shots Issue 162 by shots

Molefi Thulo

south africa’s creative spark

Dave Buonaguidi on creativity an D coming

Back from the D ea D

Dubai Lynx

miDDLe eastern promise

Damon stapleton the changing man

“Racial diversity is not an issue restricted to South Africa, but racial discrimination is part of the country’s immediate history and hopefully, more positively, racial diversity is part of its immediate future.”

There has been a lot of talk about diversity in advertising over recent years, and even more intensely over recent months, both in the UK and further aﬁeld, and it’s absolutely right that that conversation is happening. When talking about diversity, generally the industry tends to mean gender diversity – there are too few women in top creative roles and too many middle-aged men in positions of creative power. No one is arguing against that (apart from, possibly, some middle-aged men) but rarely is the discussion based around race –except in South Africa. Race is the focus of that country’s diversity challenge, or transformation challenge, as they refer to it.

The apartheid era in South Africa ended in 1994, but more than 20 years later the country is still struggling to fully represent its self-styled ‘Rainbow Nation’ population. “You go to awards shows, marketing events, and looking around it’s still very much a white industry,” reﬂects Ahmed Tilly, founder of Johannesburg agency, Black River FC. Of course, racial diversity is not an issue restricted to South Africa, but racial discrimination is part of the country’s immediate history and hopefully, more positively, racial diversity is part of its immediate future.

From page 40, our features editor Selena Schleh visits South Africa, meeting a wide range of people and discussing that issue, and more. We proﬁle some of the most interesting and innovative people and companies in the country at the moment, including our cover star, creative director at Ogilvy Johannesburg, Moleﬁ Thulo.

Elsewhere this issue we speak to CP+B London executive creative

director Dave Buonaguidi [page 80].

He tells us about the businesses he’s started and eventually left, why he’s HR’s biggest nightmare and why it’s always best to make tea, not war. We also speak to directorial siblings, Brandon and Emmett Malloy [page 26], who taught themselves everything they needed to know to become successful at what they love, but who also made a few mistakes along the way.

Damon Stapleton, DDB Auckland’s CCO, talks to us about starting his advertising career in South Africa, creating one of the country’s most respected campaigns, before heading to New Zealand, via Australia, and why it’s best “not to compete with your own creatives” [page 30].

We also have insight from a selection of judges at the upcoming Dubai Lynx festival [page 65], more coverage of recent shots Awards gold trophy-winners [page 17], and the usual mix of great work and some eye-catching new directors. All in all, a pretty diverse mix.

Danny Edwards Editor @shotsmag_dan

1 Dave Buonaguidi, ECD, CP+B London, tells us the death-defying way he sees it, page 80

2 South African director Lebogang Rasethaba brings a unique vision to branded content on page 52

Above shots editor Danny Edwards, as seen through a ‘Rainbow Nation’ prism by Eva Tatcheva, illustrator of our South Africa special opener, page 40

March 2016

News |

O&M Johannesburg Molefi Thulo photographed for shots by Siphiwe Nkosi. Read his hair-raising thoughts on page 48.

shots 162 contributors

Words: Iain Blair, Carine Buncsi, Carol Cooper, Joe Lancaster

Illustration & photography: Imraan Christian, Glen Erler, I See A Different You, Michael Lewis, Chris Madden, Sandro Miller, Gordon Moir, Siphiwe Nkosi, Cody Pike, Chad Riley, Will Sanders, Eva Tatcheva, Paul Thompson, Joshua Trigg, Harriet Turney, Nick Walker, James Whitaker, Nick White

shots 163 / May 2016

The next issue of shots will be our Australia and New Zealand focus, for which we’ll be heading Down Under to speak to some of the region’s most creative and influential leaders. We will also have a special feature about music and sound design, covering the current state of the sector, new technology and innovations in the industry and highlighting some of the most innovative people working in music and sound.

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A subscription to shots provides you with all the creative connections you need: online, in print and on DVD. For more information and to subscribe turn to page 6.

Calls to face reality and escape from it this month, with hard-hitting work for Cancer Research and flights of fancy for Cillit Bang

Revenge, nostalgia and lust have inspired worldwide work in our

Key to symbols

shots icons indicate whether the work written about in the magazine is either on shots.net, the shots DVD or both.

