mAD men

My newest addiction, a TV show about ad people. Though it's about time the creative industry got a little more media exposure, it really is hard to bring an agency to life the way 'Mad Men' does. This video from the finale of season 1 is a hint of its appeal. As it is set in 1960's, it adeptly weaves in elements from that time into its plot, showing the life of a younger America, a younger New York as it was back then politically, culturally and socially. References to John F. Kennedy, Ayn Rand, the invention of TV and social issues such as homophobia, intensive smoking and drinking, and women's position in society are all presented in the context of the lives of the men of the advertising agency of Sterling Cooper.

Perhaps it is the unstated that draws me in to 'Mad Men', as there is more subtlety than appears on the surface. The elaborate sets and costumes, the delicate elegance and flagrant affluence are a perfect contrast to the drama, the buried secrets and the 'layered complexity', a phrase I heard used to describe this show, most aptly.

There is a strong absence of favouritism on part of the writers, so each character has its own appeal and repulsions. Or to state it better, this show refuses to see people the way they are seen usually, on TV or otherwise. It allows people to reach their own conclusions without subjecting itself to conventional morality, and thereby, defies judgment based on existing codes.

It does not ask you to judge, reflect, ponder or like, it proclaims its value by achieving all those with a shocking ease.

PSFK - Musings and Memories

Looking back, the conference was just one half of the experience. The other half was in the interaction with speakers, organisers and the actual volunteering at the conference.

The first panel that I was lucky enough to attend fully was called Singapore Snapshot, and this examined the design scene in Singapore, the inspiration for local work and what constituted Singapore's brand of design. That Singapore was more international than national, and how important 'hunger' was to progress were a couple of thought-provoking ideas.

Another interesting panel was 'The Creator Class', which examined how young people were diversifying their talents in both the creative and business fields. This is an issue which I find to be very relevant today because this is the class I aim to enter. The merger of the creative and business class into a new diverse professional-artistic class is happening all around me. I see my friends combining their passions and asking, 'why can't we do more than one thing, and why can't we make money out of it?'

The panel on Asian youth trends was also refreshing because it spoke of trend research and analysis as an emerging industry which feeds into and out of the ad world. There was a mention of 'trend scouts' who were people actually employed to keep track of what's happening in the world out there.

Finally, saving the best for the last, of course to an ad person, an ad person's talk was the most inspiring. To say that Rob Campbell's talk on advertising ideas, about how ad agencies should advertise ideas not problems, and brand belief not brand experience was a mild epiphany is not an exaggeration.

Ideas, ideas and more ideas...

After the conference, everyone headed off to Superfamous, to chill out with drinks and talk more about the day's events. For us volunteers, it was both a celebration and an opportunity to mingle and talk more with the people who had put ideas into our heads unknowingly.

Needless to say, I had an enjoyable time talking with Desiree from Bates 141, Achara from Mindshare and Rob Campbell. It was during this chit-chat session that I discovered that Rob was one of the brains behind the Schweppes Burst ad, which has so captured my heart (evidence is found in an earlier post). I also had an interesting conversation with Paul Tan from POOL, to satisfy my curiosity about how a talent agency for creatives functioned.

What was the PSFK conference all about? IDEAS. Big ones. Little ones. Ones that changed the world. Ones that changed an individual life. It made me realise the importance of such gatherings. After all, how often do so many people who contribute so much to the creative industry get together at the same spot to share their thoughts?

The notion of a creative collective has always been repugnant to me, but what is a creative collective? A collective is a group of individuals, and when every member brings value to the group, a creative collective is like a club which you go to beaming with pride.

PSFK Conference

The primary reason for this blog's existence and a long overdue post.

Do I start off with the gorgeous cars?

From Subjective objectivity

Do I start off with some gorging volunteers?

From Subjective objectivity

Ok, let me start at the beginning.

From Subjective objectivity

People arriving bright and cheerfully (all adjectives used in this post are fictional and resemblance to any person(s) dead or alive is purely coincidental) to start their day, and diligent volunteers ensuring that the proceedings proceed smoothly.

Having attended a brief social introduction session with the speakers the earlier night, all I had was a vague idea, and plenty of curiosity as to what would actually bring all these important people from all over the world together for just one day.

