Pom poms are for men too.

I like cheerleaders. 

They make me feel cheerful for some reason.
One thing I haven't been happy about over the years is the lack of male cheerleaders. 
Especially in the American football arenas.

Cheerleading has been a female activity for decades.
Thankfully, that's now changing.
Smiley, energetic males who can throw a shape have made serious inroads in to this all female domain.
The LA Rams were the first American football team to introduce male cheerleaders. 
Another 7 teams have followed suit.
However, they have forgotten one important thing.
The pom pom.
The male cheerleaders perform without pom poms.
That is like asking a carpenter to saw a piece of wood with his finger.
This is arrant discrimination in a very public form.
In our new enlightened age it verges on gender cruelty.
The pom pom is the most important part of a cheerleaders uniform.

Male cheerleader using imaginary pom poms.

Pom poms attract the eye.
This helps the cheerleaders to keep their audience's focus.
The audience are literally mesmerised by the colourful ribbon balls.

Pom poms are a highly technical piece of equipment.
They smooth out any syncopation issues.
If the hands and pom poms are in time a cheerleader can be slightly out of time with their steps and the audience won't notice it.
Your eyes are always on the hands. 
Not the feet.
There is also a confidence issue.
A lot of men's hands are ugly which can affect male self esteem.

The pom pom is like a fancy dress costume for the hands. They give confidence to the performer and the dancer is much less self aware.
Without pom poms the male cheerleaders are left to carry a sign. 
Or they are asked to wave their hands empty handed.

Dude-where do I put my hands?

Pom pomless male cheerleaders is a blatant act of discrimination.
It is cruel and uncaring.
Cheerleaders are meant to be one integrated, cohesive visual tour de force.

Hey Stacey-Joe can I borrow a pom pom?

I spoke to one  of the New England Patriots crew recently, Bobbi-Leanne, who said they are experimenting with some new choreography which involves giving their two male cheerleaders, (Driss and Steven), pom poms. 
Let's hope the other US teams follow suit.
In the meanwhile, if you feel as angry as me about this issue
please sign my petition for pom pom equality at:
POM POMS FOR ALL.com

Where does it say females only?

Together we can end this cruelty.

Sing your brain bigger.

Dave Trott used to say, 
The brain is like a muscle. 
The more you use it the bigger it gets.
And he was right.

Developments in brain scanning equipment have recently proved Dave's maxim correct.

Here is one such example.
Gus Halwani, co-founder of the Neurophysiology Department at Harvard University, conducted a study which looked at the pathways between the left and right side of the brain.

The pathways, or tracts as they are called, send electrical signals across the brain between the left and right hemispheres.

Halwani and his team looked at the main tract: the Arcuate  Fasciculus. (A.F) 

They measured the size of the A.F. tube in three different groups of people.  Non-musicians, musicians and vocalists.

They found that the non-musicians had the smallest A.F.

They also found the musicians had a bigger A.F. tract. 
There is more activity between the left and right side of the brain when you learn to play an instrument.  
It's like sending your brain to a gym.
That's really not surprising.

What did surprise the team, however, was the group with the largest  A.F. tract and bigger density of fibres in the tract were the singers. 

Singing, it seems, is the like sending your brain to a gym with a hard-assed personal trainer.

The team found the act of singing worked the A.F. the hardest.
There was more activity between the two sides of the brain. 

Apparently, the left hand side of the brain (words) works harder with the right side (sound) when you sing. 

Unfortunately the study didn't look at front men who sing and play an instrument.  (I guess Prince probably had the biggest A.F. tract on the planet.)


What does this all mean to creatives working in advertising?
We know that art school trained creatives pre-dominantly use their right hemisphere for images, intuition and visual stimulus.

Copywriters pre-dominantly use their left hemisphere for logic, rationale and words.

The brainstorming that happens between a creative team is primarily an interaction between the left hemisphere of the writer and the right hemisphere of the art director. 

Neither creative are growing their A.F. tract as much as if they could be if they brainstormed alone.

Their own individual tracts are under used in the conceptualising process. 
They are bouncing off each other's different hemispheres rather than engaging their own individual brain.

So, creatives should work solo in the first instance.
If you are a writer you should conceptualise more around the visual possibilities of your thoughts. 
You should draw, doodle and paint your thoughts.
Visualise your headlines and your strap lines. 
Draw images that replace the dialogue in radio and T.V. scripts.

If you are an art director  you should do the opposite.  
Try to write your ideas.

And while you are doing this take off your headphones and sing.

When you come together with your creative partner and your respective ideas you shouldn't discuss them.
Oh, no.
You should sing them. 
Sing to your partner.
And get your partner to sing their ideas to you.

Why not sing them to the Creative Director?
And then sing them to the client. 
In fact, all client presentations should be in the form of a musical.

Any creative-led agency could do one simple thing to help the brain power of their creatives.

They should set up a lunchtime choir.

Whether it results in better ads, however, is open to question.
Try it and see.

 Lucky Generals creatives present their new idea for Pot Noodles.

The sacrifices you make make you.

