Several Semi-related Thoughts About Advertising

I'm back.  No one noticed I've not posted for several months.  No tears.  I'll continue talking to myself.  I do that a lot anyway -- or so my wife claims.  

I'm a collector of quotations -- probably because I've never felt accomplished enough to offer something stirring of my own.  It's okay.  I'm comfortable with that fact.  In my office, I have several files full of advertising quotations.  I review them regularly to stoke the fires of my creative idealism.  Here are four that happen to strike my fancy at this particular moment.

From the 1957 Yale Baccalaureate Address:

"Could a commitee have written 'The Odyssey,' or Warhol's soup cans been painted by a club?  Could the New Testament have been composed by a conference?  Creative ideas do not spring from groups.  They spring from individuals."

From Bill Bernbach, advertising icon and DDB founding partner:

"I have spent so much time urging freshness and originality, let me quickly add that doing it differently is not enough.  The pre-eminence of creativity in advertising  is not a license to be pretentious, or to put it as unpretentiously as I can, it is not a license to be phony, to do abstract acrobatics.  Your job is to simplify, to dramatize, to use all your taqlents to make crystal clear and memorable the message of the advertisement.  Yes, your ad ought to make noise, so that it will get noticed, but not a senseless noise."

From Jim Riswold, Creative Director at Weiden & Kennedy:

"Noise is nothing but shouting.  Shouting has been, is, and always will be a fail-safe recipe for bad advertising; it's hollow, braggadocio, vain, boorish, rude and a complete waste of time.  It doesn't care about the consumer.  The best advertising is, if you enjoy fancy terms, a symbiotic relationship, or if you prefer simple terms, a friendship between a brand and a consumer."

From Thelonious Monk, famed jazz musician and "beatnik:"

"I take risks.  The only cats who are worthwhile are the ones that take risks."

Peace, be still.

I believe inspiration comes in peaceful settings.

Words such as quiet, secluded, still, and peaceable have always been, in my experience, associated with clear thinking and imaginative writing. Little wonder, writers in ceiling-less, wall-deprived office scenarios wear headphones and earplugs. I visited CPB in Boulder last week and while walking through the hallways at 9 PM noticed so many of the creative staffers hunched over monitors with headphones on. Noise blocking out noise. It's too bad offices -- even small ones -- with doors can't be provided to everyone, but that's not the trend these days.

I recognize all writers may not feel the same way. And I realize that walls and doors cost money. I tried to deal with an open-office setting while working for Cole & Weber, and even earplugs didn't always create sufficient quietude. When they did, I couldn't hear my phone ring. Not good. I feel badly for our writers at Richter7 who face the same predicament. When offices were originally assigned, I should have been more wise -- even if the offices they should have received weren't as "cool."

The world grows increasingly noisy. I fear the trend won't abate. As I understand it, the first order issued by a commander mounting a military invasion is the jamming of enemy communication channels. Call it "black noise."

In today's world of communication overload, there always seems to be a TV on in the background -- sometimes the foreground. The radio, or an iPod, constantly blares. As anyone with a teenager will admit, Guitar Hero is not an eardrum's best friend. My son is savoring, at high volume, a YouTube video on a nearby computer as I write this -- or try to write this. I'm just not tough enough to mentally focus when there's non-stop noise all around. And I'll bet I'm not unique.

For me, and many others, solitude and quiet are particularly conducive to idea generation, inspiration and creativity. Since the ad business is built on those precepts, it seems rather critical to orchestrate moments and physical environments that are noise-free. Op-ed over and out.