this, they can change the world.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Attitude & Aptitude, Authenticity, Brand Suicide, Business, Comment, Communication Strategy, Confidence, Content, Context, Corona Virus, Corporate Evil, Crap Campaigns In History, Creativity, Culture, Customer Service, Differentiation, Emotion, Empathy, England, Experience, Honesty, Hope, Human Goodness, Loyalty, Management, Marketing, Marketing Fail, Positioning, Purpose, Relevance, Resonance
Throughout COVID, we’ve been inundated by companies saying they care.
Banks.
Supermarkets.
Pharmaceutical companies.
At the beginning, it made sense … we were in a new reality and everyone was trying to work out what the fuck was going on, let alone what we should do.
But now, coming up to 6 months into this thing, we’re still seeing companies say the same thing.
We care.
We really, really care.
Honest, we really do care.
And frankly, it’s all becoming shit.
Because while we always suspected it was empty words, now they are proving it … because the fact of the matter is this is the time they need to put up.
To do stuff.
To actually show they care.
Which, contrary to the multinational who is spending a lot on advertising right now, does not mean you can consider yourself a kind and generous organisation simply because you make and sell a large range of disinfectant products that are especially important right now.
Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not expecting charity.
Making money is not a bad thing – and right now, companies need to do it to help keep employees employed. But adding something extra … something that can genuinely benefit the people you rely on would go a long way.
Not just because a lot of people need it right now, but because investing in your audiences wellbeing is investing in your own.
Take Timpson’s.
It’s a family-owned business in high streets and supermarkets up and down the country.
While they do a bunch of things, they’re most widely known for key cutting and shoe repairs.
That’s right, KEY CUTTING AND SHOE REPAIRS!!!
Of all the companies around the World, I would say this Key Cutters have led the way on how you should treat your people and customers in a crisis.
First of all, they made the decision to close all their shops – over 2000 of them – when COVID took hold. They wanted to ensure their staff were safe as not only do they deal directly with the public, all their stores are very small so social distancing would be almost impossible.
However, rather than making people redundant or putting them on government subsidised furlough, they covered the wages for every employee.
In full.
Every employee. Full salary.
To add some more texture to that, Timpson’s employ 5,500 staff … of which 650 come directly from serving a prison sentence … and their weekly wage bill is £2.5 million.
That in itself is amazing.
But then they’ve done something else.
Something aimed at their customers … specifically the one’s who have not been as fortunate to work at a company that takes care of their staff like Timpson and may now be struggling due to redundancy or loss of pay, hours, opportunities.
And what have they done?
This …
How amazing is that?
A genuine investment in their past and future client’s wellbeing.
Not empty words, something that will cost Timpson’s money – both in terms of time and cash.
Maybe it’s not a huge amount, but when you have all these huge corporations shouting their empty words in an attempt to look like they care, Timpson’s actions shows them up for who they are.
A long time ago there was a Michael Moore documentary called ‘Roger And Me’.
It was about the General Motors car company and them pulling out of Detroit.
There’s one bit in it that sticks in my memory.
On the production line, there were people being interviewed about what they’ll do when the factory closes. One guy – who was making one of GM’s most expensive cars – said this,
“What I don’t understand is if companies keep firing their workers, who do they think will be able to afford their cars?”
While I know there are many issues companies face, I know this.
The actions of a key-cutting, shoe repairer has resulted in me having more emotional connection and loyalty to them than I‘ll ever have towards multi-national organisations, spending millions of pounds on ads that attempt to show they care [read: express their designed-by-marketing ‘purpose’] but are so obviously self-serving, you can almost see them rubbing their hands in greedy glee.
Not because they want to make money to protect their workers.
Nor to look after the employees of their supply chain.
But to look after themselves and their shareholders.
And to them, I say this.
Your real ‘purpose’ is showing.
Try harder.