• The Egotist Briefs: Pete Favat of Arnold Worldwide

    October 27th, 2010 / Comments (1)

    As Chief Creative Officer, Pete oversees all of Arnold Worldwide’s Boston clients. He launched the truth campaign, which has become the most successful national anti-tobacco program ever. He has led teams that won Royal Caribbean and Celebrity lines, Progressive Insurance, Timberland, ESPN and Volvo, and created TAG body spray for Gillette. His path to this position started in 1984 when he graduated from the School of Visual Arts in NYC. At 29, Pete moved to Boston to become Creative Director and Partner of Houston Herstek Favat, which later was bought by Arnold. Pete’s awards include Gold Lions at Cannes, Gold Pencils at the One Show, Communication Arts honors, ANDYs, CLIOs, British D&AD, Grand Effies and one Emmy award for truth®.

    How do you keep it fresh at Arnold? You guys are huge, but still crank out the quality.

    Well, I never have thought of us as huge, but thank you. Maybe that’s how we keep things fresh. We don’t think of ourselves as huge. We keep things nimble. We have a strong hiring filter that looks for determined, highly creative thinkers, who have positive, “can do” attitudes. From the top down, we are very open minded to the possible. We expect a spirited sense of courageous thinking from everyone who works here.

    Why Boston? What brought you here and what do you think keeps you here?

    Funny question. I am from New York originally. I graduated from SVA and worked in NYC for five years out of art school. I was working at Lintas Worldwide on the Coca-Cola business for a creative director named Dana Jones. Dana decided to leave NYC to move back to Boston where he was from. When he left New York, he tempted me with an offer I could not refuse. : )

    I was 25, and I figured he helped me get my career off the ground and he needed me to help him in Boston, so we decided on a one-year plan. After a year of working with Dana in Boston, I wanted to head to Los Angeles. Some plans don’t work out. I fell madly in love with Boston. I became a partner in a small agency named Houston Herstek Favat. We were pretty successful. After five years, Arnold bought our company and that’s how I landed here. Where I have been for 12 years.

    Of course, quality of work could always be better. What do you think we need to do to collectively elevate our creative standard and keep it there? (Pretty loaded question, we know.)

    It’s not loaded at all. We are only as good as our last idea. That’s the simple truth. We have to strive to be better tomorrow than we were today, right? We need to push ourselves to elevate our work every chance we get. What we provide people here at Arnold is a culture that allows you, as well as expects you, to swing for the fences. To take chances. There isn’t any sort of penalty for that here. We challenge each other daily with the intention of making Arnold the best.

    Favorite campaign of 2010 so far? Why? Care to offer up your least favorite?

    “We Choose the Moon” was a brilliant piece of work that really stuck out for me this year. The “Replay” campaign also was a real standout. Loved both of them.

    Least favorite? Any political campaign. Man, I wish someone would crack the code here and produce something thought provoking and dignified. They all suck bad.

    What are some of the characteristics you want to see in great art directors or copywriters?

    Create ideas that do not rely on one medium. Today, we are designing conversations. Come up with cross-channel ideas that get people talking. Inject polarity into your thinking and people will talk about it. Whether they love it or hate it, that’s what gets people talking.

    Name one advertising trend that annoys you and one that you dig.

    If you want to annoy me, show me ideas that tell people how they should live their lives. It won’t go very well, I assure you.

    If you want me to listen, tell me a great story, a strong narrative, something about the brand I didn’t know. Something I can tell other people about. That’s great work.

    What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?

    Do not engage in office politics. Keep your mind focused on solving the problem at hand. Do not listen to naysayers and “no” people. They do not make this world better.

    Who do you admire most in the creative industry?

    It’s different every single day. We are in the greatest transition ever in this business. Embrace the hell out of that. Re-learn all the time. No one place has a firm grip on what is going on.

    If advertising were a person, would you want to hang out with them? Are they a jerk?

    Weird question, bud. Like people, there are so many different types of advertising, so it depends. I get along with tons of different types, so you’d have to be a real asshole ad for me to not hang out with you.

    What are three pieces of advice you’d give any creative?

    Same as question #7. Pass it on. :)

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  • The Tea Party Is What It Is – An Ad Campaign

    October 18th, 2010 / Comments (0)

    I rarely venture into politics in my column, for a few reasons. First, it’s usually something that gives me an enormous headache. Second, it bores most people to tears. And finally, most of the time, we can’t do a thing about it.

    When Obama won the election, he did it on the back of a very well crafted campaign that inspired everyone from Shepherd Fairey to the Hollywood elite to make a creative contribution. The HOPE message, and those iconic posters, were all part of the ethos. The nation, indeed, the whole world, was caught up in it. It was a well-executed and well-supported ad campaign. It had headlines. It had viral videos. It had guerrilla marketing. It should have won a One Show award, to be honest.

    And now, a few years later, with the Obama posters fading almost as quickly as his battered public image, we are presented with a new ad campaign. This time, it’s for the Tea Party. And make no mistake, this is just as much of an ad campaign as the one Obama used. Only this time, the message is quite different. Now, it’s FEAR that is the root of all of this.

    Glenn Beck is, in my humble opinion, a smart guy. And dangerous. I have watched and listened carefully to his rhetoric over the last few years and saw exactly what he was doing. Every tear, every outburst, every outraged scream, it was all carefully planned.

