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    Dear Junior Series // 05


    Dear Junior: an attempt to ask industry leaders the pressing questions that us, the quarrelous and unfriendly youth of today, are interested to find answers to. In our fifth installment, we’re talking Women in Advertising. Rather than write an intro ourselves full of the male bravado you’ve come to know and love, we hired an intern to do the job for us. Here’s Crystal with her very best intro.

    Chaka Khan once sang, “I’m a woman in a man’s world”. She was chanting about the wonderful world of showbiz but it’s fair to say the wonderful world of advertising is only the far less glamorous sister. It’s a sausage-fest no matter where you go! And being part of that can be fairly difficult when you’re sausageless. As if the industry’s not tough enough. That’s why we asked our good ol’ female buddy, Mel Peters, digital creative director at Lowe Sydney (http://lowesydney NULL.com), to give us her best advice on being a lady in a man’s world.

    And girls, or boys for that matter, if you want to pick her brain some more, reach her at mel.peters@loweworldwide.com (mel NULL.peters null@null loweworldwide NULL.com). No spammy spam please.

    Junior: Do you personally find it tough to be a woman in this industry?

    Mel: No I love it! It’s all about standing out with great ideas and that’s something I’m passionate about. A lot of people have been comfortable with male creatives because that’s what they’re used too. However, good ideas will always cut through no matter who you are.

    Jr: Has there been a particular incident where you know your gender has worked against you? What about for you?

    M: It’s how you look at things. For example, working on car accounts, I was the only female creative on the team. In this situation I always added a valuable and different perspective to briefs. I was able to approach the brand with really powerful insights that led to award winning creative. Taking the car ‘beyond the metal’ was a big part of creating innovative campaigns that engaged and empowered their audience. Female creatives can do amazing work on even the most ‘blokiest’ of briefs. There really is no boundary to what you can work on.

    Jr: Why do you think it’s more difficult for women?

    M: I think there has been a limited number of role-models and Senior Female Creatives in the industry and for young female creatives on the rise, this can be daunting. I’ve worked with strong female Creatives like Fiona Davidson and Paula Keamy who are both fantastic role-models. It is important to find these role models and seek advice along the way. Women have a great opportunity to lead in senior creative roles today and I see more and more talented young women choosing ‘creative’ as a positive career path.

    Jr: Is there any other advice you have for women in or wanting to get into the industry?

    M: Understanding your audience is key, and women are the primary purchase decision-maker for many brands in Australia. Female buying power hasn’t fully been tapped into in Australia, and there is a great opportunity for female creatives to lead this. Women are also powerful communicators, and as we continue to move into the digital world with influence marketing and social networking changing our traditional communication habits, women in the industry will bring great insight and creative ideas to the table. Ultimately though, it’s all about great thinking and powerful ideas.

    And just cause she can, here’s Mel’s tips to success:

    01- Believe in your ideas. Gain confidence in your thinking by exploring your ideas thoroughly before you talk to others around you.

    02- Present, present, present your work. This is so important. Grab as many opportunities as you can to showcase your ideas yourself and get in front of clients, as often as you can.

    03- Look for female mentors, if not in your agency, outside it. Some may have blogs or twitter feeds that will give you insight and spur you on. You can follow me here (http://twitter NULL.com/its_mel).

    04- Hit the streets and do your own market research. Get to know your audience inside and out and become an expert in the briefs you get. If your agency celebrates big ideas based on powerful insights, you will shine.

    05- Don’t be afraid to think of yourself as a brand and sell yourself. Getting your voice and point of view out there is a great place to start. I see many juniors who have put their folio online and started a blog. It’s a great way to make sure you are heard and noticed.

    06- Have fun and enjoy what you do. If you love it, everyone will know.

    ADVERTISING, DEAR JUNIOR | Also tagged ADVERTISING, DEAR JUNIOR

    Tag Archives: SUCCESS

    The Interview Series // 28

    Alright, alright. We know what you’re thinking, “Another ad-guy? When you kids gonna get over this ad-schmer-tising thing, huh?” Well you’re right. Evan Fry (http://evanfry NULL.com) is an ad-guy. But he ain’t just any ad-guy–he’s a true-blue award-winning ex-Creative Director of Crispin Porter & Bogusky (http://cpbgroup NULL.com/) style ad-guy, and he has some good shit to say, so chill out, bro. That sort of heritage makes him better than most ad-guys, who on the whole are a dime-a-dozen, and definitely don’t look this good with a head wrapped in ostrich feathers. He just left CP+B to start up the world’s first ad agency utilising the power of crowd-sourcing, named Victors & Spoils (http://victorsandspoils NULL.com/). That’s pretty cool-magool if you ask us. You know what else makes Evan cooler than most? He’s an old-school copywriter. Which tends to be rare these days. So if you’re one of the few who want to take up the lost art of copywriting, listen to what Evan has to say. You can actually use his advice–which is darn considerate of him, seeing as most of these so-called ‘ad-guys’ have a lot to say about nothing. In summation: Evan Fry ain’t just your average ad-guy, he’s a super-talented old-school copywriting mega-machine, and wants you to Be Fucking Awesome (http://befuckingawesome NULL.com/).

    Junior: We heard somewhere that you’ve got a crazy story about getting a job at Crispin Porter + Bogusky (http://cpbgroup NULL.com/). Apparently it’s a ‘doozy’. May as well tell us the whole thing!

    Evan Fry: Sure. But it’s a long one. It basically began with me having been fired from the job I had and sending my book to Crispin. At that point, this was the spring of 2002, I had been a writer/ACD for 8 years already, and I wanted to work for CP+B more than anywhere else–so I sent my book. About a month after I sent it in they returned it to me with a form letter, “signed” by Alex Bogusky (http://alexbogusky NULL.posterous NULL.com/) himself. It was encouraging, but standard. Very professional of them to be that on top of their shit, I thought. And then I forgot about it. About two months later, after becoming a bit bored of not getting much play from the shops I truly wanted to work for, I had an idea: what if I acted as though that letter really was a sincere letter from Alex to me, and started sending him weird notes from the stance of ‘jilted-lover-gone-psycho-at-not-getting-any-more-letters-from-Alex’?

    So I got some really precious stationery like a grandma might use, a super nice calligraphy pen, and went to it. My thought was keep them short, keep them anonymous, and keep them weird. And not think for a minute that Alex himself would ever even get them. I think the first one said, in really weird cursive, “It’s been two months since you last wrote me, Alex. Don’t you love me anymore, Alex?” Nothing else. A few days later I sent another one. And then another, after a few more days. For the fourth one, I reduced a photocopy of the original form letter he’d sent me, but used black permanent marker and inked out my name on it. I accompanied it with a psycho note on the psycho stationery that this time said, “Perhaps by now, Alex, you’re wondering who the hell I am? Well maybe I’m a lot like you, Alex.”

    Four days later as I was thinking about how to take it up a notch, I got a FedEx delivery. It was from Miami. When I opened it, it was clear something was weird. There was another envelope inside. And then inside that envelope was a Ziploc bag. It had the vibe of an evidence bag like in lawyer movies. I opened the Ziploc and there was a Photostat-camera blowup of the part of the form letter I’d sent where I’d inked out my name. But by blowing it up 10 times, its size had revealed the name under the ink. ‘Evan’, just huge. Stapled to it was a copy of my letter, and in red ink someone had circled “… who the hell I am.” And that was it. It was all just one big fucking “touché, motherfucker. We got you.”

    I was psyched beyond belief. Because all of a sudden I had concrete proof that not only had my letters been getting to him, but they’d been actually getting to him, you know? And he took some time and effort to play the game. So I immediately loved Alex. And the day after I got the envelope, Veronica Padilla, his assistant at the time, called for my book again. I thought I had a job in the bag, or at least a flight out. But it didn’t work like that. I didn’t hear anything for weeks.

    By then I’d started a whole other self promotion idea where I was mailing a weekly photo of myself to the top 30 or 40 creative directors around the world who I wanted to work with. Each one was literally just a 4×6 photo – showing how much time I had on my hands. Like, in one I was having a tea party with stuffed animals. In another I was drinking tallboys with bums on the street. On the back of each, every week, I wrote in pen something that went with it, like, “God I need some work,” and I’d include my phone number.

    So I had these going on, and was also sending them to Alex. But I still didn’t hear from him. However the photos were working, and I was getting a lot of great freelance so I didn’t care as much, although CP+B was still where I really wanted to be.

