Archive for July, 2008
nothing should get in the way of a good idea
By way of light relief (although perhaps a tad poignant given the soundtrack), I found this little gem in ex-Poulters creative team Mick and Gaz’s portfolio. It’s a call for entries for the 2008 Chip Shop Awards, which is a bit like Cannes, except that the awards categories are more honest, including ‘Best Work for a Client You Have but Haven’t a Hope of Running’…
Random fun stuff writer
While I haven’t been exactly busy recently (what with spending five weeks sitting on the sofa recuperating), a lot of stuff I’ve written has just seen the light of day.
Those of you with equestrian leanings might have seen my saddle review in July’s Your Horse (not online), but on a more professional note there’s also my thoughts about the Lunchbox Occasion in this week’s issue of The Grocer (also not online, agency types could try nicking a copy off their nearest FMCG account handler) and my musings on promotional kits and POS in pubs in The Publican.
Horses, food and booze. If I could just get someone to pay me to write about chocolate and cheesy musicals I’d have all the fun stuff covered off.
End of an agency
Those of you in the UK who work outside London might have seen the ad below earlier this month in The Drum – it was Poulters’ last ever ad. I’ve blogged before about how sad it was to see one of the long standing Northern heavyweight agencies fall, but the majority of copy here (which I’ve pasted below for ease of reading) seems appropriate for almost any departing agency and a reminder of both the good and the not so good sides of agency life.
The creatives behind the ad were apparently the lovely Mick and Gaz by the way, who are now freelance.
poulters-last-ad (click link for high res pdf)
They say you’re only as good as your last ad. Well this is ours.
After this there will be no more headlines, no more copy, no more
visuals, no more logo to make bigger. No more good briefs, no
more bad briefs, no more unreasonable deadlines and no more late
night food deliveries (sorry George’s Pizzas). No more budgets,
no more contact reports. No more filling out timesheets, no more
fabricating your timesheets. No more SP, DM, PR, B2B or PS2 over
lunchtime. No more getting on pitch lists, no more winning pitches,
no more wishing we’d won a few more pitches. No more creative
awards, effectiveness awards, regional awards, national awards or
international awards. Nothing more for the cleaners to polish. No
more art working, type kernin g, proof reading or spell cheking.
No more dealing with the lovely people at the BACC. No more
spending your evening with the security guard rather than your
family. No more money left to book lavish double page spreads
(does anyone know who’s paying for this?). No more account
handlers spitting blood with creatives. No more putting it all to
rights in the Adelphi after work. No more back slapping or back
stabbing. No more rumours, no more gossip, no more strenuous
denials and no more ‘no comment’. No more being on the brink of
greatness or the brink of disaster. No more wondering why
the phone list keeps getting shorter or why the client list
isn’t getting any longer. No more sliding slowly into the gutter.
No more enjoying the highs of a new business win. No
more enjoying the highs from smelling your Pentel marker. No more
brainstorms, thought showers or blue sky thinking. No more tissue
meetings, no more client meetings, no more clients. No more
turfing out the MD’s office for the World Cup. No more turfing out
the MD. No more above the line, below the line, through the line,
just the end of the line. No more blazing a trail through the 60’s and
70’s or living the advertising dream in the 80’s. No more advertising
Porsche cars. No more advertising Lada cars. No more choosing
Porsches over Ladas for company cars. No more animated oven
chips riding on surf boards (it was original at the time). No more
taglines we’ll never forget, like “they’re choc’a bloc man”. No
more taglines we’d sooner forget, like “they’re choc’a bloc man”.
No more brands that need building. No more airlines to get off the
ground. No more bookmakers to gamble everything on. No more
Tracy and Lorraine to keep the perfect reception. No more phone
calls to answer (unless they’re from recruitment agencies). No more
young industry hopefuls passing through the doors at Burley Road
or Rose Wharf. No more talented, inspired individuals coming
back out again. No more working with friends, rather than
just colleagues. No more being part of an advertising institution.
No more rollercoaster to ride. No more words left to say.
No more Poulters.
Age does not define them but their army of helpers does
Yesterday’s Sunday Times carried an article ‘in praise of older women’ by India Knight (whose columns I normally lap up) suggesting that the essence of modern, empowering womanhood is the possibility that we, at 62, could look like Helen Mirren in a bikini.
India’s take seems to be that it’s now OK for women in their 50s and beyond to ‘wear their beauty triumphantly’, to look hot, to have sex appeal – ref Meryl Streep (59), Michelle Pfeiffer (50), Goldie Hawn (62) and Glen Close (61).
Of course, I’m all for women feeling confident about their bodies and dressing to please themselves rather than slipping into stereotypical elastic waisted GrannyWear, but there’s one fairly vital point that India seems to have overlooked.
All of the women listed above most likely have their own nutritionalists, personal trainers, stylists, makeup artists, hair dressers, nail technicians, eyebrow tweezing experts and so on at their beck and call. I’m sure with that level of support, almost any woman of any age could achieve ‘hotness’ given a couple of month’s notice.
It seems a bit unfair to me that as well as the many ways the media already has to make me feel inadequate (passing judgment on my sex life, cellulite, wardrobe, career and home for starters), I can now add to that list that at 31, I do not have the body and sex appeal achieved by a woman twice my age.
I do agree with India that taking care of your appearance is a basic indicator of self respect. But spending increasing amounts of time and money for the rest of your life aiming for bodily perfection and ‘hotness’ can only be a fast track to unhappiness.
Not that I’m worried about the future of education in this country, but…
…I went for a little recuperative walk 10 minutes down the road to the local beauty spot (reasons not to live in London #174, Proper Countryside virtually outside your front door) today and stopped for a breather and a cup of tea at the little café there.
The grass around the car park was teaming with school kids in matching blue jumpers on a School Trip and one of the teachers popped into the café in search of 60 ice lollies as a treat for them. Admirable, except that she couldn’t add up in her head what 75p x 60 was…
rather liking this
Apart from the (obviously pleasing to me) horsey connections, this viral from Land Rover supporting their sponsorship of British Eventing is just nicely understated and a cheeky companion to 2006′s press ads. There’s also a rugby version and you can view both on Land Rover’s microsite here.
insights from the sofa
Hello again. So I’m sitting here at home recovering from a little op (sore but feeling much better than I did two weeks ago, thank you) and watching a disturbingly large amount of daytime TV.
Shear Genius on Sky Three is a kind of hair styling reality competition where hairdressers battle it out. Today’s episode required the stylists to create a celebrity inspired new look for their clients.
One competitor was praised by the judges for telling her client that what she wanted to look like (Paris Hilton I think) was impossible and persuading her to settle for something more realistic and do-able (that redhead off Desperate Housewives).
Which got me thinking – why don’t we have an awards do for ‘finest management of client expectations, resulting in the best outcome possible given the circumstances’ ?
You could have categories like ‘best low budget work that actually ran’, ‘best rain soaked shoot’ and ‘the client was a total nightmare, but we eventually managed to get him promoted and out of our way’. :-)
PS If you weren’t at Interesting2008 and want to see my little turn, the video is here on The Guardian’s website
