Read this ad.
Go on.
What do you think that the big agencies are saying about this ad (assuming they have read it, which they haven’t)?
Perhaps they are saying “If they deliver on that promise, I love them”.
Isn’t that the defense that the Cannes-winning old school agencies always put up: “yeah yeah, all talk no delivery”. Sure it is. I’ve heard that said about myself a thousand times. All inventors have. (Yeah Swedes, I dare call myself an inventor). Off course delivery is the hardest part for a small innovative agency. A large agency has all that set up and will always have fine delivery on (often, but not always) poor ideas. That’s how they get away with stuff. It doesn’t mean that they are wrong. They make money (for now) and that’s good for them. All I’m saying is that they won’t be disruptive thought leaders. They won’t lead the way into the new media intelligence (it’s not a landscape, it’s a giant intelligent brain). They won’t be the next Google, Einstein or Apple. Every big revolution has come about because of unreasonable people. Or as George Bernard Shaw put it: “The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man”. And you know what – I’d rather be a guy that truly believes, and follows his heart than a guy who flies with the winds, no matter how high.
Fortunately I’ve also heard this from one of my mentors: “Stick to what you believe in. Once you start doing what they tell you, your magic will disappear instantly. You must promise me to stick to your guns”. And I do. If I didn’t, I could just as well have stayed in engineering. The money is better.
I hope you deliver on your ambition HQvB. And if you don’t, I hope you will before your money runs out. We are the guerrilla warriors. The Davids. They call us the bitter ones, I call us hope.
Anyway – thanks Mattias for bringing this ad from Huxley Quayle von Bismark to my attention. Sure, it’s traditional media and old and probably just talk, but it made me write this, so it couldn’t have been that bad. Mattias’ entire post was an interesting read. Great blog by the way. Unfortunately for my non-Swedish readers, it is not in English.
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{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Hey Walter,
It’s not just talk. We live what we say every day.
And we’re in several new pitches right now, so I’m sure we’ll do fine. We have stirred the pot here in Canada. We’ve had lots of support, and perhaps even more naysayers.
I think having lots of naysayers means you’re onto something.
We’ll let you know.
You can read more about us and how we think at huxleyquayle.typepad.com
In the meantime, keep the faith.
Andy Shortt
Ad Man, Huxley Quayle von Bismark
I’ll be watching you with great interest. Good luck, and stay smart!
Saw this piece too. It circulated the office for some reason. From that I can only conclude that agency people in general (people period maybe) are by default a little discontempt and like it when someone stirs things up a bit. This gives them a feeling that maybe it’s not too late to better ourselves as creatives after all. Maybe even the agency I work with can get rid of some of the accounts that are killing our ideas and breaking our confidence…That’s the sort of feeling that makes ads like this circle the desks. I’m saying ads like this because they do pop up with some regularity. In Sweden, this story is posted in the business magazines every time a group of creatives have had it and decide to open shop. Normally they settle for the editorial attention but sometimes they take no chances and buy media space to carry their thoughts of liberation. Like the von Bismarks did. Which brings us back to the ad itself. Well written, no doubt, which greatly improves the chances of it being passed around (apart from the reasons already mentioned). A joy to read for all of us with a nagging thought that we’re just too good for the chair we’re presently farting in. What, ninety percent of the people, eighty percent of the time? So far so good. But what’s really the message here? Obviously, it’s a fine recruiting instrument. And it’s apparently great for getting invited to new pitches. But those are just nice side effects. What it’s really doing is putting real, personal pressure on the individuals signing it. Because while the rest of us will have forgotten it by the time the next goodbye-advertising-piece comes around (tick, tock…), the people that wrote it, won’t. Neither will their employees, new hires, wives and bankers. If these guys don’t deliver results, or at lease damn well try, close to their published promises, they will end up sad and miserable. THAT is the reason they wrote it and THAT is the justification for publishing it. Because, let’s face it, you’ve read it hundreds of times before and it’s the same old story. But if they need it to push themselves to the edge – man is it worth it.