Every time there was an election, exactly the same thing happened in our house. Dad would come home from work, Mum would put his tea (dinner to us) in the oven to stay warm. Then they’d go to the polls together.
Mum would vote Labour, Dad would vote Conservative. Then they’d come home and Mum would get Dad’s tea up. There were no big political confrontations. They were just exercising their right, and fulfilling their obligation, to vote.
I was always told, “People fought a war for our right to vote.” So what mattered was that they voted, not how they voted. That was their right.
That was just a healthy difference of opinion. Mind you, this was in the days before media pundits decided differing political views were fundamentally incompatible. In the world before planners and marketing departments.
Nowadays that would be a household made up of two representatives of opposite, mutually incompatible, hostile psychographic groups. But Mum and Dad, being ordinary people, didn’t know they were supposed to behave like that. So they didn’t.
Them and millions of others. They voted and that was that. That’s what people do, that’s how they live their lives. They don’t do things according to the tramlines media gurus lay down.
They don’t stay within the boxes we’ve got them in. They don’t think and act the way we think they should. That’s what free will is.
I was discussing this with Ken Livingstone once. We’d just finished doing an anti Third World Debt commercial. We were talking about Margaret Thatcher as the only politician that understood the working class. Ken agreed, being working class himself he knew what I meant.
The Labour party had become the party of the Left. That’s not the same as the working class. I told him that my mum had voted Labour ever since she’d been old enough to vote, in the 1920s.
Then in 1984, after my dad died, she went to vote on her own. I said to her, “I suppose you voted Labour as usual?” She said, “No, I voted Conservative.”
I was gobsmacked after over 50 years of voting Labour. I asked Mum why she’d done that. She said, “Did you see that old man on TV on Remembrance Sunday at the Cenotaph, wearing a donkey jacket? At least Mrs Thatcher showed the proper respect and dressed smartly.” Ken Livingstone sat there shaking his head, saying, “I know, I know, poor Michael never understood the working class. He thought he was showing solidarity with them.”
People don’t do what they’re supposed to do. The working class don’t do what The Guardian thinks they should do. They vote with their hearts not their heads.
Because that’s what we all do. When we media professionals strategise about advertising, it’s rational and logical, as if all people will behave according to our plans. Then, when we leave the office, we become consumers and do exactly what our emotions tell us we should do. That’s why it’s our job to excite people, not to try to herd them.
We have to make a case in the simplest, most memorable, way we can. Then get out of the way. There’s security in hiding behind long words and convoluted thinking, but no real power. We have to go beyond the complicated to get to the simple.
Over 2,000 years ago, Democritus said, “The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be ignited.”
People, all of us, are simpler than we want to believe. Advertising, all of it, is simpler than we want it to be. I’m convinced, in communication, simplicity is power.
But three of my heroes: Brian Clough, Bill Bernbach, and Ron Greenwood, all felt even more strongly. They all said, “Simplicity is genius.”
life would be too dull in we were as predictable as we'd like to think we are
How does a row of expectant mothers queueing for the toilet think?
if my experience of expectant mothers is anythng to go by, their thought patterns flicker between patient, radiant beacons of loveliness and the sort of psycho-killer that establishments such as Winson Green were built to house.
Very interesting stuff, Dave. My mum is the most working class person I’ve ever met and (much to my annoyance!), her lifelong heroine has been Thatcher. Whenever we argue about politics, she ignores all my pleas to see sense and tells me “that socialism nonsense is for people like you, who grew up having stuff.”
PS. Hey chaps, how do you get your little mugshot next to your posts?
@Ant To get your pic up, simply click on my profile - if you are reading this post and logged in you should see it on the top navigation bar (pics are small 50 x 50).
Cheers Gordon!
…now what do those same expectant women think when a man comes out of said toilet and that has a women only sign on the door?
Hey Dave, agree with much of this - except that I'd dispute that advertising is simpler than we want it to be. For sure, powerful ideas are those that resonate most immediately or simply. But the path that leads to this is littered with fragments which makes the job of clearing it all the more complex and difficult. That e=mc2 is an undeniably elegant equation is not to underestimate the complex proof that lies beneath. And why is it that those brilliantly simple ideas are more easily sold when they sit on top of an equally complex theory? Is this because to prove simplicity, you need complexity to define it? I guess the point is, it's deceptively simple. Or maybe perceptively simple.
As per usual Dave you are spot on. I couldn't believe it when I found out that my dad regularly went to the local conservative club. On a foray back up north I went with him to see for myself this den of inequity, this cursed shrine to Maggie with her pictures on the wall. It was at the bar that I then realised what it was all about. Cheaper beer!
-)))
wattydatsaimb -))) ? As per usual Dave you are spot on.
A fish does not know that it lives in water.
Kev, you've morphed into Jack! You'll be flogging us mugs next.
