If you, like me, are a fan of Mad Men, then I thoroughly recommend you get hold of a copy of The Real Mad Men by Andrew Cracknell. It’s a history of the creative revolution experienced on Madison Avenue in the 1950s and 1960s as told through the personal accounts of many of the surviving protagonists of the time.
I whizzed through it over Christmas and it got me thinking: how much of this amazing heritage are we losing as technology relentlessly sweeps away the past?
Sir John Hegarty has written a short foreword to Andrew Cracknell’s book and he sums it up perfectly:
The word ‘history’ in our business is almost a dirty word. We’re obsessed with tomorrow and the next big thing. In many ways that’s what makes it so exciting. Constant invention is at its core…But sometimes this can work against it. I was lucky enough to be taught by an inspirational teacher whose mantra was ‘history isn’t about the past, it’s about the future.’ Understanding where we came from, why we did what we did and how it could influence tomorrow was at the heart of his teaching.
There’s probably a very lengthy book that could be written about what modern marketers could learn from the creative pioneers of 50 years ago. Maybe that’s a challenge someone will take up? In the meantime, I’ve picked out just one area that after reading The Real Mad Men really resonated for me.
“Rules are what the artist breaks” – Bill Bernbach
I don’t think many people would argue that DDB founder Bill Bernbach is one of the most (if not the most) important and influential admen of all time. DDB’s groundbreaking ‘Think Small’ campaign for VW and ‘We try harder’ for Avis are regularly voted the best advertising work of all time…and with good reason.
What struck me about both these campaigns was how they broke just about every ‘rule’ of advertising at the time.
To get a sense of what I mean, just take a look at the following two ads from 1959:
Say no more!
But what does Bernbach’s clarion call for creativity mean for those working in advertising, especially digital channels, today?
I think another Bernbach quote gets to the heart of the matter:
In advertising we know how to construct the body, but the real trick is in knowing how to run blood through the veins.
The danger as I see it in digital is that so scared are many creative people of being found out as technological ignoramuses that they’ve ceded the high ground to the so-called ‘digital natives’ who purport to ‘get it’.
And because digital is the most measurable medium in history, the left brained ‘technicians’ are becoming ever more powerful as they get closer to solving John Wannamaker’s conundrum. The momentum towards formulae becomes irresistible.
If digital is part of reducing the advertising business to a spreadsheet exercise then it will be making a big contribution to sounding its death knell. We will be playing into the hands of those who want to treat our industry as just another commodity that can be bought in units just like the office stationery order.
The importance of ideas
It’s as true today as it was 50 years ago: brands that are content to look like, sound like and feel like their competitors will always end up with advertising that, at best, adds the occasional percentage point to sales. Brands that don’t settle for mediocre can hope for much more…as VW and Avis were delighted to discover.
Digital marketers, armed with all the data in the world, must never forget this lesson. Just because we now have so many tools and channels at our disposal doesn’t mean that simply by using them liberally we are being creative.
I will leave the last word to another gem from Bill Bernbach, which makes this point more elegantly than I ever could:
Everybody talks about change all the time. I think advertising essentially, the persuasion part of advertising, is going to be the same a hundred years from now. Because the man with talent, will be able to persuade and the man without talent won't, no matter how much knowledge you bring to him. No matter what mechanical devices you have...
That little thing, sitting by yourself and getting an idea, is far more important than all the technology in the world.