    About six weeks later Alex himself finally called and said, “I’ve been meaning to call you, why don’t you fly out.” I did, and had a great interview. Thought I had it in the bag for sure, and… didn’t. He didn’t have a slot for me. So I kept the weekly photos going, kept freelancing, and then four months later I was freelancing at Mad Dogs & Englishmen (http://www NULL.maddogsandenglishmen NULL.com/door NULL.html) in San Francisco and got a message on my answering machine. “Hey Evan, it’s Alex, call Veronica back and tell her the code word is pineapple.” I called her back and she said Alex wanted to offer me a job. It was literally one of the best days of my life. P-e-r-s-e-v-e-r-a-n-c-e.

    Jr: Wow. Ok. That definitely is a doozy. It’s nice to see someone with experience and good work struggle like the best of us. In fact, your website mentions that at twenty-six you “weren’t exactly setting the advertising world on fire”. How did you push through that? Did you ever want to give it up and go mountain biking for good?

    E: Oh man, you got that right. Actually, a few times. I got out of school from the University of Oregon and unlike my partner in school, Glenn Cole, I didn’t take a good job out of school. My book was shit and I spent a year working on it but the only job I could land was at the ‘third biggest place in Portland’ – which basically means nowhere you’ve ever heard of. And even though I only stayed there a year, it seemed my destiny was sort of set. I couldn’t get play in the Weidens (http://www NULL.wk NULL.com/) or the Goodbys (http://www NULL.goodbysilverstein NULL.com/) of the day, so I was just floating around at the mediocre places, like 95% of us.

    I moved to San Francisco in 1996 and experienced more of the same. But I moved to be in a bigger market with more chances. I kept at it, kept trying, and just didn’t give up. I guess that’s why I ended that last question by saying perseverance. That’s really the only answer when you feel like you’ve got what it takes, when you know that in your heart. If you know you’re good and you know you’re smart but can’t seem to get a break, you’ve got to prove how smart you are and make your own break. I’m 100% convinced of that.

    Jr: You’ve written your entire career. But a lot of young people aren’t taught hardcore writing anymore. From our experience, advertising education tends to be more ideas-focused. What advice would you give to young writers?

    E: I think this is true. I went to a School of Journalism program, and was lucky enough to be a decent writer just inherently, I dare say. And then in school at University of Oregon, I was also lucky to have two great ad professors who were classically trained. So the mix was pure writing and grammar, mixed with classic concepting classes, and barebones, fucking copywriting courses. It didn’t hurt to have Dan Weiden (http://danwiedensuperdad NULL.blogspot NULL.com/) himself teaching a couple of intensive seminars. But today, you’re right–ad programs stress concepts first, at best. Copywriters today, I swear to God, most of them shouldn’t call themselves “writers” at all. But it’s not really the game now, nor is it anyone’s fault really.

    The advice I would give is to read a lot. And to pick up the book Grammar for Journalists (http://www NULL.amazon NULL.com/Grammar-Journalists-E-L-Callihan/dp/0801968232) and study it like there’s going to be a quiz on it every day. I’d also say to use self-discipline. And read The Book of Gossage (http://www NULL.amazon NULL.com/Book-Gossage-Howard-Luck/dp/0962141534). Teach yourself. If you’re a copywriter who can actually write, you’re set for life. Love the headline, love long copy, do it all the time, get better at it, write hundreds of options for each headline idea. Treat it like a craft. That’s what it is. I still love to write ads.

    Jr: Do you get the urge/time to do any writing or other creative stuff outside of advertising?

    E: Nope. I really don’t, not writing. I get the urge to do other things besides advertising though. And I do those things. It’s why I started sharklove.com (http://sharklove NULL.com/) and also befuckingawesome.com (http://befuckingawesome NULL.com/). Be Fucking Awesome, especially, is just a labour of love. I kept having this idea where I would write a book that would be a sort of “guide for living.” I had this idea for a title and it was “How to Be Fucking Awesome.” This was while I was really cranking at CP+B, on the road producing all the time. So I didn’t really have the energy to do it, but I bought the URL befuckingawesome.com (http://befuckingawesome NULL.com/) and felt good enough about doing that. Then I just sat on it for a couple years.

    Finally I had John Parker, my partner at the time and now a CD at W+K New York, do up a branding identity for BFA. He rocked it. And it sat there again. Then I had the idea to tweak it into a social network of sorts where you could post your Fucking Awesome deeds, let the world vote on each one, and those votes would contribute to your Awesome Quotient. So then I fucking had to do it. And that’s what I did. I found another amazing designer to help with the design, a fantastically talented developer, and sunk a lot of my own money into paying him to develop it. It’s been live now since the end of September. It isn’t really taking off the way I’d hoped, but I am learning a whole lot from it and know what to try to make it take off more. It’s really satisfying, in some ways. But mostly, it’s just a massive learning experience.

    Jr: So, now that you’ve left CP+B to start your own agency, what can the world expect from Victors and Spoils (http://victorsandspoils NULL.com/)?

    E: Good question. I think the world can expect to see a viable new way of coming up with ideas for the advertising industry. A way where the clients feel like they get the service and attention that traditional agencies give, but ideas and work that is devised from a much broader base of amateurs and/or the users of their products and services–then directed and shaped to be on brand and on brief. So it’ll feel like an ad agency to the client, but engage the world to help solve their business problems. What we’re trying to do is show that there is a new way of doing things. A way that works and can let more people into the process. We’re all savvy critics of ads and marketing communications nowadays – because we’re exposed to it from birth. There are a lot of people out there who could be really good at it, and we want to give them a way of working on things just like those of us who went to school to become experts. There’s a shitload more to it than that, obviously. But the world can expect some really interesting briefs to work on for some really interesting clients. At least.

    Jr: The business model you guys described on launch, was anything but ‘more of the same’, but there’s going to be the inevitable detraction from folks not into the whole model. Are crowd-sourcing naysayers the new ‘30-seconds-of-TV-is-the-only-media-we-need’ dinosaurs?

    E: I don’t know; that’s a good question. There are naysayers out there. Basically what the internet gives people is a voice, and they love to use it to say how dumb everything is that isn’t their own idea. I learned pretty fast after we launched that I just had to turn it off, it was exhausting trying to answer or consider everyone’s points. Which we still care a lot about, but so many people were just being so aggressively mean and negative, so full of hate, that we realized very fast that no answer would satisfy the vocal minority. It’s one of the most loaded issues out there right now and because we consciously launched with as much hoopla as we could create, we became the brightest bull’s-eye. It’s cool though; we intend to just continue doing our thing and trying to get some good clients and craft briefs that let people play with brands if they want to. If they don’t want to, that’s cool too.

    Jr: How does a junior (or anyone for that matter) get a shot at working for a hot shop like CP+B or Victors & Spoils? Can you give us five awesome tips?

    E: What if I give you one tip and explain the shit out of it?

    Jr: Evan, you do what you feel…

    E: Good.

    1. Get really good at the craft of being a creative.

    - Write down everything. Take notes as you learn. Take notes as you concept.

    - Doodle as you think. Keep the pen moving.

    - Do lots of options for everything. Only through looking at it can you know if something is better or worse than what you already have. Look at it.

    - Take it seriously; don’t expect it to come easy. Focus on the brief. Do “concepting intervals” where you focus and write every idea down. Then have a break. Then get back to it.

    - Sketch everything. Go analog. Don’t fucking concept on your fucking laptop. Pad of paper. Pen or pencil. You alone, or you and your partner. Find somewhere to get in sync and focus and riff. When writing headlines, that’s when I think writing on your computer is good. But try using all caps, or two spaces between each headline. Treat it like art, and have some pride for how the words look. Do a bunch. Edit them a little. Do a bunch more. Edit a little. Repeat. If you’re building your book, keep the presentation simple. But don’t ignore the presentation.

    Jr: Is there life after advertising? Should advertising be a means to an end?

    E: For me, I think there has to be. For anyone, for sure there can be. Depends on how much a boner it gives you, I guess.

    Interview by: Pete Majarich (http://petermajarich NULL.com NULL.au/)

    ADVERTISING, THE INTERVIEW SERIES | Also tagged ADVERTISING, COMMITMENT, COPYWRITING, CP+B, CREATIVITY, FOLIO, JOB HUNTING, THE INTERVIEW SERIES, WRITING

    Tag Archives: SUCCESS

    Junior Event // 13

    09-12-09/01

    How great is Thousand Pound Bend (http://thousandpoundbend NULL.com NULL.au/)!? It’s such a versatile venue. It feels like our home with all those couches and bedraggled furniture scattered about. Within this house of comfort and mirth we hosted our December event, presided over by none other than our old friend Stuart Geddes, one of Melbourne’s most visually articulate and clever designers from Chase & Galley (http://www NULL.chaseandgalley NULL.com/). Luckily for those who weren’t there, he’s sent us a copy of his ten tips in ten minutes, which you can download here. If it doesn’t make any sense and you’ve got questions — email us. We’ll tell you what he said to accompany the pictures. It’s only fair.

