Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Attitude & Aptitude, Dad, Education, Eye, Health
As some of you know, I have had a serious eye problem since the beginning of the year.
What makes it worse is that it has affected the eye that was once my ‘good eye’.
Over the past 6 months, I’ve had all manner of drugs, tests and specialist visits and unfortunately, it keeps finding new things wrong with it rather than fixing the things we knew were wrong.
It’s pretty shit to be honest, but one thing happened a few weeks ago that made me laugh.
So I’m at the surgeons and they discovered the pressure in my eye was at an extreme high.
In a matter of weeks, it had risen 300% without any clear indication why. They immediately took action, administering all manner of new drugs to try and bring it under control as the ramifications of leaving it could be permanent blindess.
In typical ‘Campbell luck’ fashion, when they first re-checked the results – post first medication – the pressure had actually risen. That really freaked them out and were getting ready to send me to the hospital for an operation to relieve the pressure. But after another check 20 mins later, they saw it was starting to take affect.
Slowly, but as my surgeon said, “any decline is a good decline”.
Eventually things calmed down enough for them to feel good to send me home for a few days before getting me in to check the results again. To increase the odds of things going in the right direction, they gave me some additional meds and said:
“They will make you very sleepy and increase the odds of you needing the lavatory”.
I burst out laughing and said, “that’s an unfortunate combination” to which they looked at me confused.
After what felt like minutes, they laughed before telling me they’d never thought of that before.
Now I am not knocking them – they’re amazing and doing all they can to save my sight – but it did remind me of 2 things I’ve learned over the years.
The first is that very smart people are often a bit stupid outside of their field of excellence.
The second is a quote by the actor, Peter Ustinov who said:
“The people who reach the top of the tree are those who haven’t got the qualifications to detain them at the bottom”.
So much in life seems to be focused on only valuing the ‘academically smart’.
I get it, we need them. They’re brilliant and can do things that few could ever do – regardless of the amount of training.
Doctors.
Scientists.
Engineers.
You definitely don’t want any Tom, Dick or Harry taking on work like that.
But by the same token, there are people who have another set of skills that are just as worthy of respect.
An ability to do things that a doctor, scientist or engineer could never do – and yet has real value and benefit to the rest of us.
I don’t mean ‘everyday generalists’, I mean people with a level of skill and/or craft that represents real ability.
In life we need both groups of people … the academically smart and [for want of a better term] the life smart.
Both offer value and skills to who we are and how we live.
Both do things that the others couldn’t do and probably couldn’t imagine doing.
At a time where more and more companies will only hire those with ‘a degree’, it’s worth remembering that while education is hugely important and valuable we should – like the ad industry – make sure we’re not forgetting to evaluate and value those by what they have done, not simply what they know, because as my old man used to say:
“Talk is easy, action is hard”.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Airports, Apathy, Attitude & Aptitude, British, Business, Cars, Corporate Evil, Crap Products In History, London, Luxury
Recently, while walking through Heathrow Airport, I saw this:
Put aside the fact these airport shuttles seem to be for either the elderly, the late or the self-important … why the fuck do they need to have one that looks like the bastard lovechild of Liberace and Elton John’s cars from the 1970’s?
Is it a special edition thing?
Is it an business class, collab thing?
Is it a alarming lack of taste thing?
Or is it a tourist thing?
I could kinda understand if it was for tourists as I can imagine it would be very appealing for Americans of a certain age.
But even then, it’s still pants – exemplified by the fact it has a number plate that represents the name of the company who made/drives it.
And that’s before I point out the British Car Industry – that this thing is probably trying to leverage – is, at best, on its knees or, at worst, owned by everyone other than the Brits.
For fucks sake, is there no end to what we will make ‘status’?
What next … lifts?
I’d rather have a lifetime flying Ryan Air than one trip in that pile of gold shite.
Hell – to paraphrase a very old joke – I’d rather be seen coming out the back of a sheep than the back of that, which not only captures just how ridiculous I find an ‘upper class’ milk float at an international airport but also how too many companies confuse charging a ‘premium price’ with being a ‘premium product’.
Or as my friend, George, calls it, ‘corporate status delusion’.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, AI, Attitude & Aptitude, Communication Strategy, Crap Campaigns In History, Creativity, Culture, Emotion, Empathy, Humanity, London, Technology
While I was in London, I saw this:
What the actual fuck?
The worst thing is I can imagine they’ll get lots of enquiries … probably from companies who are very vocal on saying ‘their staff are their greatest asset’.
But as we know, the companies that shout the loudest about their people are often the ones who are the worst offenders of them. Like some supercharged gaslighting trick, except everyone knows what they’re doing.
The bit I find confusing though is who do these companies think will be their future customers if they are shedding jobs in favor of AI?
Who is going to have the money and why the fuck do they think those who do, will spend it with them when there is a distinct lack of customer care, craft or consideration?
AI has incredible possibilities, but the scary thing is most companies like it because they see it as being able to do the same things they’ve always done, just cheaper or faster.
That’s it.
What these companies fail to realise is that if their products and operations can be replicated this easily, then they may not be that good in the first place.
I’m seeing this everywhere – especially in advertising.
Agencies and clients banging on about how they have used AI to create an ‘ad’ that would have cost millions before – without once stopping to realise that not only is it something we have seen millions of times before, but while the ad may be visually rich, it is also fucking shit.
Sure, it’s early days … but that so many people are focusing on the optimization of the technology rather than the possibilities of it is tragically sad. But then – as I’ve talked about a bunch in the past – I have always been more alarmed by the people behind the tech than the tech itself.
Maybe this is why my client – the biggest investor in luxury and street culture fashion on earth – believes the future of luxury will be built around personal service. Not the illusion of personal service … but the engagement and interaction with real humans.