It was the beginning of an unusual day. I think of it as a day of ideas. Of course, it would be sound professional sense to list out the celebrities who were responsible for the ideas, and so here goes :

Piers Fawkes from PSFK
Jason Anello from Yahoo!
Nick Barham from Wieden + Kennedy
Jackson Tan from Phunk Studio
Floydd Wood and Jerry Clode from Flamingo International
Achara Masoodi from Mindshare
Paul Tan from POOL
Sonal Dabral from Bates 141
Jeff Staple from Staple Design
Rob Campbell from Sunshine/M&C Saatchi
Jeff Squires, from PSFK
and many more, whom I shall leave unlisted to save this post from being a mile long.

I could go into a lengthy description of the events that transpired at the day long conference, but since this post is about a day of ideas, I will restrict it to just that. More analysis and musings on the actual impact of the conference on this mind will be revealed in posts yet to come.

Here are some engrossed speakers

From Subjective objectivity

From Subjective objectivity

From Subjective objectivity

From Subjective objectivity

And some attentive listeners

From Subjective objectivity

From Subjective objectivity

I learnt three things mainly,

1) Be a master of one trade, while being a jack of others. Doing everything that inspires you from art and music to design and advertising, is actually possible.

2) Trend research is a rapidly growing field.

3) Learn the difference between an ad idea and an idea.

and the last invisible point, organising a conference is hard work, so hats off to the team!

Anti-Advertising

Entertainment value aside, what is a man in a monkey suit doing to sell chocolate? This is a question that has to be asked, because the answer may be the key turning the future of advertising. A year old, and highly popular, this ad redefines the concept of selling chocolate. More than 40 years ago, Bill Bernbach made advertising history with this iconic ad,

From web

The result? Lemon is still remembered today, not just for changing the face of Volkswagen, but for forcing the advertising industry to take a new direction - honesty. I'm not sure if the Cadbury Gorilla has the power to achieve what Lemon did, but it does provoke us to ask the same questions. Perhaps the fact that Gorilla beat my favourite Burst campaign at Cannes might have influenced me to be overly critical, but once you remove the gorilla, (how did it get there in the first place?), what remains? However, history may just repeat itself, as it is prone to, and who can say what the next 40 years may do for the Gorilla?

To Dream of

Being in advertising makes people very sensitive to manipulation of emotions. That said, I nearly had a lump in my throat and tears in my eyes the first time I saw this ad. The reason is more than simple - it's the most beautiful ad I have ever seen in my life.

I belong to the school of thought that an ad shouldn't have to explain itself, shouldn't have to justify why it sells what it sells. To me, this ad is pure genius - it tells without telling and proves without proving. It makes me say, "one day, I want to make an ad like this."

It makes you feel like you do when you wake up after a wonderful night's sleep, that intrinsic feeling of joy and anticipation that makes you look forward to your day, your life, and your enjoyment of them. It's like jumping into a pond of cool water on a scorching day and feeling the water melt your skin. Or what you feel during an exhausting climb to the summit of a mountain and feel the breeze on your face as you look up at the sky above. It's more than just emotion, it's that one moment when all you feel is all you are.

The Trouble with Ideals

If

- By Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build ‘em up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on”;

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And - which is more - you’ll be a Man my son!

Ideals are troublesome. They make people rigid, they tease the eyes with visions of better tomorrows and blue skies in exchange for a lifetime of painstaking labour. They make people laugh in the face of disaster and mock the security of familiarity. They undervalue the beaten track, and they inflate egos more than hearts. Ideals are troublesome. Because despite knowing this, I can't help but grind away in search of blue skies and better tomorrows, abandoning security for adventure, the well-worn track for an unexplored trail. Ideals are troublesome, but ideals are what make men men, so Kipling perhaps can be forgiven for these lines.

Subjective Objectivity

Strangely, it took the longest time imaginable to come up with a word to describe the working of my convoluted mind, which was to serve as the name for this space. As it happened, one word wasn't enough (it very rarely is). Seeing as this blog would serve as a working journal for my projects as well, the natural course of action was to call it my brand of creative thought, which would essentially mark my online kingdom in the digital jungle. That brings me to end of this little piece of history, and having analysed my reasons and purpose for being here, I will now move on to the actual action.