The Creative Athlete winning at any age.

Last week my piece on ageism created a small furor in Ad Land. It was not unexpected. I knew the topic was radioactive and, therefore, the perfect subject for Gods of Advertising. When Talent Zoo picked up the story the message boards lit up.

Fact. We are all going to die. And before that we will get old. What’s contentious for many is the idea that getting old precludes getting ahead in advertising.

I wrote that I fight the ageing process, in part, because I don’t want to “lose” my job. I’d like to amend that comment: I fight the aging process because I “love” my job. Maybe love is the better “L” word; it removes the unhealthy fear from our discourse. Fear is a cancer in any creative department.

Let me introduce a phrase I’ve had in my head for years but seldom articulate at work. It is not a part of our agency’s credentials or rhetoric. But maybe it should be.

I give you the “Creative Athlete.” A bit of an eye-roller, I know. But before the haters crawl out from under their Macs, here me out…

The Creative Athlete gets her best ideas not in the shower but in the gym. She likens nailing a tag line to hitting a three-pointer. The Creative Athlete wants to score points. She is part of a team that plays to win. She gets off on winning. And the quickest way for the Creative Athlete to become successful is by helping her clients become successful. She is excited by ideas that sell. They are plays that work.

Do we not regularly compete for business? It’s called a “pitch” for a reason. These are tournaments. Each agency fields a “team” and goes up against their competitive set. Recall the storied rivalry of DDB and Leo Burnett. A true cross-town classic. More recent has been the domination of CP&B. Are they not like a Florida farm team that came out of nowhere, stunning the pride of New York and schooling the best in the west?

And what about “underdogs” and “dark horses?” My agency was one. When we got here, the local press called Euro RSCG Chicago a corpse. Now not so much. The boo-birds gave us fire, something to prove. We came back from extinction by competing and losing and eventually winning -first in the minor leagues (with small projects) and then in the bigs, adding Anheuser Busch, Barton Brands, Circuit City, and Valspar to our roster.

I like to ask prospective clients to imagine their brands as football teams. Are you the Fighting Irish or Fresno State? What are your colors? What is your mascot? Do you even have one? Questions like that. As creative partners we can help them field a better team. By improving their jerseys, giving them a fight song, creating a fan base. When we kick off a new campaign the game begins. By the 4th quarter we better have results.

As I said in the previous post, I’m a big believer in the axiom: ‘Use it or lose it.’ Working out our creative muscles is key to staying healthy. A writer writes. Books, scripts, poems, blogs. Not just copy. I also recommend every copywriter read as much as she can, and not just copy. Books, scripts, poems, blogs. Take part in your culture’s conversation. It never stops. And neither should you. Art directors pick up a paintbrush or camera. And you’d better know your way around photo shop.

Sports metaphors are nothing new. But keeping the head and body in shape in order to excel in the ad game is. It’s a youthful approach to our business that diffuses political correctness, allowing talent to shine no matter its color or sex. But creative athleticism is no panacea for age. Quite the contrary. After years in our “league” the creative person either becomes coach or manager or is cut.

Wins. Losses. Ads sold. Awards. The Creative Athlete has nowhere to hide if he’s under-performing. Of course, as in sports, a lot of over-rated managers keep landing jobs no matter their records…another reason for aspiring to management.

Spring is in the air. Is it in your step? Play ball!

 

 

Your Career in Creative: ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’

“There is a delusion I have apparently quietly indulged since, say, age thirty, and it’s this: that I am still as cool as I was when I was seventeen.”
-Dan Kennedy, from his memoir ‘Rock On.’

I work out most every day. I wear a bit of jewelry. I adore horror movies. The other day my wife asked me why I fight the aging process. There are many reasons (fear of death, pride, etc) but without much thought I replied: “So, I won’t lose my job.”

Growing old. It’s the one thing we ad folks dare not speak of. Yet the ‘circle of life’ is anything but gradual in the agency jungle. So here it is: Advertising (specifically, the creative department) is a young man’s game. Don’t agree? Look around you. Is not every other creative employee in your firm a scruffy, white, male replete with loose jeans and ironic tee shirt? I thought so.

With so many FTEs in their twenties and so few in their fifties, it’s easy to see how scary the middle ‘ages’ can be. For the typical employee in his thirties, the arc of his/her career had better be brilliant because at his/her price-point anything less may not be enough to save his/her job. (Though extremely important, I’m avoiding discussion of race and gender. It is enough facing the one thing we have in common: our mortality.)

