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A couple of weeks back, I interviewed John Hegarty. Not for a podcast, to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the British Television Advertising Awards. On stage in a fancy Soho hotel. On the way there, I remembered taking my folio into him at BBH in the eighties. I did it countless times. Receiving free advice and tea in his spotless office. At the time, I took it for granted, it was normal,…

Bartle Bogle Hegarty opened its doors in 1982. Eight years later, Campaign voted them the agency of the decade. Why? Their work was considered, intelligent, and, in a decade often referred to as style-obsessed, BBH was the most style-obsessed. But they also had something few agencies have today; swagger. They had the confidence, or is it arrogance? to cut their own path. Refusing to do creative…

A shiny new book turned up at my Brooks Legon Bloomfield during my first year in advertising. Weirdly, some in the creative department referred to it as ‘the bible’. It’s actual name was The Designers & Art Directors Annual. I was told it showed the best advertising and design from the U.K. Although, also at this point, the U.K. arguably produced the best advertising and design on the…

Sometimes people ask me where on earth I find all the work for these posts. To me, that’s the easy part. And although it’s sometimes time consuming, there’s a finite amount of places I have to check out. Like doing a big jigsaw. The difficult bit is this bit. What to say about it? Sometimes I have nothing to say. Putting ‘Check out these bangers!’ before a hundred ads seems lazy. But what if I…

To hear Derek tell it, his career was totally unplanned. One impetuous decision after the next. Leading to endless mistakes. Exhibit A: Quitting the best agency in the country to go on holiday with his girlfriend. (CDP) To me, it looks as meticulously pre-planned as any of the plots in the ‘Ocean’s’ films. STEP 1: Work for the best agencies in town: (CDP, BMP and DDB). STEP 2: A reconnaissance…

Being one, I’m very aware of my fellow double d’s out there in advertising. Dave Droga – met once, gave him a lift after judging D&AD together. Donny Deutsch – never met, seen him on Morning Joe though. David Denton – did a few ads with him at BMP, did Cointreau ‘Ice melts’, amongst many others. Don Draper – never met, seems cool. And Derek Day – less known than the first three, but well worth…

You can count the number of Creatives who embrace research on one finger. The rest of us desperately try to fight it with lines like ‘you can’t research original ideas’, ‘the group gets lead by its most vocal member’, ‘the public can only judge finished ads, not research material’, and on and on. Good arguments. But the argument against is better – John Webster. Once delivered, it’s hard for us…

British advertising may have had more successful businessmen. More accomplished creative directors. Bigger award winners. But never a better Creative. No one has more ideas living in British people’s heads than John Webster. They didn’t gatecrash either – they were invited in. Singing and dancing their way past the barriers and into the national consciousness. One big, happy conga line; Smash…

Halfway through this post, I considered abandoning it. It was referencing things that seemed so detached from today. Like I was recounting tales of life in the court of Louis XIV. The time, energy and hard cash given to creating a single press ad looks so excessive. Obviously times have changed, digital has eaten their lunch, breakfast and dinner. Smaller audiences mean smaller budgets. Some of…

Imagine a day where you don’t own a computer, and you lose your phone just after breakfast. We used to live like that. Every damn day. With virtually no access to information. Researching how to be better at your job wasn’t a thing. Advertising people didn’t do podcasts or post articles about their work. True, there were books, but not many. Aside from awards annuals, the main two were ‘Ogilvy On…

Creating is different to managing. Creators try to break rules, managers set them. Creators look inward, managers look outward. Creators are introverts, managers are extroverts. Not 100%, but most, AMV/BBDO once Myers Briggs tested their creative department. The results came back – fifty people were rated ‘I’ (introvert), one was ‘E’ – the creative boss (Peter Souter). I’s are ‘more likely to be…

Whatever happened to funny ads? Have clients buying them? Or have agencies stopped writing them? They used to dominate the ad breaks. Humour was the first tool you reached for after being handed a brief. Why? Well, as that Poppins women says ‘A spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down’. Actually…did they dominate ad breaks? Maybe I’ve slipped on my rose-tinted specs again? I reach for an old…

Feb 13, 2024, 12:39 PM (Twitter) Hi Dave, I’m a huge fan of your podcast and your work before that.  I was wondering if you’d be interested in interviewing Jim Riswold? – Kash Sree Feb 13, 2024, 12:52PM. 100%-definitely, absolutely-yes-please Kash. Dx Feb 13, 2024, 12:59 PM (Twitter) I know you have a lot of the greats on your podcast and I honestly believe that Jim is one of them, though not as…

“A lot of people on your podcast became creatives by accident.” Someone messaged me this last week (after listening to four of them back-to-back). I got me thinking; why do creatives become creatives? I’d divide them into two groups. The Lifestyle Brigade™ – attracted by the trappings. (Nothing wrong with that – it’s why most people go to work.) And the Expressionists™ – attracted by putting a…

I​ u​sed to like Tesla​s, I nearly bought one. ​N​ot any more. Obviously it’s ​still a great product​, but it’s an Elon Musk company. And his purchase of Twitter, ​and subsequent flooding of my feed with his ​thoughts has put me off him. ​​I choose not to give my money to a multi billionaire who whines everyday about how unfair the world is. I want best product for the least amount of money, but…

A muffin company wants to make more money. It’s hard to increase their current customers weekly muffin intake – so they need add some new ones. To flip muffin fans who aren’t choosing theirs, they need to tell them about their company or muffins that will get them to try one. And tell them in a way that gets their attention. But the first thing they need to do is choose who to speak to.  An ad…

I met Graham 33 years ago. My partner and I desperately wanted to work at BBH. At the end of a book crit, Graham gave us a brief and told us to come back the following week. We left excited. Maybe this test was our way in? The following Thursday we lugged a stack of ideas back to Graham detailing how we’d make Bama Thermal insoles the season’s must have for fashionistas. (Bama Thermal insoles? is…