    See you in February everyone!

    09-12-09/02 09-12-09/03 09-12-09/04 09-12-09/05
    09-12-09/06 09-12-09/07 09-12-09/08 09-12-09/09
    09-12-09/10 09-12-09/11 09-12-09/12 09-12-09/13
    09-12-09/15 09-12-09/16 09-12-09/17 09-12-09/18

    DRINKS | Also tagged CHASE & GALLEY, DESIGN, DRINKS, FOLIO, INSPIRATION, JOB HUNTING, MELBOURNE, STUART GEDDES, THOUSAND POUND BEND

    Tag Archives: SUCCESS

    The Interview Series // 23 (Part Two)

    daniel2

    “Work on your shit. Ride your bicycle. Don’t have sex. Work hard. Be nice. Pay attention. What else? That’s kinda it. Oh, and don’t buy dumb shit.” And that, our clever and taste-ridden friends, is where Part One of Daniel Bremmer’s interview finished. If you haven’t read it yet, read it now. We got really drunk in a Brooklyn bar and solved the problems of the universe, pretty much. This second half however, is even better–we really hit our stride. It seems the more alcohol we consumed, the more articulate, erudite, considered and clever we became. If you want to figure out if advertising is a vain waste of time and resources on the rich white people of the world, or if it can be used to save the world’s environmental and economic problems, gosh, are you in for a treat…

    Daniel: Don’t buy dumb shit.

    Junior: Don’t buy dumb shit? Like what?

    D: Anything that has an expensive logo on it. I’m going to think your dad has money and that you probably suck.

    Jr: So what should you wear to an interview?

    D: Stuff that doesn’t have expensive logos on it.

    Jr: Like this?

    D: That’s fine. Grey t-shirt and short shorts. I might skip the short shorts.

    Jr: Oh really? Why? They make me look cool!

    D: They’re a little short. Definitely not that cool. Anyway, you know what? I’ve had had an epiphany.

    Jr: What’s that?

    D: I don’t give a fuck about making ads that make a dude richer. I don’t care anymore.

    Jr: Which dude? Who’s the dude?

    D: Well, it’s not a dude — it’s corporations. So it’s really like a bunch of people.

    Jr: Ah, I see. Tell me more.

    D: I wanna make things better in the world. And I think everybody does — well most people. There are bad people, people who don’t give a shit; but most conscientious people, most creative people, want to make things better. That’s what I wanna do from now on. I got on this high, where I got to see the good results of something I did (Editors note: Daniel worked on the Obama campaign), that I was a part of. You know, changing things for the better, in a good way, and that’s what I want to do from now on.

    Jr: Wow. I think that’s a wonderful epiphany.

    D: So do I. I have a little philosophy. It’s called, ‘Do good well.’ Because there’s a lot of agencies entirely built around doing good work for non-profits, and a lot of the time they get involved in doing philanthropic work for big companies, to make the big companies who do evil shit look good cause they threw a few million out of their x billion dollars in annual profits towards something nice. And there’s a lot of non-profits that hire agencies to do their fund-raising who need the money, to do good work, but that’s not as rewarding as doing cool stuff. This is a movement that’s happening slowly. A very good friend of mine, an early mentor named Don McKinney, who is interactive ECD at Grey, he calls it the purpose driven economy. Which is based off The Purpose Driven Life (http://www NULL.purposedrivenlife NULL.com), a book by pastor Rick Warren. It’s bullshit, but it helped a lot of people.

    To me, it’s about making ‘good’ and ‘right’ both desirable and popular. Especially when you’re dealing with stuff like the environment, solving issues to do with global warming, dealing with respecting our natural resources, not polluting our environment, treating our environment as a living organism that we need to survive, not as a tree you should hug and respect because it’s beautiful, but because that tree keeps you the fuck alive and you better stop being a dickhole to it. These are the basic principles if you have a long view of the world.

    Jr: This is how I feel about my health.

    D: Your health is exactly the same.

    Jr: It’s no longer, “I need to eat better just because I should be healthy, but because I don’t want to wake up every morning feeling like shit. And I don’t want to be exhausted at the end of the day.” You know what I mean? It’s cause and effect.

    D: Exactly! Our body and our planet are the same shit. It’s the exact same shit. And our economy is really the same shit. And what we’ve seen with this giant economic collapse is a whole lot of high-fructose, partially hydrogenated, high-risk, bullshit get-rich-quick nonsense that is sinking our economy, our planet, our health and our souls. It’s retarded. And there’s a better way to do all that shit. There’s a better way to do everything. Let’s all tell the fucking truth, let’s all do the right thing, let’s all come up with systems and products and services that help everybody do better.

    Jr: But can you do that as a junior?

    D: You can, I think. You have the energy, you have the soul, you don’t have children. Right? That’s the great thing. Older people can say, “I have kids. I love my kids more than I love an abstract notion of life in twenty years, therefore I’m going to sell Snickers.” Snickers is going to give people diabetes. Snickers is going to destroy the fucking world. Right? Snickers is a bad product.

    Jr: But it’ll pay my children’s school fees!

    D: In the short term it’ll bump me this much up in life if I do a big Snickers campaign. Pepsi, right? Peter Arnell (http://www NULL.youtube NULL.com/watch?v=WJ4yF4F74vc) is a piece of shit. He was the guy that redesigned their look. I wouldn’t trust that guy to fold my goddamn napkin, much less design my brand. The guy is a fucking catastrophe. I looked through his website (http://arnell NULL.com/) today. It’s atrocious. They have an ad that has CG lizards dancing with football players. It makes no sense. Pepsico has given the keys to the castle to this guy. Why? Because he has round glasses that used to be cool? Round glasses and a beard can get you anywhere these days. Maybe you shouldn’t hire the guy with round glasses anymore. Maybe that worked in the 90’s.

    Jr: Yes! Let’s bring back square glasses! But we digress.

    D: Yeah, fuck that guy. Ha, we got on a weird Peter Arnell tangent there, and how bad Pepsi was. Oh yeah! Pepsi.

    Jr: Yeah, because people want to pay their bills.

    D: Pepsi makes the world worse. It makes us all fat. It encourages reckless consumption. It’s not good. Nobody should be selling SUVs. As a junior, I turned down a job. I had graduated Art Center College of Design. I thought I had a job waiting for me at Karmarama (http://www NULL.karmarama NULL.com/) in London. They came back with an offer that in Britain was very generous. But in America it was so low. I was looking at a six-figure student loan. So I flipped out. I said, “I cannot afford to make that little money. I need to pay this loan off now.” So I turned Karmarama down. Worst decision I ever made.

    Jr: Oh wow.

    D: An ethical, smart, brilliant, creative agency that cared about doing good work and cared about making the world better, in an awesome country with a visa waiting for me. And like a stupid idiot I said no. I had to move back in with my parents in Orange County and freelance in L.A. I would drive two hours to get to these freelance gigs. It was horrible.

    Jr: Why was it so horrible?

    D: Because it was a two-hour drive to get there and an hour drive to get home!

    Jr: That sucks balls.

    D: Yes! That sucks balls! And while doing that I wouldn’t take jobs working on things like Sport Utility Vehicles (SUVs). I wouldn’t take a job at Chiat because I wouldn’t work on SUVs. Did you know that the Nissan Pathfinder Armada has thirteen cup-holders and seven seats?

    Jr: Thirteen cup-holders!

    D: And seven seats. No one should buy that. That is bad for the world.

    Jr: Thirteen cup-holders and seven seats? That doesn’t even make sense!

    D: It is bad for the world and I wouldn’t go take a job working on it.

    Jr: So were you briefed on it? How do you go about turning down a job?

    D: No, no, no, I wasn’t briefed on it yet. I just didn’t take the job. I had been in one situation where I was briefed on something though. It was explained to me that the brief was aimed at human resource directors at Fortune 100 companies. The idea behind the campaign was how this very large American health insurance company reduces costs and that’s how they’re solving the health care crisis.

    Jr: Because they reduce costs?

