Monthly Archives: November 2013

It’s not the stars that are important, it’s the spaces between them.

Photo courtesy geek philosophy.com Well, yes and no. This is an old Buddhist quote. I have been thinking about it and how it relates to what I do now and what I will do in the future. For a long time, advertising was designed around stars. Dots of light. Points of excitement. And then nothing.Continue reading “It’s not the stars that are important, it’s the spaces between them.”

Make content but do not be content.

In 2008 I wrote an article called is PR the new advertising. As you can guess the title did not make everybody happy. I had read that at the time Miley Cyrus was worth a billion dollars. Lunch boxes and DVD’s had made her brand worth a billion dollars. I made the argument that peopleContinue reading “Make content but do not be content.”

Where are the crazy ones?

These words are part nostalgia, part belief that some things never change. They are about the death of salesmen with apologies to Arthur Miller. It is what Hegarty talks about in his latest interview. We have to become about persuasion again rather than just promotion. It is about strong beliefs versus polite process. Here’s toContinue reading “Where are the crazy ones?”

Trust me I am a creative.

Over my career I have often heard people talking about formulas. A foolproof way to arrive at a perfect creative result. To replicate something over and over. A system for ideas. That’s like saying, let’s use communism to create lego. Sometimes, I still have nightmares about 700 page style guides. Whole forests have died inContinue reading “Trust me I am a creative.”

It’s the cracks that let the light in.

I shot this photograph 20 years ago on Rockey Street in Johannesburg. It’s an important photograph for me because it represents my philosophy on creativity. Creativity is a very strange process. It involves having a vision that you completely believe in and would defend to the hilt. It also involves having the ability to throwContinue reading “It’s the cracks that let the light in.”

Cool Runnings. What a Jamaican Eatery taught me about boardrooms.

Growing up I was always fascinated by stand up comedy. I would watch early Saturday Night Live tapes of Belushi at his best and his worst. Bill Hicks destroying audiences and them laughing and thanking him for it. Richard Pryor being a free basing genius. I think it was the mixture of sheer terror ofContinue reading “Cool Runnings. What a Jamaican Eatery taught me about boardrooms.”