Dave Trott’s Blog

The truth about awards is that they are selling the ad industry short. When creatives care more about what award their work will win rather than what results it will generate how can we expect to sell our true worth. Creativity can no longer be  about serving the agencies' and creatives' interests. It has to become about solving a client's business problem in the most imaginative way possible. Maybe if clients had to contribute to the cost of any award entered in their name then agencies might not place so much importance on them.

You need another job. You have a choice. You can have half a dozen D&AD's or your integrity to put on your CV. Your choice.

Fortunately Jack, I have both. Which is why I'm questioning your integrity.

I know about the lists but Hiedenstam's evocation of the disintegrating mind obsessed with the imaginary girl Ingrid in his seminal novella, The Ingestaten Monologue, (In Chinese translation I scream Ingrid) is remarkable. Although I suspect my translation from the Norwegian leaves many a scholar questioning my interpretation of future tense. Put your smorgasbord where your kankabuksen are then. It should be in English by now anyway. Come on let's get it done

Foretold

Just because something is foretold doesn’t make it special. The accurate prediction of events is of no importance, why should it be? Every event is foretold is some way or another, it isn’t special. If time suddenly started moving backwards we could all predict the onset of innocence, the disappearance of things. The decent of love into acquaintance. The approach of a particular piece of ignorance. We would return our children with acts of supreme selfishness and forget that we ever loved them. Shrapnel would reform into bombs. Fossils would moisten and wriggle. Jade would melt and release its fly. No, to make something from a simple piece of foretelling into something special is a very different thing - very different.

You claim to have half a dozen D&AD awards and your integrity? As you are using a silly pseudonym, Red Brown, to conceal your true identity so no one can check out your dubious claims of six D&AD awards and integrity, questioning my integrity would appear a little hypocritical don't you think Red?

Integrity and identity are not the same thing. I'm sure George Eliot had stacks of integrity, but for reasons we all know decided not to reveal here true identity.

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Still doesn't clear up the business of you bogus claims though does it Red?

Funny Red how you instantly go to someone masquerading as the opposite sex when no one mentioned the S E X subject at all. Hmmm

So, let's get this right Jack. You have no integrity, you're pretentious and now you're sexist. You must work in advertising.

If you scrape the paint off a Silver Cannes Lion it's gold underneath.

I don't think my integrity is in question Red? At  least I've made no bogus claims to having won numerous D&AD awards. If that isn't pretentious what is? Where do you get sexist from? It was you who said that a transexual author had integrity. How do you come to that conclusion? She lied about her sex. I'm a man so don't understand why she would do that. Some integrity.

Scraping Lions. What is it all coming to?

Just a small point but the following authors are also in the winner's list for the Nobel prize for literature:

Harold Pinter

John Maxwell Coetzee

V.S Naipaul

Seamus Heaney

Derek Walcott

Wole Soyinka

Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Sir William Golding

Samuel Beckett

Jean Paul Sartre

John Steinbeck

Albert Camus

Ernest Hemingway

Winston Churchill

Francois Mauriac

Andre Gide

William Yeats

Rudyard Kipling

Oooo ee ad you Dave. Whatever happened to Anton he wouldn't put up with this. Nice pic Charlie.

Hi Dave,

BULLS EYE !  Like William Tell, you've hit the apple on the head. However

this apple is like a great ball of puss. Puss is great stuff. It's nothing more than dead cells, and dead cells are what dead ideas are made of.

Yes, the fellacious whores of bygone days were of much consternation to many, and in some parts of the world still are ( Campaign Middle East).

Scum is scum.

I remember winding up a team by telling them they'd never get a D&Ad under their current group head. It inspired them to do just that. I was as happy for them as well as I was upset for myself, because I thought getting something like that would change people's opinion of me. I no longer care what people think of me. It's none of my business. What I think of myself is far more important. I was offered a D&Ad on a plate once and told the person to XXXX XXX because it would have meant me stealing something from the guy he worked with. I've even turned down jobs because it would mean putting another person out of work

who did not deserve it.