    D: Because they’re reducing costs for employers. Which makes it more affordable. Which means that more employers will be able to continue to provide insurance for their employees. Which is a good thing. In the absence of a modern, sane health system, you need that. So I did the campaign. Half way through the campaign, I find out the media buy is for Congressional Quarterly and The Hill. You know, newspapers that Senatorial and Congressional staffers read, telling policy makers, “Don’t worry, we’ve got it under control.” So I realized this half way through, and the creative was basically done. I told my Creative Director, “I’ll finish this because I started it. But I can’t work on this client anymore. And if it means my job, that’s a conversation we can have.”

    Jr: Wow! You said that? So big!

    D: I had no savings and I was in debt, but I just couldn’t do it. The bottom-line was: I do not have the discipline to do work I disagree with. The worst obligation I have is a stupid loan that my parents co-signed for. I don’t have a house, I don’t have any children, the worst I can do is fuck over my parent’s credit a little bit. That’s the worst-case scenario. Actually, I have a life insurance policy to cover my student loan. So if I get hit by a bus on my way home tonight, they’ll foot the bill. But I don’t want to be run over.

    Jr: Cheers! To saving the world!

    D: To saving the world!.

    Drinks: *Clink*

    Jr: Love the world. *Hiccup*

    D: But no, I mean, I don’t know any young smart creative person that wants to make the world worse. The only ones I know want to make the world better. The world is fucked because of our parent’s generation, it’s not their… Well, it is their fault… But you can’t really blame them. It’s not like your mum and my mom decided to fuck the world. But the world is fucked and we need to fix it. And there’s a lot of money to be made in fixing it. Capitalism can solve this problem. Advertising is the lubricant of capitalism. Lubricate it for good, don’t lubricate it for bad.

    Jr: Absolutely.

    D: Don’t compromise yourself. You don’t have to.

    Jr: So as a young creative, what should you be doing to make sure that happens? Should you be trying to work for the companies that have the good and moral clients? Should you be calling up the clients who are doing good things and saying I need to be working on your business?

    D: You can’t call the client! Who are you going to call? Who are you going to call at Proctor and Gamble? There’s a shitload of people. But! Proctor and Gamble is doing things bit by bit that are good. Unilever is doing things bit by bit. Pepsi, which in it’s current state, is causing obesity and diabetes and short attention spans and hampering education efforts, is a terrible thing. Pepsi is horrible. No one should have Pepsi in their life or their home. It is a bad influence. It is probably worse than drugs. Because it is so widely acceptable to do. No one’s going to give you shit for drinking Pepsi at the Christmas table, but if you bring out the cocaine at Grandma’s house, someone’s going to have a little talk with you. You know, “We’re going to get you some help with that cocaine problem.” No one’s going to intervene and give you help with your Pepsi problem. Who’s going to say, “You know Bob, that shit’s going to give you diabetes and you’re going to fuck up our health care system.” You just don’t have to work for them. Although with Sun Chips, Pepsi is moving to biodegradable bags and using Solar energy, so that’s good. Hopefully they’ll bail on the high fructose corn syrup.

    Jr: So I guess you just pick the right places to work for or when a job comes on you decide to try and change the company culture.

    D: I think if enough people would simply be honest and straight up about everything — shit’s going to change. If you’re stuck in a situation where you’re the person building a coupon for the agency that’s not the decision maker, you’re fucked. But if you’re the decision maker and you’re in a room with your client and you’re smart and you’ve thought through what you’re going to say and it makes sense, they should be OK with everything. Look at G.E. Big fucking company. They own NBC. They make jet engines.

    Jr: Jet engines? Wow.

    D: Yes. Somebody had the balls to present ‘Ecomagination’ as a platform for the company. And it’s fucking brilliant. It’s a mainstream company that has banked their success on making things cleaner and more efficient. And making that into a business that is sustainable. Right? You look at Snapple. They’ve dropped high fructose corn syrup and are switching to sugar.

    Jr: Really?

    D: Yes. Walmart. Fucking Walmart. Adam Werbach of Saatchi and Saatchi S (http://saatchis NULL.com/), his company used to be called Act Now (http://www NULL.actnowproductions NULL.com/). He was the youngest president of the Sierra Club, gave a speech saying, “Environmentalism is dead. We’re not going to hug trees anymore. We’re going to hug the people. We’re going to make everything fucking better at the same time.” Then he started working with Walmart. He looked at the company, inside the company, and said, “How do we make this shit better?” They have language for this, I don’t remember exactly what their internal terms are, but basically they’ve worked with the employees, you know, the people wearing the smocks in the stores, and said, “Make a pledge. Do something to improve your health or your planet.”

    Jr: Wow.

    D: And the brilliant thing behind starting with that is that somebody can come into Walmart, a CEO or whatever, down the road, and say, “Fuck that guy. Fire Saatchi S.” Guess what? Nothing changes. Because your entire culture is built on making things better. So what they did, they started making their shit totally eco — the easy stuff was switching off the lighting, making things more energy efficient. Then they started working with their suppliers, said they wanted to reduce their packaging, said they wanted to reduce their carbon footprint — they’re doing a lot of stuff. Say what you will, they’ve done some evil shit with employee relations and health care, but they do some really smart shit with supply chain management. And they’re doing that to help the environment. And the new thing they’re doing, they’ve banned recombinant bovine growth hormone in their dairy products. That’s a chemical that Monsanto makes that is in American dairy that is illegal everywhere else in the world. American milk is not legal to sell in Canada.

    Jr: No… Really?

    D: Yes. Because it’s filled with this fucked up chemical that makes cows produce a shit ton of milk really fast. And we feed that to American girls. And we wonder why they have giant boobs and get their periods really early.

    Jr: Shit! Is this true?

    D: It totally is! So Walmart said no. Walmart — which many people would say is the worst company in the world.

    Jr: But they only said no recently.

    D: Very recently. I mean, today capitalism isn’t a force for good or bad. Capitalism is just a force for ‘is’. It’s an efficient way of getting shit done. The ‘good’ or ‘bad’ depends on what people demand of it. And our role as advertisers is to create consumer demand. It’s our choice.

    Jr: So I guess what you’re saying is, as a junior, even though you probably can’t influence change until you’re in a room with a decision-maker, you can be educated on what is happening and who the companies are that are implementing these ‘good’ forces of capitalism.

    D: Yes. But really, I would just say have standards — with everything. Because every company has the potential to be good. Every person has the potential to be good. You look around this bar, some of these people are really nice people, some of these people are not nice people. They all have the potential to be either. And we as communicators, we as cultural artists, we as people that create feelings and emotions with our work, when we’re doing advertising, we’re creating desire. We’re creating emotion for our clients. We can steer that for good. Even in subtle ways.

    There was a project I did for Intel, with Venables, Bell & Partners (http://www NULL.venablesbell NULL.com/). When I got there, they had already sold the strategy of ‘Sponsors of Tomorrow’. That was done. The TV and print had sold, they were already working on pre-production, that was done. They needed me to work on the interactive and launch. The idea was, we asked people what they want from the future. “What do you hope for in the future.” So you could go to the website, and you could say, “In the future I want…” You could answer that. You’d type that in. In Times Square, on crazy LED billboards, you could go and see a little guy dance, and see, “In the future I want blah blah blah. What do you want? Text it to this number.” You could text what you wanted out of the future. What do you think people texted?

    Jr: World peace?

    D: Ha, there was a lot of that stuff. I mean, don’t get me wrong, there was like, “I want a girlfriend,” or, “I want a computer that’s super fast.” There was stuff like that. But a very large percentage was humanitarian. People have a hope deep down inside, people want shit to be better. If people didn’t have that we wouldn’t have gotten to this civilisation where you and I can go into this bar and talk to some dude, he’ll bring us a bunch of alcohol, while assuming that we’re going to be good enough to pay and not run out. Girls can come in and we can talk to them, and they’re not going to think we’re going to club them over the head and drag them back to our cave, right? I don’t believe that people are inherently good or bad, but I think we want good.

    Jr: Everybody wants good. Even the bums. *Hiccup*

    D: Even the bums. And if we tie this back to the Obama campaign, what that guy did was appeal to the best of us. He appealed to the best of our nature and it fucking worked.

    Jr: Absolutely. I completely agree with that.

    D: And it bums me out that we’re in this weird hangover right now as a world.

    Jr: What do you mean?

    D: Don’t you feel like we’re all in a giant hangover where we all had this big high and hope and now everybody is like, “Oh, shit’s still kinda fucked up.”

    Jr: Yeah but we’re all just seeing what happens. Maybe the first year is recognizing the problems, the second year is fixing the problems, and the third year is changing the world.