17 SHOTS AWARDS

Continuing our look at what makes shots gold Award-winners shine, we chat to production company Blink, editor Joe Guest, and the various clever clogs behind Coca-Cola’s Man And Dog; Monty’s Christmas; and The Times’ The Art Of Satire 65 DUBAI LYNX 2016

The local awards for local people? A selection of judges give their views

Favoured gizmos of Anrick Bregman, director, Unit9

40 SOUTH AFRICA

Despite economic and cultural crises, there are strong signs that creative change is coming to South Africa. Ogilvy CD Molefi Thulo, Instagram influencer Gareth Pon, in-demand director Lebogang Rasethaba, agency Joe Public, and hip creative collective I See A Different You all see hope in a new South African aesthetic 63

Brad Riley, ECD of Network#BBDO on how to do Johannesburg

People

26 DIRECTOR PROFILE

The Malloy Brothers’ risky career from adrenalinefuelled surf films to slick Nike spots

30 CREATIVE PROFILE

Damon Stapleton, CCO of DDB Auckland, on how to be a good dad to your creatives

80 THE WAY I SEE IT

Dave Buonaguidi, CCO of CP+B London, reckons it’s all about good karma

87 NEW DIRECTORS

An on-spec tearjerker, stop-motion stunner and surreal dance sequence

Pictures

34 PHOTOGRAPHY

Oliver Schwarzwald shows the sunny side of still life

90 SNAPSHOTS

Views and moods of Johannesburg as seen by the crew of production company Darling

shots 162

March 2016

News | Insight | Inspiration shots.net

shots 162 March 2016

This issue’s top work on the accompanying DVD

1 Cillit Bang Mechanic

6 Thomas Cook Pool Kid

7 Sagami Original Act Of Love

8 Virgin Active

We’ve Got A Workout For That

9 Old Spice Rocket Car; Whale

12 Bosch #StopTheRoadKill

facebook.com/shots.net

@shotscreative

@take_shots

Editorial material for consideration to be submitted to spots@shots.net

Many thanks to those companies that submitted material for consideration on shots 162. If your work didn’t make it this time, please do not be discouraged from sending work in again. If you feel that your company has produced anything that would complement the Creative Showcase please let us know.

All efforts have been made to ensure the accuracy of facts and ﬁgures, which to the best of our knowledge were correct at time of going to press. shots accepts no responsibility for loss or damage to material submitted for publication.

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Editor

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Production Manager Jon Cooke (44 20) 8102 0825 jonathon.cooke@mbi.london

Chief Executive Ofﬁcer Conor Dignam conor.dignam@mbi.london

DVD programme credits

Post production Envy, London

Graphics Why Not/Clear, London

shots staff

shots

Swearing to save Soho cinema

OnLinE FiLM

Curzon Soho

Curse For Curzon

Threatened by the proposed Crossrail 2 development, London’s much-loved Curzon Soho cinema risks being turned into a new ticket and entrance hall for a Crossrail station. So independent filmmakers ragged Crow and director ed edwards urged Curzon staff members, customers and supporters to star in a 90-second-long ad to reveal their true feelings about the suggested plans… by delivering their favourite movie lines –swearing until they’re blue in the face with language borrowed from iconic films, like Pulp Fiction, The Exorcist and Scarface The spot acts as a promotional plea encouraging film fans to sign the online petition to save the landmark building. Having amassed over 30,000 signatures by press time – including support from celebrities such as Stephen Fry and Benedict Cumberbatch – the petition will be emailed to the developers and the Mayor of London once it hits its target of 35,000. But considering the support they’ve already received, there’s no doubt that they’ll reach their goal. They’ve definitely got our vote!

Join the debate or ﬁnd out more by using #CurseforCurzon and #SaveCurzonSoho – hopefully you too will be inspired to sign the petition. Oa

Being yourself is the best you’ll be

tV, CinEMa & OnLinE axe Find Your Magic

After winning the global Axe business just over a year ago, 72andSunny Amsterdam’s ﬁrst offering for the client completely shakes up everything we’ve come to expect from the brand’s creative over the years. Moving away from the idea that Axe can somehow make you the ultimate sex symbol and replacing the fantasy with the deeper insight that the majority of women prefer men who are comfortable in their own skin, the campaign digs deeper into the psyche of the modern male.

Find Your Magic is led by a 60-second

by François rousselet

There are ‘ooh’s and ‘aaah’s and plenty of ‘what the fuck’s in our roundup this month, as advertisers inspire customers, campaigners and cancer ﬁghters to come out of their shells, cuss and contribute to research. And then there’s some football…

1/2 Curzon Soho, Curse For Curzon 3/4/5/6 Axe, Find Your Magic 7 EA Sports, Quest For The Best

Crossing oceans for 11 players

BranDED COntEnt Ea Sports Quest For the Best

through Division Paris and follows a mixture of men shunning six-packs, selﬁes and fast cars in favour of strong personalities and unconventional interests, all while making the most of their deﬁning physical features.

“It’s an incredibly broad idea of masculinity,” says 72andSunny MD nic owen of the new stance, “but we haven’t got an enemy here, it’s all right to have a six-pack and be a super masculine dude, but as long as that is you being yourself.” The ﬁlm is supported by ooH ads and a series of ‘Instagroom’ tutorial clips on Instagram. rW

each January football fans across the globe join the discussion around the announcement of FIFA’s Team of the Year. In the run-up to this year’s reveal, eA Sports enlisted British comedian Lloyd Grifﬁth to travel the world and work out which 11 players would get into his team.