One of the friends in the team who won a D&Ad said something that really rung true with me as I looked over his certificate. He said: The certificate's of no use, but the frames are useful. He then said: You know Kev, you've got all your life to win one of these. There's no rush.

At the end of the day, people know who can turn out good work and who's just

full of excrement, and no matter how much one polishes a turd, it will never shine. Personally I'd never want to be part of some conspiracy because like Martin Boase's flat beer, it would be a tateless experience that I could never live down. I'd rather be out of work than to sink so low.

I bet this blog has left a few readers with a nasty aftertaste in their mouths.

Good.

Not scraping Jack. Rubbish paint that peels off unappealingly of its own accord. The truth about awards, eh?

Is that a cravat Charles? Thought they'd gone out with Cookie on 77 Sunset Strip. The greatest TV detective show ever. Shot just down the road from Chiat Day. Those binoculars, what a piece of ***. Same with the Guinness surfer ad, the people who pitched it should get the prize not the limp wristed creatives. Still you seem to know your Laureates. More than can be said for most kids these days. Did you read Dave's blog moaning about his kids education?

Jesus Kevin, are you on acid?

Hi Charlie Smith.

Is the point you're making that awards sometimes get it right?

If it is you won't get an argument from me, sometimes they do.

No Jack, I'm telling the truth.

I worked at one agency on an evil monster of an account. It was shunned by other creatives. we would walk to our room feeling 'less than'. Another group tried to turf us out of our offices, and one day I found obscenities scrawled all over the wall of my office. These people thought they were better than me because they suffered from grossly inflated ego's fed by a self obsession for awards that would mean even taking them off of others who had done all the work. Well, the situation got so bad, it went "upstairs", and the message came back from the top to leave these people (meaning us) alone. Why? Because without us, the feeders of the Evil Monster, none of the rest of the agency would be able to function. Top Drawer ads can cost cost top drawer money.

Evil Monster enabled the rest of the agency to do what it enjoyed most, however, some idiots had failed to realize that people who feed Evil Monsters were just as capable of producing great ads, and I went out of my way to prove this, which I did. A person's ability to produce ads should not be judged by awards alone. Much business is won by the deal. It could be media that does it, it could be the way an account team operates that does it. Creativity is only part of what makes the great business winning formula, and it's different for every client. Some clients will just say 'show me the ads', others will ask 'how much'.  Please note, I mentioned 'bygone days' not 'present days'.

I attended a D&Ad dinner just a couple of years ago, and it was a great pleasure to see people pick up awards. The greatest pleasure of all was to be happy for those around me and not feel at all jealous myself.

THAT felt GREAT! and when you understand that feeling, you know what it's really all about. It's about great work, it's about those great account people who manage to sell great work, because without them to get it through we're all up the creek without a paddle. It took me a long time to accept that, but it's absolutely true. The account man should be your best friend.

It seems that it is the judging criteria that needs addressing and not the industry's passion for awards.

On that note it may also be prudent to change the selection process of the judges. Possibly bringing respected individuals from outside the industry to give their thoughts.

Hi Dave,

I met with a team last night who showed me some of the best work I've seen in a long time - genuinely salient, creative, work that delivered results for their clients and, crucially, moved them on.

These chaps - a girl and a boy - are a midweight team, and they've worked for two agencies in five years. My point is that I brought up the question of awards too as they don't list any on their CVs and to some Creative Directors, other recruiters etc, this would be a real negative; putting them on the second tier - especially when there are so many people looking for roles at the moment.

I understand that. If their CVs and folio landed on your desk and you could only give a cursory glance at them because of time constraints, there's a danger that they'd be dismissed because they've 'only' worked in two reletively traditional BTL agencies and they don't highlight any award wins. In doing so however you'd be dismissing a really talented, intelligent team who have ability through the line. Real ability.

What made them even more impressive was the fact that their work has been carried out on what some would consider to be pedestrian brands - and these brands have completely benefitted from having had their involvement.

Awards are important and yes, they're an indicator, but by no means are they the complete picture - as Dave's list of 'losers' testifies. Also, unlike Dave's list, our awards are based on entries, rather than nominations, so as the old adage goes, 'you've got be in it to win it'.

