November 21, 2004
british parties
[PART ONE:]
When I left college in London in the late 1980s, Margaret Thatcher was still the Prime Minister, and at the height of her powers. The Thatcherite Revolution was in full swing, and the changes she was making to the British social fabric would be even more profound than the ones Reagan was making to the US equivalent.
One name you associate a lot with that era is “Saatchi & Saatchi”. They were the largest British ad agency at the time. They did the advertising for the Thatcher’s Conservative Party, British Airways, Mars etc and boy, were they good at what they did. Since then their star has faded, but hey, things change.
My point is, back when I entered the job market, British advertising was synonymous with social change. You wanted insight about where the country, the economy, the world etc was heading, asking someone in advertising was as good a way to do it as any.
That, of course, is no longer the case. From National Regeneration to “Love Marks” in less than 2 decades. How sad.
We are no longer the rock stars. We are no longer the fighter pilots. We are no longer the crack troops, fighting for a better and sexier tomorrow.
We are a bunch of slobs with an expensive product that gets less useful and interesting by the day.
What to do about it? Sure, I have some ideas. So do some other folk. But they are mostly ignored by our former rock-star-fighter-pilot colleagues. They don’t want to change what they’re doing. They just want what they’re doing to miraculously start becoming more valuable again, not less.
They just want it to be 1989 again. Not unlike the Grande Dame of British retail, Marks & Spencer’s. Good luck to them, they’ll need it.
[PART 2:]
At British house parties it’s customary to bring a bottle of booze along and give it to the hostess. Sure, the host and hostess will supply a few bottles and the munchies, but everyone’s expected to somehow add value to the equation.
[PART 3:]
Last Spring Joi Ito came to London, so some British bloggers got together and organised a blog dinner for him. I was there. Sure, the lovely Suw Charman did most of the organising/work, and Joi provided the raison d’etre to throw the party, but it was never “Joi’s Party” or “Suw’s Party”. It was everybody’s party, Joi and Suw were just two of the people who showed up that evening. When the bill came we all pitched in our
But if it’s an advertising party, then no-one brings booze, it’s funny white powder.
Ahem.
Cough.
I’ll get me coat.
In Canada, the beer business was built by beer reps. Guys — usually former athletes — who went into bars paid for rounds and told stories of their glory days. In the 80s beer was huge. Then followed the budgets and the ads. There was a spike and then boom. Flatness. The beer companies hired the T-totallers to run their business. The decline. Beer companies cannot sell their beer today. No wonder.
So yeah, take the ad budgets, hire fifty beer reps and get them back out there into the bars telling stories.
Metaphorically.
It’s the plight of business really. Not just advertising. Communications companies being run by the uncommunicative. Pro sports leagues being run by non fans of the game. It’s the universal flaw in the coming demise (and regeneration) of business.
what amazes me is how advertising which is the front line of “efficient” cut throat capitalism
is so full of these slobs and parasites
but then is’nt that what capatalism is all about :capitalising off other peoples efforts to further one’s own gains.
and let’s be honest that is the only thing that motivates people to scale the treacherous corporate hierarchy is
to partake in management’s perogative of being cocksuckers and unaccountable slackers feeding off subordinates hard work
love your work hugh
truly an insight into a repulsive industry
also if it’s an advertising party the booze
is throw on free by breweries hoping
to drive down their last design fee
in fact why don’t those breweries
rather send in burn out over the hill creative directors designers and copywriters
to regale the bar patrons of the great old time’s they had being alchoholics
for some honest brand insight
after years of experience
haha
with my crowd for some time now it hasn’t been booze we bring to the party — it’s been a nice, bulging, aromatic bag of freshly roasted arabian mocha sanani beans. and after a few steaming volcanic press-pots full, everybody rants all night long, eyes bulging out, until the wee hours. kind of like the coffeehouses in which the american revolution was fomented, or the situationists in 68.
alcohol slurs speech, so if you’re in the words business, it’s not a “social lubricant” so much as it’s like putting salad oil under your car tires. people i work with closely use it to kill the pain or as a sleeping aid. sometimes when you’re in the field you can sterilize medical instruments with it.
but i’m happy to let the older guys drink as much as they want. it makes it easier to cosh them in the alley for their wallets.
what’s the worst thing that can happen if you trade being a caffeine freak for being a booze hound? you can perhaps say too much. we therefore do a lot of editing.
I just wanted to let you know that the blogcards I ordered surpassed expectations in every category, from the paper stock to the quantity.