Over the years I’ve always had classes of students come into the agency in the evenings.
Sometimes it might be for just one or two sessions, sometimes for ten.
It depends how many of the creative department are interested in taking a class.
Each class consists of about 15-20 students.
You set them a brief the week before, then on the night they bring their work along for a crit.
I always encourage everyone in the creative department to teach at least one class.
I believe while our copywriters and art directors are training the students, they’re being trained themselves.
To be creative directors.
You see each class is a crash course in running a creative department.
Writers and art directors have just a couple of hours to look at up to 20 campaigns.
In that time they have to work out what’s right or wrong about the research, the strategy, the media choice, the creative idea, the copywriting, and the art direction of each campaign.
And they have to be able to explain what to do about it in a clear, simple way.
Great training in fast, powerful, clear thinking.
And, if the students question or argue it’s a test of how good that thinking is.
So while they’re teaching the students, the students are teaching them.
And everyone developes their own style of teaching.
Personally, I just give students the name of the product and nothing else.
They have to do their own brief, their own research, and their own media.
Before they start writing ads.
Then everyone in the class sticks all their ads on the walls together, so we can refer back and forth during the crit.
Gordon Smith doesn’t do this, he’s an art director so he’s more considered.
He likes the campaigns presented one at a time.
But there’s one terrific thing he does.
He doesn’t let the person who did the work present it.
He picks a different person to present it.
This works well because it’s the first time the presenter has seen the work.
And if the idea isn’t clear the presenter gets confused.
Just as the public would.
The person who did the ads can see they didn’t communicate.
They may have understood what they did, but no one else does.
This makes the point that you don’t get to sell what’s in your head.
The ad either works on the page or it doesn’t.
Very clear demonstration.
Anna and Elaine are a team that don’t do either of these ways.
They like to do a fast strategy session.
So they don’t brief anyone to do any ads for their class.
During the day, Anna and Elaine fill a cardboard box with a dozen or so different things lying around their office.
A packet of crisps, a toy, cleaning product, trainers, pen, iPod, biscuits.
Then they go into the class and everyone takes one product.
Then the students go off to different offices.
They get half hour to come up with a strategy and campaign thought for their product.
Then they bring them back and stick them on the wall alongside everyone else’s.
Everyone can see who’s done some exciting strategic thinking, and who hasn’t.
This is great for teaching students that real creativity starts with the strategy.
Not just the pictures and words.
It’s also great to teach them not just to rely on planners to write the brief.
And of course, every time Anna and Elaine crit someone’s strategic thinking, they learn more about running a department themselves.
Everyone gets trained.
And that’s what’s in it for me.
Both in training students and encouraging my department to train students.
For me that’s how I’ve progressed through the system.
First I learned to do it.
Then I learned how to teach other people to do it.
Now I’m learning how to teach other people, to teach other people to do it.
It’s the same rule for life.
If you set the game up right, everybody wins.
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Take care. There is a trap. In such a world anything that looks like clever teaching is taken at face value by vulnerable students. Much of the teaching method you describe is evaluated by how satisfied the tutor feels at the end of it, how many laughs they got, were they liked, how many clever quips did they make, not by the almost impossible task of knowing exactly what has been achieved. It is the oldest debate going, can you teach creativity? No you can’t, you can guide creativity towards a problem and vocabulary that can use it nurture it and eventually value it. True teaching is when the tutor chooses to set the student free of the burden of admiration for them, if they have ever managed to gain it in the first place. As I said Dave when you learn a fact (thing) you loose an ignorance. And of course, the wisest have unlearned the most. For once forgive my self promotion and accept that it is well intentioned.
I’m reminded of my first introduction to advertising. I managed to blag my way onto the d&ad course and joined it two weeks in. Everyone knew everyone else. The brief was National Rapide Coaches. And the night was held at your old gaff - GGT.
And I knew nothing. Literally nothing. I had 3 ads drawn to the best of my ability, coloured in and with copy fully written.