Couldn't agree more Kevin. They're all corrupt in a very incompetent sort of way. You vote for boggins I'll vote for you. Nothing on the MP's expenses scale I know but... I proved it once by entering my best ad of the year. It was a big poster for Brighton College. We had a prime poster site right on the sea front for the whole of the summer. Our image. Beautiful blue sky shot with one little puffy cloud from one of the best photo libraries, (Not cheap I tell you for a single use.) They never found out about the Christmas Card and Prospectus cover) Big headline. THE SUMMER WILL NEVER END. then in tiny type you could hardly read. BUT JUST IN CASE IT DOES CALL US FOR A COURSES GUIDE TODAY. Talk about targeting. Smack on for the punter. Dope smoker with smog in the noggin' (Smog is a quote from Kookie a character in the brilliant TV series 77 Sunset Strip, meaning memory loss) Classic award winning poster I think everyone would agree. (Even Anton) I know someone was killed at a Fat Boy Slim beach party and the poster featured in the press reports but nevertheless... Didn't even get in the book. What does that tell you eh? Big C. Want a laugh? What did win? Don't have tea in your mouth when I tell you but... The Guardian. You know those unfathomable red slabs that everyone carries in Red Square on May Day. And the copy, I'M ONE, ARE YOU? Don't know about you but that lights up my tilt sign.

Hi Jack,

I think you should have a look at the work from the type of people Tim's talking about and ask them (and pay them) to write a line for your mugs. The judging panel of D&Ad take a long time to judge the work. I'm sure it's a very painful

process for them. One of the earliest lessons I learnt as a creative was to 'Murder your darlings' in other words, it's not because I have the best idea in the world (in my head) that the rest of the world will necessarily see it the same way. D&Ad have done a lot of work that has raised the bar of advertising not just in this country but internationally.

A few good books to read are: 'Whatever you think, think the opposite'  by the late great Paul Arden,  'How to get a job in Advertising' by Dave Trott (D& Ad publications) The Craft of Copywriting by Alastair Crompton, Confessions of an Advertising Man by David Ogilvy, The Copy Book by D&AD, Positioning by Jack Trout, 100 Great Advertisements edited by Barry Day, Remember those great Volkswagen ads? by David Abbott, Selling the war by Zbynek Zeman, and one you'll love: The World's best Posters by Morris & Watson, and tell us what you think.

How dare you, my mug, 'I USED TO FUCKING CARE' has been voted office gift of the year. How many D&AD winners have won office gift of the year? My mugs and  cards have sold remorselessly both here and in Copenhagen. Even Dave Trott has one. As for inspirational books try, 'Words are not things,' or 'I wish I was the person I'm pretending to be' By ME. Or look me up in the Encyclopedia, 'Geary's Guide to the World's Great Aphorists.'  Yes Great. How many D&AD winners are in there eh?

Hi Dave,

My point is:

a) never trust a list especially if it is incomplete

b) rather than saying awards sometimes getting it right and sometimes get it wrong which in itself must be an intrinsically subjectively held view we must realise that in a truly subjective process such as judging advertising creative (or the impact of a literary work) the best we can hope for is for the majority of people to feel that the best work has been recognised the majority of the time.

Charlie - isn't that what happened when the Emperor tried his new clothes?! Sure awards are good and the parties are fun, but as a client said to me only the other day, if the work doesn't result in factories being opened, what's the point? Now if it can guarantee both - then there's a cause to celebrate.

Dear Jack,

You raise an interesting point. However, D&Ad is about stimulation. Congratulations are for sales, and no doubt you are to be congratulated for your achievements. As one of the world's greatest aphorists perhaps you should consider entering your work for D&Ad under one of the copywriting categories and let's see how it fairs. The painful truth is, nobody has total ownership of an idea. Great ideas are usually the combination of many minds.

