Thoughts on creativity, Pharma and whatnot
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 →
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 →
I once did a freelance stint in a German office of JWT and the CEO there was quite the cliche 'American' ad-man, not a German. An ex-creative director himself, he had a good sense of the process and was no fool. But we differed on some points, one of which was that he thought the... Continue Reading →
One of the curious things about Pharmaland is, given the greatest drug ever, say the cure for all Cancer, the cure for Alzheimer's or Diabetes, you could literally run a picture of a pig in a pair of knickers and as long as the headline still said "IT CURES ALL CANCER" nobody would care, the... Continue Reading →
ollycaporn's blag 