    D: I don’t think it’s like that. I think it’s much faster and more delayed. We did a lot of stuff really fast. We’re starting to see the early indicators of economic recovery. But it hasn’t hit the average person yet. The haemorrhaging is stopping. We haven’t started to heal yet. But the haemorrhaging is stopping. I’m freelancing at a lot of agencies in midtown now, and there’s a lot of empty offices. Empty offices everywhere.

    Jr: Wow. You know, Australia is technically not in recession.

    D: Really?

    Jr: One of the only countries in the world.

    D: Why is that?

    Jr: Well it’s seen a downturn, but not into negative national GDP. That’s not the reason but that’s the evidence.

    D: That’s good.

    Jr: Yeah, I mean, doesn’t mean that a lot of people haven’t lost their jobs.

    D: Well you still drive those stupid cars — the GM ones…

    Jr: What stupid cars? You mean Holdens?

    D: Yeah Holdens! You still drive those big stupid Holden SS Utes. You gotta change that shit.

    ADVERTISING, THE INTERVIEW SERIES | Also tagged ADVERTISING, COMMITMENT, CONSUMERISM, ENVIRONMENT, JOB HUNTING, NEW YORK, PEPSI, PETER ARNELL, PROCTOR & GAMBLE, SAN FRANCISCO, SNICKERS, STANDARDS, WALMART

    Tag Archives: SUCCESS

    The Interview Series // 25

    leopremutico

    Man or machine? Leo’s glowing global reputation as a ‘wunderkind’ will have you believe the latter. It was our supposition that surely he must be human — mortal and unfunny in real life — just like you or I. We ventured to New York City in order to find out, and the story goes thus: Three short years ago, Leo and his creative partner, Jan Jacobs, were anointed Saatchi & Saatchi New York’s joint Executive Creative Directors. At the time Leo was just 28. They left after one highly awarded year, joined forces again to set-up their own NYC-based agency, Johannes (http://www NULL.johannesleonardo NULL.com/) Leonardo (http://www NULL.johannesleonardo NULL.com/), and have been working harder than you in the two years since. Leo and Jan have created some of the naughties’ most awarded, hilarious, insightful, haunting, and incredibly succinct advertising you’ve likely seen or heard in London and the U.S — ads like this (http://adland NULL.tv/commercials/nspcc-ventriloquist-2003-060-uk), this (http://www NULL.youtube NULL.com/watch?v=YMkkQO5HUXM), this (http://www NULL.youtube NULL.com/watch?v=X2cs8gnb42A) and this (http://www NULL.youtube NULL.com/watch?v=k6z3bGILwMg) — winning many lions and other assorted animal like statues. The jury is still out on Leo’s genetic make-up, for at the interview, Leo spewed mythical reams of advice from his lion-like mouth, then galloped off into the sunset laughing like a hyena. The Junior team turned to one-another, wide-eyed and mystified, mouths gaping like hungry, hungry hippos, gasping for air. Are we making this up? Yes. Without further ado — Leo, Leo, bo-bio. Banana-fanna-fo-fio. Mee-my-mio. Leeeee-o.

    Junior: Hey Leo! Sorry about that ridiculous intro — our intern wrote it. He’s nuts. So first we wanna know, how did you get into the ad game? What was your journey from raw junior to respected senior?

    Leo: It’s a little odd… I was coming out of an operation; my appendix had burst hours before I was due to board a plane to Germany for professional football trials. I woke up from the anesthetic with an advertising idea and my decision was made. I stuck to advertising. Which was a good thing because I wouldn’t have stood a chance at the whole football thing.

    A couple of years before that I had been selected as one of the AFA trainees out of university. It probably helped to have an understanding of how the entire process worked from media, to strategy to account management. But it was most useful in making me absolutely desperate and determined to work in the creative department because I quickly realized I didn’t want to do any of those other things for a living.

    Jr: We’re dying to know if have any stories from your time as a junior when life sucked? Any horror book crits or moments of creative block that made you reassess life and what you were doing?

    L: Sure I did, I think everyone does. Don’t be intimidated by thinking creating great work comes completely naturally to some people. Truth is, anyone who is any good has spent hours and hours perfecting their craft and if they tell you otherwise they’re full of it.

    And the same goes for ‘creative block’. I don’t want to sit here and say I never have it, of course I do. I think the trick is to try and not see it as ‘creative block’. See it as something that happens to everyone, something you just need to work through or come at from a different angle.

    Jr: Wow. Yes. You have no idea how relieving that is to hear from you. You know what else is intimidating? Awards. Obviously you’ve won a lot. Everyone has their own take on what they mean and what they should mean. 99% would agree they mean nothing when compared to ‘creativity’ or ‘effectiveness’ or ’selling lots of shit and making your client happy’. How important have they been to you and how should we as juniors approach the current award industry?

    L: I remember being about 25, at Cannes for the fist time and winning 4 or so Cannes Lions. I realized pretty much right then and there that awards weren’t going to keep me excited about getting out of bed each morning.

    At the end of the day the most important thing for any junior to do is understand what sort of creative person they want to be. Then to strike that balance of getting enough respect and trust to actually one day be able to create that path for yourself.

    Personally, I believe award shows matter less now than they once did. Partly because there’s so many of them, and partly because everyone has a gazillion of them, including students, but more importantly because why would we care so much to see what a panel of 20 or so people think when we have the opportunity to see what millions of people think about our ideas?

    The true reward for our creations now is seeing how they effect and touch the public.

    Jr: Ah yes! But! If that be true, are award books worth looking at these days for inspiration or an education in ideas?

    L: I think it’s important to know what’s been done before, and what hasn’t, to know the rules so you know how to break them, to know the history of work and of a category. As a junior you should soak up all the inspiration you can get.

    I’d just say don’t try and replicate the stuff you see in books. We live in unique and as they say exponential times. Things are changing quicker than ever before, so what was good a year back has never become so old so quickly.

    True inspiration though — that’s not in award books. It’s around us in the world we live. But if the books can help make the work better year upon year, and ultimately the stuff we force into the public’s face a little less crap, then I guess we should take them any which way we can.

    Jr: Someone once told us, “Leo is a genius. He was also supported by brilliant ECDs at every agency he went to.” How important have your mentors been to how you approach your work and what should juniors look for in a brilliant mentor?

    L: Absolutely crucial. Whenever I see a junior unsure of which agency to join I tell them to focus on the individuals there. Ultimately it’s the individuals there who will help guide you and who define those places during the time they spend there. I was lucky enough to work under some great ones, but even more than that I got to work alongside some as a junior writer. With Toby Talbot at Colenso BBDO and of course a few years later working with Jan at Saatchi & Saatchi London.

    So I’ll always be appreciative of how much time senior creatives gave me when I was knocking on their doors with a bad portfolio. Granted I could be an absolute pain in the ass so it was probably easier to see me than not back then. There are great people out there, generous with their time and passionate about their jobs, it’s really just a matter of tracking them down and feeding off them.

    Jr: Could you possibly speculate how important working internationally has been to your career? Can you imagine if you had stayed in Australia and where you might be now?

    L: Probably a much better surfer than I am these days…

    Advertising is a great vehicle to check out the rest of the world. But the strange thing is wherever I’ve ended up I’ve always been glad that I started out in Australia. When there isn’t a whole lot to rely in terms of budgets, production time and global media buys you’re only left with the strength of your idea so that’s what you focus on. Once you’ve learnt how to make your idea bullet proof, all those other layers, they only make your original idea better.

    Jr: What’s your best advice for dealing with politics within an agency, both dealing with others and fighting for ideas, especially when you’re at the bottom rung of the hierarchy?

    Work for someone you believe can spot good ideas. It’s that simple. Chances are part of the reason you got into this industry is because you realized the work rules. So take advantage of that as a junior. My advice would be don’t worry about the other stuff. More and more the true power will lie in the hands of creative people, and we all know the best ones aren’t political.

    Jr: Obviously there are a lot of kids coming straight out of ad schools today with the same work for the same old clients with the same witty headlines and such… What are you looking for in a junior and what can those graduating from the ad schools do differently to stand out and impress someone like you?

    L: The best way I can think to explain that is with something John Lennon said. He was once asked why he wrote music and he responded by comparing it to writing a letter. Writing the letter, he said, got him excited but what he really got off on was the response he would get to that letter. That’s it at its essence. We’re looking for people who have that thing inside them, that urge to touch people with their ideas, those who live for simplifying things down to a common language that effects people, deeply and broadly.

