NOW I’ve been rereading a book. (You know, that a small papery thing with words printed on it). It’s one of the very few books about advertising worth reading. It’s called “From those Wonderful Folks who gave you Pearl Harbour”.
The author is one of the legends of American advertising, Jerry Della Femina. The story goes that, in the middle of a brainstorming session to find a new theme line for Panasonic, Jerry, then a copywriter, leapt up and proudly suggested the words that became the slightly, un-politically correct title of the book. It seems only his art-director saw the funny side! Whether there were any Japanese in the room he doesn’t say. The book was written in 1971 and it may be that long ago since I first read it. It was written during the heydays of BBDO, DDB, Ted Bates and early Ogilvy (also legendary people you may be less familiar with like Mary Wells, Carl Ally and George Lois). So, for a change, this month I’d like to share a couple of hopefully interesting observations drawn from this belated reread.
First is that the TV show,
Mad Men, is total bollocks. Anyone who has watched those rather effete, supposedly suave actors wandering across your TV screens with their shiny grey suits, clouds of cigarette smoke and dry martinis are viewing, at best a caricature, at worst a total fabrication.
Reading Della Femina’s book you would see that ad people in the 60s were quite tawdry. They didn’t hang around with models, they didn’t eat at the swankiest restaurants and they certainly didn’t regularly schtup the clients’ wives. For instance, Jerry talks about creative teams moving desks into the office stairwells because it gave them the best view of the partially dressed girls in the apartment block opposite. Day and night they perched there until the cops came and arrested them as peeping toms. And the art director who, sick of his constantly ringing telephone stabs it with a pair of scissors. These were (and probably still are) the real creative people.
Della Femina also makes the classic observation that creative people fully realise that no-one is watching the TV or buying a magazine to look at their ads. Most normal people say, on meeting a creative person, “Oh, you put the captions under the pictures”. This means there was, and remains, so much BS that creative people had no way of measuring their self worth. (Today we have, of course, entirely trustworthy creative rankings and creative award shows to help us!)
And this brings me to my second point. Much of what Jerry recounts in the book – the turns of phrase and the incidents, the anecdotes are exactly the same things that still happen in advertising today. It’s an industry that seems never to move on. Over 40 years later the industry is still saying the same dopey things and making the same dopey mistakes. (I intend to talk more about this next month).
But most of all, the thing that remains so completely the same today as then, is the fear. Jerry spends many pages discussing it. He recounts an agency president telling him: “I start worrying about losing an account the minute I get it.”
The fear of losing a piece of business has most account executives perpetually standing in a puddle of pee. And it filters down to the work. He tells a tale of a new piece of business that came in asking for “new, exciting” work. But no-one could bring themselves to show “new, exciting” work to the client; it was just too dangerous, so they showed extremely “safe and comfortable” work. And they lost the business! Naturally “new and exciting” and “safe and comfortable” go together like oil and water. Did then, does now.
My particular favourite Della Femina fear story is of the time he brought a tape recorder into a creative review board. It filled the board with terror. None of them wanted their comments to be on record, it seems they talked about anything except the creative work. As Jerry says, “it represented truth”. Last thing anyone wants or wanted.
Altogether there are so many things Jerry talks about in the book that apply now.
The people who always agree with the boss or the client – constantly on the lookout for the signals – a twitch, a certain tone of voice, a small gesture – so they can neatly preempt the boss/client before he says “It stinks.”
Ad people who could smell a recession coming as the clients stop spending.
And how keen agencies were to fire expensive older people and hire relatively inexperienced people for salaries up to 75% less. He goes on to speculate that creative people over 40 are all on an island somewhere full of burnt-out writers and art directors.
He supposes that guys who are wigged-out write wigged-out stuff.
He posits that censorship, any kind of censorship, is pure whim and fancy.
And even back in 1971 he said “boutique advertising is the new advertising” because it means you’re going to be dealing with the man who owns the store.
And he ends the book with the greatest (and most debatable) ad quote; possibly of all time. “Advertising is the most fun you can have with your clothes on.”
If you can get a copy take a look. Keep it for another 40 years and see if things have changed in 2050. Even money – nothing will change.
PS: Jerry still has an agency named after him in New York, he runs restaurants, sits on boards and writes for magazines and papers. Clearly no longer wigged-out.
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Paul Loosley is an English person who has been in Asia 30 years, 12 as a creative director, 18 making TV commercials. And, as he still can’t shut up about advertising, he tends to write every month. Any feedback; mail
p.loosley@gmail.com (but only if fully dressed)
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