.oO
The long version:-
My father would never buy anything Japanese after seeing one of his best friends return as a bag of bones from the notorious Changi Railway in the far east during world war 2. The fact the Japs suffered two atomic bombs did nothing to change his views.
To an outsider he could have been seen as a Fascist. He wasn't. He hated the USSR.
He voted Labour (Socialist) all his life. My wife, a former member of the Soviet Union recently voted Conservative. My Dad would have absolutely adored her. The recent election votes were more a vote of discontent, a way of slapping the government (any government) in the face over the expenses scandal and the credit crunch. Gordon Brown has been left holding the baby Tony Blair had to drop when the invasion of Iraq became unpopular.
Brown has little brand equity because he was not voted in by the electorate, something newspapers and other cabinet members seemed to be happy to publicise, but to be quite honest, I'd rather have him as PM than the alternatives within and without. We can all say this country needs a proper elected leader. However, given the choice would anyone want any other elected leader from Europe?
Between Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan is a group of terrorists financing activities by the manufacture of drugs sold to Europe and America. Every time someone buys a drug they are potentially shooting our boys. Our boys are preventing drugs flooding the streets of London, Paris, Berlin, New York daily. We should be proud of them.
My brother was an insurance inspector. His next job was lorry driving. He was sick of being stuck in an office. He loved lorry driving so much he became a Bus Driver. Whenever he mentioned Ken he would say: Ah yes, Bendy Buses, that was another initiative of Ken Livingstone, may the peace of Allah be upon him.' Other bus drivers at the depot looked upon him strangely because he read books in his lunch hour.
Some people dream of being millionaires. Others are happy enough making the lives of others bearable. What motivates a person to do something is unpredictable. Media Gurus will often try to drive us down their tramlines of thought forgetting people are not products that fit into neat orderly ABC 123 size boxes.
Wherever there is power, there will always be someone attempting to control it.
The uncontrollable power of nature makes it awesome. Life would be so dull without
the mysteries of contradictions and unpredictability, such as a fish not knowing that it lives in water.
Nice one Kev.
Have you seen 'No End In Sight'. Good insight into the management, by the coalition of the willing, of the 'intervention' in Iraq.
Hi John,
No, but I stumbled upon this whilst doing a search:
www.youtube.com/watch
Seen it. However, we'll never know the real truth. Iraq was and is a problem, but the real tinderbox is here: www.youtube.com/watch
Ant, with that description of your background you could probably do with some new mugs as all yours are probably chipped.
Bought an english breakfast today and it arrived with the egg on the beans.
I mean who does that. I would never of thought of doing that. It always has to be either the bacon or sausage keeping the eggs apart from the beans.
Long answer:-
The Portugese used to love to put an egg on top of everything. Hamburger with Egg on top of the burger, Cod & chips with egg on top. They lived by the sea, but even imported the Cod becasue they loved it so much. It's quite delicious. Especially when washed down with a glass of the local Mateus Rose.
In Oporto they had a special liqueur called Bagasso. It was like drinking paint stripper. The local shoe shine boy (pensioner) would also use it to break down shoe polish to give their leather shoes a shine like Guardsmen's boots. He would wring his cloth tight in the local Cafe, and as he did it would make a peculiar squeaking sound like rope creaking tight around a mast. That was in 1985 when three legged dogs roamed the streets. It's probably changed a bit since then.
Short answer:- El Chef is Portugese, Brasilian, or Hungover.
Hi Dave,
When I was 5 my Dad bought this strange box called a television. He stuck it in the corner and turned a knob, and a white light appeared in the middle of the glass screen. Having got used to it in a matter of weeks as "the new relative in the corner of the living room" apparently I was watching a film that had me glued.
5 year-olds have a habit of unexpectedly getting cut short.
My brother and sister tell me one day I suddenly...
jumped out of the seat,
turned off the telly,
ran to the loo,
ran back downstairs
turned it back on...
expecting the film to wait for my return.
Children don't think like adults.
Yet adults often think they should.
It's a real "creative spanner in the works".
Adults can kill creativity stone dead.
Back to the egg thang. In Switzerland I used to order a Rösti mit Speck und Ei (Fried Potato with Bacon and Egg). Now they thought you were mad if you broke into your egg right from the off. You were supposed to eat all around the egg and only then could you break the yoke. Quite mad. All just goes to show that people don't think like we think they should think and long may it continue.
Hi Gordon,
That sounds like a story from this link.
You've probably already heard Ken Robinson's talk on TED.com but, if you haven't, I think you'll love it.
www.ted.com/.../ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html
"I am trying to fry an egg in here…give me a break" - Ken Robinson. Classic.
Hi Dave - I had to give an inspirational presentation to the whole agency and cheated a bit by showing that Ken Robinson talk. It went down a storm and I'm still basking in the reflected glory!
Jack - haha, you don't know how right you are! Any discount for bulk purchase?