Created by wieden+kennedy Amsterdam, 24-minute film Quest For The Best sees Griffith interview leading football stars as well as everyday fans, from five-time Ballon d’or winner Lionel Messi to the scout who discovered him.

The Joe roberts-directed doc ends with Grifﬁth announcing his own Team of the Year. “An age-old question, an affable host, and a wonderful set of interviewees make this a compelling and funny piece of long-form content,” says David Smith, w+k Amsterdam creative director.

Getting reality advertising right, now

intEGratED

Cancer research UK right now

Last December Cancer research

Uk launched a new campaign that aims to show the reality of day-to-day life for those affected by cancer in the Uk. The campaign, entitled Right Now, highlights that cancer is happening now, and brings together the real stories of patients and their loved ones, researchers and medical staff, including moments of diagnosis, treatment and test results.

The campaign began with a moving 60-second television advert which then expanded to outdoor, digital, radio, Pr, social media and cinema. Created by agency Anomaly, and directed by Henry Singer, who was himself treated for cancer at St Bartholomew’s Hospital, the campaign is groundbreaking both in its content – showing the true reality of cancer – and in its production process; Anomaly worked with TV documentary production company The Garden.

“CrUk had been talking about ending cancer one day in the future,” explains oli Beale, eCD at Anomaly, “[and] we didn’t think that was inspiring people to donate immediately. our idea was to show what is happening right now in cancer, and tell people what they can do to help right now. It would have been madness to use actors and scripts to try and tell those stories. our pitch was that we should use a production company like The Garden – the team behind [TV documentary series] 24 Hours In A&E – to bring it to life.”

“The brief was excellent and clear from the get-go,” says The Garden’s chief executive, nick Curwin. “But we worked extremely closely with Anomaly from then on. we brought to the table our know-how and ideas whilst also respecting the fact that ads were new to us and Anomaly were the experts.”

when asked whether people’s cynicism about charity advertising and

“You can’t simply stick a camera on somebody for a few days and hope to get something as authentic as an episode of One Born

Every Minute or 24 Hours In Police Custody

. A crap imitation of it

advertising is never going to wash.”

its tropes needed to be taken into account, Beale says: “reality TV is a huge part of popular culture. who could have predicted Gogglebox 10 years ago? People have used real people in advertising before but the industry is way behind in terms of quality and craft. You can’t simply stick a camera on somebody for a few days and hope to get something as authentic as an episode of One Born Every Minute or 24 Hours In Police Custody. That’s what the British public know and love, so a crap imitation of it in advertising is never going to wash.”

As to why advertising and TV production haven’t really worked

together in any meaningful way before, Curwin believes the respective industries’ cultures play a part, but that, he thinks, can be a boon.

“we do things very differently. Having said that, one of the most fascinating and enjoyable things about this project was that very cultural difference. And I think what made it all work like a dream was that Anomaly and CrUk were incredibly trusting that, even though the way The Garden went about things was unlike anything they were used to, we would deliver.” DE

You can read the full interview with Beale and Curwin on shots.net

Cloud cleans up on the dance floor

Online film

Cillit Bang mechanic

“Bang! And the dirt is gone!” goes the phrase of former Cillit Bang brand mascot Barry Scott. But the annoying character has been ditched in a new ad from BeTC Paris that sees a clean-cut mechanic – played by Madonna’s lead dancer Daniel ‘Cloud’ Campos – with some serious moves take over. Set to a catchy 80s hit She’s A Maniac, from the film Flashdance, the brand’s first global campaign sees the hero left to clean a grimy garage by stylishly wiping away the filth in time to the music. It’s a brilliant new direction for the cleaning product and below, BeTC CCo and president Stéphane Xiberras, talks about the fresh phase, and face, for the brand and why ‘Cleantertainment’ was the way to go.

What was the brief for the new campaign?

Cillit Bang challenged us by asking us to renew the genre completely. The first idea that came to us was that of ‘Cleantertainment’, based on the fact that even if we wouldn’t admit it, we sometimes find cleaning rather satisfying. we might even have a little dance and a singalong while scrubbing away.

“The soundtrack is everything. We wanted to give a nod to the musical films from the 80s, to avoid a pretentious, humourless film. It’s an ad, ok, it’s a product demo, all right, but above all, it’s a little piece of musical comedy.”

Did you watch the Barry Scott commercials? And did the brand make a conscious decision to move on from that style?

