PRACTICAL TIP NUMBER 1

I've waffled enough in previous posts about wanting to get out of advertising and now it's time to walk the walk.

Practical Tip Number 1 is to speak to lots and lots of people who are doing interesting things that you admire and have a lifestyle that you would like to have. i've just started to do it. as a result i feel inspired by these people and it is automatically propelling me in a different direction.

that's it for now. i hope to keep them short and sweet.

OH SHIT WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT

my last post sounded like it came from someone that still has a passion for ideas and awards and all things creative in advertising. it was. they hijacked the blog and i've now cut their fingers off by slamming them in the fire exit door until they were so raw and spongy i could just pull them off like the fatty tail on a lamb chop. normal course outtahere will resume. by the way, if anyone has any hints on how to get the fuck out, i'd love to hear them.

The Art of the Entry Video (Integrated Category)

Everyone is migrating to the Integrated Entry.

Take the two 2008 Cannes Grand Prix winners – Halo 3 and Gorilla. Halo 3 was a very big idea (The Museum of Humanity) with lots of tears of work that fell across different media. The TV wasn’t the most amazing piece of work (directed by Rupert Sanders), but the total was greater than the sum of its parts (bits and pieces also won independently of the campaign idea, so further kudos). Gorilla, on the other hand, was just a TV ad. It’s all it needed to be. However, it could have very easily being turned into an integrated entry, using remixes and PR, the making-of, etcetera. Because Integrated entries are a lot of smoke and mirrors (nothing wrong with this, it’s just the truth).

So, for award shows from here on in, the new problem is going to be the poor bastards who have to sit and watch hundreds, possibly thousands of entry video’s; averaged out at 3 minutes a piece, that’s much more than anyone could bare to concentrate.

I’ve seen a lot over the last couple of years – Crispin Porter’s Burger King entry was highly polished, and in the last 12 months I’m amazed at how entertaining they have become. Sometimes, the video almost bares little resemblance to the reality of how the idea played out in the real world. Droga5’s TAP water is a case in point. As is their winner this year, the million project. Absolute fucking PR. Agency AAR reels are also a good example of the power of this hype.

Is it a good thing or a bad thing? Is it an easier win? I don’t know.

I have nothing to say in conclusion. Except baking bread does sell houses.

Bye.

CHOPSTICKS (NOTHING TO DO WITH GETTING OUT OF ADVERTISING)

I went to a chinese restaurant the other day with a friend and when our food arrived i went to pick up my chopsticks and realised there weren't any. there was a knife and fork, though. i looked to the table on my left and saw two chinese gentlemen eating with chopsticks. was this racist of the waiter? ("oh here comes a couple of caucasians, quick get the knife and fork out cos they sure as hell won't be skilled enough to use chopsticks.) anyway, if he didn't already think that, he certainly did by the time i handed one of them back and proceeded to stab my chicken pieces with the other one.

TEASER CAMPAIGN

I bought a copy of The Big Issue the other day because i was feeling so selfish in life. I couldn't help but notice the ad on the back cover for, wait for it... beds. I almost turned back to ask my homeless buddy to ask if he saw the irony in this cruel joke. But i didn't. Instead i just wondered if there is a deliberate twist of irony in this by the media buyer, or just blatant ignorance. Whichever, it's pretty bloody funny in a "i-shouldn't-really-be-laughing-at-this" kind of way. Check it out for yourself. It's advertising at its cruelest, and it doesn't even know it.

LAZINESS 2

it also explains why my posts are so few and far between. is laziness a disease or a necessary evil for a creative? i'll save that debate for another time.

LAZINESS

i have a friend who was a very good producer. he still is, but he's producing other things besides ads nowadays - not because he's "seen where the new gold is", but because he got bored of making ads, made enough money to take a few years sabbatical, and then by the time he needed to get back in, the rules had changed quite significantly. anyway, he's working with a guy who wasis (new word, which i quite like) a very good creative. this guy churns so many ideas he's like an ideas churner (like my analogy?). but the problem is that he sits there and just churns and churns but doesn't have the impetus to do anything with them, which i think is the difference between being just a good creative and being a very successful one. so this producer says that the way forward, he thinks, is to link one producer with one creative, which i really like the idea of, and completely agree with. i'm lucky because my partner is a creative at heart, but he's also very motivated, so when we have an idea, he makes it happen - even if it's nothing to do with advertising. i've worked in partnerships where both of us had really good ideas that we laughed at and enjoyed the mind trip of making it happen, but then did nothing with. economically, the way the industry is heading, it's possibly a more efficient use of resources, too. and if i was ever to start an agency, i would think about employing this team structure. i don't mean just take any producer, because the one i'm talking about (and my partner) are both very creative individuals, and i think you need one on that extra level. there's a few director/producer teams that employ this technique. i mention this because it's of absolute relevance to my blog. finally, by finding a way around my laziness, i think i may have found a sign showing the way out of advertising.