    It’s easy to write him off as an idiot, but that would imply that he doesn’t know what he’s doing or thinking. He does. The fact that I’m even writing his name here is playing into his strategy. He wants to be hated. He wants people to despise him. His crocodile tears work on millions of people, too. Because when you polarize people in that way, you create powerful supporters. The Tea Party movement being one such offshoot of his rants and raves.

    Then there’s Sarah Palin. She entered the scene during the election and refused to go away. The fact that she backed down as governor proved to me that she also knew exactly what she was doing, and what she wanted. It was all about money and power. And being governor of Alaska brings neither – not when you look at where the real money and power actually is. Her speaking engagements, books, Fox News appearances and work with the Tea Party is netting her millions of dollars and putting her right back in the spotlight. Some people think she should be president!

    So, how do you turn someone as innocuous and pointless as Sarah Palin into a potential presidential candidate? How do you elevate a loud-mouthed talk show host to the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, on the anniversary of Martin Luther King’s historic speech? How do you motivate millions of people to wave signs of protest? How do you make people believe that the beliefs of the Tea Party are completely different to the old GOP beliefs, when they are in fact identical? And how do you convince people that an organization is grass roots when it’s funded by big corporate interests and backed by even bigger media outlets?

    It’s all down to advertising. Clever, strategic, creative advertising. Adolf Hitler once said, “All propaganda has to be popular and has to accommodate itself to the comprehension of the least intelligent of those whom it seeks to reach.” He also said, “if you tell a big enough lie and tell it frequently enough, it will be believed.” And the HBO show The Wire commented, “Americans are stupid people by and large. We pretty much believe whatever we are told.”

    Look at the O’Reilly Factor, for instance. Bill calls his show “the no spin zone.” That’s like calling KFC "health food" (which they tried to do, and failed, with Kitchen Fresh Chicken). Now I don’t like O’Reilly for many reasons, not just political, but I don’t give a crap about his content. It’s an opinion show, like Rush Limbaugh, Hannity, Keith Olbermann, Rachel Maddow and all the other pundits out there. But watch a few episodes of “the no spin zone” and tell me it’s not bashing liberals and coming out favorably for the right. That is spin. Pure and simple.

    Fox News itself says it is “fair and balanced” which is also bunk. And yet, people believe it. I think CNN is slanted too, but it’s the Fox News tagline that bugs me. Come on. Keep it real. Somehow though, if you say it, then it must be true.

    So, keep it simple, and say what people want to hear. People are upset about the economy? Exploit it. People are paranoid about losing their homes or jobs? Jump on it. People hate paying taxes? Tell them they’ll pay more, regardless of the truth.

    I’m not saying that the Tea Party movement is just a complete pack of lies. But I am saying that exaggeration, and misdirection, plays a key role in its rise. Just like we dramatize or exaggerate a benefit in an ad campaign, so the Tea Party exaggerates and dramatizes the main messages. Fear is the key. I would not be surprised if there was a creative brief for the Tea Party campaign that said something like “without the Tea Party, you have everything to fear and everything to lose.”

    The Tea Party wants to take back the country and reduce the size of government. They want lower taxes and a reduction in wasteful spending. They want to reduce the national debt. These are all points that previous Republicans have preached, almost word for word, but the economic disaster that hit the country was under the watch of a Republican. The elephant has tainted the message.

    This is where advertising comes in, again. It’s time to rebrand. It’s time to create something radically new and different, even though it’s essentially the exact same product. The Tea Party is the product of that thinking. It’s a repackaging. It’s “hey, high fructose corn syrup sucks. We know that. But have you tried new corn sugar? It’s great. It’s sugar. And you all want sugar now!”

    This mentality makes it very easy for a movement like the Tea Party to gain traction. They are nothing more than a rebranding of the Republican party, with a few new bells and whistles and some catchy new taglines. It is advertising, at its best or worst, that has done this. It’s strategic, it’s planned, and it’s working. Hopefully, enough people sniff out the smoke and mirrors and avoid falling for the hype. But I doubt it.

    Felix Unger is a site contributor, ranter and curmudgeon for The Denver Egotist. He's been in the ad game a long time, but he's still young enough to know he doesn't know everything. He'll give his opinion, you can take it or leave it. If he uses the f-bomb from time-to-time, forgive him. Sometimes, when you're ranting, no other word will do. In his spare time, he does not torture small animals. He has been known, on occasion, to drink alcohol by the gallon. Do as he says, not as he does. Email him at felix@theegotist.com.

    Originally posted on The Denver Egotist.

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  • Egotism in Advertising

    October 8th, 2010 / Comments (0)

    When I first discovered this website, I was naturally surprised by the name. The Boston Egotist! In Seinfeldian terms, it’s Krameresque: “I'm out there, and LOVING IT!!”

    People are intrigued by the idea of egotism in advertising. We don’t want a selfless Don Draper.

    In any work, but especially a supposedly glam business like advertising, there is good and bad in egotism. Pros and cons play in your mind like a game of ping pong.

    Here are some of the ways egotism helps and hurts in the ad biz.

    Starting Out

    GOOD: You need a strong ego to break into the business. You don’t find many people who encourage you. To the contrary, people already in the game usually don’t advertise the benefits. They tend to dwell on the negatives. (“It’s a dog eat dog world, and you will be a Chihuahua.”) And people on the outside don’t see a lot of redeeming qualities either. (“It seems manipulative. Have you considered landscaping instead?”)

