Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Attitude & Aptitude, Corona Virus, Emotion, Family, Holiday, Home, Hope, Jill, London, Love, Loyalty, Luck, Martin Weigel, Mercedes, Nottingham, Nottingham Forest, Otis, Paul, Paula, Rosie, Shelly, Virgin Atlantic
So I was supposed to be back today, but the gods had other plans.
I got covid.
After avoiding it for 2 years.
After moving to the other side of the planet in the middle of the pandemic.
They decided now was the optimum time to give it to me.
And maybe they were right.
Because this trip has – so far – been filled with nothing but miracles and love.
I got to see the wonderful Martin and Mercedes get married in Portugal, surrounded by old friends who I’d not seen in an age.
Including the brilliant Clare Pickens who I love enormously.
Not to mention Nusara and her husband … who I discovered actually exists.
Now it’s fare to say all weddings are special, but this was magnificent.
There’s many reasons for that – from the people, the venue, the moment – but it was something more than that. As I said on the speech I was asked to give at the last minute, we needed this. All of us. Not just Martin and Mercedes … but every person who was – and continues to be – affected by the devastation of COVID. Which means every person in the World because whether it has been small or big challenges, we’ve all had to deal with them.
And from there, I then got to see my beloved Nottingham Forest pull off the miracle.
From bottom of the league with the worst start in 108 years to playing at Wembley after 30 years and getting promoted to the Premiership after 23 years away.
And to be able to do that with my beloved Paul – who I’d not seen for almost 2 years – by my side, was just even more special.
I don’t mind telling you I cried when I saw him.
When he got out his car and gave me one of his massive hugs hello, I clung on and cried. God I’ve missed him.
Don’t get me wrong, I love NZ, but it is the first place I’ve ever lived that genuinely feels ‘far from everything’ … so with that and all that has gone on in the past 2 years – not to mention the fact this is the longest I’ve not seen him in my entire life – I realised how much I’ve missed and needed him around in my life.
So to have that and then watch our beloved Forest get back into the promise land together was – well, just unbelievably special.
Now if you remember the post I wrote when I was setting off on this adventure, you will note I have not mentioned seeing Paula and her baby yet and that’s because of the COVID gods. But they’re still being nice to me …
Because not only has COVID not been too bad for me – especially compared to what some people have suffered – it meant I had to move my flights as NZ travel rules meant they wouldn’t let me catch my plane. And even this set back has a silver lining.
Because of the demand on airlines – and the time it takes for RAT tests to show a negative reading – the earliest flight I could get was next Tuesday. So not only will I have the time to see her before I go, but I also get to see Paul again when we go to the Queen concert we booked back in 2019 that they had to cancel because of COVID.
Seeing Queen with my best friend and his wonderful wife Shelly is like the ultimate gift to end this incredible visit to Europe.
But there’s more …
You see the Queen concert is on the day the UK celebrates the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.
I mean the royal one, not the musical one.
The reason this is significant is way back in 1977, my Mum and Dad brought me to London to watch the crowds celebrate her Silver Jubilee. I remember it well, despite being so long ago. So to be back in London – albeit by pure coincidence – on a day where England yet again is celebrating a landmark moment in the Queen’s reign takes me back to that day with my parents and that is a feeling I will really treasure.
What this all means is not only has this trip been more wonderful than I ever imagined, it’s ended up giving me more miracles and love than I ever expected. Miracles and love that I needed more than I ever imagined.
So while I can’t wait to get back to my family – and my team – I can honestly say this has been a couple of weeks that are one of the most important and memorable weeks of my life and for that, I thank everyone who made it possible … from Martin and Mercedes, Paul, Nottingham Forest, Colenso, Q-Prime, NIKE, Paula, Queen, Lee Hill and Virgin Atlantic and my brilliant supportive wife and son right through to, bizarrely, covid.
I don’t know how you did it Mum and Dad, but thank you.
So till next week.
R
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, America, China, Colenso, Communication Strategy, Creativity, Culture, Cunning, Cynic, Dad, Daddyhood, Death, Deutsch, Embarrassing Moments, Emotion, England, Family, Grand announcements, Jill, LaLaLand, London, Love, Marketing, Mum, Mum & Dad, Nottingham, Otis, Paul, Planners, Planners Making A Complete Tit Of Themselves And Bless, R/GA, Relationships, Stubborness, Sunshine, The Kennedys, Uncorporated, Wieden+Kennedy
I’ve written this blog consistently for 15 years.
FIFTEEN!!!
My god …
But it gets worse.
Because bar a few weeks of holiday, it is something that has been written every single Monday to Friday.
