ThoughtSpurs

Well, it had to happen. I wrote a column suggesting that advertising agencies need to change their persprective on creativity. What other business in the world has a 'department' for creativity. Now I have been vilified by a particularly ignorant advertising person who has chosen to think that personal attack is a reasonable substitute for choosing to think. What the heck....? Thankfully I have a very thick hide. I also have my own point of view and welcome criticism and debate. maybe it will change my mind. "A foolish consisitency is the hob-goblin of little minds. Whoso would be a man must first be an independent." - Emerson

Usually an oxymoron. Children spill things. Ok, so do I. On this occasion child spills on favourite red chair. Actually only red chair, but it's my favourite. Recalled ad for product that I just happened to have in the laundry. Applied to chair. Stain gone. Just like they said in the ad. Bet you're wondering what the product is. Especially if you have kids. Or furniture. What do you think this is?…an ad? WHAT I AM READING: UnSpeak - Steven Pool Thoroughly Recommend this book. Terrifying and instructive. What do the phrases "pro-life," "intelligent design," and "the war on terror" have in common? Each of them is a name for something that smuggles in a highly charged political opinion. Words and phrases that function in this special way go by many names. Some writers call them "evaluative–descriptive terms." Others talk of "terministic screens" or discuss the way debates are "framed." Author Steven Poole calls them Unspe...

I went to the launch of Blood magazine last night. It is an initiative by the Magazine Publishers Association to provoke interest in enhancingh creativity in magazine advertising. I hope it works. Casting my mind back to the days when I actually created ads for a living there was nothing more exciting to me than the opportunity to create a double page spread in a nglossy consumer magazine. My favourite was the Listener (it was the same size mMetro is today. The laminated machine proofs looked sensational in my portfolio). Today it seems most attention is on television advertisng. Apparently it is sexier. For me the problem with TV was that there were too many people involved. As creative director I took great pleasure in spenmding more time with a prospective art director or copywriter's print book than their show reel. Looking at their print work I could tell whether or not they had a command of their craft. Looking at their TV work I couldn't be sure. Of course there is a rea...