A note from a former student Fernando Perrotoni.

“I left Brazil in August 2006.

I said goodbye to my wonderful mother, my fantastic father and my best friend ; my  twin brother.

I resigned from a well paid job as an art director in Brazil.

I sold my beloved car. 
An old VW Golf.

I split from my long term girlfriend.  

I borrowed huge amounts of money and left my life behind  to go  to Watford.

Tony said I was crazier than the paving his grandad put down in 1955 and I should go home immediately.

But I had  to give it a go. 
It was the biggest risk I have ever taken.

Watford was the hardest I ever worked. 16 hours a day. 
And most weekends.

I wouldn’t be sitting here today at TBWA  working on  John Smiths beer, Adidas and a new campaign for Twix, if it wasn’t for The Watford work ethic and the sacrifices I made.”

Addendum .

Fernando left TBWA and joined Mother in East London which was 3 more miles away from his mother in Brazil. 
He spent two years at Mother creating some great work on Match.com, Stella and Moneysupermarket. 
Fernando returned to Brazil. 
He's back with his family and is looking to purchase a Lamborghini with go faster stripes. 
I am not sure whether he is looking for his ex girlfriend.

30 years. 600 students.1 night.

July 4th 7.30pm.

The Yorkshire Grey in Langham Street was turned in to an Adland Party to celebrate my 30 years at Watford.

Ex-students gathered to spring a surprise bash organised by Dan and Becs (AMV creatives). It worked guys! I was more surprised than Jimmy Page when he was asked to join the Wombles on stage at a benefit gig for unemployed television puppets.

Alumni from Google, W&K, VCCP, AMV, RGA, BBH, Droga5, Adam and Eve, Ogilvy, Grey and The BBC reminisced over warm pints and tear stained peanuts. 

Jeeves, the ECD of Spotify New York, flew in especially to claim the pint I promised him in 2008 and to hand back his locker key. 
Tom Sears, Innovation Director at London Zoo, was only let in to the event after he had wiped off the lion dung from his wellies.

The entertainment was provided by The Flying Toenails. An ensemble of acrobats who gave a wonderful choreographed performance of Dance Of The Pentel.

Geronimo, Class of 1994, was on hand to ink the alumni with the now famous Watford tattoo. Not surprisingly he ran out of ink and latecomers were stenciled with the barman's biro.


It was a memorable night full of banter, hilarity and the famous Watford hug.

Those who couldn't attend the event-Tony Davidson, Oli Beale, Richard Branson and Simon Cowell- here's a date for your diary:  July 7th 2022- Watford's 60th Birthday. See you there.

It might also be the day I hand over the keys to my D&AD cupboard to my young protege Michael Comley.

How to get a place on the Watford Course.

 In the worship of security we fling ourselves beneath the wheels of routine-and before we know it our lives are gone.

I have written this because I'm finding too many young people are trying to get in to the ad profession in a half-hearted way.  You need stuff that cannot be taught. Stuff that only you can develop yourself. Like passion, energy, excitement for making ideas, excitement for other people's ideas, a love of problem solving, an upbeat love of people and life. That's the stuff I'm talking about.

 Prove you love advertising.

You should know the names of all the agencies . You should know  what accounts are where and  the names of the creative directors and the 
leading creatives. You should know  your advertising history.  When I  mention 'Dambusters'  the ad should spring to mind , not the film. 
If I ask you to name the best three VW Beetle ads from DDB New York you should name 33.
You should have an opinion on the work of every great ad creative from Socrates to Trott via Lautrec.

Prove you are creative. 

If you are creative you are creating. You are building web sites, writing ads, making films, writing books, producing art installations. Don't be precious. Think.  Do.  Learn.   Move On. 

Prove you like writing ads.

We all know what an ad is.Take a simple benefit. eg Brillo Pads. Best scourer. Come up with a campaign thought  that communicates this message in a creative way and execute the idea in as many different ways as you can. Write your ads in posters. Poster are the purest , simplest forms of advertising. Writing  poster campaigns forces you to think simply and clearly. Check the D&Ad annuals to see examples of good poster campaigns. You should come to the interview with a book of ideas/ads for brands. Be as visual as you can. If you can't draw do crude drawings. Or find the visual you want on an image bank and paste.

Prove you are a cultural sponge.

Mop up everything. Literature, art, cinema,poetry,politics, economics, music, theatre, dance, opera,..............and good gravy. Never waste good gravy. You need to be an interesting person with a wealth of reference points and experience you can draw upon. 

I look to my students to teach me something. Students in the past have turned me on to Maus, Modest Mouse and Blacksad. In reciprocation I have turned students' attention to the  creative minds of Buster Keaton, Eno,  Peter Greenaway, Prince Buster and Peter Cook.

Prove you can write or art direct.

Or prove you can do both. Ideally, you should have some published work under your belt. If you can't write or design with style, wit and emotional empathy you cannot own your ideas.

Prove you love hard work.