That means there has been over 3,900 posts of utter gibberish for over 780 weeks.
And as tragic as that all sounds, there’s an awful lot of people who comment on here who have been here pretty much all that time.
LOSERS!!!
Now, I have to say there are some lovely benefits to long term blog writing.
In some ways it’s like a diary … capturing what I was thinking or doing at any given time.
It also is a lovely way to see how my opinions and thoughts have evolved over time.
Plus there’s the hope that when I’m gone, Otis will still feel his Dad is close.
OK … OK … there are some posts I definitely DON’T want him to read, but there’s others I’d be glad for him to keep going back to.
Putting aside I basically write the same 3 or 4 posts over and over again … there is a lot of my life contained in these pages.
From getting married to losing my Mum to having my son.
Proper life-changing stuff … and that doesn’t even cover the moves to different countries, jobs and homes.
The best and worst of my life is detailed here which is why – despite all these big life events being sandwiched between endless amounts of shit – I still like it.
Occasionally I randomly click on a date and just see what I wrote.
Recently I did this and was reminded what a little shit I was.
OK, can be.
It’s this.
Yep, it’s the time I tried to auction off Martin Sorrell’s business card so people could send him stupid messages or texts.
On the plus side, I was offering to give any money to charity.
On the negative, I was working for WPP at the time.
If you think that’s stupid, there was the time I wrote a post featuring a photo of Sir Martin with a picture of Toad of Toad Hall under the caption ‘Spot The Difference’.
And the weird thing is that while I don’t agree with his approach to creativity, I do respect him. I have met him on a number of occasions and he was very, very impressive.
Though it’s fair to say that respect was only one way, Especially when there was an agency Q&A and I asked him ‘what do you spend all your money on?’
So Sir Martin … even though I know you would never read this blog [more proof you’re clever] I would like to take this opportunity to apologise for my stupidity. It was ridiculous … but if it’s any consolation, at least it wasn’t as bad as this.
I know … I know … this was a terrible post even by my standards.
So celebrate in the fact that tomorrow is Good Friday so I’m off till next Tuesday and you’re not going have to deal with any more of this shit till then.
I don’t know about you … but it’s the sort of news that makes you almost believe in God, doesn’t it.
Happy Easter, enjoy the sugar rush.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, America, Attitude & Aptitude, Authenticity, Brand, Brand Suicide, China, Chinese Culture, Context, Crap Products In History, Creative Development, Creativity, Culture, Distinction, London, Marketing, Marketing Fail, Membership, Shanghai, Wieden+Kennedy
One of the things I hated when I lived in China was hearing people slag off the country for all manner of things.
While some of the accusations were true, the reality was China was not the only country that participated in such behaviour but people chose to ignore that.
Not that I’m defending what was going on, because even though I rarely saw any of it – in fact I saw more in the US and UK when I lived there – I knew it was going on.
However there were some claims that showed people didn’t know what the fuck they were going on about.
The amount of people who would come to Shanghai from America and say, “let’s do ideas that force the government to deal with the pollution crisis”.
They’d say it like they were the very first people to identify China had a problem with pollution – which is possibly the greatest sign of arrogance you could have. So we would tell them.
China knows there is a pollution problem.
They are actively fighting it.
They’ve been the biggest investor in green tech for decades.
Proportionally, they still pump out less pollution into the air than America.
In fact, up until the last few years, they pumped out less pollution than America full stop.
America had been doing that for decades.
And there’s parts of London with a higher pollution index than most parts of China.
Then they’d stop acting like they’re a superhero and start understanding their perspective had been driven by media bias not cultural understanding.
But there were some things that were accusations. The lack of respect for copyright being one.
Of course, it’s not just in China this happens, but it definitely happens there. A lot.
Even now, I still think Uncle Martian is peak-plagiarism … mainly because they didn’t just make replicas and sell them as originals, they created a whole new brand based on the intellectual property of brands including Jordan and Under Armour.
I say that because I recently saw another version of this.
Maybe not quite as bad as Uncle Martian, but pretty terrible al the same.
But not from China … so you can keep your prejudiced thoughts to yourself.
It’s that brand at the top of this post that looks awfully like this …
I am an enormous fan of Liquid Death.
I love what they’re doing and how they’re doing it.
Not only are they the true embodiment of a cult brand – with some amazing cult behaviours, such as their $100,000 country club membership … or buy a slab of Liquid Death – they have made drinking water in public cool for men.
That’s something no other beverage brand has pulled off.
So while I am sure they would think someone ripping them off is a sign they’re doing something right, it’s also a sign some lazy, parasitic pricks are ripping them off.