    BAD: If you’re too self-centered and cocky, you probably won’t get hired by a good firm. Sure, many of us are a little arrogant starting out. When we heard “the world is your oyster,” we thought, “I deserve a better oyster.” But feigning humility is not a bad idea in a job interview.

    Brainstorming

    GOOD: You need confidence to propose and fight for an idea. Maybe the idea is half-baked, but if you don’t have the nerve to explain its beauty and potential, it won’t go back in the oven.

    BAD: If you are so self-involved that you don’t really listen to others or give them proper attention and credit, don’t be surprised when they fail to praise your ideas. It’s human nature. “Show me the money” is another way of saying, “show me respect.”

    Research & Development

    GOOD: If you have a strong sense of self, you might feel that your intuition gives you more insight in understanding what a particular audience wants to hear. That egotism – the notion that you know best – can motivate you to develop new ways to pitch, position and persuade.

    BAD: If you make the mistake of thinking that your view of a product, service or situation is the only reasonable one, you will compound that error with many to follow.

    Collaboration

    GOOD: If you feel driven to succeed, you need your team to prevail. You’ll use your leadership skills to encourage others to participate and then you’ll be generous in sharing credit with them.

    BAD: If you see others only through the prism of narrow self-interest – how they could help you look good – you will not be genuinely collaborative. You will not bring out the best in others, and the group dynamic will suffer as a result.

    Client Relations

    GOOD: Most clients understand that creative people have strong, sometimes sensitive, egos. Depending on the personalities involved, clients often see that in a positive way. They realize that creative people must believe in their vision; otherwise, they won’t see a project through.

    BAD: Very few clients want to work with arrogant people, no matter how talented. They want creative people to be confident, but also flexible and resilient.

    Here is a provocative question: How do Boston egotists compare to egotists in other cities?

    Well, we’re too humble to answer that.

    Alex Poulos is the President at LaunchPad Media.

    LaunchPad is an award-winning creative agency specializing in interactive media production – creating websites and driving traffic to them through advertising, search optimization, and PR. Headquartered in Watertown, Massachusetts, LaunchPad serves clients throughout the U.S.

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  • The Egotist Briefs: Steve Kolander of Small Army

    October 6th, 2010 / Comments (2)

    Steve Kolander, Executive VP & Creative Director at Small Army, is a former recording artist for Polygram Records, ex-Creative Director of JWT/Atlanta, cabinetmaker, world traveler and storyteller.

    In fact, Steve doesn’t seem himself as an ad guy. Instead, he sees himself as a storyteller of brands. When he was writing songs for himself, the Dixie Chicks and R&B artist, Carmichael, he told stories in 3-minutes (often with his Gretsch White Falcon guitar in tow). As a marketer, he and his teams tell provocative stories in 30 seconds. Or 140 characters. Or as an experience in a place where you don’t expect it. He and his teams’ shenanigans have ended up on CNN news and the cover of Adweek. And as Steve puts it, “When your ads make the news, you’re no longer creating just advertising. Your clients are becoming part of the cultural landscape. That’s where it’s at!”

    How would you rate the creative scene in Boston these days?

    I went to SoWa this weekend and the creativity was outstanding. The music scene has plenty to offer with Berklee College of Music in the heart of Boston and plenty of other damn good bands and musicians that will rock your socks off. As far as advertising is concerned, is there a ‘scene’?

    How does Small Army take advantage of the creativity that the city naturally produces?

    We hire a lot of college grads oozing with creativity from the local universities. They turn the rest of us onto what’s cool. And I pretend that I understand exactly what they’re talking about. Then go home and have a drink and tell my wife I’m getting old.

    What specific kinds of things does Small Army do to foster creativity?

    For starters, we check out the web for those great nuggets out there. With 1,966,514,816 internet users, someone somewhere at any given moment is coming up with an amazing idea that makes you say, “Now why didn’t I think of that?” Also, we all have Kindles. (It’s standard issue at Small Army.) We read a lot and pass the books onto each other so we’re well read and well versed in many disciplines. We also encourage everyone to watch lots of foreign movies. They give us a different perspective on life and cinema than our own. And we try not to think in terms of advertising but in terms of storytelling. This makes us think of our clients in completely different ways. And when you think differently, you create fresh ideas.

    Do you have a philosophy on creating great work?

    Yes, stay busy living life. We draw upon our own experiences to think of our clients in ways they may never see themselves. And as stated above, we think in terms of storytelling. This helps us solve problems in ways that marketing classes never taught us. And the results are much fresher and more imaginative.

    Where do you think the advantages lie in being a smaller agency?

    Small agencies have the advantage of being able to change so much quicker than a well-established, large agency. Large agencies pride themselves in their tried and true processes. But these processes are from a bygone era and those large agencies are holding on to what has made them great. Obviously, not all agencies are this way. Edward Boches, the creative director at Mullen in Boston has really immersed himself in social media and has taken his agency into this frontier as a leader, not a follower.

    What are some of your favorite projects you’re working on right now?

    I have an interesting project that stand out at this time; it is an interactive webisode series for our client, SolidWorks. The series is about a guy who designs one-of-a-kind products on camera and at regular intervals, asks the global 3D community to help him decide what direction to take next. The global community votes via social media such as Tweets discussion forums. It’s extremely effective and very hard to pull off since social media has never been used to this degree before. It’s like reality TV for engineers but the whole world gets to vote!

    What are some of the characteristics you want to see in great art directors or copywriters?