The first team stood up and stuck up 20 scamps and got slaughtered. The second person put up 30 scamps and fared better. The it was me.
As I pinned up what I now knew to be so wrong, Dave Waters instantly pulled them down.
‘You have no fucking idea, do you?’
‘Nope.’
He then spent the rest of the evening giving me a lightening master class in being a creative.
I was a quick learner, I was the first of the class to get a job. But it was the generosity of Dave Water and your legacy that made it possible. And for that I will always be grateful
Dave, you just made me angry.
I wished my CDs had done what you did.
And given the rest of us the chance to learn by teaching.
These days, considered wisdom is that ‘only D&AD winners can be teachers’.
While it makes sense on the surface, I’m not sure I agree entirely.
“The best sales people don’t necessarily make the best sales manager,” as one of my other CDs used to say.
One great thing I loved about the D&AD course (”it was 20 years ago” as Sgt Pepper used to say) is the one simple lesson I learnt.
I think it was from Julian Dyer and Sam Hurford at Publicis.
“Don’t tell me it’s good or bad - I wanna know why you think it’s good - or bad.”
In short, you’re entitled to an opinion.
But your opinion must be based on facts.
I didn’t see Dave Waters but I met Paul.
Alas, I should have gone further - to Dean Street.
Dave
I remember it was put to Kevin Keegan once, in reference to all his extra training, that practice makes perfect, to which he replied; “Good practice makes perfect.”
It’s what I took out of my many interviews. Regardless of if I got a job, I learnt something from the applicants or interviewers.
It’s a nice approach, I don’t think it will always work; but I imagine it does more often than not.
I, too, took note of this interesting feeling of lucidity, clearness in understanding, that I get every time I have to explain my mother- for instance- why I actually get paid, what advertising should do for a sausage producer
And it feels so good. Becoming more and more specialised feels good. Bringing the gigantic proportions of this world to a manageable slice brings comfort, like Cage said in Kaufman’s „Adaptation”.
Thank you for this post.
It was Meryl Streep, not Cage, who actually said that
“There are too many ideas and things and people.
Too many directions to go.
I was starting to believe the reason it matters to care passionately about something,
is that it whittles the world down to a more manageable size.”
Your blog today was one of the best.
Brought back lots of memories of when I attended it years back.
You’ve helped a lot of people.
Have you ever wished you hadn’t?
I ask you this because I helped some juniors - when they were juniors.
They’ve since gone on to win some awards and are now at the better agencies.
But what really freaks is how these people now do mean things.
Like when their agency is looking, they try and keep me out of their agency.
If you hadn’t started your own agency (3 times, as I recall), what would you have done?
God..this has jogged a memory:I too did your creative course….. as an account man.Brief: to sell the National Front .And being too clever by far, I rationalised that no one would ever want to be labelled NF publically ,so did a direct response,unbranded, quiz-style long copy ad to generate a list of extreme right wing sympathisers who I could then approach one to one and sign up to the cause in private.Genius! Pinned it on the wall with all the others….and got crucified for not doing a ‘brand’ ad that re-presented the NF in a positive light. Not that I’m usually one to bear a grudge for over 20 years,but with hindsight,don’t you think that you were being a wee bit myopic with your definition of how advertising could solve a client problem!? See you later xxxx
I didn’t know you did the course Stevie.
That must have been when the agency was at Brewer Street.
Where we forgot to take the ads down after the class and the cleaners wouldn’t let us back in the next morning. Because they thought we were working for the National Front.
However I do think yours sounds more of a strategic solution (however clever) and we were trying to simply teach kids how to write ads.
To give an example of what we were up against, do you remember Neil Cassie putting up “How To Run At A Cantor” and thinking it was good?
Good call, Dave. It’s amazing how critting other people’s work sharpens up your own thinking.