Highly trained, highly experienced, specialists.
That doesn’t mean they don’t see the value and power of AI … they do. It’s just they recognize that you can’t claim value when you’re doing everything you can, on the cheap. And yet so many brands forget that … mistaking a premium price for a premium product. Until they find out by the actions, choices and behaviours of the people.
Technology is amazing and nothing is possibly more amazing than AI.
It has the power to liberate opportunities we’ve never imagined.
It can enable and facilitate whole new ways of working and creating.
It will provide an outlet for people who have been overlooked for decades.
This is all incredible and important stuff.
But if companies increasingly see it as a way to cut costs to drive short-term gains … then frankly, not only do they deserve all they will get, they need to realise they are the embodiment of Artificial Intelligence.
So to the people behind Artisan … go fuck yourself.
Said with love. Human love.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Agency Culture, Cannes, Colenso, Collaboration, Colleagues, Confidence, Creative Development, Creativity, Culture
So before Paula and I were going to do our talk for WARC at Cannes, I had a major presentation with the founder of a global sports brand.
Being a busy billionaire – especially one based in a different timezone to the one I was in – I knew they wouldn’t really be able to move things around just to accommodate me, which is why 2 hours and 30 minutes before I was due to hit the stage, I along with Si … the CCO of Colenso … walked into the Speakers Room at Cannes, where WARC had kindly organized a room for us to do our call.
Except when we walked in, we found the room was actually a cordoned off part of the lounge – where people would have been able to hear every word – so it was most definitely not going to work for something both so important and sensitive.
I should point out this was not WARC’s fault in the slightest as not only did they not know the nature of the meeting – mainly because it was confidential – but because they’d also gone out of their way to try and help with limited notice. That said, the result of this was Si and I with 20 minutes to come up with a solution.
After desperately running around to see if any of the ‘meeting booths’ dotted around the venues were free [they weren’t] we decided the best course of action was to do the advertising equivalent of MacGyver.
Grabbing a few chairs, we found a quiet corridor at the back of the venue and, as you can see from the pic below, set ourselves up.
Praying no one would walk past or through, we were there bang on time and presented our little hearts out – looking for all the World like we were in a meeting room and absolutely not in a corridor with windows looking out onto the throngs of global ad people walking past while trying to ignore the fact we were sweating like pigs as it was boiling hot and there was absolutely no air-conditioning to be had.
And yet I kind of love this is what happened.
Not just because we were proud of the work we had done and were going to present.
Not just because we wanted to honor the teams of talented people who had turned an idea into a reality.
But because advertising is filled with these sorts of stories.
Stories of grit, instinct, spontaneity, audacity and ridiculousness.
It’s kind of the things that makes it special …
Sure, TV, media and events like Cannes likes to present the industry as a highly polished machine … but show me a piece of great work that hasn’t come from a journey that tests every emotion in every person involved?
But what I love even more is how Si and I laughed about the situation.
Before. During. After.
Don’t get me wrong, we take what we do very seriously – but rather than freak out, we understood that when push-came-to-shove, we’d find a way and we’d do it well.
Of course, a big reason for that was how much we believed in what we were going to show and discuss – not to mention the fact this was not our first rodeo with the trials and tribulations of reality – but being able to hatch a plan and crack a smile as we dealt with our unexpected shitshow, ensured the audience not only were able to focus on the work rather than any sign of panic, but would see a team who trusted, liked and worked for each other rather than were just coldly clinical and at the end of the day, that’s not just how you honour the work that so many people put so much into, it’s how you increase the odds of making great examples of it.
At a time where the industry loves to promote an endless array of ‘proprietary’ tools and processes, it’s worth remembering the thing that we should be concentrating on nurturing, protecting and honouring is the stuff that comes out of it.
The work.
Too many people seem to have forgotten that.
Probably because the people promoting the systems, have never made the work.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Colleagues, Comment, Creative Brief, Creative Development, Creativity, Planners, Planning
One of the most complex relationships in advertising is the one between planner and creative. I don’t mean it because they don’t like or respect each other … but sometimes there are situations where the relationship can feel like you are coming from different places.
Of course, the irony is you both want – or should want – the same thing.
To use creativity to solve a problem in the most powerful, magical, effective way.
But we work in an industry where – for all the ‘science’ – there are no dead certs.
Oh there’s people out there who claim there is … often people with a ‘for profit’ service to sell … but at the very best, their ‘methodology’ is increasing the odds of success rather than guaranteeing it.
But often, that approach ends up inhibiting the potential of the creativity.
Caps it.
Limits it.
Tames it.
And while I understand why people may do that, they are also forgetting the other thing they’re doing is robbing the potential of the work to be even better than the ‘insurance policy’ level of effectiveness they mandated/hope for.
It’s why I love this quote I read recently about a gardener.
Nice eh? It’s good advice too.
It’s basically a story containing many parts.
Trust.
Respect.
Honesty.
Care.
Transparency.
Simplicity.
Understanding.
It’s why I think one of the best bits of advice for any strategist working with a creative is knowing when to either get the fuck out the way or focus on getting stuff that could kill ideas too soon out the way.
The reality is, when you’ve spent time discussing, sharing, debating and thinking about what needs to be done, the skill is to not then try and add things to the seeds the creative has carefully planted in a bid to try and get things to grow faster, stronger or whatever the fuck you want it to do.
In my experience, the best creative/planner relationships are based on trust and transparency. That’s not built by time together, that’s built by time in the field together.
Letting seeds grow, and doing all you can to not let them be cropped or killed too soon.
You may not always get the work you want, but if you remove the barriers rather than add more shit – you stand a much better chance of having a garden rather than a wasteland.