    Fresh thinking. Breaking rules, but first understanding what rules they are breaking and then doing it anyway. I’m looking for creative people who don’t think like advertisers so they stop creating advertising and start creating stories about companies and their products.

    We can all come up with a million ways technology has positively affected creativity. But are there ways it’s affected it negatively?

    Technology has come so far that many tools once left to the professionals are now available to the masses; video cameras, digital cameras, garageband, dreamweaver, etc… Now many clients don’t want to pay the prices that were once reserved for professionals. They want a video shot for $5,000. A photo for $100. Original music for free. And a website for $2,000. It’s difficult to see that the tools aren’t the end all. The thinking behind the tools was always important and still is. But technology advances makes it appear that the creativity and thinking is easier, too. It’s not.

    How do you sell interesting new technologies to clients who probably don’t understand them or see the possibilities?

    It’s not about selling technologies, it’s about selling stories. Technology has nothing to do with it. Technology is simply the means to an end. When you go to a restaurant, you don’t care if they have a technologically advanced espresso machine, you just want your espresso to taste delicious. I never sell technology. I sell what the technology will do to the story we’re telling.

    Favorite campaign of 2010 so far? Why? Care to offer up your least favorite?

    I like the Old Spice Man’s tweets. Breakthrough stuff. It’s not about technology, but about ways the Old Spice Man could talk to the average Joe. Just happens that new technology was the answer. I also kinda like the “Never Say No to Panda” campaign, from Egypt of all places. If you don’t eat Panda cheese, a Panda with an attitude will show up and kick your butt. It’s really bizarre. But I like it. And from a very unlikely country.

    What are three pieces of advice you’d give any creative?

    Learn your craft really well so that you can break all the rules you just learned.

    Don’t sit at home and watch TV, but get out in the real world and live. All the ideas for your stories in the office are out there beyond the four walls.

    Find a mentor and study that person well. They will teach you things you can’t find in books. And if you read them in books, it would take so long to find the nuggets that you’d be old by the time you learned them. Stand on the shoulders of those you respect. Life goes by freaking fast and you don’t have any time to waste.

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  • The Egotist Briefs: Steve Connelly of Connelly Partners

    October 4th, 2010 / Comments (4)

    Steve Connelly is the President and Chief Creative Officer at Connely Partners (CP).

    In 1999, Connelly, then the president of New England’s largest independent agency (Ingalls) left his position and founded Connelly Partners. Today, Connelly Partners remains one of the fastest growing independent advertising agencies in the Northeast. Located in Boston’s South End, Connelly’s current clients include Samsonite, American Tourister, Liberty Mutual, TripAdvisor, Ocean Spray, Staples, Massachusetts Office of Travel + Tourism, Bertucci’s, Papa Gino’s, D’Angelo, Public Service of New Hampshire and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Among his past clients, they include: McDonald’s, T.J. Maxx, CVS/pharmacies, Radisson Hotels, Baskin-Robbins, Stonyfield Farms, Fallon Community Health Plan and Citizens Bank.

    Steve’s passion and knowledge for his craft makes him a frequent speaker at industry and networking events as well as a regular media source for the latest in industry news and insight.

    His philosophy is “If you don’t have a life outside of this place you’re useless to me.”

    Is there anything about Boston that you feel sets it apart (creatively) from other cities?

    In years gone by, Boston was defined by being so close to New York City. They were big time. We were backwater. The ad community in this town had a well defined chip on our collective shoulders, which made us work twice as hard to get noticed for who we were and what we did. We (and by “we” I am including our creative brethren in Providence...back in the 80’s there was no hotter creative city on the planet) used that chip as the ultimate motivation. Not so much now, but back then it was all about kicking New York’s ass. Made us better. Made them better. Made ads better.

    What inspires you creatively?

    I find inspiration in real life. Never really felt the need to use my imagination when I could just use my eyes. We as a species are hilarious. We are blissfully illogical, flawlessly good humored and despite the best efforts of the politically correct loonies we find in ever increasing numbers, we still love to laugh at ourselves. I have always been inspired by guys like Bill Cosby and Jerry Seinfeld. Guys who never needed to be flashy, never needed special effects, never needed to use an arsenal of flowery language. Nope. These guys would just sit on a stool in front of 15,000 people, tell you what they saw that day, and you would laugh your ass off.

    What did you set out to do when you started CP?

    Cornball crap aside, I was looking to prove that a relatively normal guy could surround himself with equal normal people with normal lives and normal families could do work more inspiring and effective than the clad in black, pierced, coke snorting, self important dye jobs that populated many agencies. I am tragically square. And advertising was for years a round hole. People see our work and hear our ideas and are still amazed that work that good could come from people so, well, normal. This business doesn’t really embrace life balance. This agency does.

    Does CP have a philosophy on how to create great work? Or is it as simple as hiring good people and letting them do their thing?

    Problem with just hiring good people and letting them do their thing is that many of the best advertising minds come with egos the size of Kansas. They bitch, moan, whine, wear diapers then spend the day asking others to change their diapers for them. Genius often comes hand in hand with ego. We have to look for the exceptions. Ridiculously talented people whom you would love to have a slice of pizza and a beer with. They are not easy to find. Luckily, they find us. Our creative philosophy is empathy over entertainment. Cultivate likability. And if you spend all your time in the office rather than finding inspiration outside of it, well, you’re probably in over your head.

    What are the projects going on over there right now that have you the most excited?