Barry is not a personal friend of mine, but Barry, if you do read this, thanks for the cool job you’ve done. It’s a shame you’re not as good a dancer as Daniel ‘Cloud’ Campos, otherwise I’d have chosen you buddy, promise. on a more serious note though, yes the client is well aware that it’s quite a turn. we’re talking about two years of work, tests all over the world. New tests. Storyboards. Hours of casting and of pre-production.

And how did you cast the role? Did it involve a lot of dance sessions? Initially, Daniel was supposed to just be the choreographer of the film. But when we tried to cast dancers we just kept finding that it was impossible. when anyone tried to repeat what Daniel did they would end up crying backstage. Daniel has an instinctive

dance style, inimitable. It was absolutely amazing to have him on board.

Tell us about choosing the music – how did you arrive at the soundtrack?

The soundtrack is everything. we wanted to give a nod to the musical films from the 80s (Dirty Dancing, Footloose…), to avoid a pretentious, humourless film. It’s an ad, ok, it’s a product demo, all right, but above all it’s a little piece of musical comedy.

And what was the biggest challenge in achieving all the shots? what makes the film really cool is that the performance is real. There are a couple of cables here and there, but Cloud’s performance is real and live. I’d say the biggest challenge was for Michael [Gracey, director] to catch Daniel’s energy in every scene. RW

The full version of this interview can be found on shots.net

Hope for bears who can’t bear it anymore

tv & CinemA Center Parcs Bears

It’s a new year, a time when many people’s thoughts turn to holidays. And Center Parcs is hoping a family of bears will entice people to one of its locations.

Created by Brothers & Sisters London, shot by Mustard’s Ben Liam Jones, with VFX by electric Theatre Collective, the 60-second spot is a brilliantly realised story about a family of bears who recognise that their lives aren’t quite what they should be.

Below, Brothers & Sister’s eCD, Andy Fowler, director Liam Jones and eTC’s lead CG artist, Dean robinson, reveal their roles in making the spot a reality in a ridiculously short space of time.

What was the brief with which the client approached you?

Af The brief was to change the mindset of busy families who thought Center Parcs wasn’t for them. we knew that the most valuable thing to these families was time. If we could persuade them that time at Center Parcs is the purest family time, then we’d be onto something.

What was it that appealed to you about this script?

BlJ The fact they were bears was always secondary to the storytelling. They wanted to tell a story that was full of heart and universal in its appeal, it didn’t feel gimmicky. It reminded me of a little Pixar story with its subtle yet complex brand of storytelling.

How important was the casting process of the actors playing the bears during the shoot?

BlJ we had actors who had worked on Guardians Of The Galaxy, with Andy Serkis, people who are at the very top of this type of physical performance. They provided great performance references for the VFX. I didn’t have

to explain much to eTC as they could see what I wanted from the live-action.

You created the VFX for the spot within three months, a very tight turnaround. What was it that enabled you to do it so quickly but to such a high standard?

DR The fact that we use [3D animation software] Houdini, along with the pipeline we have developed for these types of jobs is probably the biggest factor. we had been working on our fur tools in the run up to this job so we knew we had a good basis to start with. Then it’s really down to a great team.

What was the most difficult aspect of putting this project together?

Af Time. A few months ago I did the final judging for the British Arrows Craft awards and had to watch Monty’s Christmas 17 times and the SSe Orangutan 14 times. each of those took about three times as long to make as we had to make this. No one would ever know. It either works or it doesn’t. The pressure of making this work in only three months was intense.

BlJ waiting. everything comes together in those last two weeks and it takes lots of faith to sit back and let people do

“The fact they were bears was always secondary to the storytelling. They wanted to tell a story that was full of heart and universal in its appeal, it didn’t feel gimmicky.”

their jobs. every time you panic (which happened), you slow the process. You need to trust that you’re working with talented people, which I clearly was.

DR Making the bears look real in their environment. It’s always hard when you make animals do things that aren’t natural to them. So it’s a real balancing act of trying to tell the story, which is full of human behaviour, and to keep them feeling as bear-like as possible in those situations by dialling back the bear posing or movement. De

The full version of this interview can be found on shots.net

GOING GLOBAL

AUSTRALIA

Cooking up a coaster treat

SHORT FILM

Tiger White Coaster

All great ideas start out on a blank bit of paper and Droga5’s recently-closed Sydney ofﬁce went out with a cracking swan song with an ambitious ﬁlm project to launch Tiger Beer’s sister beverage, Tiger White, in Malaysia.

Ideas for the script, along with 25 members of the production crew, were crowdsourced from raw local talent when 5,000 beer coasters were distributed around bars in Malaysia. Boozy participants were encouraged to unleash their creativity on the blank side of the coasters, without any guidelines as to what to write. They were also invited to visit a website to follow the project’s progress.