As an (off-topic) aside: wouldn’t Joanna Lumley make the world’s greatest suit? She smart, glamorous…and there’s no way in a million years she’s coming back from a presentation without selling the work. Her work on the Gurkhas campaign has been a masterclass in the power of passion, persistence and determination.
Ant
They could turn it into a film; ‘Ms Lumley goes to Whitehall’. I’d have Marisa Tomei playing Lumley though!
(Should I have put the semi-colon in there or just a basic comma)? And does the question mark go after the brackets? And can one start a sentence with and?
I only ask because I’m only a humble Art Director!
http://ex-blank-page.blogspot.com/2009/05/in-reply-to-daves-great-posts-38.html
Great Blog Dave,
Brings back happy memories in Saudi Arabia of lads (and the two permitted women) giving it their all as to why their ad worked when it did not and the masses of laughter we had. On one occasion the females were more concerned about catching the shops than winning their work, so I deliberately put a female team under pressure when they made up some pathetic bullshit excuse as to why they should leave early knowing a presentation was on at 1.00pm the following day. I just let them go shopping. All the other teams were finished and sitting around going through their presentations.
The other thing they learnt was to make a checklist.
Nothing worse than pitching to find you’ve left the one ad you really need undone, or at the agency!
As much as possible I made them present their own ideas to the client too. I told them they would be presenting their own work the following morning.
They still went to the shops. I said nothing.
The following morning. I’ve never ever seen two girls work so fast and furious while we all sat about laughing. I’d left a list of all their presentation material on the table, some of which they had all but forgotten about. It worked. We gave them a bit of a hand to make them feel even worse.
They were the best presenters in the meeting, and I made a point of telling them so afterwards.
The important thing is, they never forgot to get the work done first and shopping second after that.
Saudi Arabia is culturally differnt though. One lad decided he was stressed one day, so he went for a wander into the desert for 3 days (as you do).
I never argued with him, just asked him if he’d be kind enough to warn me when he was next going to walk his camel.
Hi Walt,
My attitude is that if I help 10 people and only one of them helps me back that’s a10% return.
Of course you can look at it as a 90% non-return.
In which case some people might think it better to save the 90% non-return and don’t help anyone.
But then, of course, I lose the 10% return.
So simply stated, do you let the bad experiences dictate your life or the good ones?
I figure use it or lose it.
Thanks Dave.
I still help - but selectively.
Maybe because I have limited time and I would rather spend it on those who are appreciative.
It would be dumb to keep helping ‘users’.
In light of what you said, me returns aren’t all bad.
About 30 tpo 35%.
Thanks again, Guv.
Thought you (& Ant) may be interested in this:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/may/09/looking-for-eric-cantona-ken-loach
Hi Dave,
I’d love to come along to one of your sessions.
The idea fills me with fear! Even better!
I remember at Paul Divver’s session when he told us we would be presenting each other’s work I nearly died! It was the best thing that could ever have happened to me, because the bad part of me did die. It left and burned in Hell. Well done Paul!
Then one of the students muttered something about those who had failed had been for a session with ‘The Man’, and I was gutted even more!
It’s all about teaching objectivity over subjectivity.
I can imagine people reading the first line of this
blog and saying to themselves ‘crawling bastard’
well let them. That’s their problem not mine.
Some people are always happy to put others down without reason. A writer I worked with at Saatchi explained it like this: ‘Murder your darlings’ so I did.
I went on to murder his darlings too and he wasn’t so enthusiastic about that.
This method taught me years later to know as a professional when I have to sell, and when I have to keep my mouth shut while the client is thinking.
I’ve always believed a great ad sells itself because nobody presents to the consumer when they see it.
Of course it has to be sold to clients because they are being invited to make a choice between one campaign or agency over another and at that point, the account person is key, swooping in with points that need to be hammerd home to close the deal.
I’ve seen grown account handlers die of shock because they thought the work would sell by osmosis. Nothing should be taken for granted.