    Of course, now you’re also trying to stand out during the biggest recession of our lifetimes. But I believe that soon this will be an advantage to the kids coming through. History has shown that when the slate is clean, when things are being re-appraised, and it’s happening on two levels in our industry right now – on a technological and an economic level, it’s the turn of the new guard to step up…

    So don’t underestimate yourself, don’t set the bar at junior thinking. You’re competing with every kid out there with a digital camera and internet access. We live in a democratic era of communication, a time of accessibility and participation, where big production budgets can in some cases be more of a burden than a gift.

    Jr: Generating ideas – what’s your process? Have you got any crucial tips to tackling a problem creatively?

    L: I ain’t got any secrets. It happens differently every time, that’s part of the fun. I don’t really keep shortlists of my ideas. I know if it’s good enough it’ll stick around in my head – Jan calls it ‘the volt’. I would say though, don’t ignore the things that on the surface don’t seem crucial to creating great advertising. Like, spending time to identify what the real problem is – not just the advertising problem but the business problem, and embracing the limits imposed on you. It’s often there the real gem lies.

    I also think it’s important to keep in mind, especially as a junior when you don’t have a ton of production experience that as big and important as coming up with the great idea, is understanding what about it will keep it great. Another reason why it’s so important which creative director you work under.

    Jr: OK, enough of that cliche ad-guy question guff — how the hell do you live a balanced life? You obviously work really hard. Is that something that comes naturally or do you have to sacrifice things to make your life liveable outside of hard work?

    L: Hard work has never felt like hard work because it’s something I’ve always loved. Reducing something down to is most basic form, I’m not sure how many other professions there are where you have the same tools as anyone else in the business irrelevant of your experience – a blank pad and a pen.

    So for me loving what you do is the most important ingredient really. If people advise you against being a creative don’t listen to them, listen to your heart. If you’re passionate enough about what you do, you’ll work hard enough at it and the skill will eventually come. Just make sure you’ve instilled a healthy effort reward ratio. By that I mean make sure you’re always working on something you’re excited about – which usually means something you haven’t done before.

    Jr: How far into the future do you look? You’re not that far past thirty and you’ve already achieved more accolades than many people achieve in their entire careers. We know you probably don’t buy into that sort of statement, but where to next? How often do you need to reassess your career and where it fits within your entire life? Do you even think about that shit?

    L: I was made ECD of the Saatchi & Saatchi New York office when I was 28, and I remember when I would walk there across west 4th street, there was a faded chalk scribble that would always catch me out. It simply said ‘where are you going?’. Every time I read it, it made me think: where was I going? To another meeting? To a corner office? Over time, without me realizing it, I think these four words embedded themselves into my subconscious.

    So when I look back on it now Jan and I left Saatchi and Saatchi because we kinda had this feeling inside we weren’t being pushed as much as we could be. We began directing a couple of things and really enjoyed that as a distraction. But we knew there was a bigger issue on the table. We felt the world around us was changing quicker than the big agency model could, and us if we stayed in one. So even if you don’t intend to look far ahead, I guess there’s something inside of us that does.

    Best of luck juniors, I hope this helps.

    ADVERTISING, THE INTERVIEW SERIES | Also tagged ADVERTISING, CREATIVITY, HUNGER, INSPIRATION, JOB HUNTING, NEW YORK, THE INTERVIEW SERIES

    Tag Archives: SUCCESS

    The Monday Morning WHIP // 49

    whip49

    There once was a time in the history of modern advertising, when mad men were actually mad, and the industry produced characters larger than life. People like Charles Saatchi (http://en NULL.wikipedia NULL.org/wiki/Charles_Saatchi), Ed McCabe (http://en NULL.wikipedia NULL.org/wiki/Ed_McCabe), Bill Bernbach (http://en NULL.wikipedia NULL.org/wiki/William_Bernbach), and George Lois (http://en NULL.wikipedia NULL.org/wiki/George_Lois), who in particular once said, “I know what the fuck I know, and you know what the hell you know, and I’ll tell you what I think, and you tell me to fuck off.” Stan (http://branddna NULL.blogspot NULL.com/) knows the things that made these characters larger than life can make you successful too. You just have to find heroes worth following.

    On Sunday I went to see The Damned United (http://www NULL.youtube NULL.com/watch?v=LYzsswqPk6s). It’s a film about one of the most charismatic men in English football, the late Brian Clough (http://en NULL.wikipedia NULL.org/wiki/Brian_Clough).

    The only person I can compare him to is Don Draper from the TV show Mad Men.

    Like Draper, Clough did not tolerate fools very well. What made him successful was a combination of his love of the game and sheer bloody mindedness.

    These are characteristics you need to have too.

    Of course you can have a career without them, but you’re going to need them if you want to get to the top.

    Clough took a lowly team to the pinnacle of English football. And he did it his way. He broke rules, he ignored advice and he did whatever club management told him not to.

    At the peak of his success he left and took on a new job at a bigger club. 44 days later he was sacked.

    Did he let this stop him? Of course not!

    Clough loved the game. And he believed in himself. That is an unbeatable combination.

    If you have that combination, you too will succeed. But you need to steel yourself in order to succeed. Because the road to the top is tough. But it’s definitely a road worth travelling.

    WHIP | Also tagged BRIAN CLOUGH, COMMITMENT, FOOTBALL METAPHOR, HUNGER, INSPIRATION, MADMEN, WHIP

    Tag Archives: SUCCESS

    The Interview Series // 19

    leeorbrown

    Remember that emo-kid at school who ‘managed’ the punk band? Let’s call that kid ‘street smart kid’. ‘Street smart kid’ was the shit. He was creative, tenacious, focused, could get a hundred screaming kids along to some shitty gig in the sticks, and hacked up letterboxes with an axe after downing a bottle of Jimmy B at your fifteenth birthday. Where is ’street smart kid’ now? Running that record label you want to work for, of course. This week we interview one such ’street smart kid’ – Leeor Brown. His L.A based label, Friends of Friends (http://www NULL.fofmusic NULL.net/), sells limited edition tee-shirts and other tangible goods that come with a download code instead of a CD. He’s already done one with Daedelus (http://www NULL.myspace NULL.com/daedelusdarling), and Mos Def stole the idea with his newest release, so it must be the shiz-nit. We know there’s some ’street smart kids’ reading this site – so why don’t you go out and start a label, y’all? Go on! It’s better than a real job. Fuck!

    Junior: Why the hell did you start a record label? Aren’t all of those things going broke?

    Leeor: Well, I think that’s debatable. Labels that have been around and built a business model on what was happening back in the day, treating it like a product based business, aren’t keeping up with the times. I saw an opportunity to do the things that labels used to do without nearly the same amount of overhead. There’s still money out there – people are still buying digital. Not at the same rate or the same amount of income earned as it was with CDs, but at the same time you spend a lot less money getting that release out and distributed these days. For me it’s about trying to do things differently, not spending that much money up front so the artists and label can see some money at the end of the day.

    Jr: We read somewhere that vinyl sales were actually through the roof too.

    L: Yeah in the last few years they went up something like a thousand percent where CD sales dropped off. The way I always look at it is that the people who are clamouring the most are the ones that made money, or established their business in that model, and that shit just doesn’t exist anymore. Not even just the major labels either, even the bigger indie labels that have been around for ten or fifteen years are struggling too because they created a whole business that now has to shift modes.

    Jr: Definitely. You’re releasing your second EP soon right?

    L: Yeah, we have one release out, Friends of Friends Volume 1. But I also have these remixes that came exclusively with the shirt for the first three months but I put those out on iTunes last month.
    Our second release, Volume 2, is out September 15th and is this group Larytta (http://www NULL.myspace NULL.com/larytta). That’ll be the second shirt release. Then our first full length will be this dude Ernest Gonzales (http://www NULL.myspace NULL.com/theoryofeverything) in February.

    Jr: Is the full length going to be just a shirt too or will it be something else?

    L: No no no, it’s going to be a whole other thing. I’m pretty excited about it actually, I’ve got to say. I’ve gone big for Ernest’s record: we got 16 musicians to do covers, so there is a cover for every song on the full length, and then we got artists from around the world to do their interpretation of a song so there are 13 pieces of artwork that will be made into a book that comes with the download codes for the record, digital artwork, and covers.
    The way I look at it especially with the word of mouth idea – we have sixteen remixers, fourteen artists, Ernest and his label, me and my label, and the label doing the vinyl. All of a sudden we have something like 40 people built into one release and talking about it or having a reason to get people excited for it. It’s instant promotion.

