Copywriting isn't dead. It's on life support.

There is a fantastic article getting passed around the internet about the decline of craft in copy. It is about the best, most coherent piece of writing I've seen about the current state of copy. Here's the kicker: it concerns juniors, but really the entire industry.

In this article, R/GA ACD (that's a mouthful of acronyms) Sanam Petri laments a trend she noticed among people trying to break in. While they can certainly think, what they produce is a pile of the same trite expressions. They're making ad-like objects. Pale imitation of the ads we see every day on TV.

That's not good. So if you have a phrase like these in your book: "Do you ever wish you could [x]? Well, now you can!" "But wait! There's more." "Why not pop in and try [x] today?" you should probably read this article this instant.

My co-worker and I talked about the article at lunch. He remarked that it was the exact opposite advice he received while in school. Creative Directors visiting his college talked about the importance of your work showing that you can think big, think across all media, think strategically. There was considerably less emphasis on craft.

Perhaps at that time craft was already implied. Their advice was simply to stretch the limits of what you do with that craft. Or, perhaps, it was at a time when digital advertising was so new and exciting that no one really knew what craft on it should look like. (My money is on the former.)

But our conversation also led me to another conclusion. Should you be lucky enough to score a interview with a CD, rather than the HR department, craft should be implied.

Yes, you can learn some of it on the job. But if you're a writer you have to be able to write. And if you're an art director you have to be able to art direct. All for the same reason you wouldn't hire a custom cabinet maker who only made end-tables in shop class.

But the real problem is that when creative directors dole advice out to ad classes they're giving it to a large group of people. They're, most likely, saying something that gives everyone a direction. The real way to get attention, and ultimately a job, is to do something that surprises the creative director. That's all they want. Something shocking, something they haven't seen before.

Something that isn't just another ad-like object.

I made an ad (and learned a hell of a lot in the process)

You could say I lucked out. The first big assignment that came across my desk was a fairly substantial one: come up with a Lunchables broadcast ad. They needed the ad quickly which only added to this learning experience.

Here's a few things I learned:

There's no way to prepare for your first commercial shoot.
Because you're essentially shooting a little film in a single day. There are hoards of people (sometimes asking your opinion) and piles of equipment and props all around. For this spot we had something like 20 different lunch box options! And it's your responsibility to make sure everything gets captured the way you need it to be.

Sound design is really, really important
I already knew this to some extent. But watching the cut with music for the first time is a thing of beauty. When your spot only has 2 lines of dialogue the rest of the sound has to do a lot of heavy lifting. Everything we did, hopefully, added to the drama and suspense of this moment.

Trust the experts.
There are things our editor, Graham, and music house, Scandal, did that I never would have thought of. Little touches that helped make the mood or flow of the spot perfect. And the color of the spot, the whole cinematic nature of it, I wish I could take credit for. That was the brilliance of Allan, my art director, and Mike, our colorist. There were things added at every step of the process that made it great but the foundation that our director Seyi Peter-Thomas provided was top notch.

After all of that, here's the result. Hope you like it.

Thanks to Station Films, Seyi, Graham, Scandal Music, NOLO, Lunchables and everyone else for making this spot happen. The process was way less painful than it could have been.

"That's all there is"

Hello again. I'm currently reading through the 1999 book "Why are you creative?" by Hermann Vaske. It sounds like a book that would be terrible and trite. But it isn't. 

I thought Jay Chiat perfectly distilled the reson to be creative. So I thought I'd post that here. Here it is:

Vaske: Why are you doing what you are doing? Why are you creative?

Chiat: Because that's really the only joy left in this business. To look at a piece of work and say I'm really proud I did that or my agency did that. So it simply boils down to when you go to a dinner party and someone asks you what you're doing, you say you're in advertising. There's an opportunity to be embarassed or proud. The only way you could be proud is if you work in an agency that does good work. So if you boil it down to the really simplistic rewaards in this business, that's all there is.

Why the Olympics couldn't have been held in the United States

This video.

Possibly the best 5 minutes from the entire Olympics. And it wouldn't have been run here for a variety of reasons.

First, it had the audacity to mention slavery. Prime time television doesn't talk about slavery here, it's not done. 

Second, it's about race. Again, that's not something that gets talked about on US TV outside of "community issues."

Third, there is the assertion that black people could be genetically superior to white people (at least when it comes to sprinting). Can you imagine the complaints this would create here? As long as people like this are watching TV, there's no chance any channel here would want to mess with their ratings with this documentary. 

Four, it makes you think. If there's anything NBC did well this Olympics it was making sure the viewing public didn't have to think. Every performance, every "Olympic Story" was constructed to keep the public comfortably numb. This video was thought provoking and tackled semi-taboo subject matter. That wouldn't fly here.

This year's Olympic Games were many things. With videos like this, bland wasn't one of them.

video via Dave Trott

Money, well...wasted.