I have seen Ken Robinson's talk now. He is so right.
I wonder if Ken Robinson was inspired by the film: 'The Dead Poet's Society"
When my son took his 11+ he jumped into the car in tears.
I asked him what was wrong, and he told me it was awful because he could not answer 3 questions, one of which he had never heard of.
It was "Describe Pie as a fraction".
I said: "What did you put down?"
He told me "22 over 7".
I told him he was right. he still cried.
I asked him how many questions were there?
He told me "100".
I asked "So why are you crying?"
His reply: "I think I only got 98 right !!!!!!"
When the 11+ results came through, they rated Philip with an IQ of 198.
He went to MENSA, got bored and left.
It didn't stop there.
Philip was being pushed to go to Cambridge or Oxford by the headmaster.
He hated the head, and so did I.
Philip was just a bonus and tick in a box to him.
I told him to go where he wanted to go:
He ended up with a 1st Class Hons in Music from Manchester.
He loves Manchester so much he's even got a Mancunian accent now.
Then he didn't want to perform in public, so he decided to take a degree in Physiotherapy because he wanted a job working for a non-profit-making organisation. He's now being interviewed by the NHS with the long term
ambition of becoming a Music Therapist. He is very happy within himself,
very happy working for the career of his vocation.
Nobody could tell when he started his Music degree where it would end.
Education should be an end to a means not a means to an end.
Forced Education limits the freedom of choice for people to think for themself.
That's ironic when the whole idea of education is to teach people to do just this.
Teachers told my daughter she could not study A level Biology when she has set her heart on being a Doctor, so she just turned up for Biology anyway.
Now she's at the top of the class.
The teachers were horrified.
She still worries herself stupid about exam results like other kids.
Kids up and down the country get so stressed-out about their results.Some have even taken their own lives. That's not education, it's a terrible pressure at an age when people are highly vulnerable. They should be allowed to enjoy, not endure that vulnerability. Education should be fun.
My cousin always used to say: "The purpose of education is to teach you how to think, not how to get a job". It should not form the basis of judging intelligence either, which brings us back to two of your favourite subjects:
D&AD Awards
The Gunn Report.
I'd much rather have a conversation with an intelligent Bricklayer than an educated idiot because one will enrich my life while the other leaves me empty.
Did you get your kid into music lessons early doors then Kev?
Ha!
Absolutely!
At the ripe old age of 13 I don't think my music teacher was too impressed with me when I turned up at his bungalow in a pair of white levi's sta prest and a pair of Doctor Martens. I gave up after 6 lessons. Playing the piano was okay, it was just the look on his contorted face every time I touched his grand piano as if he was saying: "You are scum, unworthy of touching MY Grand Piano".
A hardnut friend of mine got such a caning in music classes from an Aussie teacher, he could not sit down all lesson, and when he did he cried. The teacher screamed at him: "Go to the headmaster for a caning you little bxxxxxx!" (Those were his actual words.) We all behaved after that, but you can see the common thread of the control freak in music teachers developing.
So Philip had some unfinished family business to settle with music teachers.
He started playing at 5 years of age. It was fun. His teacher was a woman my wife found. She was odd. She had a pretty face masked by pent-up anger, and you could see she was struggling to keep it all in. She tried to make him do classical music. More tears. He nearly gave up at 12, so I asked him what the problem was, knowing how much he loved his music. He shrieked: "I just want to play Jazz!" So we had a word with the frustrated spinster.
Now Philip plays Piano and Sax extremely well and finds it a pleasure to play.
Music is something you can enjoy all your life, like Art, or certain sports. It's so important to be free to express yourself. Years later, we discovered his music teacher had a massive hatred for men because of how her father treated her mother. Music was her way of controlling her anger and escaping that pain.
Her father spent a fotune on her, and yet she still refuses to talk to him even to this day.
Small facial expressions and little eye movements are the tell tale signs to identify if people are thinking the opposite or telling the truth, like tiny high pitch flutters at the top end of a Grand Piano. The same goes for convincing acting as Michael Caine once demonstrated on Parkinson: how small expressions can be so powerful to convey a thought or an idea, or simply a feeling.
I kinda have had the same conversation with a friend of mine. He makes his kid play crusty dead composer stuff and he quite clearly isn't enjoying it. I told him some joplin etc would help pep it up a bit but deaf ears and all that jazz.
Dave touched on it once when he mentioned the difference between america and here seemed to be that over the other side the pond they focus on your strengths whilst here it seems the opposite. Having said that I'm assuming to get a 1st with honours at one of the best unis for music your boy needed to brush up his bach and beethoven etc as well? No surprise to hear he tapped into the underlying current that is the republic of mancunia;s legacy. Marx and Engels did meet there after all.
Stop patronising fish Kevin!
Ant. I'm sorry not only is there no discount there is in fact a higher price charged if you are working class. Sorry but it's the system.
Dave Trott
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