Struggling to shake off your post-Christmas torpor, you may have missed this piece in 北京赛车pk10.
The article revels in the demise of what the author terms "rock star creatives". And whether intentional or not, the inference is that senior creatives who thought they were "rock stars" were quite likely to indulge in behaviour so revolting that they would create not just ads but also an "unsafe work environment".
There will always be a minority of people whose behaviour will incur the pitiless wrath of HR, but they come from all departments in all walks of life. To suggest that such conduct is primarily the preserve of "rock star creatives" is disingenuous and wrong.
Over the past 40 years, rock star creatives have been an overwhelming force for good in this industry. In fact, "rock" is an apposite descriptor because they remain the rocks on which the whole industry was built. The best agencies were established around the creative reputations of their founding partners. When clients saw names such as "Abbott", "Hegarty" or "Trott" above a door, they were attracted not just by the award-winning work these people had consistently produced, but also by the promise that similarly famous and effective work would now be created for them.
These agency founders would then hire similarly talented people to – quite literally – carry on the good work. Then some of those people – Henry, Chaldecott, Denton, Palmer – would eventually put their names above doors of their own and the virtuous cycle would continue.
Everyone in the industry knew the names of its biggest creative stars because they produced fabulous work year after year. They were the heroes, heroines and role models we all wanted to work for and learn from. They set the standards to which we all aspired. They were the reason ads were so well-regarded by those both inside and outside advertising. And, yes, you could describe the ads’ creators as "rock stars" but only because, like rock stars, they were smart, charismatic and prodigiously talented.
But where are their present-day successors? Can you even name the casually dressed bureaucrats who now call themselves creative directors at London’s biggest agencies? More importantly, do you know what they’ve done? That sad shake of your head that I can see from here tells me everything.
Like all creative endeavours, advertising flourishes with a healthy shot of ego, but its creative people no longer enjoy the validation they deserve. To be recognised for what you’ve done will always be important to anyone involved in any creative endeavour. Diminish that and you diminish everything around it. Just look at the Work section of 北京赛车pk10. When a new ad is featured, the names of those who actually created the ad are buried under a pile of other names whose contributions would have been relatively minimal. Even worse, there are now awards ceremonies where the creators of a gong-winning ad don’t even get a credit.
You may think that’s a good thing. You, too, may celebrate the demise of the rock star creative and his or her ego. You may mock the idea of "creative temperament" and use words such as "virtuoso" and "maverick" only with sneering, pejorative irony. But do you like what the neutering – rather than the nurturing – of rock star creatives has done to your industry? Are you proud of the ads it now produces? Are you OK with the fact that young people whose sparkling creative talent might once have lit up the advertising industry are now, quite understandably, choosing to work elsewhere?
Advertising always thrived on the talents of rock star creatives and we’ve all reaped the benefits. Just check out and the "rock stars" Dave interviews. Listen to what they say and look at what they’ve done. Now, more than ever, we need rock star creatives to restore the swagger, glamour and cultural significance that made advertising such an important and enjoyable industry.
Yes, some creatives – usually the less-than-talented ones – have certainly behaved like overpaid, overindulged babies. But to safeguard the future of the industry, we have to ensure that they don’t all get thrown out with the bathwater.
Picture: Getty Images