This is a fantastic method, not just for creatives, but for account people too. It would be great if you could film it and put it on You Tube, but I fully understand why it has to be done in private.
Nobody would want a You Tube clip played over and over years after they have made that breakthrough. It’s not about public humiliation,
but many people in the industry just don’t get it
because Pride gets in the way (and we are all prone to that old nasty). That’s why I’d like to come a long. To give my Pride a good kick in the nuts.
John,
My favourite line is, “Before you can surprise other people you have to surprise yourself.”
(I also like the rumour that Ken Loach was making a film about deep sea trawlers.)
Dave
Quand les mouettes suivent le chalutier…
I haven’t see any of the ads that refer to sardines though.
Looking forward to the movie. Laverty always seems to have his finger on the pulse.
Hi chaps.
Yeah, I’m really looking forward to that film. Loach and Cantona, it doesn’t get much better than that, eh?
By the way John, regarding your post #12, I’d have gone with a colon instead of a semi-colon and put the question mark inside the bracket, but starting a sentence with ‘and’ is absolutely fine. I love grammar but I think it’s there to serve us, not the other way around. That’s why I love it when people like Roddy Doyle tear up the rule book.
Thanks Ant
It was drummed into me not to start a sentence with and or but for that matter. I could never understand why not. Positive spin: I was pushing the envelope. Negative spin: I was trying the English teacher’s patience
To justify myself perhaps I should have said, “Before you can surprise other people you have to surprise yourself.” Where was Eric when I needed him?
Just one more thing, if the question mark is inside the brackets does that mean there should be a full stop outside?
Ant & John.
Apparently someone once corrected Churchill, saying one should never end a sentence with a preposition.
Churchill replied, “That is the sort of nonsense with which I will not put up.”
John, from a Romance-language-speaker’s perspective, the adventure of learning English could be summarised like this: just put everything in the wrong order and begin your phrases with the end, then read everything with the accent on the wrong syllable.
(And then, just like a bonus after learning the language, for extensive understanding of English culture simply drive on the wrong side of the road and use the wrong system of measurement.)
It’s very educative. Seriously — the Letting-Go game.
Funny very Anca.
Dave, I know you love numbers:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-3X5hIFXYU
Hi Anca.
For me, the problem isn’t religion per se, it’s fundamentalism wherever it comes from.
Exactly, Dave.
Extreme capitalism is just as horrifying.
Hi Dave,
Hi Anca,
What an interesting twist to this post. When you train students you train yourself, and the impact of Fundamentalism.
All I can say is I spent 4 years in one of the most fundamental Islamic State there is. So what did I learn? Admittedly they were pro Britsh and American, but even so, Islam in itself as a religion actually speaks of loving your neighbour as yourself just as the bible does. The press love to hype things all out of proportion. Most TV news crews in the Middle East are Muslim. They dont beat up Western journalists.
In fact one evening having been diving all day I sat with a Saudi friend and we asked each-other about our religious beliefs. Here I was, a half English, half Sottish, half Irish Catholic, telling a Muslim exactly who I am, and he told me exactly who he was, and guess what, we laughed! There were so many similarities and we actually became much closer by sharing our beliefs and dispelling crazy myth, we were students of each other training ourselves.
Towards the end of my journey in Saudi Arabia, I took the Taif mountain road back to Riyadh from Jeddah. it was closed. I had to take a different route, and followed the police route. It took me into Makkah, a place forbidden under pain of death to anyone except Muslims. As I approached the barrier expecting to be turned around, there was no-one around. Police and Soldiers were all at prayer, so I drove through Makkah, past the Holy Mountain, and out the other side. I got lost and was in the forbidden city for almost 2 hours. the funny thing is I felt entirely at peace because as I mentioned earlier, Christianity
and Islam have so much in common. Even so, I respect the faith of others, as they did me, and did not enter the Makkah Mosque in case there was a fundamentalist around. You get fundamentalist Christians. They are a pain in the proverbial too.
