Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Attitude & Aptitude, Authenticity, Colenso, Creative Development, Creativity, Culture, Innovation, New Zealand, Pollution, Purpose, Relevance, Resonance
I don’t normally write about work I’m involved in, but today I’m going to make an exception because it’s slightly bonkers.
One of our clients is a company called FFI.
They make a product called Green Hydrogen.
Put simply, it’s the only energy source that can maintain the World’s energy requirements without killing the planet because it is carbon neutral.
Nada. Zilch. Nothing.
And while the fossil fuel companies will claim they have similar products – like blue or grey hydrogen – they don’t, because the reality is green hydrogen is called ‘green’ for a reason and that reason is its main ingredient is nature and so it’s impact is also good for nature.
I know … sounds too good to be true doesn’t it?
In fact, when we were pitching for it, I wrote a slide that said “this sounds the sort of wizardry you’d expect from Harry Potter”.
And it is. Except it’s real, not magic … even though it feels like it should be.
Anyway, without going into too much detail, one of the things we want to do is ensure youth culture know about it … know there’s something that can actually given them and their planet a future despite the fossil fuel companies trying to burn it all for their own profit.
I know … it may sound weird to do that … but there’s very good reasons for it, especially when we have a generation who have seen the power they have with their united voice and focus.
From legitimising non-binary attitudes to undermining presidential campaigns to shorting hedge funds to forcing national demonstrations against the NRA to name a few.
But the question was how can we do this?
How can a major, corporate company connect to culture in a way where it’s not try hard and still allows the science to be celebrated?
The answer …
Work with a scientist who lives and breathes in their world.
Which is why we are working with the brilliant Rick Sanchez, from Rick and Morty, to help spread the word, educate the world and push for change.
And while this won’t happen overnight … I’m very excited to see how our brilliantly bonkers partnership will help move us there. After all, there’s plenty of examples that show if you want to change established attitudes and behaviour – then there are occasion where doing something ridiculous is the most sensible thing you can do.
It all starts from here …
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Attitude & Aptitude, China, Chinese Culture, Comment, Context, Creativity, Culture, Dad, Health, Management, Pollution, Relevance, Resonance
Once upon a time, a creative friend of mine rang me up.
He had been offered a job in China and wanted to hear my perspective on being there.
During the conversation, he asked if the pollution was bad.
When I asked why he was asking, he said he was pretty susceptible to asthma and while on his visit to the agency there, he had felt a bit ill, despite the weather being good.
He had asked some of his prospective workmates if they felt the weather was ever bad for breathing and they all said no and he wanted to know my take on it.
I laughed.
Not just because it’s pretty well documented the air there is not great, especially for an asthmatic – despite the government being the biggest investor in green technology in the World – but because it reminded me of something my Dad had told me while watching the Tom Cruise movie, A Few Good Men.
I know this is going off on a tangent, but hang in there.
You see, at the scene where Jack Nicholson spouts his immortal “You Can’t Handle The Truth” line, my Dad burst out laughing.
When I asked why, he said this:
“There are occasions where people will openly deny truth. Not because they hold a different opinion, but because to accept it means they would have to accept their complicity in a situation truth has revealed. Sometimes, the simple act of acknowledgement means people are forced to face and question the motives and values they conveniently chose to hide away”
His point was literally what my friend had experienced.
The prospective colleagues he asked about weather conditions knew full-well there is pollution in the air. However, their mind had almost forced them to forget it. Not because they were liars or bad people, but because if they admitted the truth, then they would be forced to ask themselves why they were there when they knew it was likely to be doing them harm.
We experience this every day.
Deliberate ignorance.
From people hired to purchases made.
Not because people are bad, but because we don’t want face the questionable decisions we’ve chosen to make to benefit our personal circumstances over health, values or friendship.
Which is why my mate decided not to go to China.
The moral of the story.
Remember people sometimes don’t tell you what they think, they tell you what protects them from you knowing what they think.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Attitude & Aptitude, Daddyhood, Goodbye China, Grand announcements, Jill, Love, My Fatherhood, Otis, Perspective, Pollution, Sentimentality, The Kennedys Shanghai, Wieden+Kennedy
So I have some big and exciting news. Well, it is for me …
On May 10th, I leave Wieden+Kennedy.
In addition to that, on May 16th, I leave China.
Given both have been my home for the last 7 years – one of the longest periods of my entire adult life – that means this is very big thing for me and I won’t deny it is bitter-sweet.
I’ve had an incredible time and leave with a bunch of memories, stories and learnings that I can honestly say will stay with me for the rest of my life.
Of course, I’ll miss so many things – the people, the culture, the colleagues the clients and the holidays* [ha] – but I still have a lot I want to try and experience and that just wasn’t going to happen if I stayed.