And so Human Resources serve as watchdogs. Ageism is against the law. HR instructs management to be very careful when dealing with (firing) employees over 40. Lawyers know the “Age” card, they warn. Like eyes in the sky at a casino, they swoop down even when it’s just rumored to have been played. Fire a fifty two-year-old writer because he hasn’t made a meaningful contribution in a decade, HR assumes a lawsuit is attached. Of course the sad sack plays along. Why shouldn’t he/she? A settlement is almost certainly more lucrative than a package. Yet, despite these threats, our business remains preternaturally youthful.

Assuming the above is all true what’s a girl to do? Especially when she’s no longer a girl.

The best advice seems brutally obvious. Aspire to management. In ad agencies the most advantageous place for an oldster is at the top. Take that elevator. Don’t stop at just being a good writer or art director. That’s merely the price of entry. You need to be exceptional at your craft. Always. But remember there are LOTS of guys with 5 or 6 years under their belt, making LOTS less money than you, who are damn near as good. Naturally they want your job. You should want the job above yours. That would be MGMT.

So how does one grow successful as well as old in advertising? My advice in three not-so-easy steps:

1) Don’t shun meetings because “they suck.” One day there will be a meeting and you’ll be the topic. ‘Nuff said.

2) Sell work. First your work. Then someone else’s. In that order. If you can do both you will be twice as valuable to your firm. MGMT does both.

3) Stay relevant. Nothing is sadder than the graying copywriter who waxes nostalgic about cutting film with a knife. Dead man walking.
3a) As with meetings, do not ignore popular culture because “it sucks.” If you don’t keep up with people… you won’t.

What more can I say? Exercise regularly. Keep up with trends –all of them. Get a haircut. However you do it, you must keep your head and body in the game. I’m a big believer in being a ‘player/coach.’ Work on assignments as well as help others with theirs. Wear many hats. When in doubt follow the old axiom about staying young: Use it or lose it.

Nobody likes a critic, especially (when it’s) me.

Judging by the lack of comments both on and off this blog, no one appears to give two shits about my critique of the new Altoids campaign. Either that, or I was so spot on that my words, in effect, became the last word on the subject.

Truth be told even I think most criticism is folly. Especially when it is pointed at advertising. At least movie reviews give us a sense on whether we should spend our hard earned dollars on them. Yet advertising is in our face whether we like it or not. And most of us mostly don’t give a shit –hence the non-event that was my review of Altoids.

True story: In college I wanted to be a music journalist for none other than Rolling Stone. Back then it was still a relevant magazine. In pursuit of this goal, I reviewed albums and concerts for both my college newspapers at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. Highlights include a resounding thumbs up I gave to the Replacements and Violent Femmes. If not for me who knows where these two bands would have wound up? Anyway, I also reviewed plenty of local talent, including a hair band called Whiz Kid. Whiz Kid played Lover Boy and Head East covers for drunken sorority girls (and the men who love them) at various venues around town. For 2 bucks a head one got 3 sets of music.

Like almost every novice critic I rejoiced in ripping no-talent outfits to shreds. Whiz Kid was no exception. I might not be up on that stage but I had my pen, which was mightier than any Flying V. So I made fun of their lame choice of music, their gay outfits and their ridiculously big hair. I used every bit of my marginal writing ability to tear them a new one. And then I promptly forgot about it.

Not Whiz Kid. A couple weeks later I ran into the lead singer at an after-bar party. He asked me why I laid into his band. I said, no disrespect, but you sucked. I mean Lover Boy… Give me a break!

The vocalist did not punch me. Instead he hit me with something far more lasting. He told me the reason Whiz Kid played shit music was to get gigs, which he needed in order to pay rent and put food on the table for his wife and kids. He told me none of the bars in town hired original talent unless they were famous. Whiz kid was not. He had to sing “Working for the Weekend” because that’s what 19-year old girls (and the men who love them) paid money to see.

From that night on, I never had the ambition to publish criticism ever again. I had been stifled by the truth. Whiz Kid was literally working for the weekend, every weekend, in order to survive. I felt I had no right to criticize them for doing so. I was not aiding the culture in any way. I was merely hurting the band.

As for my review of the new Altoids campaign, I assumed there’d be interest because of my previous involvement with the brand. Not surprisingly, there wasn’t! Call it Whiz Kid’s revenge.

My Altoids can beat up their Altoids!

New Altoids ad next to one of mine. Mine’s bigger!

In 1995, Mark Faulkner and I created the “Curiously Strong Mints” campaign for Altoids. We made all of the work and managed the account for a decade. When we left Leo Burnett in 2003, we handed the reigns to our best lieutenants and they carried on marvelously.