The resulting film was created with emerging national filmmakers whose ideas had been selected working either in front of or behind the camera. A moody but riveting gangster thriller, the film draws on Malay culture and cuisine. As the winning director Cho We Jun notes, “Nothing represents Malaysians better than food.”

The plot tells the story of a young street chef who gets the opportunity to cook for the very mobster who killed his father – thus the chance for revenge presents itself.

Cho We Jun was mentored during the project by Icelandic director Baltasar Kormákur (Everest, 2 Guns, 101 Reykjavik) and the ﬁlm was produced via The Sweet Shop. OA

AUSTRALIA

Monkeys stage a BBQ boomerang

TV, CINEMA & ONLINE

Meat & Livestock Australia

Operation Boomerang

There are few better home comforts than the food of your childhood and, for Australians, that means a good mixed grill al fresco. But what if you’re an expat in a far-off land where barbies and warm weather are scarce?

The latest spot for the marketing, research and development body Meat & Livestock Australia, opens in a freezing Warsaw, in 1996, where there’s nary a chargrilled chop in sight as a younger version of legendary Aussie newsreader, Lee Lin Chin, sees in Australia Day in isolation.

The ad, created by The Monkeys, sees an older Lin Chin launch a military-style initiative, Operation Boomerang, to bring Aussies home for the national holiday on 26 January. Troops led by ‘Lambassador’ sports commentator Sam Kekovich round up famous Aussie expats so they can enjoy a nice lamb BBQ. Unsuspecting nationals include rugby’s Stephen Moore, acclaimed cricketer Mitchell Johnson and someone who may or may not be Princess Mary of Denmark.

“Australia Day is a day for coming together over lamb,” says Scott Nowell, ECD, The Monkeys. “This year the thought was around the Australia Day orphans – all those expats who are cold and alone on 26 January, missing out on a good lamb BBQ.” RW

LEBANON Charity hits the right note

EXPERIENTIAL

Bou Khalil

Good Notes

For those wary of giving cash to homeless people, an initiative created for Lebanese supermarket Bou Khalil by JWT MEA offers a smart solution.

“The project was based on a concept. There was never a script. I watched a lot of intense nature videos, some I wish that I had never seen.”

Bou Khalil and Pharmalife pharmacy in Hazmieh have partnered with a local NGO and introduced a new currency called the Good Note.

Donors can purchase Good Note vouchers at the participating retailers and give them to the homeless, who can use them in-store to buy necessary supplies such as food, water, household and hygiene products. Medicines can also be bought with the vouchers when presented with a doctor’s prescription.

The campaign’s website, thegoodnote.com, states that the project is “a way to give children on the streets the things they need, with a clear conscience” as alcohol and cigarettes are exempt from purchase and the notes cannot be exchanged for cash. So donors know their money will be well spent. Each individual note is worth LBP1,000, equivalent to about £0.47. Over 25,000 notes have been printed and can be bought in stacks of ﬁve at any retailer branch. All proﬁts generated will go back into funding the NGO and helping to improve the lives of Lebanese street children, though the website admits that the hardest part of the project has been educating street children about the Good Note so that they accept the vouchers. OA

Happy humping in the human zoo

TV & ONLINE

Sagami Original

The Act Of Love

It’s unlikely that when you think about condoms you automatically think about the animal kingdom – at least we hope it is. But in a new spot for condom brand Sagami Original, Japanese agency Projector Tokyo and Stink director Greg Brunkalla have turned to the courtship rituals of a variety of animals to cleverly, and quite beautifully, illustrate budding human romance.

“There was never a script,” explains Brunkalla, “the project was based on a concept rather than a structured narrative or storyboards. We don’t see this type of dance or performance art commercially very often and it felt fresh.” He explains that the type of animals and courtships featured weren’t speciﬁed by the brief. “I watched a lot of intense nature videos, some I wish I had never seen,” he deadpans.

The casting of the spot was important to get the actors as closely matched to their respective animals as was possible. “We need someone to be a crane – who has a long neck? We need someone to be a fox, who’s got red hair?” the director explains. “Most importantly though, they needed to have the right moves!”

The most difﬁcult part of the process, Brunkalla says, was doing it for real. “When you take the performances to the street, you make the entire project vulnerable to a number of variables. I commend any agency or brand that embraces this style of ﬁlmmaking. It can be risky, but it’s extremely rewarding.” DE

THE NETHERLANDS

Being trollied is a total turn-off

TV, CINEMA & ONLINE

Heineken

Moderate Drinkers Wanted

If you’ve ever walked the cobbled streets of Amsterdam you’ll know it’s hard to refuse a cheeky Heineken along the way. Once inside a traditional Dutch bar, it’s even harder to leave. But the lager brand’s latest campaign goes global to take a refreshingly offbeat approach – enlisting the help of a cast of strong women, it hits the message home that a tanked-up tourist isn’t as sexy as you may think.

