Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Agency Culture, Attitude & Aptitude, Colenso, Comment, Creativity, Culture
… but all idiots do idiotic things.
Yes … I know it’s daft.
Yes … I know it was potentially different.
But my god, these are the stupid things that makes this industry fun.
The weird, the wonderful, the daft and the ridiculous.
I get it – it’s unprofessional and immature – but it also connects and unites. Reminds people they’re not in a corporate job. Gives you memories that you still smile about years later.
I’ve seen, experienced – and probably engaged – in a bunch of stuff that represents this.
OK, there’s some I regret – and a couple I can never, ever tell – but the reality is no one ever got hurt and those moments helped create an environment where everyone felt there were no limits to what was possible.
Hell, one of those stupid moments led to an idea where we created a rollercoaster inside a house in Shanghai for Heineken.
And while I appreciate a bunch of you who read this will see it as some bullshit attempt justify acts of stupidity, seeing a plaque made for someone who swallowed a coin creates a much more inspiring and memorable place to work than the the painfully efficient, contrived and soulless, multi-agency brand buildings favoured by so many these days.
Or maybe that’s just me.
Probably me.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Agency Culture, Attitude & Aptitude, Authenticity, Colenso, Comment, Confidence, Consultants, Content, Context, Creative Development, Creativity, Culture, Emotion, Empathy, Fake Attitude, HHCL, Imagination, Immaturity, Love, Management, Marketing, Marketing Fail, Only In Adland, Planners, Relationships, Resonance, Respect, Uncommon, WeigelCampbell, Wieden+Kennedy
This is a plant in our office.
I have no idea who owns it.
I must admit I don’t even really like it.
But that sticker …
Oh I like that.
I like it a lot.
Sure, to some it may be stupid.
Or even disrespectful.
But to me, it shows a company where the people within it have a mischievously creative spirit. The sort who spot creative opportunities to do something people will notice, or relate to or just feel for a whole host of reasons.
In just a single word, they found a way to make anyone who sees that little sticker not just see a plant, but a hard-to-please, always demanding, never content, forever dissatisfied pain-in-the-ass plant diva.
In short, they gave a plant a personality.
In one word.
Yes I know I have a ‘history’ with dodgy stickers – and I also loved the time someone at Wieden Shanghai put the sticker ‘freedom’ next to the ground floor button in the lift [which was promptly taken down, probably by the same person who still goes mental when they discover another of my Wieden leaving stickers hidden somewhere in the building despite me having left years ago, hahahaha] … but I particularly love this one.
I love someone thought it was worth doing.
I don’t care they may have given it no thought whatsoever – in fact that makes me like it more – because it’s those little, pointless things that reveals the most important thing you could ever want to know about an agency.
Are you entering a place that has a culture of creativity or a business that sells efficiency processes under the label of creativity?
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Agency Culture, Attitude & Aptitude, Comment, Craft, Creativity, Culture, Differentiation, Distinction, Perspective, Point Of View, Premium, Respect, RulesOfRubin, Standards, Truth
I’ve written a lot about craft.
The value of it.
Creatively, culturally and commercially.
Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate speed can have a competitive advantage – but it’s also important to remember so can craft.
In all honesty, you can easily tell those who think ‘good enough is good enough’ and those who are focused on doing things wonderfully.
They may look similar.
They may perform in similar ways.
But there’s something that separates them.
Maybe it’s the quality of materials or the attention to detail when your look closely or maybe it just feels differently … something that feels like someone sweated everything all the time.
But what is interesting is why.
Because it’s not just so they can charge someone more for what they’ve done … but, as Steve Job’s referenced in his paint behind the fence story … so they can feel they’re valuing their own talent and standards.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Attitude & Aptitude, Authenticity, China, Chinese Culture, Comment, Context, Creativity, Culture, Emotion, Insight, Nike, Otis, Point Of View, Relationships, Relevance, Resonance, Shanghai, Wieden+Kennedy
Many years ago, we were working on a NIKE project about inspiration for China.
