Thoughts on creativity, Pharma and whatnot
There will be many observations made about this election in June 2017, but here's mine. There's a very simple set of principles in advertising. Over the years, if you watch closely, you can see them played out in various campaigns to great effect. You can also see when those principles are ignored and disasters ensue.... Continue Reading →
Everyone has a story they tell when they dine out or meet new people. Mine is about the time I found myself in the lift with all of the members of U2 and was greeted by Elton John. But that's for another time. My brother-in-law Dermot has a story that he used to tell a... Continue Reading →
I recently had a phone conversation with a Creative guy who was uncertain about a move to a CD role in Pharmaland. He had some legitimate concerns. Would he be forever labelled as a 'pharma-creative' with all the mediocrity that that would imply. Could he ever get back in to consumerland after having the 'Pharma... Continue Reading →
One of the things that separates creatives from mere mortals, (I jest) is the ability to finally accept that your idea didn't fly with good grace and resilience. Nobody understood it. Nobody liked it. You could never afford to do it. It had been done before. ''Don't worry I'll think of something else." All those... Continue Reading →
In research it's always nice to hear that respondents 'liked' your idea. But so what? The problem is people like a lot of things, pictures of puppies, pretty colours, the way the model looks strong, the happy setting of a family on holiday because it reminds them of that time in Corfu. It doesn't really... Continue Reading →
Frankly, I have had enough of survey requests. Not the door to door type, just the incessant 'how was buying that door knob for you' type of survey. I don't want to be part of the big data I want to be small data, in my own house, leave me alone thank you very much.... Continue Reading →
So it's been Pharma-awards season recently and we have a few on the horizon. Did your agency enter work this year but not garner the adulation you expected? We've all been there. If so, there's a reason for it and it isn't necessarily because your work wasn't good enough. It's because jurors are well....a bit... Continue Reading →
Aren't all branding ideas sort of advertising ideas and vice versa? Well, sometimes, I guess, but not always. In Pharmaland we can lean towards treating every problem as if it needs a good whack on the head. Give it a brand image that people will remember, plaster it all over the congress stand and the... Continue Reading →
Back in the 90s I was fortunate to do a fair amount of international jet setting due to being the jammiest git alive and working on a car account. The ads were popular somewhat but never that great - which was always unsatisfactory, but the trips were the consolation prize. We used to go to... Continue Reading →
It hit me a couple of years ago many of my friends and ex-work colleagues started to turn fifty. I was at one such one event, standing outside a pub in Berwick street, and I realised everyone was of a certain vintage, all still talented, all still enthusiastically talking about the work they were doing,... Continue Reading →
ollycaporn's blag 