Set to Bonnie Tyler’s Holding Out For A Hero, the ﬁlm explains to viewers that being hammered is not attractive and that a moderate drinker is far more appealing to the opposite sex. The spot, directed by Nicolai Fuglsig of MJZ, depicts women out for the evening taking a stand against wasted men in bars, clubs and on public transport while belting out the catchy hit.

At the end of the minute-long spot, created through Publicis Italy, the song seems to have done the trick as the commercial ends with a young clean-cut gentleman at a bar impressing a female bartender by rejecting a second drink before the tagline, ‘Moderate Drinkers Wanted’, appears onscreen.

The campaign encourages consumers to stay within their limits to experience everything that a night has to offer and suggests that by rushing the before, you might miss the after. Despite taking a daring new approach, the work nods to the style and sexiness of the heroes seen in previous Heineken campaigns, The Entrance and The Date RW

What

links a beer ad that discourages too much beer, a ﬁlm crowdsourced via coasters, a condom spot with dancing animal impersonators and the launch of a new currency for the homeless? Erm... nothing; they’re all just examples of good work from around the globe

JAPAN

now IS So LAST YEAR

What is the most creative advertising idea you’ve seen in the last few months?

It speaks volumes that I find this question so hard to answer. I long to be blown away by something but find myself very rarely envious of advertising work. I find it so motivational when I see work that I sorely wish I had made. I should be combusting with jealousy on a weekly basis. that said, I’ve greatly enjoyed Mother’s work of late, in particular their Encyclopedia Pictura IKeA spot which some people mistakenly perceive as brave when really all it is doing is its job; namely offering the viewer something distinctive, which is surely the only reason for those of us who make ads to get out of bed in the morning.

Wieden’s London do a great job of just about everything they turn their hand to, but there’s no one piece of work out there right now that is melting my face off, and the fact is, there should be. every single piece of new advertising work is an opportunity to capture our imaginations. Far too few even try.

What website do you use most regularly?

BBc Weather. how english is that?! But anyone who road bikes in deep english countryside will tell you that it’s marginally less depressing to choose to ride in the pissing rain than it is getting caught out.

Director/designer Johnny Hardstaff explains how kittens alleviate the pain of living inside an Edvard Munch painting and reveals why he’s inspired by the ‘next’ not the ‘now’, films as yet unmade and a photograph of a blue fish wedged between a woman’s thighs

What show/exhibition has most inspired you recently?

What’s your favourite website?

AsX (AmericansuburbX.com). It’s the most brilliantly curated photography website with excellent artist interviews.

It’s introduced me to all kinds of fascinating talents, not least Leigh Ledare. As Ledare has it, “one day I told my mom jokingly, ‘As long as you regard your life as fiction, in the very least you’ll have some interesting experiences.’ she replied. ‘Finally somebody who understands me’.” theirs is a curiously playful relationship, but the thinking behind it I wholeheartedly agree with. Live your life as if it’s fiction, and see what happens. AsX regularly makes me think new things.

What product could you not live without?

My special edition reset Leica Q compact camera. reset represent me in the us, and very kindly gave me one of just a handful of their own Q series cameras this year. this little German camera is killer. Buy one and shoot your fictitious life the way it deserves to be shot.

What product hasn’t been invented yet that would make your life/job better?

shitless kittens. Allow me to explain. It’s long been my opinion that the reason that advertising has regressed into an endless vista of kittens (there are kitten-based directors now – I think that says it all) is because modern society is traumatised. We are damaged goods. the pace of life has hurt us. the fifty-year threat of nuclear annihilation and the endless cycles of war and terrorism has left us doing a fair impression of an edvard Munch painting, and well, what the world needs now, as it curls up in the foetal position and sucks its thumb awaiting a violent end, is… kittens. so in my home life we succumbed, and got ourselves a kitten. on the face of it, it is indeed curiously comforting. unlike the digital variant however, this one shits black death with apocalyptic vigour.

Nobuyoshi Araki’s Love On The Left Eye at the Little Big Man Gallery in Los Angeles. Araki is working on a level now that defies explanation. he has become his own genre. the work is both complex and immediate. It’s both a quick read and speaks volumes if you want to try and decode it. I just admire his image making. A woman with a blue fish wedged between her thighs doesn’t sound too subtle, but the execution is exquisite. I’m waiting for Araki to do a man with ripe brie in his trousers.

What fictitious character do you most relate to?

I think we all carry our inner teenager onwards into adult life. Mine would be salinger’s holden caulfield from The Catcher In The Rye holden’s bullshit metre only has one speed and that’s ‘relentless’. there’s nothing about western society he can’t deem ‘phoney’ and I’m inclined to agree with him.

Mac or PC?

