Sunday 30 March 2008

8 months later...

...and I'm thinking about posting again.

Maybe it's the sun poking her wares through the trees and making me feel all creative, or the semi-illusory prospect of life maybe going in a new direction and my feeling benevolent with the excitement of it all... or more probably it's the fact I've got another Admap article coming out soon (and it's not about sad-vertising you'll be glad to hear) and I might just have something worthwhile and substantial to share with you (I'm not one for 'interesting things I saw today' blogging, maybe I just don't see enough interesting things).

A romantic explanation for my hiatus might be that I finally got a job playing piano in a cabaret or my book idea "Toilets of London" is finally to get published. But truth is I've been putting most of my energy into the 9-5 (really the 10 to 9).... and into this...



In June 2007, along with 15 other bright-eyed advertising peeps about 5-8 years into the industry, I committed the next 15 months of my weekends to reading all the best thinking our industry has ever felt important enough to put into print (and that's a lot...more than a Masters-worth of reading)... spitting some out along the way, trying in vain to digest other morsels, and greedily allowing the great majority of it to nourish me and turn me into an altogether better-rounded and more convincing advertising practitioner.

The best bit (and the real reason I've not been here) is that I've had to use up all my words writing essays with original and compelling points of view on everything I've read... Comms Planning, Metrics, Consumers, Brands and Creativity... I've now got an opinion on everything, my brain hurts and I'm terrible company in the pub.

It's been magic, the true academic in me has had a field day. I just wish I could do the IPA Excellence Diploma as a full-time job...and I wish everyone else in the industry got to do it too, because frankly it's scary what we don't know. And it's scary how many of us get by without reading the important treasures some great minds have left for us. We've been driving advertising without a licence...and how we're not in a heap at the bottom of some dusty ravine, I do not know.

2 comments:

Charles Edward Frith said...

Here's the perfect spot to share with us the stuff every planner should really know! :)

There's also been a lot going down online too. Interesting times indeed.

David Bonney said...

Well let's hope I can remember some of it, my brain's a bit like a really knackered culinder...

...and yes, I'm definitely behind with my blog watching... like already, just one look at yours and I've decided to get an electric bike (I don't have a licence, so it might save my life) :)