Damon Stapleton: Where are the crazy ones?
A regular blog by Damon Stapleton, chief creative officer of DDB New Zealand
These words are part nostalgia, part belief that some things never change. They are about the death of salesmen with apologies to Arthur Miller. It is what Hegarty talks about in his latest interview. We have to become about persuasion again rather than just promotion. It is about strong beliefs versus polite process.
Here’s to the crazy ones. The square pegs in the round holes.
This is the beginning of that ad every creative knows. It is also the great-grandfather of the bane of our existence. The manifesto.
It is a strange quirk that things that were once fresh become a cliché. Especially in our business.
Here’s a stat. In 1982 all the top ten movies in America were original scripts. In 2010 most were sequels.
It would seem with the speed of the world a sure thing and a safe bet are a necessity.
Music is no different. Take the packaging of Idols and The Voice.
These are big machines designed to create certainty.
Would Nirvana have got anywhere as a band if they started today?
Perhaps, I am committing the cardinal sin in advertising, I am getting older. And as I get older, I seek out individuals far more than collective thinking.
In my defence, I will say this. A couple of years ago at Cannes, George Lois and Lee Clow took the stage.They are strong individuals and strong persuaders. The audience hung on their every word. They are some of the greatest salesman our industry has ever seen. And they sell because of their slightly unvarnished personalities. People believe in them as much as in the work or idea they have. If you don’t think that is important, you have never tried to sell something that people cannot physically see. An idea.
They are the kinds of people that through their imperfection and humanity can sway a room.The kind of person you want in your corner when you are in that meeting. You know, after all the other non meetings before it.
These are unpredictable men. They are the crazy ones. The ones in these kind of presentations that have the balls and the bravery to say what needs to be said.
They don’t hide behind words and they speak about what they believe. They don’t care what the other 20 people think. They back themselves. They have the rarest commodity in advertising. Conviction.
To do something truly great, something nobody has ever done, you have to be one of the crazy ones. You have to be willing to go where nobody else will go. The alternative, go where everybody has already been. Safe, full proof and the definition of creative insanity.
Crazy might just be another word for brave. Or, another word for truth.
Perhaps the crazy ones still exist. If they do, we should protect them and cherish them because I fear they are a dying breed.They are the ones that have your back.They are the ones you want to follow. They are who you want to become.
When all is said and done. When every pie chart has been eaten and every graph points in the right direction. When the data and analytics tell you what to do and all the work integrates seamlessly I still get this feeling. Perhaps, desire is a better word.
A desire for craziness and messiness. The creative equivalent of running, screaming down a hill into battle with a massive axe and painted blue face. It’s not going to be perfect but it is going to be interesting. Today, is the fucking day.
That’s what the crazy ones make me feel. That is why they are important for agencies.They make me believe I can win. They make me believe I can go to places I didn’t think I could go. I guess this is just about how I wish there was more of them.
No matter how hard you try, the world doesn’t make sense by just making cents. The crazy ones know that.
Find a crazy one or become one.
11 Comments
Lee Clow wasn’t a brilliant salesman, so much as the client he became famous on had the vision to go along with him.
You can be crazy and full of conviction, but when you’re sitting in a room full of marketers ticking off their ROI’s they don’t care what you or anything else thinks.
All these articles are great motivators, but sadly nothing more than hot air. Unless the industry gains its respect again and doesn’t kowtow to client’s, we’ll alway just be a service and not a skillset. Until we do that, it doesn’t matter how good of a salesman we all are.
Love this. I remember the names of all the crazy ones, and hardly any of the ones that weren’t. And crazy ones attract courageous clients. And scare off the multinationals with scared rabbits in the marketing department. Winners all round.
Great salespeople understand what their prospect (in this case your client) needs. So if it’s a room full of people ticking ROIs, s/he’ll point out how your product does just that – or why it shouldn’t. If a client wants to feel important, s/he’ll make them feel important. If a client wants an easy job, s/he’ll make the job easy.
Clients will only ever buy the work they want. The great salesman, as in any industry, convinces the client that the work you have is the work they want.
A great salesman will never be taken seriously, when the industry he works for whores around. If you willing to dance for peanuts, a client will take you for a monkey no matter if the work you have is absolutely right.
If the Lee Clows and George Loises of the world were young men today, they would not hang around in the ad industry – they would be wasted in what the industry has become. They would thrive in other industries.
@Mal couldn’t agree more
Clients will never take the industry seriously when they don’t believe you have our best interests at heart. Given the ongoing obsession with awards and the scammy bullshit that goes with it, I can’t see this being a situation that changes anytime soon.
Of course, their are many brilliant exceptions to this sweeping generalisation, but as a whole, the ad industry is its own worst enemy.
They’d be found doing something a lot more creative and worthwhile than advertising.
If you hate the industry so much, why are you in it??
Comparing Lee Clow and Apple is a naive analogy. Jobs embraced thinking differently, before it became a strap line. Apple was never going to put out any conventional work. Also, Jobs respected Clow enough to go along for the ride. Look around the ad industry today. Show me respect and show me vision from a client.
HighHorse didn’t say they hated the industry. Just that people more talented (than HighHorse) are choosing to do something more creatively rewarding. Makes sense.