Advertising’s best kept secret…

That would be me. Like anyone who provides a clandestine service (escorts, hitmen, shrinks), I understand the need for discretion. And while advertising may not be the world’s oldest profession… it certainly comes close. Happily, I don’t feel old. But with 25+ years in advertising, I’ve certainly learnt a trick or two. That’s why I’ve […]

BETTER TO TRAVEL WELL THAN ARRIVE

It’s official. Vogue informs me that transformative travel will be the travel trend for 2017. A nice snappy marketing moniker for what I’ve been doing for decades. As dear old Keith Reinhard quipped “live in the current idiom and one day you will create it”. As a creative director and treatment writer that’s become a way of life. I’ve spent my […]

CANNES LIONS – THE ORGY OF EGOS

JEEEESUZ! They said Cannes was expensive and they’re fricking right. My Amex bill and it looks like Johnny Depp’s bar tab for Pirates. At least I’m in good company. My old boss the Dark Lord (aka Sir Martin Sorrell) said that the jury is out on whether WPP will attend next year following Publicis’ decision […]

CANNES FILM FESTIVAL – A MASTERCLASS IN SEDUCTION

I’m so proud to be French… half French anyway. Ancient Mother hails from Bordeaux – the greatest wine region on the planet and famous for dessert, decadence and political treachery. My first holidays were on my uncle’s farm and seventies Côte d’Azur. That might have set the bar for all future travel: glamour, hedonism and alarmingly long lunches. Even […]

LOSING THE ‘C’ WORD

CRAFT. Now that’s a word you don’t hear too often in agencies. (Unless you’re talking about craft beer.) While everyone’s getting artisanal about everything from ice cubes to vinyl to goat milk “bean to bar” chocolate,  there seems to be a complete lack of it in advertising. Specifically, the lost craft of copywriting. We live in very […]

LE SECRET DE COOL

How much cooler does that read in French. The business of cool is serious business but nobody ever says so. Because it’s just not cool to talk about cool. And yet… Please, please Mr Advertising Man, please make ME look cool! That’s the unspoken plea in virtually every creative brief since my first copywriting job for Leo Burnett in […]

VIP TREATMENT IN VIRGIN FIRST

2017 has been a highly satisfactory year travelwise… thus far I’ve spent a glorious month in Thailand, 12 glam weeks in Cali for the LA Film Festival and I’m just back from Cannes and three weeks in the Riviera making business a pleasure. Such is the life of the treatment writer. For someone who’s lived […]

WHORES, HITMEN + HYPE: combat leadership for the creative mercenary

Prostitutes claim the oldest profession. Maybe they are, but mercenaries can certainly argue a case. From the ravaging Hun tribes whose chieftains hired out murderous hordes to anyone with sufficient coin to expand their empire to the dapper gentleman adventurers of yesteryear to the corporate wet workers of Blackwater, Triple Canopy and dear old Executive Outcomes. I’ve always felt […]

What SXSW taught me about pitching.

Yee haa! I’m in the great state of Texas and just popped my cherry on my first SXSW. Thank God I found this hack before I went.  There’s just so much on it is virtually unfathomable, even with its amazing app. If Cannes is Davos then SXSW is the Burning Man of commercial creative. Not because of the music, comedy, and other interesting creative doings (though […]

SXSW – IT’S A WRAP