Now the business is at BBDO Chicago. And while that agency is a direct competitor and Altoids is my dearly beloved I will try mightily to avoid sour grapes –unless of course referring to a new flavor.

The new campaign does not suck. But it is not brilliant either. What is brilliant about the new campaign is that it does not suck. No small feat. Altoids advertising seized popular culture in a way few ad campaigns do. Repeating that success with something different is perhaps a no-win situation. But doing more of the same an even dicier proposition.

So Altoids did what Absolut vodka did. They evolved their campaign, retaining elements, redesigning some, and losing others. You can still see the brands DNA in the language and typography as well as in the tone and manner. Whether it comes across as a crude face-lift or a brilliant recreation I’m still on the fence.

BBDO & Altoids walked away from “Curiously Strong” and replaced it with “a slap to the cerebellum.” The latter is a nifty headline; much like the ones I treasured writing. A big, antiquated noun in cerebellum. Fun verb like slap. Love it. But tis no ‘curious strength.’

For me, the pairing of those two words was everything: the brand essence, the strategy, a business idea, and the best expression of a brand I’d ever seen. In fact, we look for such words for all of our clients now. Finding them is hard. Hold on to them when you do.

To walk away from “Curiously Strong Mints” as theme for Altoids is ballsy but a mistake. I suppose in some respects a slap to the cerebellum is curious, implying strength. But it’s also peculiar and small. True story- At the campaign’s birth we had a great line: “Mints so strong they come in a metal box.” There was considerable debate to make it our theme. And it almost was. Thankfully, it became our very first headline instead. That should have happened here.

The headline BBDO are using in their first ad “Awakens like a horsewhip on the back flesh” is certainly curious and strong. Brutal too. Though not my style, I haven’t a problem with its meanness. It’s not like we never played that card. Frankly, I wouldn’t have been surprised if such a line came from our bullpen.

Relatively new for Altoids is a TV commercial. In it a Victorian gal solves a dilemma for a zany, Victorian inventor by eating an Altoids. Voila! They discover a barnyard animal stuck in his wacky Victorian machinery. Sort of get it. Sort of don’t. It has a Harry Potter look, which is appropriate, if cliché. But, again, the strategy is no longer about curious strength. Instead they are positioning Altoids as a smart-maker, awkwardly reminiscent of Mentos. A disappointment. Last detail: Isn’t the cerebellum used for motor functions and not thinking? Did no one look up the word? The line makes no sense in context with the commercial. This wouldn’t matter (as much) if it were merely a headline in a print ad.

So, a mixed review from the Gods of Advertising. The new campaign will get noticed. And it does pick up where we left off. But it only breaks new ground by abandoning the world’s most money theme line. And that’s not using your cerebellum.

Hollywood! Porn Stars! Advertising! Read all about it!

Production involves a lot sitting and a lot of flying. For me that means a lot of reading. Here’s what I injested and some thoughts to get you going:

First, I picked up Ian Halperin’s tawdry “Hollywood Undercover –Revealing the Sordid Secrets of Tinsel Town.” Halperin has made a career out of skimming and skewering pop culture. I reasoned his latest romp would be somewhat healthier than imbibing South African donuts. Whether that’s true is very much a matter of opinion.

Two things stood out. One is precisely the kind of sordidness that thrives on the Internet. And the other is precisely the kind of provocative thinking that makes online discussions so important.

Thing #1: Mr. Halperin had sex with Anna Nicole Smith beside Marilyn Monroe’s gravesite! Read that sentence again. I know I had to. That a nerdy reporter could shag this recently dead, overly famous and voluptuous bimbo at the gravesite of an even more famous, deader version of same is so…so… worth reading? Maybe not but then how could you not?

Thing #2: Halperin builds a case for the controversial view(s) that not only is Hollywood run by Gays and Jews but that they are what keep the Christian Right from totally dominating American culture. A strong one-two punch, it rocked my thinking. Few Jews exist in the White House and most Gay people have to repress it. Thus our government’s righteous tendencies go untended. So, Hooray for Hollywood! Washington has George Bush. Hollywood has Barbara Streisand. Both are terribly (the perfect word) influential. Halperin’s take is that they cancel each other out -a sugary but satisfying position.

Other books read on my trip: Nina DiSesa’s memoir about her robust career in advertising, “Seducing the Boy’s Club” and the autobiography of porn star “Ron Jeremy, The Hardest Working Man In Showbiz.” Two things I learned from these books: Ron Jeremy used his big penis to get to the top and Nina DiSesa didn’t need one. Believe it or not I prefered the latter. Less messy.

