Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Attitude & Aptitude, Authenticity, Colenso, Comment, Creativity, Culture, Equality, Jill, Paula, Planning, Point Of View, Shanghai, Wieden+Kennedy
Once upon a time I worked with a male creative who was one of the most sexist pricks I’ve ever met. He was condescending, patronising and – even worse – did all they could to stand in the way of female talent.
There was one situation where he actively tried to stop me from hiring one of the best planners in the World simply because she was a woman … knew more about sport than him and was much better at it as well.
He tried so hard to find fault with her, when all the time he was revealing his fragile ego.
And while I dealt with him – resulting in us hiring this brilliant planner who has gone on to have the sort of career most people could only ever dream of having – the fact is, her career could have been severely undermined if he had got his way.
What makes it worse is he is a loving father of daughters.
If anyone should be treating female talent with respect and encouragement – surely it should be someone with 2 daughters of their own. But then I remembered watching the ex-Prime Minister of Iceland – Vigdís Finnbogadottir – in Michael Moore’s documentary, ‘Where To Invade Next’ who explained things perfectly.
“While men would never want another man standing in the way of their daughters career potential, that attitude only extends to their daughter … not women in general”.
Of course she’s right.
That’s what’s so fucked up. Especially about men.
As is the vernacular they use to describe female colleagues.
Calling them emotional.
Fragile.
Weak.
And while I would rather work with an emotional, sensitive and compassionate person any day of the weak, the fact is women are way stronger than the vast majority of men I know.
Fuck, my wife has shown more courage than I could ever hope to muster.
From saying yes to moving countries with a man she had only known for 6 weeks to carrying our kid for 9 months and then PUSHING HIM OUT to just embracing every challenge that has been put in her way … everything about her is stronger than Superman and more inspiring than any Nike spot. [Sorry Swoosh, you know I still love you]
Then there’s the fact the vast majority of female leaders [of which there’s still too few] actively bring their whole team along with them versus a lot of men, who just want to take themselves forward.
And yet, despite all this, women continually face gender devaluation by many men – specifically white men – which is why I bloody love the poster at the top of this post designed by the brilliant Kat at Colenso designed from this amazing quote by Rahul Singh Rathour.
Which is why I hope women embrace being fragile like a bomb … because it means those around them will fear them rather than them having to fear those around them.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Agency Culture, Attitude & Aptitude, Authenticity, Colenso, Comment, Craft, Creativity, Culture, Marketing, Point Of View
Craft.
I’ve written a bunch about it over the years.
Like here.
Or this.
And in all cases, I’ve talked about the power.
The value.
The devaluation of its importance by clients and agencies.
I swear to god, the loss of craft coincided with the moment agencies decided they didn’t want to be art schools and wanted to be an MBA class instead.
Idiots.
However every now and then you see a piece of work that reminds you how great and valuable craft can be. Work where you know the details were sweated because they cared. And the fact it comes from Colenso just makes it better.
Craft is a competitive advantage.
For clients. For agencies. For individuals.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Agency Culture, Attitude & Aptitude, Authenticity, Colenso, Comment, Creativity, Culture, Distinction, Marketing, Marketing Fail, Relationships, Relevance, Research, Resonance, Respect
When I joined Colenso, they organised some workshops for me to start having a deeper understanding with the Maori culture. It was – and is – amazing and I am so grateful.
In one of the classes, the professor said something that I thought was brilliant. While her analogy was about how many white people in New Zealand like to view New Zealand, it is so easily transferable to all nations.
While I’m probably paraphrasing her, what she said was this:
“We’re a world of fruit salad that governments, companies & media present and view as a smoothie.”
What’s terrible is adland is a major contributor to this.
Blending people and cultures to a bland, beige mess …
Saying a lot but telling you nothing.
Viewing individuality as an obstacle not a gift.
Which is why next time you write a brief or read an ad, it’s worth asking yourself … are you making fruit salad or a smoothie?
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Agency Culture, Attitude & Aptitude, Authenticity, Comment, Communication Strategy, Consultants, Creativity, Culture, Emotion, Empathy, Insight, Relevance, Resonance, Rick Rubin, RulesOfRubin
… however having just read a report by a consultancy on Chinese audiences – which was not only utterly generalistic, but out-of-date – I felt I had to write this.
Especially as the Rubin quote is so perfect for it. So here we go …
If you only know your audience through their transactional data … if you only speak to your audience to hear what they think about you rather than understand what you don’t know about them … if you only talk about your audience in generalistic terms … if you only interact with your audience through a one-way mirrored room … if you only interact with your audience by outsourcing to a ‘for profit’ organisation … if you think your audience only care about you and what you do … if you think your audiences lives have remained the same for over a year … if you use international trend reports as a proxy for knowing what your audiences future habits and behaviours will be … if you only talk to the same audience in the same markets [once a year] … if you only care about how to get your audience to buy more of what you’re selling … if you call your audience “consumers” …
Then I assure you, you’re definitely talking down to your audience.
If you want them to respect you, start by respecting them.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Agency Culture, Attitude & Aptitude, Authenticity, Comment, Confidence, Context, Culture, Emotion, Empathy, Equality, Experience, Love, Mum, Mum & Dad, Relevance, Resonance
Contrary to the quote of Oscar Wilde above, I don’t think the young think they know everything.
Sure there’s some … but the vast majority seem to simply be curious to explore and learn. It’s why I have far more faith in the future of the planet in their hands than my peers.
In fact, I meet far more older people – normally white men – who have the attitude of being the font of all knowledge.
In fact, they all fall into one of 3 distinct groups …
Those who think they know everything.
Those who know they don’t know everything,
And those who do know everything.
Given the last group consists of one person – Mr Martin Weigel – that means the vast majority fall into one of the first 2 camps.
The scary thing is that there seems to be far more who think they know everything versus those who are open to keep learning. I do sort-of understand. A life lived is a life experienced. Except it isn’t … plus life is constantly moving and evolving so to come in with some condescending, self-important. “I know it all” attitude is literally the worst thing you could do.
And yet so many still do it.
The funny thing is, because they come in with an attitude of forcefulness, they rarely have people speak up against them so they go off thinking they’re right while everyone around them whispers how stupid they are.
My Mum – as usual – had it right.
She was always open to the new.
It didn’t mean she liked it.
It didn’t mean she understood it.
But she felt if it mattered to them, it should matter to her.
And that’s why she went out of her way to watch, listen and learn.
What’s even more wonderful is that people who saw her being interested in them were then interested in her.
She loved the idea that she could mess with the expectations people had of an elderly Italian woman.
Not so she could pretend she was young, but so she could feel she still was an active member of society. Someone who still had something to offer, even if that was to stop older people blindly discounting what was emerging in culture.
God I miss her.
Which is why her, “be interested in what others are interested in” should be something we all follow. Young, old, rich, poor … because the more we understand, the more we can actually create change rather than conflict.