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Things of note for the week ending Sunday, November 11th, 2018.

Newsletter #275: Introduction 


This week I've been a touch poorly. Conjunctivitis off the youngest child and a stinking head cold/ear infection/general-bunged-up-headedness completely knocked me out. I managed to stave it off on Wednesday (with a metric ton of Beechams) for an Ogilvy Trends review but I don't think it did anything for my health, alas. 

I VERY NEARLY took this week off writing the newsletter. NEARLY. But as if I could do ever do that? (I could, easily). 

The Trends review was good fun - thanks to the lovely folk at Digital Gaggle for the a) invite, b) hospitality, and c) the opportunity to run out a few testing thoughts (and a new Ogilvy PowerPoint Template - in a cinema no less) on how we think we did with last year's trends.

The deck I presented was only a minorly updated version on last year's (which you can pick up here), the new one -  #OgilvyTrends2019 - will be with us in about a month from now. 

Better get around to finishing it really... 

OH. Last thing before I move on. My favourite speaker of the day was one Victoria Olsina. SEO consultant, crypto-currency convert, and all round hilarious person. If you're looking for a speaker on the topics mentioned, you should look her up. Also, give her a follow. 

Right then. If you've done that. Let's do something else. 

LET'S DO...

THE FIVE THINGS ON SUNDAY (or Monday) NOT FRIDAY!

 
1. A SHORT LESSON IN PERSPECTIVE

The title of this first thing is taken from an article from 2012 of the same name. Linds Redding, a creative director based in New Zealand, who passed died of cancer the same year, wrote it, and if you've never read it, you should do so - immediately.

This week, I was reminded of Linds' compelling words by this anonymously published piece in Campaign 'The truth about advertising's long-hours culture' (it's in Campaign so if you hit a paywall, right click and open in incognito). Again, it is a MUST read. I've been there - and I know you have too. There's a pitch on. Or there's something that needs to be changed last minute. Or can you just stay a bit longer til this bit is done so we don't have to work all day Sunday... We've all been there.

Last week I wrote about the insanely long hours the developers of RED DEAD REDEMPTION 2 had put in to pull off such a phenomenal piece of work. 'Crunch' they call it. We don't have a name for it. Well, we do. It's just called 'the work'. The work is the most important thing. Get the work right and everything else will follow. After all, all roads lead to the work - right? The Campaign piece hits the nail so squarely on the head... This, for example: 

"To me, there’s one crucial thing agencies can do right now – if they haven’t already – to help improve their employees' mental health that’s not organising half an hour of yoga. Let people go home at a normal hour to their friends and families or give them days off in lieu."

Is so bang on the money it's almost laughable.

Years ago, one of the first managers I ever had was teaching me the ropes of running a shift. He said to me, 'There are three things you can do in this job that make sure your staff are happy - 1. Pay them. 2. Let them take a full lunch hour. 3. Let them leave on time. Do that, James, and you're 90% of the way there' - I remember gently mocking him at the time over it but he pulled me up and was deadly serious. Don't under-estimate the value that people place on these essentials, he said. Today, much later, his words echo around my head once more. I know a fair few people that have hit occupational burnout thanks to this industry. It can utterly poison the well for you. And it's so hard to recover from - not impossible - but bloody difficult. 

'Yes James, that's all well and good, but the industry has never been under more scrutiny, financial strain, and to top it off, clients have never been more demanding!'

Not good enough.

Push back.

Push back again.

Harder.

Say no.

And if you have to pull the extra hours, bloody bill for it so you can reward those that agree to do them accordingly. 

Last year, Amelia Torode wrote 'You don't need to bleed to succeed', and I couldn't agree more. It is a MYTH that you have to pull all the hours all the time. Torode references Linds' piece as well. Interestingly enough of the three articles linked, two reference cancer (both of the terminal kind) and the other is straight up mental illness. 

No matter how many Lions you pick up, your children's bed and meal times can never be replaced. Our ambition - making brands matter, work that works, brutal simplicity of thought, zig when you zag, work that works - all of it - it's great. Wonderful. But we can't do ANY of it at the expense of the people that make it. Or else, when all is said and done, it is nothing but ruin. Complete and abject failure - by all involved.

Do better. Be better. 

PS. The article that made me write this thing, the one published last week, has an anonymous author. Such is the weight and pressure of this industry that a senior creative would rather NOT put his name on his writing. That is shameful - and speaks volumes to how far we have yet to go. If your agency is described as a 'sweatshop', it's nothing to be proud of. Move on. Get out. Get away.

PPS. I can't publish this without acknowledging my priviledge in this situation. I am white. I am male. I am in a senior role a at a large advertising agency. It is FAR easier for me to do all the things that I've described above. Please know that when I do them - and when I mentor others on how to do them - I let people know the whys and the what fors. I try to lead by example wherever possible. I recognise it is not easy and that for me it IS easier. All I can say is, if we work together and you're struggling - hell, even if we don't - seek me out and I'll come out to bat for you.