    We have some clients who are under enormous pressure to perform in this economy, and being a Babson boy, I get really excited about helping them figure ways to grow their businesses. Asking me to tell you which client’s work I am most excited about is like asking me which one of my kids I love most...but the project that has me most jazzed right now is our tinkering with the agency itself. When the economy started tanking we did what we advise our clients to do. We got aggressive. We spent. We invested in new people. We acquired new companies. We viewed the downturn as an opportunity and ran out to meet it. And while I wear a cup to work every day because I expect to get kicked in the nuts, so far so good. 2010 is our best year ever.

    How does digital innovation fit into your creative process?

    Digital innovations have made it easier than ever before to find your customers, and easier than ever before for them to think less of you. Think of it this way...you’re in a crowded room. The mission is not to get noticed, hell just act like an ass and everyone will notice you. The mission is to be liked. Creatively we can never lose sight of that. Digital channels give us more subtle, covert and supremely effective opportunities to do earn likeability and sell more for our clients. We can think bigger.

    It seems like we’re all working harder than ever to squeeze out even small gains for our clients. Has advertising gone wrong somewhere along the way or is it just a function of today’s world?

    I think advertising needs to get an enema. Loosen up. Stop whining. People always think they are working harder than ever. I have never worked at a place where people didn’t work hard. The problem is that the prospect of small gains is de-motivating for world-changing, big thinkers like us ad folk, when in fact in an economy like this it should have you jazzed up. If the economy is great, aspire to great big gains. When the economy sucks, go for teenie weenie gains. Do the best with what you got. Stop making excuses and pro actively attack every situation. More often than not people in general, and our business specifically, don’t survey the landscape and develop realistic expectations. Advertising as an industry has always been about more flash than honesty. You know what I’ve found? Clients like and appreciate honest. Probably because it’s in such short supply.

    Name one advertising trend that drives you nuts and one that you really love.

    I hate the rush to all things social without really understanding what it can do or setting realistic expectations and definitions for success. I can’t tell you how many times I have been told that “we have to be on facebook and twitter” by folks without a strategy for successfully using it...they just want to be there without knowing why. Social is invaluable in better understanding people and building relationships with them, and should be part of every broader strategy. But folks who try to tie immediate sales success to a social strategy are missing the opportunity. And the trend that has me really excited is how more clients and prospects recognize we are in the content business rather than advertising business. We need to create destination ideas that engage and earn people’s attention. What to do in traditional media channels don’t dominate discussions anymore. The approach is much more macro and all inclusive now. For a storyteller and observer of the human race like me that is incredibly exciting.

    If you weren’t working in advertising, what would you be doing instead?

    I would be coaching college basketball. Proving there’s a place for normalcy in that world too. Of course that career is exceptionally nomadic and my wife probably wouldn’t move all over the place with me. Thank God I started down this path instead when I got out of school. Just think of it...right now I could be coaching the University of Idaho Vandals instead of living in the world’s greatest city. Boston seriously kicks ass, don’t you think? Except in February. February in Boston kinda sucks. But then again, so does Idaho in February.

    What are three pieces of advice you’d give any creative?

    I would assume most everyone would advise creatives to do amazing, powerful work. But if you need me to give you that advice, then you’re probably not destined to be a good creative. Hmmm...I would say see the world through the eyes of the customer and client, not through your own. Shut the hell up and listen every once and a while... And always remember to buy your boss snacks.

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  • Can You Have Kids AND A Great Advertising Career?

    September 29th, 2010 / Comments (2)

    In one of my recent articles on advertising, the subject of kids came up in the comments thread. Kids, it seems, can cause some serious problems for people in ad agencies. Those with kids want more time with their beloved offspring. Those without kids clearly couldn’t give a rat's ass and, therefore, want everyone in the agency working at the same rate and with the same passion as they do.

    The biggest issue I had with all of this came from a comment that basically said “no one held a gun to your head and forced you to have kids.”

    In effect, you wanted kids, you now have to deal with not seeing them because you chose this career. You knew, from day one, that advertising required a greater commitment from you than most marriages.

    But why?

    If that’s the attitude, it seems apt that more and more people, good people, are leaving the ad industry for other ventures. Why should advertising require you to work 15-hour days, week after week, plus weekends and holidays? It’s not for the money, we all know that. It’s not for the amazing lifestyle, those champagne and coke parties vanished a long time ago. Why should there be this sacrifice? And why should people who want kids have to choose other professions? What if the next great advertising creative wants kids, or has them already? Should this genius be relegated to a career they do not want because they dared to be a parent?

    I really don’t understand this attitude towards people with kids. And trust me, I have seen this from both sides of the coin. For the majority of my career, I didn’t have kids. I was a junior working late on pitches when the older crews were leaving at 7pm to see their respective families. I used to beat my creative director in, and leave after him. He had two kids and he wanted to see them. What a fucking bastard!

    To be honest, I never thought that actually. I never, even in my youth, thought that people with kids did not belong in this industry. I never thought that people with wives and husbands were somehow second-class citizens. I usually thought “good for them, must be nice to have a life outside of work.” Sometimes, it would be more like “man, that guy’s been here for 10 hours and he has to go home and change diapers.” Either way, I wasn’t pissed at anyone. While the folks with kids were off home at the stroke of 6pm to go and deal with yelling and screaming and drama, I was working at the agency with a beer, or out late having a few cold ones with the other agency folks who enjoyed real freedom.