    Jr: So have you made some mistakes so far? Anything you’d like to share with other first timers wanting to make their own label?

    L: I mean, it’s all a learning process. I’m sure there have been a bunch but I have no idea yet. (laughs), I actually think about that all the time because I only launched in March – so I’m not even that far into it. At this point I’m still flying by the seat of my pants. Eventually I’ll be able to look back and be like, ‘God you fucked that up’, but for now there’s not too much. Again I’m not putting that much into it, financially that is, since it’s mostly just my time, it doesn’t feel like I’m making too many mistakes because I’m not really going to get screwed financially or anything.

    Jr: Is it hard to convince artists or people that you’re working with to love the idea or do they love it just like we do?

    L: For the most part people tend to jump right in. I tend to not work with a bunch of really established artists though, Daedelus (http://www NULL.myspace NULL.com/daedelusdarling) is probably the most well established artist I’ve worked with to date, and he is legitimately a close friend and if it wasn’t for him I probably wouldn’t have done the label. He kicked me in the ass more than a few times to make sure this went down. Besides that I try to work with artists that aren’t that well known and they are just hungry, they want to get their music out there. On top of that I have the ability to promote rather extensively so most artists are like ‘Oh this is dope, let’s do it.’ I’m sure I’ll run into a fair share of people who aren’t that into it, but for the most part the artists and press are loving it.

    Jr: You’re a publicist at Terrorbird Media (http://terrorbird NULL.com/) right now too. How do you break into that world? Because it seems like that would help you with ideas and the progression of making them a reality.

    L: Yeah it’s all been a slow build so far. I started off in college radio as a hip hop director at KZSC (http://kzsc NULL.org/) in Santa Cruz, got a job in radio promotion that I got over in a while, moved into online marketing and finally progressed into publicity. Basically all of my experience with my job was teaching me lessons about the music industry. Trying to talk with labels and artists and evaluating everyone’s situations and seeing how I might be able to fit into it. Slowly but surely I realized I have access to all these great artists and could promote because that’s what I did for a day job and that you can release things digitally for nothing! At the end of the day I realized I have this possible business in hand for a very minimal investment and it just kind of went from there. I have to say, I don’t know if somebody else could just up and do it like I did because I was lucky to already have certain things in place if I wanted to do them.

    Jr: So one of the biggest assets for you was probably your network of creative people around you?

    L: There’s no doubt about that. That’s kind of what the whole Friends of Friends notion came from because I knew I had this really awesome network of people but ultimately they were homies with all these people I didn’t know about, and they didn’t know me, but of course I know their music or something. So that was how the idea progressed. I didn’t want to be restricted to only the people I knew but I had to start the label that way.  So the idea of Friends of Friends is that I can bring in the people I know but maybe they can bring in other and slowly and surely the word can spread between friends. “Oh hey I’m with this thing, it’s called Friends of Friends, you should check it out…”
    I wanted to make sure that it wasn’t just about me, because that’s what a lot of labels tend to be and this was trying to expand on what network I already had in place.

    Interview by: Pat Collins (http://www NULL.anotherpatrickcollins NULL.com/)

    MUSIC, THE INTERVIEW SERIES | Also tagged COMMITMENT, HUNGER, INSPIRATION, THE INTERVIEW SERIES

    Tag Archives: SUCCESS

    The Interview Series // 17

    WILANDERSON

    Writing these intros can be such a bitch. Trying to think of something witty and original is super ghey, plus you get that added extra of thinking no one will laugh at your jokes. So seeing as we’re awesome journalists now, we decided to consult the almanac of Awesome Journalism 2009: Wikipediac.

    “William James (Wil) Anderson (born 31 January, 1974) is an Australian (http://en NULL.wikipedia NULL.org/wiki/Australian) comedian (http://en NULL.wikipedia NULL.org/wiki/Comedian), performing stand-up, as well as on television (http://en NULL.wikipedia NULL.org/wiki/Television) and radio (http://en NULL.wikipedia NULL.org/wiki/Radio).”

    That pretty much sums it up. Funny dude, funny name, famous enough to need a Wikipedia entry… Basically, Wil is a pretty rad dude and funny as balls. How funny? Check this out! These are the names of his stand-up shows since 1998:

    “Wilosophy (2009); BeWILdered (2008); Wil of God (2007); Wil Communication (2006); Kill Wil (2005); Licence to Wil (2004); Jagged Little Wil (2003); Wil By Mouth (2002); Wil Of Fortune (2001); Who Wants To Be A Wilionaire (2000); Willenium, Terra Wilius (1999); and I am the Wilrus (1998).”

    Ok, enough of that. We asked him all the questions us juniors might want to know about figuring out life, parents, being creative, the ‘process’, and other such in depth conversation. Read on and find the meaning of life.*

    Jr: When was the first time you realised you could make people laugh?

    Wil: I can’t remember when I first realised I could. That part of it still comes as a bit of a mystery to me. But I certainly remember when I realised I wanted to.

    When I was about fourteen I lived on my parents’ farm in the country, and we only had two TV channels. Yes, that’s right kids, two. (And we used to eat nothing but pebbles and were grateful.)

    We had Southern Cross, and the ABC. My two favourite shows were the Ted Robinson (http://www NULL.imdb NULL.com/name/nm0733133/) produced Big Gig and Andrew Denton’s (http://en NULL.wikipedia NULL.org/wiki/Andrew_Denton) Money or the Gun. I loved those shows because I finally saw people who seemed to look at the world the way I did.

    I found the notion that interesting ideas, and counter-culture thoughts, could be presented through humor immensely appealing.

    I could never have imagined back then that twenty years later I would have been lucky enough to work with both Ted (on The Glass House (http://en NULL.wikipedia NULL.org/wiki/The_Glass_House_(TV_series))) and Andrew (on The Gruen Transfer (http://www NULL.abc NULL.net NULL.au/tv/gruentransfer/)).

    Jr: And when did you then decide you wanted to be a comedian?

    W: I can remember the exact moment. My appetite for comedy had been growing for a few years, and for my seventeenth birthday my Mum took me to see Billy Connolly live (http://www NULL.youtube NULL.com/watch?v=fzQNNgFNty4). Now I guess going on a date with your Mum on your birthday isn’t that cool, but I thought it was the coolest thing I had ever seen.

    I saw this man talk for three hours in a row, swearing his head off, and have three thousand people aged ten to eighty piss themselves. (In the case of the older ones sometimes literally.) I knew that moment it was what I wanted to do for a job.

    Jr: Yes! A lot of us can definitely relate to that feeling. But were you parents supportive?

    W: I don’t think my parents were rapt when I told them I was going to give up being a journalist to tell dick jokes for cash.

    But my Dad always said the secret of life was to find something you liked to do, work hard, and you would find a way to get people to pay you to do it. And comedy was what I wanted to do.

    But secretly I don’t think it was until I bought a house they finally realised it was a proper career. They figured if someone would loan me cash based on knob gags and Shannon Noll material it must be a real job.

    Jr: Ha! Yes! Do you think you got your humour from them or are they completely unfunny?

    W: My Dad is a farmer and has a dry sense of humor. My Mum is the really funny one. I remember after I had got in trouble for saying something, a journo rang my Mum and asked: “Are you embarrassed by your son?”

    Mum simply replied: “When he was one I took him to the local shopping mall and he did poo on my face, nothing he has done since then has embarrassed me as much!”

    Jr: When you were starting out did you have a ‘plan b’ – we heard you studied Journalism?

    W: I had a teacher at school- let’s just call her “Mrs Brown”- who I told I was thinking about becoming a comedian. She told me I wasn’t funny, and wouldn’t make a living doing it, and I should get a proper job…

    It deflated me. So I ended up studying journalism.

    When we started doing The Glass House I always wanted to call it Stick It Up Your Arse Mrs Brown, so she would have to see every week she was wrong.

    As soon as I started comedy I quit all my other work. I didn’t want a plan b. I saw an episode of Oprah where she was interviewing Roseanne and she said: “The problem with back-up plans is you fall back on them.”

    Jr: Totally. Do you think though that having that background helps you be a comedian now?

    W: It got me used to producing something to a deadline. Being a comedian isn’t about being funny, it’s about being funny on demand.

    Roy and HG (http://en NULL.wikipedia NULL.org/wiki/Roy_and_HG) told me they often get approached in the pub by people telling them they had friends who were funnier than them. Their only response is: “Yeah, we are just able to be funny when the red light comes on.”

    Jr: When it comes to writing new material; does it come naturally while you’re doing your daily thing or do you have to sit down and consciously work at it?