My wife had an idea once that she wanted to have a sign in the back of her car to stop motorists from driving up her behind all the time. I got out my Magic  Markers and drew a dummy on a yellow triangle with the words 'Baby on board' in black. A year later the country was flooded with stickers saying the same thing. I didn't get a D&Ad for that. I did not even expect one. I never received any money. Nothing. So what. Who cares. The important thing about it was that people were and still are communicating with the driver behind them  to keep away from driving dangerously close. By the way, I forgot. There's a great book called The Bill Bernbach book by Bob Levenson. You don't have to read any of these books, however, reading them will make you considerably richer.

Shouldn't you have had a baby first. You're as bad as Red Brown with his bogus claims to having six D&AD awards.

Ha Ha Ha !!!!

Oh Jack, You know you never launch a new product without test marketing first.

What? Test marketing! You used a borrowed baby? Whose baby was it? Were the parents aware of what you were doing? Or did you cannily find an orphan?

Jack,

It's STIMULATION, then CONGRATULATIONS.

When there is only one possible action, the only question is when.

Page 47 from Words are not things.

Congratulations.

Tim - did you employ the boy/girl team?

Richard. Tim's a recruiter isn't he? He doesn't employ creatives just finds them jobs and charges for it. They're about to legalize it aren't they? So long as Tim protects them from violence, exploitation and drug dependancy. That's a few agencies out then.

Oh. I see. Well, surely Tim should be sending them Dave's way?

Really enjoying your blogs Dave! Why I never found them sooner is beyond me. They're a joy to read.

You're right Richard, they are a joy to read although some of the comments are obviously by some seriously weird people. Watch out for a guy making bogus claims to have won numerous D&AD awards and have the integrity of a transexual novelist. And in a previous blog someone called Anton (Not sure if that's his real name. Believe me it happens) called me a chancer, yes chancer because I mentioned my book titles, Words are not things and I wish I was the person I'm pretending to be and my web site scramitsthefuzz. Cheek! Oh and there's a guy called Kevin who wrote on his wife's' car but he's on acid. Oh yes and as you are new remember don't give your home address and only meet in well lit public places on a first date.

Welcome Richard,

Apparently Jack thinks I'm on acid.

You know, I don't even know if it is taken in tablet form or intravenously.

The hardest drug I take is coffee or chocolate for STIMULATION not CONGRATULATION. Dave's blogs are indeed a pleasure to read, and all the comments, especially Jack's make me laugh all day. I'll get a free mug out of him yet! Have a good weekend everyone and enjoy Easter. I look forward to the next installment of Radical Common Sense from the man. Alleluia. Amen.

Dear God Kevin. I thought you worked at Saatchi's. You don't take acid, you drop it. As in I dropped some acid man. That's cool although not as cool as Kookie in the best detective TV show ever, 77 Sunset Strip, shot on Venice Beach according to someone called Vinny Warren on Dave's cst blog. As Kookie would say maybe he's 'lighting up the tilt sign' or has 'smog in the noggin'. Either way as far as I know Venice Beach is called The Lido. I remember a gay film called Sebastian set on Venice Beach in which an old man called Lord Marchmain tried to befriend a young boy called Tadpole, his sons best friend at Oxford. Did Chiat Day do Cornetto?

Well, Jack, Congratulations on creating your first Camel from what started as a wonderful racehorse. If nothing else, you prove what 'they say' (The D&Ad Committee) is true. Like Dave, I am going to stop now and let you 'win' so you can experience for yourself the shallow emptiness of 'winning' by false accusation.

'the shallow emptiness of 'winning' by false accusation'. I like it. Cheating at golf is similar. You are only cheating yourself. Not that I would ever give my ball a better lie when off the fairway or anything!

Why am I being crucified?

Because your poster was rubbish!

Now get off the cross, somebody needs the wood.

That's why the Guardian won.

Swallow the bitter pill and take it like Jesus.

Funny, nobody else seems to agree with you that my Brighton poster was rubbish. I regard their silence as polite embarrassment at D&AD's obvious blunder. Enquiries for courses guides at Brighton were up nearly 4% on the previous year after my poster went up. Or was that just coincidence? Wonder what good, 'I am, are you one?' did the guardian? Hmm

Come on then... having stabbed you in the front with a blade of truth why don't you tell us how you would organize a D&Ad judging panel?