    And make no mistake, you childless peeps, kids and family take quite a lot away that you used to take for granted. While you may see these family types scurrying away early when you’re still stuck at the agency, they’re also missing out on the fun (when there is some, I know advertising is not quite party central). So, you haters of people with a family, give it a rest. Do a paradigm shift and realize that a parent is not some slacker who’s watching the clock because he or she dared to procreate.

    Now having said all of this, I refuse to use kids as an excuse for not being a hard worker. That’s just lazy. If you are working with someone who does poor work, or doesn’t put in the hours, then you have a legitimate gripe. Kids do take more of your time away, but you can make that up. You can concept at home when the kids are in bed, and you can get in early and think through lunch. As with any other important commitment in life, you need to balance work and your personal life. Balance, my friends, is key.

    And that’s a nice segue to the real crux of the matter here; can you have kids and a GREAT advertising career? Not a regular career, but the kind of resume and portfolio that makes people drool and curse your name at the same time.

    That, I think, depends on when you have kids and what kind of balance you decide upon. To be honest, if you have kids early on in your career, and want to be there for them, then you have your work cut out for you. You usually have to sacrifice a lot of your free time to build a good book and good career. That sacrifice will impact the quality of life you have with your children. Is it worth it? Ask yourself why you want(ed) kids and why you would want to see so little of them in order to produce posters and billboards.

    Later on, after you’ve built a solid career for yourself, it’s certainly easier to do great work and enjoy a better balance. People will cut you more slack if you’re an advertising genius who has already proven what he or she can do. But there’s still no getting around the fact that, unfortunately, great careers come from making great personal sacrifices. This industry demands more of your time than others, it always has and it always will. This is no reason not to have kids. As I have said earlier, you should be able to balance work and home life and still enjoy a good career.

    But to be one of the greats? All I can say is, it’s possible, but your kids may just grow up hating advertising because it robbed them of a mother or father.

    Felix Unger is a site contributor, ranter and curmudgeon for The Denver Egotist. He's been in the ad game a long time, but he's still young enough to know he doesn't know everything. He'll give his opinion, you can take it or leave it. If he uses the f-bomb from time-to-time, forgive him. Sometimes, when you're ranting, no other word will do. In his spare time, he does not torture small animals. He has been known, on occasion, to drink alcohol by the gallon. Do as he says, not as he does. Email him at felix@theegotist.com.

    Originally posted on The Denver Egotist.

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  • The Egotist Briefs: Gary Greenberg of Allen & Gerritsen

    September 20th, 2010 / Comments (2)

    Gary Greenberg, who considers himself part curator, detective and historian is the Executive VP & Chief Creative Officer at Allen & Gerritsen (a&g), which is ranked by Advertising Age as one of the Top 50 Independent advertising agencies in the US.

    Always focused on what¹s next, Allen & Gerritsen (a&g) strategically combines technology, creativity, media and analytics to develop digital, experiential and traditional branding experiences. Their roster of global, consumer and BtoB clients includes The Boston Celtics, Bright Horizons Family Solutions, Bonefish Grill, Hannaford Supermarkets, MFS Investment Management, Ninety Nine Restaurants, WBUR, Partnership for a Drug Free America, Toy State, Waters Corporation and Zildjian.

    How would you rate the creative scene in Boston these days? What would you say Boston has that makes it a better creative environment than other cities?

    Boston has this freaking insatiable thirst for innovation and technology unlike any other city I know. The desire to understand and discover “what’s next?” is how we live. That passion has allowed us to hang seriously tough and be vital in a down economy. The result is good news for creatives. The melding of technology and creative thinking has put us way ahead of the pack

    Do you think Boston is recognized or overlooked in the larger creative community? And if necessary, what does Boston need to do to put itself on the map?

    As I said above, we have an innovation edge here in Boston. But we absolutely cannot lose our edge. To continue to be creatively relevant and be recognized as a city that can accomplish things others can’t, we must develop ideas that can’t be created elsewhere and need to constantly prove ourselves. Boston tends to suffer from “NY envy” being so close and all. It’s bullshit, we’re our own worst enemy.

    That being said, no matter what the agency or company we work at - we root for each other here in Boston. Many of us have worked together in the past, we celebrate each other’s accomplishments and always want to see a great client keep their business here.

    What specific kinds of things does Allen & Gerritsen (a&g) do to foster creativity? Do you have a philosophy on creating great work?

    We encourage our people to get out and live and indulge in their passions whatever they are. This philosophy has always worked for me and comes from the top of our agency. We have aspiring sushi chefs, hack drummers, rock and roll historians, swizzle stick collectors, t-shirt designers, children’s illustrators, film buffs, snowboarders, and even dance club DJ’s. By fostering personal passions, we create a rich and diverse culture, which in turn makes the work better. I don’t believe in locking teams up in a room for days or weeks at a time saying “Go come up with the big idea.” Great creative directors know creativity doesn’t happen on their watch. Culture and environment and exposure to all things creative, art, music, film, even good food, have everything to do with a person’s ability to think differently. We have all of these things in Boston.

    What do you feel are some of the greatest hurdles in producing great creative work? How do you get over those hurdles?

    I try to pass along these messages to my team:
    Simple, ditch the baggage.

    Like anyone that has to jump over anything, being weighed down doesn’t help. Lots of creatives (unfortunately) suffer from battle wounds. Carrying around the mantra “they won’t do this, they won’t do that”… doesn’t help. Every assignment has to be looked at with fresh eyes. In other words, forget everything you knew or thought and just dig in.