    W: The one thing I have learned is that it is all these things… and sometimes none of them.

    Sometimes something funny happens and I just note it down (that’s why I have to take my notebook to the pub or I come home with notes all over me like Guy Pearce in Memento (http://www NULL.youtube NULL.com/watch?v=UFWAE1CffbY).)

    Sometimes I have a set assignment (ie. Write something about mother’s day for a column, or I want to write something about gay marriage for my stand-up act) and sometimes it just comes out magically fully-formed on stage.

    Sometimes it’s a combination of all of it. Sometimes none of it works. Sometimes the trick is to stop staring at the page, walk to the shops to grab the paper, and in your head something clicks.

    Russell Brand (http://en NULL.wikipedia NULL.org/wiki/Russel_brand) says his life is a series of embarrassing incidents strung together by telling people about those embarrassing incidents, but my life isn’t that interesting so I have to work at it.

    Jr: OK, so we’ve sent you these questions and you said you’d answer them on the plane. Obviously you’re on your way overseas to do some shows… How well does comedy translate across continents? Do you find you have to change your approach?

    W: People tend to laugh at the same things. Language is normally the thing you have to be wary of. For example I was doing a gig in New York a couple of years ago when I said: “I don’t mean to hang shit on George Bush!”

    Of course they don’t have that expression there. So everyone stared at me like I literally wanted to “hang shit” on George Bush. Like I was some sort of defecation decorator, think Brown Eye For The Bush Guy.

    Jr: You’ve done TV, radio, penned columns, authored a book and of course done stand-up shows, but sometimes all at once… Is this all part of being a great entertainer? Or if you had it your way would just concentrate on one area?

    W: I tend to get sacked a lot, so I tend to do a lot of things because I have a hideous mortgage and no other skills.

    Seriously though, having more than one string to your bow certainly makes you more employable, but you do run the risk of being jack of all trades, master of none.

    In the last few years I have been trying to pick fewer projects (ie. Doing ten weeks of Gruen rather than 42 weeks of Glass House) and try to do them better.

    I guess ideally I would love to get to a point where I could do stand-up full-time and just dabble in the other things.

    But then again, while I don’t love TV, radio, writing etc in the same way I love stand-up, there are things about each of them that I really enjoy and I am certainly glad I have had the opportunity to try them all.

    And like anything, no matter how much fun, you can get bored and that is the death of creativity. So after a long stand-up tour it’s great to forget about it for a month and go and work on some tele or write a book.

    Jr: Tell us about The Gruen Transfer – How did you find yourself working with Andrew Denton on a show about ads?

    W: I have a general theory that you should try to work with people who inspire you, or people you admire, and the idea will work itself out.

    Andrew came to me and said he wanted to do a show that “gave people the tools to understand advertising, using humor, like Frontline (http://www NULL.youtube NULL.com/watch?v=a4C8rsjlyA8) did with current affairs”.

    At that stage, that’s all the idea was. But I think if someone like Andrew wants to work with you, you take his hand, close your eyes, and jump off a cliff.

    Jr: So is hosting shows like The Gruen Transfer and The Glasshouse the ‘top job’ to you? Or do you have other aspirations?

    W: To be perfectly honest, as much as I love both of those shows, hosting television is about the least fun of all my jobs.

    In fact, it’s the one that feels most like a “job”. I think the best way to put it is, I don’t think tele is fun to make, it’s fun to look back on something you have made.

    (I also find writing a little like this. I don’t love to write, I love to have written.)

    I certainly have some other aspirations, big and small, but if I could still be working in comedy at age 65 and never had to get another job, I would consider myself a success.

    Jr: And lastly, any advice for young wannabe comedians?

    W: Don’t do it… I’m not that good and I certainly don’t need competition for jobs from young, ambitious and talented people.

    And only do it if you “need” to do it. If you need to, then nothing will stop you. If you are just doing it for money, or fame, there are much easier ways to get those things… like advertising.

    * Ha! Got you. No meaning of life here!

    MISCELLANEOUS, THE INTERVIEW SERIES | Also tagged ANDREW DENTON, COMEDY, HUMOUR, PARENTS, THE GLASS HOUSE, THE GRUEN TRANSFER, TIPS, WIL ANDERSON, WORK, WRITING

    Tag Archives: SUCCESS

    The Monday Morning WHIP // 29

    whip29

    Has anyone seen that new Charlie Kaufman (http://en NULL.wikipedia NULL.org/wiki/Charlie_Kaufman) film Synecdoche (http://www NULL.youtube NULL.com/watch?v=XIizh6nYnTU)? It’s pretty great. There’s a scene where the aging protagonist/writer is shown a best-selling book of apparent genius written by a four-year-old named Horace Azpiazu. You see, there’s always someone younger than you, doing something better than you, more authentically than you, and winning more praise than you. So chill the fuck out, realise that you’re younger than a lot of people and get to work. Because Stan (http://branddna NULL.blogspot NULL.com/) reckons you’ve much more to offer than just enthusiasm and a will to work for nuthin’.

    Big news from the fourth estate this week, with the appointment of 23-year-old Ben Naparstek as editor of The Monthly (http://www NULL.themonthly NULL.com NULL.au/) magazine.

    Yes you read that correctly – he’s 23 years old!

    So I guess that puts him in the Junior demographic. Except he doesn’t see himself that way and neither should you.

    Talent is talent. Ability is ability. Age should be irrelevant.

    As Naparstek himself said (http://www NULL.theage NULL.com NULL.au/national/ben-who-20090526-bm4u NULL.html), “I’m old enough to be well used to people telling me I’m young.”

    Despite what he himself thinks, Narparstek is very young for the position he now holds.

    Yet he is, if memory serves, two years older than Aussie advertising legend Siimon Reynolds was when he was made Creative Director of Grey in Sydney.

    “I’ve been an adult for, what is it, five years now,” said Narparstek. “I’m 23. How much longer is this going to continue?”

    Obviously Ben Narparstek doesn’t consider himself a junior. So why do you?

    If you have talent and ability, you’re just as capable of having a great idea as someone ten or twenty years older than you.

    So rather than thinking of yourself as someone looking to get a foot in the door, start selling yourself as someone who can contribute to a business.

    Someone with so much more to offer than just enthusiasm and a low salary expectation.

    PUBLISHING, WHIP, WRITING | Also tagged AGE, THE MONTHLY, WHIP, WORK, WRITING

    Tag Archives: SUCCESS

    The Dear Junior Series // 03

    simon

    Getting a job. For some people it’s the most exciting thing in the world. The thrill of the chase! Picking your favourite studio, agency, magazine, firm, whatever of your choice and banging down their door until they give you a desk and some pens. For others, its a scary, dangerous and intimidating journey. The interviews, the phone calls, the waiting, the pain! Well, we hear you friends. So we’ve asked someone who actually does the hiring for a little bit of inside info on what to say. That someone is Simon Hakim, the Managing Director and all-round forward thinking guy at The Surgery (http://www NULL.thesurgery NULL.com NULL.au).

    Junior: There are many juniors out in the world desperately trying to get a job right now, but having no luck. From the many years of hiring people, especially juniors, what advice do you have to help them finally land a job?

    Simon: Basically, people should approach a prospective job and its company with some kind of plan.

    I’ve been to lots of meetings of late with young and senior folk wanting a job in advertising and/or with The Surgery. After all the coffee, beer and talking, there seems to be one inherent theme that constantly worries me.

    Yes we know you want a job.
    Yes we know you want a job in advertising as a suit, creative, public relations person or as a digital person.
    Yes we know you are qualified, have experience and think you’d be perfect for a role with The Surgery.
    Yes we know you’ve done this before. Or haven’t done this before but think you’d be good at it.

    But by the sounds of it all, you just want a job. You don’t really know why, other than you’d be good at whatever it is you are applying for.  You just really want to work there or you kinda just need the money.

    I won’t employ someone who doesn’t really know what they want or can offer me or my clients.

    I want someone saying:

    “You guys could soon be the hottest creative agency, but your work can be improved, and I’ll show you how to get there” or;

    “I want to be creative director in five years time” or;

    “Here are three ideas for three clients you have and this is why I think it would work and what the benefit to them would be. When can we present?”

    Be proactive. Understand what you want and where you are going. Have a plan. Be creative and come up with ideas that benefit the agency or their clients. Give them a reason to employ you.

    ADVERTISING, DEAR JUNIOR | Also tagged COMMITMENT, DEAR JUNIOR, HUNGER, JOB HUNTING, RECESSION
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