The First World war didn’t end on the 11th November 1918. This was merely an armistice. The war ended a year later with the Paris Peace Conference and the Treaty of Versailles that followed.
I think that it is high time that the armistice maintained between creative and media agencies since our historic schism in the mid 90s be concluded with a peace conference and final treaty.
I took part in a panel discussion at the IAA European Advertising summit this week along with Jim Carrol and Rita Clifton and chaired by the great John Grant (who gave me a copy of his excellent new book ‘The Innovation Manifesto’). We had to talk about our favourite European campaign. I chose Persil’s ‘Dirt is good’ despite the tragic creative work in the UK. I feel that this bit of thinking really hasn’t had the fame that it deserves which saddens me. This is the kind of thing that I said.
Image courtesy of KoAn
I had the pleasure of being at NMK’s Content 2.0 conference last week (6th June). We enjoyed some excellent speakers including Marc Canter from People…
And how can Catherine Deneuve, a flamingo and a bottle of scent help us understand the answer? Ok I lied about the flamingo.
Image from the V&A
“You can lead a horticulture but you can’t make her think” Dorothy Parker I think aphorisms rock and make any strategy, presentation, brief, conversation go…
“Orthodoxy, of whatever colour, seems to demand a lifeless imitative style”. George Orwell
You see it all the time – Client briefs, agency presentations, awards papers – the great cop out.
This is a low interest category.
It’s the universal panacea, the ultimate excuse, the dog ate my homework of the marketing world.
No wonder the work is dull, the thinking is lame or the creative is vacuous it is after all a low interest category and we might as well all go home.
Image from ‘far from dull’ by Dominic Greyer.
“Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative” Oscar Wilde – Aphorist par excellence
David Lloyd George, architect of the Welfare State and the greatest radical in British politics.
I hold something to be true. That radical thinking, particularly radical strategic thinking works.
This blog – unlike many ad blogs that talk about the future – has always set itself against both the Ostriches and the Lemmings. Of course we all loathe the Ostriches, those who continue to find succour beneath the sands of the status quo. But I have an equal amount of contempt for the Lemmings.