Though as George once said when we once pitched an idea to a client who said, “but what if we just asked another agency to do your idea for cheaper?”
If you choose to go with someone copying someone else’s idea rather than the people who actually came up and created the idea, then you deserve all the disappointment and confusion you get. Including the lawsuit.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Attitude & Aptitude, Comment, Confidence, Content, Context, Crap Campaigns In History, Creativity, Culture, London, Marketing, Marketing Fail, Positioning, Social Divide, Social Media
OK, I’m ‘proper back’ now and look at that – we’re in February!!!
Maybe I should just write a blog post on the last or first of every month and make life easier for all of us?
Nahhhhhhhh … where’s the enjoyment in that when there’s so much stuff out there to comment on, like this monstrosity of an ad that I saw recently …
Putting aside the fact anyone who wants to be ‘the most interesting person in the room’ is basically admitting they have an ego the size of Bono … or the average person working in adland, the choice of image for this ad is the most stupid I’ve seen in a very, very long time.
Since when were escalators at tube stations a room?
And I’m guessing the people behind it either don’t live in London because if they did, they’d know the first – and biggest – social cardinal sin in that city is speaking to anyone anywhere in the vicinity of the tube.
When I lived in London, I was told in no uncertain terms of this fact within days of being there by a bloke I was squashed next to, as we were on our way to Heathrow Airport.
He also had some luggage with him so I asked, “where are you off to?” and the look he gave me was as if I’d asked him to tell me his families home address and what times are they out.
He literally said, “don’t you know you’re not supposed to talk to people on the tube?”
Hahahahahahahaha.
So with that in mind … and the fact the image they’ve chosen shows people all in a row, all facing the back of the person in-front’s head – which makes having any conversation a bit difficult – maybe Curio should just change the headline of their ad to ‘be the most annoying person in the room’ and be done with it.
Let’s face it, it would probably be more a appropriate explanation of what the app supposedly helps you become, whether they use a visual of the London Underground or not.
Filed under: Advertising, Amsterdam, China, Comment, London, Love, Martin Weigel, New Zealand, Paula, Planners, Planning, Relationships, Resonance, Wieden+Kennedy
For someone this old, working in adland this long … it’s amazing how few friends I have in the industry.
Oh I know tonnes of people – you can’t help it when you keep moving countries every couple of years – and I love soooooo many of them, but in terms of actual mates, it’s not a massive amount.
However despite this, there are two people who have that moniker.
They may wish they didn’t.
They may wish I wasn’t about to advertise that fact.
But the brilliant Paula Bloodworth and Martin Weigel are most definitely two of them.
Obviously they need no introduction.
They’re 2 of the best and most respected planners in the World and have a body of work entire global agency networks would kill to have. But the thing many people don’t realise is that underneath it all, they’re just amazing humans who are also insanely talented.
Obviously we all met at Wieden and worked together on various projects across the network. But it’s more than that. I met a lot of amazing people at Wieden but I just clicked on a different level with those two.
That doesn’t mean we always agreed with each other.
In fact, the opposite is probably a better reflection of how we were … but there was something between us that meant we not only trusted and respected each others judgement, we felt we ended up in better places for the debates.
And we did.
And we still do.
Because even though only Martin is still at Wieden, we still talk a lot.
In fact we have a video call every week.
London. Amsterdam. Auckland.
And all we do is chat, laugh, debate, disagree and wonder.
And occasionally bitch, hahaha.
But what they may not realise is how they make me feel.
You see I have no problem asking them for their point of view and they have no problem giving it to me.
Except it’s not some wannabe intellectual wank-fest [which is good, because I’d always lose] it’s thoughtful, compassionate and – dare I say it – loving advice.
In short, they look out for me.
They tell me when they think I am wrong.
They tell me when they think I am right.
But most of all, they tell me things to think about to encourage the outcome that I hope for.
When I was made redundant, they were the first people I spoke to.
When I am moving to another country, they’re the first people I chat to.
When I want someone to bounce stuff off, they’re the first people I reach out to.
In an industry obsessed with pathetic intellectual swordsmanship, these two wonderful, beautiful, talented bastards swap weapons for compassion.
They make me a better person and colleague – albeit to Colenso, clients and Metallica.
And they ask for nothing in return.
Which reinforces they’re brilliant people but maybe not as smart as everyone thinks they are.
They’ll probably hate me being so gushing in this post given they both like to hide their public emotions in a black hole … but it’s true.
I love them.
I love their partners.
I love their multitude of animals.
But most of all, I love they’re in my life.
How’s that for a Monday post then eh?!