LA PUBBLICITA' SI E' PERSA?

Mi ha colpito un post di Dave Trott - un famoso creativo inglese della scorsa generazione, autore di Creative Mischief - sugli effetti dei premi sulla pubblicità. Si può non essere d'accordo, si può ritenerla una battaglia di retroguardia, e di certo in mano al cliente questi concetti possono distruggere ogni forma di originalità. Ma è una di quelle lezioni fondamentali, quelle del primo anno, che non bisogna dimenticare mai.

Let's see if we can remember the original purpose of advertising.
Wasn't it something to do with selling stuff to people?
So didn't it have to be done with ordinary people in mind?
Ordinary, non-advertising, people.
Surely ordinary people were important to advertising at some point.
Maybe that was in the days before awards.
When people talking about your ads in the street was important.
When school kids singing your song or repeating your message was important.
When TV programmes or newspapers repeating your strapline was important.
When the object was to get the advertising into the language.
So it caught on and grew.
In the days before viral was a specific medium.
When the people who actually bought the product were more important than the people who made the ads.

PASSION, NOT ABILITY

Mark Wnek

Da Advertising Age un pezzo di verità sul ruolo del Direttore Creativo. Segnalato da Till Neuberg sulla lista ADCI.

"He/she is a really great presenter." It's something I hear more and more often these days. Seemingly the primary quality sought in an agency creative chief is the flair with which he or she delivers a new-business pitch.

Really? I have a confession to make: I'm a rotten presenter. When I think about the creative directors whom I most admire, they are all average presenters at best. Where their talents lie is in producing brilliant, effective work for their clients.

Most (me included) are no oil paintings. Many drink too much and throw tantrums. Mostly, they shouldn't be allowed out unaccompanied by an adult. Which reminds me of Baudelaire's definition of genius: the ability to recapture childhood at will.

The most important quality that all good creative directors share is a passion for great work. And passion isn't always pretty. Often it is messy, inconvenient, and un-house-trained. It doesn't always fit in an expensive suit or smart sports coat. It doesn't furnish its possessor with client-friendly savoir-faire.

When I present work I'm passionate about, I fall to pieces. I stammer and sweat and shake. I drop scripts. I spill coffee.

It's terribly embarrassing. But at least it's authentic. After all, creatives are not politicians. Nor are they actors. New business pitches are not meant to be vaudeville. Great work should be the only eloquence necessary. Everything else is flim-flam.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mark Wnek is chairman-chief creative officer of Lowe, New York.

Un commento:

Mark it sounds to me like you're a pretty good presenter.