Paul Silburn. Heaven couldn't wait
Word has it They called an extraordinary board meeting Up There.
Here's to the Crazy One
A tribute to the shy, retiring Lee Clow.
Bank of Mum and Dad: dosh with dignity
The BMB co-founder and chairman explains why his foundation has launched Bank of Mum and Dad.
Heroes: Muhammad Ali by Trevor Beattie
In the first of a new series on people who inspired and influenced adland's great and good, Trevor Beattie looks at the philosophy of The Greatest.
LOSE YOUR RELIGION: D&AD breeds elitism. It thrives on it. But in creating its own elitist mantra, the award scheme is punishing the creative talent it is meant to honour, Trevor Beattie says
I have never won a D&AD pencil. Quite a lot of people know that. Still, neither have Larry Barker, Rooney Carruthers, Tim Hearn, Kate Stanners, Mike Wells, Rosie Arnold, Tom Hudson, Will Awdry, Damon Collins, Mary Wear, Jeremy Craigen, Martin Galton, Nigel Rose, Victoria Fallon, Steve Hudson, Ed Morris or James Sinclair. And they’re all far more talented than I’ll ever be.
PRIVATE VIEW
New Year’s Eve. Bloody rubbish isn’t it? In order to discover why, I recently conducted an experiment under laboratory-controlled conditions.
CRAFT: CREATIVE REVIEW/DAVID BERNSTEIN’S POSTER BOOK - Outdoor sheds Cinderella image for ’town crier’/Trevor Beattie delights in David Bernstein’s title that explains the art of posters
I’m writing this in the foyer of Christie’s auction house, Los Angeles.
Private View by Trevor Beattie
As some of you may already know, I’ve spent the last 21 of your earth days in something of a tabloidic two-and-eight. And of all the advice I’ve been given over this period, the most oft repeated and strangest so far has been: ’Make sure you’re eating properly, won’t you?’. This, I hasten to add, coming not from my mother but from a variety of hardened advertising professionals. What can they mean? ’We’d love you to join our agency, Trev, but you must stop eating soup off your fish knife.’ Don’t they know I boast Aldo Zilli as my personal chef? Maybe they’re just worried I may end up looking like Nigel Lawson in the new M&G commercials. Whither the fat controller indeed.
Private view
Eeek-a-mouse, it’s Hallowe’en. The spookiest, creepiest, scariest night of the year. Am I afraid? Not on your nelly. I’m scared of nothing, me. I drink tap water. I eat white sliced bread. But if I happened to be a French exchange student called Sebastien, I’d probably be pooping my pantaloons, Hallowe’en or no Hallowe’en.
Private View
Rome, 1960. A gangling 18-year-old wins gold at the Olympic Games. Days later he flies home in triumph and, medal still hanging round his neck, marches into his local restaurant to order a steak.
Private view
Do you know what the chap in the Peugeot 406 commercial gets up to when he’s not snogging blokes and interfering with small children in red coats on his way to the office?
PRIVATE VIEW
‘What does it feel like in the new Club World tilting cradle seat...?’ Well, funny you should ask me that, Bernard, because by some spooky twist of advertising fate, I am at this very moment writing this very column in that very seat in the lump on top of a British Airways jumbo, 45,000 feet above the Atlantic.