Stay tuned. The ‘Father of Altoids’ reviews the new campaign!

It’s a wrap!

While the gods of advertising showed us all manner of bewitching weather we got it done…and done well. I’ve seen the rushes and the live action is gorgeous. If our director Marc Wilkins is reading this: Nice job! Our actor is perfect. The locations breathtaking. And even the goldfish (they feature prominently in the film) deserve Oscars for their role in occupying a bowl with aplomb. Bravo all!

The critical technical shots were a mixed bag. Even with 40,000 tons of water being dumped we had trouble filling the set. And you should have seen the crew dragging the miniature into the crashing surf. But all told there will soon be a magnificent tidal wave coming to your TV set. The CG work is being done in Paris -tres bien- and we will have to wait for our wave like hungry Americans in a bistro.

The director will be in Chicago next week helping us edit. Very excited for that. I will let him create his masterpiece before ripping it to shreds. Kidding. Having him take first crack can only help us…and me. I told the director he need only garner a Silver Lion at Cannes for this film. So no pressure.

I look forward to coming home (though not to Chicago’s dubious spring) and returning to work. Thank you Monica Wilkins (our producer), Paranoid films, Cabot Stains and the lovely people of South Africa. If not for you this would have been merely a once-in-a-lifetime vacation.

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Cape of Hope

Tomorrow we unleash 40,000 tons of water on our house and deck. The set is a replica of the deck we built over the ocean (see previous photo) but this one was built in a parking lot near the hotel. What makes this so exciting is that no one really knows what will happen. Testing this kind of event is impossible. If the set collapses on the first pass then that is all she wrote. Therefore the “water dump” must be filmed the very first time it happens. If we are able to go again we will. If not, I am sure we will have seen something dramatic. As will our cameras.

So far the shoot has gone well despite various weather events: unremitting fog, gale force winds, relentless sun -sometimes all in the same day. But that, as the local crew tells us, is South Africa.

Speaking of Cape Town, I should point out that all around us people are shooting print and TV advertisements. This place really is the new Hollywood. It even looks like LA, especially in the more elegant sections. Winding roads take one past pricey villas dotted with palm trees and tropical flowers. Throw in a little Palm Springs (arid, sandy, hilly) and finish off the look with bits of genuine Africa. We saw a baboon noshing on something-or-other just up the road from our first location.

On a less pleasant note one can’t help but be moved by the shanties flanking this city. Wooden and aluminum hovels, they go on for miles. With limited electricity and almost no running water, the conditions are undoubtedly brutal. The irony of building and destroying a gorgeous beach house is not lost on me.

The gods of advertising are not always in sync with the God of us all.

Surf’s up!

Pretty surreal sight, eh? This gorgeous deck is situated right above the crashing South African surf. We almost don’t have to create a tidal wave in CG…but we are. I will upload more photos later (it takes time) but I wanted you to have a peek from the crow’s nest.

the DECK, the BOWL, and the TABLE

Just went to the location. Very gorgeous, though it was shrouded in fog, which is not the look we are looking for. Misty cliffs of Dover vs. Malibu sunshine? We will let the God’s of Advertising decide.

Currently, I’m listening to the producers (Euro and Paranoid) debate whether we finish the commercial in HD, standard def or some permutation. It’s almost impossible to make a winning decision. Neither avenue is completely right or completely wrong. No matter what we decide, somewhere somebody will see the spot on television cropped improperly. The only failsafe is finishing both ways, which costs a ton of money. Very frustrating. The more they explain my options (or lack thereof) the madder I get. And since I am now a “client” my approval is necessary in order to move forward.

Mostly, however, it is good to finally be the “client.” I am fussed over and fretted about. Cute girls bring me Diet Cokes. When I make inane comments about wardrobe (like I know fashion), people actually listen! I feel like the Godfather. A true God of Advertising.

So we are driving to view a TABLE and a selection of GOLDFISH BOWLS, which are key elements in our commercial. The TABLE and DECK and BOWLS have to be exactly right because –duh- we are making an advert for wood stain. Still, it seems silly to be driving en masse to a warehouse in order to spec a table. But that’s the trans-mundane part of production. Everything is scrutinized. If it will be visible in camera then it will be fussed over endlessly –like a client! The French call these crucial items mise-en-scene (sp?) meaning ‘what you put.’ (thank you film school) Much of production involves managing mise en scene. In advertising, God is truly in the details.

I’ve tried to upload a photo of our deck being built. The PDF is in the previous post. But Apple and WordPress are having a spat and the photos are caught in the middle. Do try and I will continue to post as well…

deck.pdf

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