A journalist in Creative Review (who went on to write for the Sunday Times, so he was no mug) once described me as having the worst dress sense of anybody in advertising.
It was a fair point, and one I was reminded of when I went to talk to Bucks College in High Wycombe last week.
Because students are always scruffier than you remember.
And I like that.
(Although it does raise the question. What could HHCL have achieved, beyond being Campaign’s Agency of The Decade, if I’d only put a bit more effort into co-ordinating my chinos.)
I went there to brief them on an idea I’ve got, so I needed their cooperation.
So I started off by telling them that they were studying the wrong subject at the wrong time.
As you do.
I told them it felt like the end of something.
I could have pointed out that in a recent survey of the 20 coolest brands in the UK, only about 6 of them have ever had any cool advertising. And only 1 of them has had any cool advertising in the last 12 months.
1 out of 20, in an industry which supposedly builds brands.
I could have gone on to quote the writer and actor Charlie Higson.
He was in a recent Guardian “My Media” feature. Increasingly, the celebrities answering the questions in this don’t bother to talk about advertising at all, although they’re all asked about it.
But Mr Higson did.
And his reply was a splendid bit of invective. He said “It tends to drive me insane. I get very cross at the way it leeches ideas from other media, adapts them, and then gives itself awards for them - completely unscrupulous."
Then, in a TV programme from last week, Mike Mills of REM was asked how he felt about his songs being used in advertising. “I’d rather cut my own finger off”, he said.
Of course, people have always been rude about advertising. The singer Neil Young once found that one of his songs, Heart of Gold, had been sold to MacDonald’s for an ad. He played it once at a concert, changing the words to “Hamburger of Gold” and then swore never to sing it live again.
Going even further back in history (although if you saw Neil Young at one of his recent concerts in London, you’d think it was impossible to go any further back in history that Neil Young) there’s a quote I’ve always liked which George Orwell used about our industry.
He wrote “Advertising is the rattling of a stick inside a bucket of swill ”.
Presumably Ringan Ledwidge (one of the top 3 directors working in our industry right now) likes the quote as well since that’s the name of his production company.
But saying “advertising has always been bad” doesn’t solve the problem of how bad it is right now.
Does it ?
Although that does seem to be the attitituide of a few people in the industry right now.
Thinking like that would mean that no aspect of human life would ever progress in any way whatsoever.
“Yea, it’s pretty crap not having fire, it tends to mean we’re quite cold and our food options are severely restricted – but what can you do ? It’s always been like that.”
That’s why I was talking to a bunch of students. Because I wanted to see what they can come up with.
I gave them two brands which are going through a pitch process right now – Youngs Seafood and Dulux. I said – show me some ideas I won’t see anywhere else.
Show me ideas where I’m going to respond by saying – not “that’s nice”, or “that’s good” – both of which mean they will be invisible in the highly competitive media world out there.
But which I’ll respond to by saying – “Where the f*ck did that come from ?” or “Can we do that ?”
I gave them a week, so I’ll let you know how I get on.