    Many creatives out there feel that the economic crapstorm has put all the cards in the hands of the clients. What do creatives/agencies have to do to get some of the control back?

    Gain back the trust.
    Face it, nobody trusts anyone anymore after the last few years of the economic downturn. Clients are no different. Accountability is king, and the stakes are high. In a business climate like this, everyone pulling back and tightening up on everything, that includes who you trust and who you let in to play. So the job at hand is to earn that trust back, and get back in. Once clients believe you care about their success, and not your own, they will slowly begin to let go. Once they let go, you’ll gain some of that control back, and clients will be more willing to take risks.

    Do you feel that online technology is a vehicle for new and better creative work or do you think that concept is being lost in technology?

    The technology that is available to creative people today is crazy. Yeah, on occasion you see technology take the front seat. (I get it, it’s sexy.) Ideas are well, abstract, but technology, you can experience. However, without a strong idea and a sound strategy, it doesn’t matter how sexy the technology is. The combination of strong ideas and technology is where it’s at.

    What’s the best career advice you ever received?

    You have no prayer of making it in this business. I suggest finding another career.

    Favorite campaign of 2010 so far? Why? Care to offer up your least favorite?

    Hands down: My favorite campaign is Wieden’s “Old Spice” work. When you can take an old tired brand and make it feel fresh and smell this good, well boys, you’ve done your job.

    I’m also really proud of the work we just finished for our client Zildjian Cymbals. Zildjian is a storied brand with this incredible rich history and the greatest drummers in the world all play Zildjian.

    Our challenge was: How do you make that relevant when you’re talking to a 15 year old who’s never heard of Buddy Rich, Gene Krupa or even Ringo Starr?

    Our work revolved around the strategy: If you’re a drummer, you get it and you get each other. You speak a certain language, you feel and experience many of the same things in your quest to express yourself and your unique sound. It’s how we ultimately connect them all to each other, and to the Zildjian brand. The work will break in late October.

    What are three pieces of advice you’d give any creative?

    Find something you love to do.
    Go do it.
    Then go create some great work.

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  • It's Not Just Advertising, It's the Greatest Force for Change I Know

    September 17th, 2010 / Comments (0)

    I love Felix, and I love a lot of the points he makes in his editorial At the End of the Day it's Just Advertising, but at the end of the day that post depressed the shit out of me because I didn't bust my ass and go into crazy debt to join what he asserts is an ignoble profession.

    Felix is right when he states that work matters, but not at the expense of your health, spending time with loved ones, or your dignity when you lose your shit and reduce an intern to tears. His words are well-needed in an industry full of people who take themselves so seriously that it interferes with their treating other people like people. But while some found the post uplifting I find it dangerous because it tells creatives, "you'll never really do anything meaningful or worthwhile, except maybe an ad for a charity every now and again."

    It baffles me that as advertisers we develop a skillset that allows us to build companies, change culture and move dollars, yet an infinitesimally small percentage of us actually decide to use these skills to create our own enterprise. Instead we go through our career with blinders on, never questioning the assumption that the only way to build a career is to be beholden to others by either working for an agency or freelancing and attracting clients. That mentality, quite simply, is inane. If you can build a business for someone else, you can build a business for yourself. You can create what you want to see in the world and by so doing, you'll be tapping in o the best of what's within you. To me, that is the definition of doing noble work.

    Here is what I wish Felix had said: "A lot of people in advertising are focused on things that bring misery both to themselves and those around them. When you become obsessed with creating ads as an end unto itself, it is easy to fall prey to things like addiction and angry outbursts. But when you turn your focus to mastering your craft so you can use it to create the changes you want to see in the world, I can't think of a more powerful, inspirational field than advertising."

    There are two great things we can do as advertisers that no one else in the world is qualified for: First, we can advise businesses on how to successfully market, making positive changes in their business model so that companies can be profitable by doing the right thing. Second, with our skill in getting people behind something, we can create movements for things we are passionate about. Alex Bogusky, cited by Felix in his post, is doing both. He gave a speech recently that convinced me that the future of advertising isn't media centric, it's business centric. The next generation of award winning work will come from creatives who convinced companies to adopt more transparent, sustainable business models and then turned that into compelling ads. And recent episodes of his web talk show FearLess have focused on educating people about the dangers of the poorly regulated food supply in America.

    If you're not as passionately in love with advertising as you were when you jumped through flaming hoops to get in the door at an agency, make a list of the things you'd like to change. Then, pick the one that feels most important and turn it into a creative brief. With the internet making it possible for anyone to connect to an unlimited number of people for the low price of a domain name and a hosting plan, there isn't anything that we as creatives cannot accomplish. If you need a guide to help you with the details, I've written one right here.

    Felix, thank you for your rants and your dedication to our craft and the people who practice it. I eagerly await your reply.

    Faithfully,
    Fernando

    Fernando is a passionate defender of advertising who loves human beings. He blogs at bigfuckinglogo.com

    Originally posted on The Denver Egotist.

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  • How to Fail: A Pitch

    September 16th, 2010 / Comments (0)

    If you want to fail a pitch, show up late. There is nothing that says "we want your business" more than being on time. If there is a hard stop, plan your arrival time accordingly. Seventeen minutes prior should be plenty of time. Glad-handing and introductions will take up approximately 12 minutes, leaving ample time to review the 75-slide capabilities presentation you custom prepared for the day in the remaining 5 minutes.