 

I pass by this poster every day after work. Okay, not this one. I pulled that off google. The image is exactly the same.

It makes my blood boil each time I pass it. Not in the, "wow, Kim looks great in that dress" type of boiling. White hot anger erupting from my chest. If you can shift your gaze to her left leg you'll notice a little line of text.

It is not, as I assumed, a message to drink responsibly. No. Of course it isn't. 

It's HER NAME. Somewhere along the line someone thought, "we're paying loads of cash to use this celebrity. Better put her name next to her in case people don't know who it is."

Listen, a celebrity is not worth the money you're paying her/him if you have to do this. Scamp covered this back in 2006. If you're so insecure about your choice in celebrity it may be time to make a different choice.

My instincts tell me that this was a client initiated addition. But that's the easy way out. If advertisers want or deserve to be seen as business partners (rather than service providers) it takes the willingness to say, "that change undermines this campaign."

Because that's what Midori have done. They've undermined the value they were hoping to trade off of. That doesn't seem like an intelligent way to spend money.

There are hundreds of different ways to make an ad for Midori. It's quite possible that the choice to use Kim Kardashian is a very intelligent and strategic one.* But in this current form it's simply wasted money.

 

*Don't quote me on that. Please.

 

Unrestrained Ideas.

In June we had a mini agency-outing to see Roger Water's THE WALL at Wrigley Field. It was nothing short of phenomenal.

The show blurred the lines between forms of entertainment. It was hard to tell what sort of show we were watcing. 

Was theatre, cinema, music? I still can't tell you. The entire preformance was an amalgam of those aspects.

It might not be possible to think the same way after seeing something that enormous. Impossible to scale back the notion of what things could or ought to be. It's freeing to understand what people can do with the right combination of ambition, talent, and imagination. 

Massive sums of money don't hurt either.*

Perhaps my boss said it best. After the show he turned to me and said, "the best thing is that this was somebody's idea." After seeing The Wall no idea could possibly be too big.

A massively important lesson.

*Which was my only sticking point about the show. Anti-capatilist messages while people sipped on $7.50 beers and tickets went for hundreds of dollars. 

Weekly Linkly

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Readings-n-Miscellany

Moving Pictures


Hip Hop Dressage


Jack White on inspiration. via Denver Egotist


Q&A with Gary Vaynerchuck.

 

Gazing into eternity.

"If it's a funeral, let's make it the best funeral ever."

Last wednesday I saw Shut Up And Play The Hits. The documentary about the end of LCD Soundsystem.

It's about, among other things, moving on and facing a very real question: "what's next?" This is done by showing footage of James Murphy the day after Soundsystem's final concert. Slowly realizing the gravity of his decision. He is a man adrift*. 

Murphy accomplished more in 6 years than most people will accomplish in a lifetime. 3 hit records, sold out Madison Square Garden, the love of Pitchfork magazine. I don't mean this to put down other people but to display the potential people have when they do something with the intent to leave a mark on the world (his words) and bring their own perspective to what they do.

I believe this was a phenomenally important movie for me to see at this point in my life. there have been days I laid in bed just thinking "what am I doing? Do I honestly have the rest of my life left to shape?" One of the most important things SUAPTH does is humanize someone so successful. This, of course, is Murphy's intent. Nonetheless, the movie shows him as some regular *dude* who happens to be in this extraordinary circumstance. He has as few answers as any of us have but he did something.

Although the footage of the concert is great, a rare glimpse into what happens on and behind stage, the real meat of the movie comes from an interview Murphy did with Chuck Klosterman.

Perhaps the most striking thing Murphy said during the movie was about the band's success. (I'm paraphrasing here) "We're not any better than other people out there. We wanted it more. I think all of us wanted to impact, leave a mark on the world." It was a reminder that doing something with extreme purpose is the best way to accomplish something.

As a whole, the film is fantastic. It is one that truly benefits from the big screen. The sound and the images are larger than life (the sound design is simply magnificent). I fear that some of the impact will be sucked out of it on a smaller screen.

Most of the chances to see the film in theaters have passed. But I urge you to see it is you can. If you do watch it at home you should use headphones. And play it loud.

Play it again, Sidney.

I've been listening to a lot of jazz lately. Specifically, Sidney Bechet.

Beyond making me feel like the subject of a Ken Burns documentary--which it totally does--trumpet seems to lift my spirit.

Bechet was an interesting man. According to the internets he died in relative obscurity because he had a feisty temper. He was even jailed and deported in france after a shoot-out.

He took offense to someone telling him that he had played the wrong chord. And challenged him to a duel.That's the sort of musical act I can get behind!

It feels strange to "discover" older things but I've found lately that's exactly what makes me happy. If there's any other jazz musicians I should check out, you should let me know.

Party on, people.