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CLOSE-UP 2
U n best of itoiy SiitiKiland's
The IPA president has covered all advertising bases,fromprostimtes to Sherlock Holmes, in his campaignliv^
from 2009
I Why créatives should wear ties
occasionally. (20 April) Perliaps
the best thing you can do when
writing a good press ad is to aban-
will make the outcome better. Yet,
as with medicine, beyond a certain
level they are more likely to be
damaging than beneficial. The re-
don any attempt at being even re- sult of this tampering is that
motely hip. Put on a suit and tie. simplicity gets lost. Clarity gets
Read the Daily Mail. Go fox- muddied. Most likely of all, a
hunting. Visit certain charm gets killed off. For
Croydon (pic- the hardest thing sometimes isn't
tured). You to do something good. It's to leave
can do almost well alone.Toget it simple and have
anything in the courage to keep it simple.
press. But it's
hard to do cool. Remember, too, ^ Are you a capitalist or a crea-
that when you fail to be cool you al- fist? (10 April] Research
ienate everyone - the cool people \ - / seems to show that people
who hate you for failing and the are overwhelmingly intentionai-
un-cool people who hate you for ists, not consequentialists. In other
trying. Is it even sensible for most words, once they suspect an indi-
brands to try to be cool at all? Peo- vidual's intentions are largely self-
ple who are fashionable and exper- interested, it colours how they
imental will try new things anyway. perceive the outcome. To anyone
But strong mainstream brands working in business, this seems an
radically change the behaviours of important - and worrying-finding.
the millions of people who are tem- For it suggests the achievement of
peramentally less adventurous. If capitalist free markets in produc-
we were true toourbelief in brands, ing cheaper better goods is often
the dress code for the D&AD perceptually wasted, since most of
awards would stipulate M&S suits. us simply don't much respect the
selfish motivation behind the
The day the copy died. (23 Juiy) achievement.To put it anoth-
I still feel the full English er way, the probiem with all
^—.breakfast of a press ad in- this naked greed isn't the
volves a bigpiccieat the top.a head- greed.it's the nakedness. Or
line underneath, with two or three Sutherland... 'Research seems to show thai people arc overwhelmingly intentionaiists, not consequentialists ' as Eddie Izzard (pictured)
hundred words of intelligent,char- put it:"I'm not a capitalist,
acterful chit-chat ieadingsmoothly feeling a hint of emotional discom- We have endlessly problem, agreed by everyone in- I am a creativist. I want to
towards a logo or coupon at the fort - something I can't do at my talked about the volved. If you can find a new way of make money so that I can
end. Whafs odd about this ap- local family owned coffee shop. need to consoli- defining the problem, you've gone create things. Suddenly,
proach isn't Anyone ever cancelled a Trave- date media buy- most of the way to solving it. Just all these people have come along
that it's rare - todge the night before you stay? ing power, don't expect anyone to thank you who want to create things so they
it's that it is You're hardly tortured by the and then all for it. Or pay you. can make money."it'san important
virtually com- pangs of guilt,are you? we do is use this power to drive distinction. Which are vou?
pletely bloody And there's a lesson for anyone down prices. What is the point in
dead. Peopie
have started to
conflate crea- *"""
who thinks automated service is spending£10,000 to buy an adver-
always a poor substitute for per- tisement in the DaiVy Mfli/that says 7 Tbe IPA, Oxbridge and lap
dancers. (30 August] It simply
isn't true to say there are too
sonal service. It may be a massive "buy stuff if it merely pays for many Oxbridge graduates in ad- 10! Was Sheriock Hoimes a
planner or a creative?
(17 January) An insight is
three adjacent articles which tell vertising.There are hardly any- do a sudden and potentially valuable
tivity with improvement.
brevity. This is absolutely wrong. readers "don't buy stuff? Group asurvey if you revelation concerning what is; an
Too much brevity can be as much A The great unasked question of M and the other large media buy- like - Cam- idea is a sudden and potentially
of a discourtesy as too little. Re- / I the age. (1 March] What in ing houses should simply withhold bridge gradu- valuable revelation concerning
search is also partly to blame, I God's name is the point of all all advertising money from British ates in agen- what might be.
especially since ail press ads are this brilliant innovation if it brings media until they learn to cheer cies anywhere. Sherlock Holmes is the insightful
researched without body copy- an so little enduring joy? the fuck up. That would sort the There are, however, far too many planner par excellence - he sees
approach based on the moronic Sixty years ago. under commu- bastards out. Oxford graduates. It's an impor- what everyone else does, but ex-
belief that you can research a prop- nism,a few mil- tant distinction. After all, if you tracts far more from the observa-
osition in the absence of a sur- lion Russians / Oh heil, I've gone and soived want to populate the agency of the tion than anyone else. However,
rounding execution. The internet,
rap music, talk radio - these boom-
ing mediaforms are allcopy driven.
were happy to
diefortheright O tiie probiem the wrong way. future, do you want to fill it with there is one famous instance where
(9March]There"sas]ightfeel- people from a place where they Holmes is, I
to queue for a ing that, if you brief someone to split the atom, discover DNA and think, truly
Why does everyone love words potato. Today, in a market econo- come up with a press campaign and WTÜC Print ipia M alhematica.OT do ideaful rath-
more than we do? my, people who buy a microwave they come back with a solution in- you want peopie who have spent er than just
oven for £70 at two o'clock in the volving text message reminders, threeyearsponcingaboutinalinen insightful.
^ On the appeai of prostitutes, morning complain if they have a they are somehow cheating. It suit while carrying a stuffed bear? "Is there
~^ consuitants and Starbucits. three-minute wait.Thebrutalques- looks like a cop-out. If you any point to which you would wish
V-/(10 February) Some people tion underlying all this is simple. / think this issue is confined
may at times prefer ATMs to tell-
ers, in part because they don't want
to speak to tellers. I suspect, in fact,
that a surprising amount of the suc-
For all the talk about "value not
price", do people have any
genuine appreciation of value
at all? Or is our only concep-
to the ad industry, re-
member the story of 8 A few lessons from Eivis, to draw my attention?"
Jacko and Jobnny Casb. (1 "To the curious incident of the
July) What's interesting is dog in the night-time."
John Harrison and that Elvis and Michaei Jackson "Thedogdidnothingin the night-
Ihe £20,000 Longi- (pictured), two people both with time."
cess of large corporations is down tion of wealth not absolute but tude Prize.The great personal physicians, died so young. "That was the curious incident,"
to the fact that they offer the kind merelyrelative? clock-maker was in In truth, most of the time people Sherlock Hoimes remarked.
of perfunctory, impersonal trans- his eighties before he are better off beingmedi- To spot something that isn't,
actions family owned firms I More kittens: Or how Sir Mar- was properly rewarded cally left alone, most of rather than gaining a new view of
simply can't match. I Sorrell (pictured) can end for his contribution because the the time. Those creat- what is. seems to me a creative act.
' actually like Starbucks recession overnight. board was expecting an astronomi- ing advertising tend to A why not rather than a why. But,
because lean sitaround (28 January] One of the things that cal solution to the navigation, not a assume that more in detection as in advertising,
there for hours using has long baffled me about the ad horological one. One small way of research, more both questions seem useful at
the Wi-Fi on thestrength industry isthat although we pay for addressing this syndrome is to en- tissue sessions, different times.
of having bought one most of the media, we make no ac- sure every brief contains at its heart more inputs. Why would you ever confine
small coffee, yet without tive attempt to influence its output. a single sentence definition of the more opinions yourself to just one approach?
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