In addition, I need a place where my son can go out and play.
China is an amazing country, but the pollution means there have been too many days where he’s had to stay inside and that just isn’t what I want for him growing up.
That is very hard for me to admit, because I truly love and respect this country and would never want to speak bad of it because I’ll forever be grateful for how it embraced me, educated me and helped me thrive.
As for Wieden … well they have been awesome.
I thought I would stay at W+K forever but unfortunately, we’re a very flat structured, relatively small company, so there’s just not that many options easily available for someone like me. Everyone tried to make it work but as I have no desire to be an MD and feel I’ve achieved everything [and more] that I set out to do in Shanghai – and that I was asked to do in Shanghai – I came to the realization that for me to keep growing, I had to try something different.
That said, there is absolutely no doubt that I have enjoyed one of the most exciting and fulfilling times of my professional career [so far] but right now, I need to go and try some stuff that takes everything I have learnt – from Wieden and beyond – and mix it with a bunch of new experiences and lessons so I can see what happens in a totally different environment and situation.
I’m very excited about that but I’ll always be super thankful for the chance Wieden gave me, especially because they never asked me to be anyone else other than myself.
Even when it annoyed the fuck out of them.
To have done 7 years in the best agency in the World, in one of the most amazing countries in the World with some of the best clients in the World is an incredible honour.
To have earned their trust enough that they asked a planner – a bloody planner! – to start and run their creative talent incubator, The Kennedys, is extra special.
But to have them say you’ve done a good job and you should go and explore but never rule out coming back, shows how special – and mental – they are.
And they are. Very, very special.
And mental.
So what next?
Well, I’ll announce that soon however what I will tell you is I’m swapping one country with an evil government regime for another.
That’s right, I’m moving to America.
To LA to be precise.
I swear this is not purely because I can get away with wearing Birkenstocks the whole time.
But it helped make our decision.
I’ll reveal all soon, but I’m very excited about this next chapter in life.
It will hopefully challenge and teach me a bunch of new things while offering my family the sort of environment they absolutely deserve to enjoy – and I’m incredibly grateful I have the chance to do this, especially at this point in my life.
But it’s even more than that.
You see my parents always said they wanted me to live a life of fulfilment rather than contentment and if they knew their only son was going to have experienced life in America, Europe and Asia, they would be super-proud.
As I get older, I realise what is becoming more important for me is less about how high up the career ladder I go [though, as Harrison Ford said, I won’t undervalue all the work it has taken to get me to my current position] and more about how varied my life experiences are.
This move is another step to fulfilling that … or it will be when it happens. Until then, you’ll have to put up with business as usual, which basically means more ranty rubbish blog posts.
Onwards …
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* For the record, given many of you think I’ve done nothing over the past 7 years except go on holiday, you’ll be ecstatic to know I’ll be leaving Wieden just before I was going to be having my 6 week paid sabbatical. I guess you could call it ‘holiday karma’.
Filed under: Attitude & Aptitude, Brand Suicide, Comment, Crap Marketing Ideas From History!, Design, Innovation, Packaging, Pollution
Hello there.
Not that you asked, but yes – I did have a good birthday thank you very much.
I didn’t get anything stupid [which for me, means awesome] but it was lovely.
Jesus, how old do I sound!
Talking of old, I recently came across this …
Believe it or not, this photo is not all that old.
But what I love about it is that huge sticker declaring it to ‘never be obsolete’.
That’s some big claim.
It’s also a massive pile of bollocks.
Given the alleged breakthrough by Canadian company, D:Wave, all computers may soon be obsolete so for some company to suggest their 90’s PC Tower would be able to withstand decades of focused innovation and technological breakthrough is both massively misguided and massively misleading and anyone who fell for it deserves all they got.
But the other thing this photo did was remind me of the ‘stickers’.
Oh my god, back in the day, every computer had them.
Little logos explaining either what the machine claimed to do or the manufacturer of some of its components.
And people fell for it, because we didn’t know better and we were looking for some reassurance we weren’t being taken for a ride.
Even when they put a massive fucking sticker on it claiming ‘NEVER OBSOLETE’.
God we were gullible fools weren’t we and while I’d hope we have got past that, the fact is I know we haven’t.
Sure, the tech industry have started moving away from sticker pollution, but there’s a whole host of brands in a whole host of categories that have started taking it on. Just look at any car ad these days and it seems they have more logos on the page than words… which is why it seems this video is the perfect way to sign off this post.
Microsoft may no longer as bad as they once were, but it seems a lot of brands are still forgetting that confidence in your product is about what you don’t say, rather than what you do. By all means use channels to explain the benefits of your product … hell, you can even talk about who has been part of it’s development … but when it comes to the actual product, be focused and make it glorious.
I will go and lie down now.