China and sport had a weird relationship because it was either seen as a distraction to academic success or a ruthless and relentless act to achieve a pre-determined goal.
I still remember spending hours looking for any photo where we saw a parent or a teacher or a coach encouraging a kid doing a sport … but it was hard. Not because adults didn’t care about the kids in their charge, but because there was this attitude that encouragement encouraged laziness.
Tough love indeed.
But when we talked to kids who loved sport for no other reason than loving sport, the thing we found fascinating was how one of their great inspirations was a wall … or a court … or a park somewhere near where they lived.
This would be where they could kick, throw, hit, head or play against hour after hour … day after day.
This was where they could play without judgement or expectation … but with plenty of competition.
Because walls don’t get tired.
They don’t show sympathy.
They’re always ready to play.
We all have a wall.
They may look like others.
But there is one that is yours and yours alone.
For me, it was the wall of a Church opposite Erika’s sweet shop at the Top Shop.
It was up the road from my childhood home.
I would go up there every night over summer.
Sometimes by myself. Sometimes with friends.
And that would be the arena and the competition for all manner of games.
From playing footie with empty cans … playing cricket by throwing tennis balls as hard against the wall as we can to just practicing our skills of tennis or keepie-uppie. And then on a Friday evening – after school – a bunch of the kids from where I lived would gather by the field next to the church and play a massive game that drew all the girls from school to watch us.
That wall was a major part of my childhood. Of my love of sport. It helped me connect to where I lived, to the people who lived there and just what I wanted to do.
Sport was deeply entrenched in the place I grew up.
Not in terms of a formal team – though we had that and we also had Nottingham Forest doing well at the time – I mean as an outlet for kids to do shit.
Now I’m not sure if that is still the case.
We live in gentrified times.
Where noise is challenged with authority.
Where parks are placed on the outskirts of towns, not the centre,
Where sport is becoming more about the quest for fame rather than enjoyment.
It’s one of the biggest thrills of living in New Zealand.
It’s still an outdoor culture.
Otis has done more running around and visited more parks here than he ever did in the UK. Which has helped him meet more friends than he could ever have hoped to in his time here.
Given the year he had in lockdown, the impact on him has been huge.
And that’s why we should encourage sport to be played as much on the streets as in the parks and schools. Because sport adds to communities in ways that makes communities.
Let the wall be culture’s best inspiration and competitor.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Attitude & Aptitude, Comment, Creative Development, Creativity, Culture, Film, Fulfillment, Guns
I love Nicholas Cage.
Yes, I know he’s become a caricature of himself.
Yes, I know he’s not made a good movie in an age.
But my god – whether the movie is good or bad – you remember him.
One of my favourite movies with him in it is one of my favourite movies.
Lord of War.
It is arguably the last great movie he made.
It’s the story of a global arms dealer – Yuri Orlov – however the reality is the lead character, played by Cage, is an amalgamation of a number of real life ‘Lords of War’ with many of the scenes in the movie being based on true stories.
In fact, the way they made the movie – specifically the tank scene – is worthy of its own film.
But that’s not what this post is really about.
It’s about the opening scene to the movie … one of the best opening scenes ever made.
People talk about the opening credits of Seven … or Limitless … but while they set the mood, they don’t tell a story … and this does it brilliantly. The story that set ups the story you’re going to watch.
I can’t remember how they previewed the movie, but I hope they just ran this because it is better than any trailer they could ever have come up with. Mainly because it doesn’t attempt to tell the whole story, it tells just enough to make you want to find out more.
As a trailer should, but generally never.
OK, it’s not totally perfect.
The CGI is not as good – or as impactful – as it would be if they made it today … however the idea of showing the life of a bullet is a masterclass in storytelling.
And film making.
And creating anticipation.
And proof that occasionally, Nicolas Cage, makes the best decisions of anyone.