Cirque de Creative. London Tour. 2020.

Watford. The only UK Ad School which runs inside London's leading ad agencies. February to June.

We've been rehearsing since September.
Honing our skills.
Performing mental acrobatics on 200 briefs every day since September.
Now it's time to leave the Big Top at Watford and creatively  perform in the real world.
All the venues were ready for us.
The seats are booked.
The Pentels are moist.
It's showtime !

3/2/2020. The&Partnership.

We parked the caravan at The&partnership.
We juggled a number of rather tricky live briefs from top lovely team Brody and Owen.
On Wednesday, Angus Vine a Creative Director gave us a brief to write and film one minute comedy videos in a day.
The clowns sprung in to action.
The films were turned around in a day and presented first thing on Thursday.
A huge hug to Kristina and Elena for reserving the seats and organising some lovely people to look after us.

                         Josh and Donya's take on the word Moustache.

                           The winning film by Alex Binding.

10/2/2020 M&C Saatchi.

Creative maestro Matt Lee class of 1996 and now Deputy Executive Creative Director sat down with me over a cuppa and we planned the week's show.
We wanted action, excitement and fun.
So we set Mercedes, Valentines Day, Turkish Delight, Kew Gardens and The Army.
They had a safety net of tutorials on Tuesday. Most of the ideas came crashing down without a safety net.
On Wednesday, Matt and I alongside M&C placement team 
Will and Rowan ran speed crits on first thoughts. Each Watford team had 5 minutes to run through all their ideas.
Thursday was spent executing the best ideas.
We returned to the agency for the final show.
Matt Lee was a tough audience.
There was a lot of simple clear thinking on show.
And not enough amazing acts of  quirky mental agility.
We left the agency with a weekend of extra rehearsals.

17/2//2020 AMVBBDO

A very similar week to the previous one.
A bunch of challenges were set by our hosts Creative Directors Prabs and Jamie.
Tuesday was practice  time at the Festival Hall .
It was half term and The Hall had become Babyland.
Hundreds of toddlers and babies crawling around the floor. 
It was a shame the students weren't working on Pampers. 
Instead the briefs were Jaffa Cakes, Plenty, Comedy Central and Currys.
On Wednesday we had a quick 5 minute run through of all the ideas with Prabs and Jamie ably assisted by agency creative Oli Frost.
We all returned on Friday to present our finished campaigns.
Better than last week?
The ideas were clearer, stronger and more lateral.
The executions, however, could have been a lot better.
Yep, a much improved display from Cirque De Creative.

                                   Ummmm...post it notes. Interesting.


24/2/2020. Pablo.

Tom Gong senior writer, threw a bunch of live tasks our way.  He also asked the group to make a comedy film based on the word 'carrot'. Pablo didn't have room for the acrobats to practice so worked off site.



2/3/2020. Rehearsal Week. Festival Hall.

Our Creative show only had one booking this week.
A day with Atomic. The lovely  ECD's Dave and Guy booked us for the day to work on a brief for Greater Anglia Railways.
We worked offsite and returned to present at 6.00pm.

9/3/2020. Grey.

The Tour Bus headed off to Hatton Garden where we took the Creative Troupe to Grey. This week, the students were given a Pringles brief to crack.
Wednesday night we somersaulted up to Pablo where we presented the  carrot films and print campaigns to  ex students, E.C.D. Dan Watts, Nathalie Gordon and team Claire&Tom. 
The films went down well.The one word response from Dan on all of the films was, 'funny.'
Here are two that went down particularly well from Team AliPali.

The evening ended with a standing ovation for Dan Watts.
After a successful 18 years working for such amazing agencies as 180 Amsterdam,  Campbell Doyle Dye, Fallon, CHI and Channel 4 Dan was finally awarded his Watford Diploma.

16/3/2020. Saatchis.

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.