    Send your least senior employees to the meeting. Interns are best because they are generally very timid and cower, stutter and faint when asked pointed questions such as "how are you?" or "did you have a hard time finding our office?" This can be amusing and breathe life into even the dreariest of pitches. If no interns are available at the time, freelancers are second best. Since they have no real allegiance to your agency, are likely angry they haven't been hired on full time and probably would prefer to take the project on themselves, you are pretty much guaranteed not to win the project when you send in a freelancer.

    Always come unprepared to a pitch you want to fail. It is important to be as unfamiliar with your prospect's business as possible. The more obscure the topic the better. It can be difficult to feign a misunderstanding of cotton balls, but no one understands futures trading, for example. In a pitch to a futures trading firm when you asked if you have any experience in their industry, relax. Respond with something along the lines of, "yes, we have a ton of experience in futures trading. Just the other day I was telling our Creative Director about how I thought Facebook was the future of television and he told me that he thought MySpace was the future of television. See, we trade futures around the office all the time."

    It can sometimes be difficult to fail a pitch if a prospect is already familiar with your work and impressed by your portfolio. Overcome any interest they have by displaying specific examples of work you hate. It is not a requirement that this work even be your own. Pull up some competitor's website and grab some of their particularly mediocre work, slap it in a PowerPoint, set up some nice slide transitions (we recommend 'dissolve'), turn down the lights and put on a good show.

    There are a few subtle things you can do to fail a pitch. Forgetting peoples names, or calling them by their reality/porn/Japanime star doppelganger's name can be effective. Coming in still drunk from the night before is fine too. Remark about how glad you are to narrowly pass the field sobriety test on your way over. Swapping DUI stories can be a great ice breaker. Dress casually. Come straight from the gym if you want. Chew gum. Smell like cigarettes. Swear often and unnecessarily.

    At the end of the pitch you should be at your car before they can say "next steps." Practice packing up your bag in advance, a time of 10 seconds or less is acceptable. Never unpacking your bag is preferred. Prior experience on a pit crew would be helpful here.

    After the pitch, don't bother following up. Maybe you'll receive a polite e-mail from an administrative assistant a few months later explaining that they're sorry for the delayed response and while they appreciate all your effort and recognize your stellar work, they've decided to go another direction. Maybe you won't hear anything. You'll completely forget about the pitch until one day you'll read on The Egotist that they hired that competitor, the one with the mediocre work. You'll run into one of the marketing coordinators at a networking event the following year entitled, "Facebook, The New Television" and you'll smile to yourself knowing that you and your Creative Director did trade futures that day.

    Originally posted on The Atlanta Egotist.

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  • Why Boston Beats New York as a Creative Capital

    September 14th, 2010 / Comments (0)

    If the Red Sox could beat the Yankees a few times, despite the disparity in player salaries, Boston can beat NYC in creativity.

    Let’s appreciate the unique conditions and advantages for Boston creative:

    We live at the juncture of Past and Future. Our state is unusual in having so many future-oriented institutions – we’re a higher education capital, a high tech capital, an R&D capital, a venture capital capital – and yet we are constantly reminded of our history. We not only have old monuments and historic sites, we’ve got ethnic traditions, cultural heritage, and Old School folks who take pride in spurning the nouveau. That mix of old and new is combustible. When you think of advertising in Boston to the new, old, or newly old, you’ve got to think imaginatively.

    “Mad Men” is more creative than Madison Avenue. Back in the day, if you wanted to be an ad man you aspired to be in NYC. But now many creative people prefer to work online, and most of the ideas that dazzle are not coming out of New York. Sure, the city is still teeming with writers and artists of all kinds, but you don’t have to be there to make it big in communications. Those who work in New Media especially are creative in whatever community makes them feel most productive. That’s different for everyone, but for many it’s a small big city like Boston.

    We’re more in touch with un-reality. Boston was called “the Hub of the Universe” as a joke, but that ‘tude is part of who we are. We tend to be Boston-centric. Sure, it’s a little conceited, but having the feeling that your city is important makes you all the more driven in trying to do work that is worthy of it. I prefer to think of it in terms of ambition, not arrogance. “Boston ambition” is not always “beat New York!” as sports fans like to shout. In media, it means trying to come up with ideas that will impress, inspire, educate, entertain…not just sell. That may seem unrealistic when you’re just trying to sell a typical gizmo – but it’s motivational. And motivation is crucial because if your brain is constantly sifting through stimuli for a great new idea, the chances are better that you’ll find one.

    Virtual now means real. In recent years. I’ve produced TV spots, corporate comm and live events, but, like many ad budgets, I’ve been pulled online-ward. Boston is a natural hub for the web world because per capita we’re more oriented toward those who work predominantly online -- whether in medical tech, robotics, education, gaming or finance. Boston has become very entrepreneurial, and that means having more than online “presence”; it means dominating online, living the dream online, going big digitally...

    Boston won’t become the financial or entertainment capital of the country – not any time soon. But I really see Boston becoming a hub of New Media globally. That will really frost New York. That’s not our motivation, but... Oh, hell, of course it is.

    Alex Poulos is the President at LaunchPad Media.

    LaunchPad is an award-winning creative agency specializing in interactive media production – creating websites and driving traffic to them through advertising, search optimization, and PR. Headquartered in Watertown, Massachusetts, LaunchPad serves clients throughout the U.S.

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