The Baptism Of The Drunk

A man is stumbling home through the woods completely drunk when he comes upon a preacher baptizing people in the river. He drunkenly walks into the water and bumps into the preacher.

The preacher turns around and is almost overcome by the smell of alcohol, whereupon he asks the drunk, “Are you ready to find Jesus?”

The drunk answers, “Er, yes?”

So the preacher grabs him and dunks him in the water. He pulls him up and asks the drunk, “Brother, have you found Jesus?”

The drunk replies, “No, I haven’t found Jesus.”

The preacher shocked at the answer; dunks him into the water again for a little longer this time.

He again pulls him out of the water and asks again,”Have you found Jesus, my brother?”

The drunk again answers, “No, I haven’t found Jesus.”

By this time the preacher is at his wits end and dunks the drunk in the water again. This time holds him down for about 30 seconds and when he begins kicking his arms and legs he pulls him up.

The preacher again asks the drunk, “For the love of God, have you found Jesus?”

The drunk wipes his eyes, catches his breath and yells to the preacher, “Are you sure this is where he fell in?”

Paul Rand's Business Card

From here.

More about Mr Rand here.

2010 And Beyond. A Great New Decade For Advertising.

It's time to say goodbye to the noughties, a decade in which advertising has been knocked about like a slow heavyweight with a dodgy guard. 

Over the last ten years, advertising has been made to feel increasingly bad about itself by commentators, digital evangelists, and even its own, as a generation of self-loathing creatives, ashamed of their craft, have become creative directors and passed their distaste for the business of selling to a new generation.

People have told us that advertising is out of date, that no one is interested, that broadcast is dead, that it's a business of dinosaurs. 

In turn advertising people have spent the decade afraid to make advertising, ashamed to make things that openly sell, they've pretty much turned the business into some weird sponsored entertainment merry-go-round of oblique ideas, ass-covering bullshit and powerpoint presentations.

But the fact is that the really important stuff hasn't changed. Sure, there are new technologies, and new methods of communication, but people are still people, with their needs to be happy, be successful, have enjoyment, feel fulfilled. Human nature is still human nature.

And when was the time exactly when when advertising was actually welcomed? Truth is, that time has never existed. Advertising has always had to earn peoples' interest. It has always had to work hard to not be a rude intrusion into life. It's the same now as it's always been. Harder probably, but the same nevertheless.

It's time for advertising to shake off the negativity and be proud again of what it can do.

Really good advertising can make businesses a friendly visitor into peoples' lives, not a rude interruption. With careful consideration of messages we can be helpful and relevant, not annoying or an obstruction.

It's time for advertising to get back to the important basics of being a charming but persuasive salesman. And to be proud of that craft, thinking and creativity. 

The advertising business, through its unique and powerful blend of commercial nous and applied creativity, has the ability to transform the fortunes of businesses, to even help save them, and even to change those businesses themselves for the better. And I happen to believe that good businesses and good products contribute positively to society.

We should be proud of being the people who can make that happen, people who through the process of coming up with ideas, can make a positive difference not just to the economy but to everyday life.

Advertising is a great business, at its best a simple collection of people with a unique blend of commercial and creative skills, not bound by any one media, theory or technology. With a broad knowledge and understanding of the media and technological landscape, and more importantly an instinctive understanding of human nature and how people tick. We use these skills and knowledge to find ways to help our clients be more successful, and hopefully make peoples' lives a little bit better in the process.

We're at a time when the economy, and society in general, is desperate for something to help it climb out of this recession and period of gloom. The opportunity is there for us to make the next ten years a decade when advertising gets proudly back on its feet and fights back with energy and creativity, using techniques and technologies both established and new. We can help propel business into a new time of success, and play our part in creating an upbeat and prosperous decade.

Happy New Year.

Christmas! Christmas!

Sell! Sell! is taking a break for Christmas.

Have a great one everyone.

Beat Assailant Video

Slick video for recording artist Beat Assailant by Nassim Maoui and Christophe Mentz. Combination of Bond style graphics, live action and some excellent crime fiction style typography and art direction.

VIA MOTIONOGRAPHER

Say What You Like About McDonalds

They know their customer.

The Unreasonable Man

I was reading this post on Dave Trotts excellent blog the other day, and it reminded me of this great quote by George Bernard Shaw:

"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man."

Sometimes in ad agencies, as in life, all people want you to do is to make their lives easier. To not rock the boat, or come up with anything difficult to do. The don't want you to be unreasonable.

Back in the old days in my first agency, my smashing partner and I earned ourselves a bit of a reputation for being difficult. What this meant was that some people in the agency didn't find it easy working with us. Traffic people, production, account managers, they would look at us with withering expressions as we explained exactly how something should be executed to make sure it was excellent, not just ok.

On one campaign for an important client, we had an idea that would be very hard to ignore if it was done well, which was difficult, but a bit so-so if it was just done the easy way. So we pushed and pushed for it to be done properly - clients rarely get to see just how passionate ad people are about making their advertising as good as possible, which is a shame isn't it? Eventually one of the creative directors at the agency took us to one side and gave us a little lecture about being less difficult. I thought it was a bit stupid. It's nice to be nice. But sometimes to do something truly interesting, or change the way something is done for the better, you have to be a bit unreasonable. That was one of the first times we realised that we needed to start our own agency.

It's true of clients too, some just want an easy ride. They just want someone to agree with them, or give them unremarkable work that will be easy to get signed off by the board, or won't potentially cause any fuss. Well there's plenty of people out there in the world of advertising willing to oblige. More than plenty. Those clients find themselves overwhelmed with choice. But the very best clients are always happy to be challenged, they realise that they're paying people to think, and they want their expertise. Those are great clients to work for. We're lucky to have a couple of those.

If you adapt yourself to the way the ad industry works, the systems, the conventions, the accepted norms, the consensus of what's good, the awards, all you'll be is another reasonable cog in big reasonable machine turning out reasonable stuff. Go into work, be reasonable, eat lunch, be a bit more reasonable, go home. It's the kind of reasonable behaviour that's turning advertising into just another corporate ladder for dull, reasonable people to climb.

All progress in advertising depends on the unreasonable man. As George Bernard Shaw didn't quite say.