Right now some agency creatives are doing 60 hours a week to hang on to their jobs.  Some are working weekends for free.If you love coming up with ideas and executing them you'll want to work the  hours. If you don't love it you should consider studying something else.
A friend of mine loves ceramics. He has just finished his course at The Royal College of Art. He was at the college at 8.00am and finished at midnight. At weekends he finished at 10.00pm. He loved it.

Prove you know something about the Watford Course.

 Do your research.You wouldn't book a vacation to Greece without research. Ditto Watford. And it's not even a holiday.

Prove you don't take yourself too seriously.

You need to laugh at your mistakes and failures. 

Writing ads is a trivial pursuit compared to what some people do for a living. Be a happy idiot and struggle for the legal tender.

Be punctual and be nice.

This is more important than talent. 

      

Preparing For Watford.

1. Do stuff.

IF YOU’RE GOING TO CREATE FOR A LIVING- CREATE. EVERY DAY.

CREATIVITY IS A PREOCCUPATION NOT AN OCCUPATION.

Pick simple brand problems. Start with writing down loads of insights and truths. Turn one of these truths in to a benefit. An emotional benefit for the consumer-your audience of one.  Be positive. Don't rubbish the competition. Deliver the benefit with executions that the audience can relate to.

Example. Becks Blue bottled beer.

The message; Becks Blue is a bottled beer that contains no alcohol. Insight/Truth: a 24 year old can blend in with his beer buddies. 
Write to emotionally true benefits with pithy strategy lines.

Here are three strategies as examples.

Becks Blue No Alcohol. No questions asked.
( Your mates won't ask if you why you're not drinking a beer.

Becks Blue No Alcohol. You're not drunk you're you. (Drinkers doing silly things in bars  because it is their personality.)

Becks Blue. No alcohol. Mornings are wonderful.
Show the opportunities of the early morning. ( The beauty of the sun rise, the bargains at a car boot sale, the wildlife in the local park before the dog walkers arrive.)

Write 10-20 concepts in posters for your strategies and then make a judgement.

The above example should be done in one hour.

2. Widen your cultural hinterland.

Go beyond the creativity of your time.

Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin can teach you how to tell stories.  

Stanley Kubrick can teach you the importance of detail.

Charles Bukowski can show you how words can punch.

Stand up comedians  and shows like Friends and The Simpsons are based on human truths. Watch hundreds of episodes of well observed comedy.

You should also research the history of advertising and be aware of every great idea that's gone before. 

People like George Lois and Mary Wells Lawrence should not be strange names to you.

3. Start an ideas book.

Keep a scrapbook or a note pad by your side. Jot down truths, insights, experiences and ideas.

Use pen and paper-not a computer.

The biggest barrier to creativity is your mobile phone.

4. Work hard and have fun.

The more you have fun the more you work the more you have fun the more you work. 

It's a lovely circle.

The teams that do well are always the hardest working and never the most talented.

Whatever happened to the class of 2019 who haven't even left yet?

Some of this year's hard working students have already been snapped up before the end of the course. 

Sian's pet bear is happy at her working at Adam and Eve.

 Team Cristiana Ronaldo have bagged three placements to keep them busy until Christmas. 

Lara and Alice have been abducted from planet Watford.

Will and Rowan on a VCCP mission. To work on the Mars pitch?

Joe and Jack got The Call Up from VCCP and Lucky Generals.

Watford Applications for September 2019 intake.

My web site is now up  www.thewatfordcourse.com

I'd like to put more kittens on it. In time. In time. 

If you wish to apply for the Watford Creative Ad Course which starts on Monday September 2nd contact  Ruth Piech our admissions officer on ruth.piech@westherts.ac.uk and she will send out the application form and the creative test.
Don't fret over the test. It's meant to be fun.

There is a late interview at 11.00am on Thursday 29th at the college, WD17 3EZ.  I'll repeat that just in case you didn't have a pen and paper ready. It's  Thursday 29th August 11.00am at the college. Any queries that Ruth is unable to answer contact me on tonyc@westherts.ac.uk 
However, I will be off grid until mid August so please be patient.
I'll also be away from the internet.
If you are in doubt read this. If you are still in doubt after reading then you must be a robot.

Hi TC,

Wanted to think about what I was going to write before sending you an email to say thank you for this crazy, wonderful year at Watford.  

This time last year I was sat in a grey office, working for Capita wondering if life would always be this boring. Now I’m sat opposite Oli Beale, on our first day at Anomaly and we’re already working on a super cool brief. 

And the course only ended on Friday.

I toyed with the idea of doing the course for two years, and boy am I glad that I took the risk, packed my bags and swapped the countryside for Watford… 

It’s changed my life and thanks to you I’m now doing what I really really want to do. 

So thank you a million times over, for your guidance and the amazingly special course that you run. 

Alice 

BUSTER. KEATON

I was going to write about the story telling genius of Buster Keaton.  And in particular how he used fewer words ( caption titles) than other film makers at the time.

In the 1920's silent comedy films had an average of 240 titles. Buster took every opportunity to craft the images to work harder. His films had an average of 50 titles.

My research led me to this video essay. After watching this I stopped researching. Hope it helps.