I guess it’s Mac, but truthfully, I’m a complete slut when it comes to technology. Why do we let ourselves identify with one or the other, especially now that Apple has shed the rainbow hued right-on californian feelgood we all bought into in the first place? Let’s just say that this brand allegiance is a particularly fragile thing. It’s by no means an unconditional love, and I may well have been sleeping with samsung on the sly

“Tokyo. I’d live there tomorrow. It seduces aesthetes. It’s graceful, exquisitely mannered, inherently thoughtful; a scented, folded, pressed, strange urban perfection.”

What’s the best film you’ve seen over the last year?

As you may have spotted, there is a theme emerging, and that is my general suspicion of all things modish and ‘now’. I’m not interested in ‘now’. Why? Because everyone is looking at ‘now’. how are you going to make great work if you’re thinking about ‘now’? I’m interested in ‘next’ and that’s hard to see at your local cinema because it hasn’t happened yet. this aversion to what everyone else is doing isn’t a new thing, I was exactly the same when my brother tried to turn me on to echo And the Bunnymen (my loss), when everyone at school was raving about E.T. and even when I was a student at the spiritual home of modish that is saint Martins school of Art. so it is with some pride that I can tell you that I have this month finally watched E.T. and it’s ok, but maybe not worth the 30-year wait.

What’s your favourite magazine? so, I have this problem where I walk into claire De rouen, the best art and photography bookshop in London, and get immediately seduced by the finish and stock and cover shots of just about any magazine that has been crafted with some degree of care and difference. I find myself buying everything. having started my working life with an incredibly brief stint at i-D, I know the work involved and I’m prepared to like any magazine that can get itself onto claire’s shelves. But my favourite magazine? that would be the video magazine I have yet to make.

What track/artist would you listen to for inspiration?

thankfully I’m not at the stage where I have to look for inspiration. I’m not in need of creative Viagra just yet. But just to be purposefully wanky, I will admit to a private taste for Werner herzog’s 1970s German electronica faves Popol Vuh. Listen He Who Ventures puts me in my own special creative pyramid, one where Native Americans administer peyote to me and point and laugh at the gibbering white man.

Who’s your favourite photographer? this week it would have to be chris von Wangenheim. But on this matter I am capricious to say the least.

If you could live in one city, where would it be?

tokyo. I would live there tomorrow. I fell in love with the city years ago and just kept going back. I had to ban myself from visiting. It just seduces aesthetes. It’s graceful, exquisitely mannered, inherently thoughtful; a scented, folded, pressed, strange urban perfection. some of my happiest moments have been spent simply savouring the sunlight through a limousine window on the way out to Narita, determined to enjoy every last moment prior to the return. All of that said, if I were female I would perhaps be choosing a different city.

Who’s your favourite designer?

Miuccia Prada. there’s a spellbinding sense of taste within the Prada collections, the communications and the retail interiors, and a wonderfully playful sense of humour behind everything that comes out of Miu Miu. Miuccia crafts the kind of spellbinding world-building that first drew me to advertising via ridley scott’s exquisite Share the Fantasy television work for chanel. It’s an immersion that transcends fashion. It becomes a realm. Fantasy is the perfect word. Miuccia Prada crafts illusory worlds for us to psychologically populate.

If you could have been in any band, what band would you choose?

roxy Music. As you can see, I’m on a majorly retro tip this month. What’s not to like? Bryan Ferry, an improbably working class lad, doing ‘smooth’ and ‘heightened’ in the most original way with the perpetually brilliant Brian eno. 2HB and Re-Make/ Re-Model’. Yes, it was before my time too, and that’s exactly the point. It’s not what’s ‘now’ that excites, ‘now’ has been done. It’s all about what happens when you make ‘next’, ‘then’ and ‘never’ collide.

KNOCKOUT SHOTS

Following our coverage of the shots Awards 2015 in the last issue, here, in round two, we speak to several more gold winners – including editor Joe Guest, the team behind The Unquiet Film Series and folk from Blink and Psyop – about working with dogs and penguins and what gives their work that gilded glow

“News UK wanted the films to feel as diverse as the stories from the actual archives. They needed access to short-filmmakers with strong bodies of work to write scripts and treatments for the film titles.”

Phil Lind, creative director of The Unquiet Film Series

You were involved with ongoing campaign, The Unquiet Film Series, from the start. Can you tell us about its inception/what the client wanted and the initial thinking behind the campaign?

Phil Lind [creative director of The Unquiet Film Series] News UK wanted to exploit the archives that The Times and Sunday Times had kept for over 200 years to help drive subscriptions. [Former deputy ECD] Dave Monk and his team at Grey London helped devise The Unquiet Film Series with Nick Stringer at News UK.

News UK had set an ambitious timeline for 10 films to be made for the series. They wanted the films to feel as diverse as the stories from the actual archives. Once they’d settled on the titles of the films they needed makers of short films to write scripts and treatments for the film titles.