I was at Dubai Lynx. What a farce. We (Lowe) only entered three bits of work and won a Gold for MTV 'Chewing Gum' (AIDS Awareness).

Some agencies entered more than 200 bits of work!

(By the way, I've got a D&AD Pencil and came second to a Mr Abbott for my D&AD Silver Nomination.)

That question could certainly awaken a sleeping leopard in my breast Kev. Before we get to judging let's talk D&AD Kev. Complete root and branch reorganisation before anything else. The only way Kev. First bring back Edward Booth-Clibborn as President. When he went the whole thing fell apart. He had authority, presence and people used to get drunk at the awards do's and shout *** at each other and have sex. The conspiracy to get rid of him would have made Machiavelli add a new chapter to his book the Prince named after his patrons little know son Pessary Borgia. Anyway Ted's demise robbed us of a charismatic intelligence that at least had a background in advertising. He knew what below the line meant alright. What have we got now I ask? Garrick Hamm as President of D&AD. He's a, wait for it, Graphic Designer. What we all know is that's a posh way of saying commercial artist. No harm in lowly honest toil but who would have predicted the day a glorified sign writer would be president of D&AD? And what has Mr Hamm done apart from take a wad of cash from Loewy. (Let's talk Smoothie and Coke and creative freedom la de da here) He put Hovis in a bag with a photo of sliced cucumber on it. And wins loads of D&AD's for it. Anyone smelling a Coypu here? Anyone beginning to twig why my Brighton poster got the toilet just so a Guardian, IAMONEAREYOU? 'Designer' solution could get the pencil. What's wrong with a still from the classic Parker film of a little lad pushing his bike up a hill? Update it if you like, put him in a hoody but the job was done. Instead we get thousands of people thinking they're buying a bag of cucumber sandwiches feeling ripped off when they sit down with their can of spezzie by the canal to find its just sliced bread. Poor people buy that bread so they can cut up the wrapper and put it between two bits of bread and tell their kids it is a cucumber sandwich.  Apart from removing all the 'Bring back Ted' stickers from around Graphshite Square what is he doing? Lunching with Armani to discus international links? Persuading Sir Paul to sponsor a prize for best female ass in a music video? No he's going to help students. Yes you heard me, D&AD are going to help students. How? Remember Dave's memorable blog about the students he met being rubbish well, (Fingers inverted commas) It's okay D&AD are going to help them. Stand by kids, it's raining e's alahluya... Now the annuals and the yellow fucking pencil. Can we please stop this thing that graphic designers do of having ideas. Let's make the annual look like a cookery book. Let's make it look like a Mexican day of the dead sketch book. Let's make it look like a cheap piece of ***. Fun eh? Now the pencil. Let's make it look like a flute with holes in it. Let's make it look like mount Fuji. Let's stick it up someone's arse. Yawn. No Kev the only way forward is complete reorganisation. I know you were just playing devil's advocat when you said my poster was ***. Stick with me on this one Kev and (Wink touch side of nose) I'll see you okay when D&AD rises from the ashes.

Jack, nothing would make me happier than a free D&Ad (black one) printed on the side of a mug with the caption 'Not another xxxxing pencil'.

Hi Derek,

Yes, I heard about what happened at the Lynx Awards in the Middle East this year thanks to a brand republic report. It's a crying shame when a few bad eggs infest the whole show. It corrupts the work of everybody else, and having worked in the Middle East I know it contradicts Islamic values, and that's a very very dangerous thing to do. We haven't heard anyone from the States on the Clio's yet. Perhaps we can make it a global chat and get a few more orders for Jack's mugs: Howdee doodee America!

Anybody still out there?

Can I just make a point Jack - George Eliot was not a transexual - they didn't even exist in those days, she had a male pseudonym, this did not mean that she was a man who used to be a woman or the other way around.

normal :)

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I think awards are good for you reputation BUT there is an art to entering the awards and filling in the forms etc..

My agency has done many pieces of excellent work.  But every time it comes up to enter awards the entry papers come across my desk and I'm always very reluctant sign off the submissions.   You blog post, unfortunately, articulates my rational.  Thanks.