If one day the world becomes overrun by Islam I have no fear, because the majority of Muslims are wonderfully hospitable and peace-loving people.
One faith would mean no war on religious grounds, and so eventually the only possibility could be war within, and as fundamentalism is a minority group, fundamentalists would be eradicated.
People will always have different beliefs within or without religion, and even with these differences, we share far more in common than we do in differences.
By 2040 Britain will become an Islamic state if population growth rates continue at the rate they do.
However, I’m sure a British Muslim’s values are exceedingly different to their Middle Eastern Muslim counterparts. Wealthy Muslims from the Middle East are educated in America and Europe. They have more in common with us than they do with their own parents, and they are the leaders of tomorrow’s world. So for one, I’m not going to lose any sleep over it. As a Facebook friend once said to me:
God is greater than any religion, and that even includes Alex Ferguson Fundamentalists.
Hi John,
Many thanks.
Just read the Guardian article. Sounds like a teriffic film.
Suppose I’ll just have to lose to the Fundamentalists then.
Do they like football? Within sniffing distance of the title now!
Kev
I think Eric and Ken and not forgetting the writer, Paul Laverty, must have been street kids ‘cos they seem to get this world.
@ Anca
now that’s one biased piece of film.
I hope you’re not taking it seriously.
RE Churchill: surely should read “up with which I will not put”?…….
@Riki
I was just talking about the clever use of numbers.
Personally I have no preferences religion-wise
and therefore no worries about the expansion of one religion or another.
Stevie,
I think you’re right, and that’s how I remember the quote too.
But I didn’t think “put” was a preposition whereas I thought “up” was.
So I changed the quote.
I thought, in this case, “put’ was an adverb.
But I only went to art school, whereas you went to University, so you should tell me if “put” is a preposition.
Stevie/Dave
You are losing me.
“True genius lies in the ability to decipher conflicting information.” - Churchill
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OL3L1wnpVb8&feature=related
‘with’ was the preposition he didn’t want at the end of the sentence…you could end with either put or up (neither are prepositions) but his original line is more pompous than yours so you should probably have left it as quoted…xx
That’s why I went to art school instead of uni.
We thought a preposition was when you chatted up a bird.
Beat five prepositions!
A father of a little boy goes upstairs after supper to read to his son, but he brings the wrong book. The boy says, ‘why did you bring that book that I don’t want to be read to out of up for?’”
RE: a previous comment on the qualitative difference between Information and Knowledge. And here we see Dave’s take on the difference between Knowledge and Wisdom. Kudos.
It would seem from where I stand that Wisdom as imparted to these young teachers is, at base, a function of age. At least there is that consolation for the passing of time. First you learn, then you learn how to teach, and then you learn how to teach how to teach. Believe me, as time goes on the years are looking more and more like fence posts passing on the highway, till they blur and begin to look like they are going backward. The same holds true, with age, of the passing of generations. Damn, if I lived to be 200 the generations would be cycling past like fence posts too. Hence: wisdom?
But, the main point I get from this post is how healthy it is to exercise the need to teach, and how to grow a corp of junior execs who know that first hand.
mm
Fence posts! Blurred on a highway. These metaphors are hitting the ground harder than a 9/11 jumper. Are you an acid like Kevin? Wisdom has become a hackneyed word meaning stuff we can’t be arsed to explain or just can’t because of the hard one.
John, from a Romance-language-speaker’s perspective, the adventure of learning English could be summarised like this: just put everything in the wrong order and begin your phrases with the end, then read everything with the accent on the wrong syllable.
Posted by Anca on May 9th, 2009 at 5:16 pm
“A French politician once wrote that it was a peculiarity of the French language that in it words occur in the order in which one thinks them.” - Wittgenstein , Philosophical Investigations (#336)
Remarkable how the French language does that, really.
Je marcherai au fond de nos escaliers.