“The simple act of caring is heroic.” Edward Albert There’s a quiet, persistent mistake the industry keeps making about creatives. A kind of polite delusion. We say “creatives come up with ideas,” as if that’s the job. As if that’s the mountain. But coming up with ideas is not the job. It’s barely the foothills.Continue reading “Advertising. Ideas are easy. It’s the caring that costs.”
Author Archives: dbs81270
Creativity. Why do people still go to art galleries?
Recently I was in Melbourne with a spare afternoon. My wife Minky and I decided to go to an art gallery. It was very full. I asked myself a simple question. Why do people still go to art galleries? Those paintings and sculptures are all available online. Why do people bother? What is it thatContinue reading “Creativity. Why do people still go to art galleries?”
Creativity. Can we please have a bit of culture around here?
“Home’s where you go when you run out of homes.” John le Carre We want to be part of popular culture. A phrase that you hear a million times in advertising. It’s one of those phrases. Like make it go viral. There are many phrases like this in our business. They are said so oftenContinue reading “Creativity. Can we please have a bit of culture around here?”
That’s not a knife. That’s a creative team.
“Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.” Vincent Van Gogh Advertising is a strange place at the moment. Much is changing and will probably continue to do so. A lot of fear and concern. Many questions and uncertainty. So, to cheer us all up I thought I would start toContinue reading “That’s not a knife. That’s a creative team.”
Cannes. The truth is nobody bloody knows.
“We drive into the future using only our rearview mirror.” Marshall McLuhan This one will be a little different. Cannes is normally a mirror to the industry. But this year it was a kaleidoscope. It showed us many possible futures. An endless array of possibilities that will forever change things. It was weird, you couldContinue reading “Cannes. The truth is nobody bloody knows.”
Creativity.The value of water on the smoke.
“Some people never go crazy. What horrible lives they must live.” Charles Bukowski Some of you may find this shocking but not all ideas are the same. I find many speak about ideas like they are loaves of bread. Give me 10 of those and three of those. Perhaps that’s where we are. The amountContinue reading “Creativity.The value of water on the smoke.”
Advertising. How do you rob a bank without going into a bank?
“Look at the world around you. It may seem like an immovable, implacable place. It is not. With the slightest push – in just the right place – it can be tipped.” Malcolm Gladwell I will get to the bank robbery question in a second but first baby powder. There is an old advertising story/mythContinue reading “Advertising. How do you rob a bank without going into a bank?”
Remembering Ari.
I wanted to put some words down as a tribute to my friend Ari Weiss who recently passed away. I first met Ari when we both worked at DDB. He had just been made Global Creative Director. We were pitching for a massive global piece of business. It was a pretty stressful situation. Flying inContinue reading “Remembering Ari.”
As the building changes, the Wild West approaches.
“In all chaos there is a cosmos, in all disorder a secret order.” Carl Jung If we go back almost 20 years to about 2005 we started to see a different kind of work in advertising. Work, where the idea that you can’t interrupt what people are interested in but have to be what theyContinue reading “As the building changes, the Wild West approaches.”
And remember kids, don’t waste your imposter syndrome.
“I still feel very much an imposter in the whole music scene, which I’m quite happy about to be honest.” Nick Cave About a month ago, I was a keynote speaker at the This Way Up Creative Festival in Sydney. The name of my talk was called, ‘What the Fuck is Creativity anyway?’ I workedContinue reading “And remember kids, don’t waste your imposter syndrome.”
Damon's Brain 