Because this really has to stop.

It just isn't worth it. 
2. THERAPY: SOMETIMES IT SUCKS, SOMETIMES IT WORKS OUT

This doesn't perfectly mirror my own experiences (FWIW, I've seen one psychologist, twice (both times for assessment and recommendations of next steps), and two therapists - the former helped a little, the latter was such an incredible turning-point in my life and helped me completely change my life. I'll write about it, here, one day soon. I'm sure) but it does touch upon something that isn't talked about much. And that is while therapy can be AMAZING - whether it's to help with a specific mental health problem or to help maintain overall mental fitness (I can wholly recommend it) it can also be really difficult to get the first steps right. 

It's not always a silver bullet. Sometimes it takes time. Sometimes you don't gel with the person you're given and sometimes it just doesn't work. But in the same way that if you got a Personal Trainer and you thought that maybe he might be a bit of a dick, you would switch trainers - or even move gyms - that's exactly how you need to approach therapy. 

Sam's experiences, over at GQ, are worth your time. 
3. AND NOW FOR SOMETHING A BIT LIGHTER

ERIC CHIEN won the 2018 Fism Grand Prix in magic. It's 6mins and 30 seconds. And it's bloody brilliant.

WATCH IT WITH YOUR EYES.

PS. Remind me to tell you about the time I used to be a magician sometime. 
4. SPICE UP YOUR LIFE

Yeah, I'm going there.



Well, I'm not actually going going there (I didn't get tickets) BUT STILL. Because of the 'REUNION' (minus one - but the reasoning is sound) I fired up Spotify and dug into the, let's be honest, phenomenal music history of the SPICE GIRLS. 

After a couple of hours of listening, trying to figure out my favourite track(s). I decided to ask the Twitters. And the Twitters replied. Those replies gave me data. And that data is presented thus: 

 

I disagree with the outcome. Wannabe is excellent, yes, but it is no Say You'll Be There (or 2 Become 1 for that matter). 

Where do you stand on this? I WANT TO KNOW. 
5. LEST WE FORGET

Finally. As I write, it has been Remembrance Sunday. 100 years since the end of the First World War. Peter Jackson has made a documentary called 'THEY SHALL NOT GROW OLD'.



Employing state-of-the-art technology to transform audio and moving image archive footage more than a century old, Peter Jackson brings to life the people who can best tell the story of World War I: the men who were there.

Driven by a personal interest in the conflict, Jackson sets out to explore the day-to-day experience of its combatants. Immersed for months in the BBC and Imperial War Museum archives, Jackson created narratives and strategies regarding how this story should be told. Using only the voices of those involved, the film explores the reality of war on the front line: their attitudes to the conflict, how they ate, rested and formed friendships in those moments between battles, as well as their hopes and dreams for the future. Each frame of the film has beenhand-colourised by Jackson's team, the footage 3D-digitised, transformed with modern post-production techniques, enabling these soldiers to walk and talk among us.

Reaching into the mists of time, Jackson aims to give these men voices, investigate the hopes and fears of these veterans that survived and were able to tell their stories, and detail the humility and humanity of those who represented a generation forever changed by the destruction of a global war.

It's on iPlayer (if you're in the UK and missed it yesterday).

I'm going to watch it this week - as I missed it - I recommend you do the same. 

THE ESSENTIALS: 
 

  • This week I'd like to focus your attention to The 3% Conference. They held their 2018 event this past week and from following the hashtag alone, I am gutted I wasn't there. Go explore. Read. And enjoy the content that went out. I'm currently trying to hunt down some of the videos that went out on the live stream - if you know of where they might be, please share. In the mean time, why not watch Elle Graham-Dixon's talk from Copy Cabana 2017, on the power of language. 
  • Today I watched the Monica Lewinsky TED Talk. I don't know how I hadn't seen it thus far. I thought I had. The Price of Shame - is incredible.   

BON-ME, BON-YOU, BON-US. 

NOW NOW, YOU DON'T HAVE TO READ THEM ALL. 
OH MY GOD YOU MADE IT.  

As I write these final paragraphs to you now, it's 01:12 in the early hours of Monday morning (Nov 12). This is becoming a habit.

Lots to do tomorrow. Cleaning up a couple of crises that happened in my absence - hopefully mostly resolved now. And, after one UTTERLY DEVASTATING removal from an RFI process (gutted), we've got another that's done and ready to go in. So that's something.

I've also got trends to finish, an inbox to catch up on, and birthday plans to make. 

Also, I had a think about time off over Christmas. December 14th (15th or 16th) will be the last FTOF of 2018. FYI. Mark your calendars, etc. 

The other thing, I'm working on YouTube playlist of all the Christmas ads, it's nearly there but a) it's missing a few and b) it's the 12th of sodding November. I'll share it, with commentary (natch) in a week or two. 

Right. That's me. I need my bed. 

Big love, 

Whatley OUT. 
Copyright © 2018 James Whatley, All rights reserved.


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