http://www.cstadvertising.com/blog Creative thinking and critique from Dave Trott Wed, 10 Mar 2010 11:14:39 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en My son used to go to a school for nice, intelligent, middle-class boys. All approaching puberty. One day we had one of those conversations that sons and dads have. It was a similar situation to the one The Who sing about in "Pictures Of Lilly". So, I went into the office and asked Yvonne, ... http://www.cstadvertising.com/blog/2010/03/id-rather-be-embarrassed-inside-the-agency-than-outside/ Stanley Pollitt was in the BMP pub one evening after work. The head-of-art was there too. They were discussing Dave Christensen. Dave was then a junior art director, and he'd just been fired by the creative director, Gabe Massimi. Stanley was furious. He thought Dave was young and talented and it wasn't fair. Stanley began telling ... http://www.cstadvertising.com/blog/2010/03/different-schools-of-management/ When my son was very small he came back from school one day looking upset. I asked him what was up. He said, "There's a boy at school making fun of my name." I asked him what the boy said. He said, "Lee Trott - pee pot." I said, "That's not so bad, what's the ... http://www.cstadvertising.com/blog/2010/03/what-i-learned-in-the-playground/ Every day I come into the office past people smoking on the pavement. I pop out at lunchtime and people are standing in the rain, smoking. I go home at night, past groups of people outside pubs. Freezing and smoking. How can smoking like that be any fun? When I used to smoke, ... http://www.cstadvertising.com/blog/2010/03/pressure-point-advertising/ One morning Gordon Smith came into the office in a foul mood. The glass had broken on the front of the washing machine at home. And his wife had told him to get it fixed. So he stormed into the office and started making phone calls. Actually 'phone calls' is a euphemism. The phone is ... http://www.cstadvertising.com/blog/2010/02/start-with-the-problem-not-the-solution/       Have you ever seen the corpse of someone you love? Do you notice how the person isn't there anymore? I know that's obvious, right. They're dead. Of course they're not there. But what I mean is, everything you recognised as the person is still there. The arms, the legs, the head, the face, the hair, the ... http://www.cstadvertising.com/blog/2010/02/what-you-dont-see-is-more-important-than-what-you-do/   When we were looking for a house, my wife wanted to live in Hampstead. Eventually, it took us about 3 years to find one. Every Friday I'd get the local paper, the Ham and High, and go through the property section. Then every Saturday we'd get in the car and go look at ... http://www.cstadvertising.com/blog/2010/02/everything-is-a-chance-to-be-creative/     William Goldman was one of the most successful Hollywood screenwriters. Amongst other films, he wrote: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Marathon Man, All The President's Men, A Bridge Too Far, Misery, and Heat. He's also written some great books about screenwriting. The most famous one is Adventures In the Screen Trade. These aren't ... http://www.cstadvertising.com/blog/2010/02/come-off-broadcast-go-on-receive/ I just read this blog-post on this very interesting site and it made me think. "Nothing IS enough Materalism is out of control. Our desire for 'more' simply feeds continued discontent. Our pursuit of 'things' that will bring us happiness makes us unhappy. Our attempts to 'improve' our lives is destroying the ... http://www.cstadvertising.com/blog/2010/02/thats-not-creativity-thats-just-shopping/ A few years ago I read an article in The Evening Standard. It was about seven masochists and seven sadists. All men, they would meet up every so often for group sex sessions. The sadists would perform various brutal acts on the masochists. One I particularly remember, was the sadists would nail the masochists' ... http://www.cstadvertising.com/blog/2010/02/back-to-the-future/