Nick, a former 4Creative colleague, contacted me in Feb 2014 and asked if I could help. I said definitely, as it sounded really exciting, especially given that we would have access to the amazing archive. Directors were asked to pitch on the film titles. Over 25 directors were approached and we received a breathtaking array of ideas. From the pitches Dave, Nick and I proposed the shortlist and the final decisions of the selected directors were made by John Witherow, the editor of The Times, and Martin Ivens the editor of The Sunday Times. With no production facility within News UK at the time, I proposed Peter Maynard from Betsy Works, another ex-4Creative producer, to produce the films.

There have been a number of different films about different people/aspects of The Times/Sunday Times. How do you choose who and what to cover and how much freedom was there in terms of the direction and how you interpreted the idea?

Liz Unna [director] The themes best expressed the core values of the papers throughout their history. There was complete freedom, except of course for the budgets, which were small. I was drawn to the theme of Bringing The World To Britain [shots Awards 2014 Branded Content of the Year winner], about The Sunday Times’ commitment to foreign correspondents, basically because I am a huge fan of war journalist Christina Lamb.

I was also drawn to the theme in The Power Of Words, about how writers use words to change the world, even in small ways, and to spread ideas and change perceptions. My treatment was built around a Caitlin Moran interview. So I made those two and then pitched on two more, The Art Of Satire and another one yet to be released called A Duty To The Unheard.

For The Art Of Satire, how did you decide to approach what is, essentially, the pretty solitary process of one man creating an illustration?

Liz Unna I wanted this film to get inside Peter Brookes’ head and to really understand his process, from initial idea through to execution, which all happens over the course of a work day. Every day of every working week. It sort of blows your mind when you think about what he does, and how lonely a process it is really. He’s a team of one, no one can help him out when he’s stuck for an idea. When I initially met Peter he was sort of reluctant to have a film made about him as there had been attempts before that hadn’t really worked and his schedule is so demanding he didn’t want a film crew following him around all day. It’s stressful enough without having to be ‘creative’ on demand in front of a camera.

So, we shot early one morning, before his work began, and recreated the arc of a day unfolding. I also wanted to get other people to talk about the importance of his work and contextualise it, as Brookes is rather self-deprecating.

I also really wanted to use sound design to help viewers get inside Brookes’ brain. External noise drops away for him as he starts to de-focus his mind and then he needs absolute silence to work. Other sounds become heightened, like the scratching of his pen and the scraping of his pencil. Composer Lennert Busch created an unusual and experimental soundscape for the film.

One of the Awards judges referred to the film as “a standout example of this type of content”. Why do you think this series has been so successful? Liz Unna The Unquiet Film Series was the brainchild of Nick Stringer. He realised he was sitting on a goldmine, a huge treasure trove of untold stories about the many brilliant, committed journalists and editors at The Times and The Sunday Times. The team was super-clever about brand representation, and thank God we never had to fight about putting more ‘product’ in. Nick was clear from the start that when the papers were mentioned they had to be motivated by the story, never gratuitous or fawning, otherwise the films would fail. Having a client and agency who have the trust and balls to let you get on with it is massively beneficial.

In The Art Of Satire, Jon Snow spoke about how Brookes’ work at The Times tends to go against the line of the paper, and the fact that they value him so highly is a credit to the paper itself. That is all you need to say. I didn’t have to ask Brookes about how he feels about his editors or The Times or have him say how awesome it is –he would have been uncomfortable doing that and it would have felt set up.

Another thing that really worked on this series was the process. There was huge respect and space for the directors to develop their vision. We would have incredibly detailed PPMs and go through all questions, shooting style, shot-list etc, but client and agency didn’t attend the shoots. Much of my job is about helping people feel comfortable on camera and drawing out their stories. My interviews ramble sometimes and feel more like conversations. When there are a lot of people listening in, people get self-conscious, like they’re supposed to say things a certain way, or ‘deliver’. At the risk of sounding like a hippy, I think people respond to the energy in the room.

What was the hardest part of putting this film together? Liz Unna The hardest thing was cutting it down. We all worried that people have teeny attention spans so kept trying to make the films shorter. That said, mine are all pretty long so maybe that’s changing? No one seems to quite know the science of it. There was so much to say and so many funny contributors, it was tricky to know what to lose. I know that’s a good place to be in but it was so hard. I was in New Mexico and my incredible editor, Alex Lea, was in London for the second half of the edit. We’d send cuts and notes back and forth until we both were happy. It took a while but we got there.

BRANDED CONTENT OF THE YEAR

The Times/The Sunday Times, The Art Of Satire

You won this category last year for Bringing The World To Britain. What does it feel like to win another shots Award? Liz Unna We all loved making these films so much; we had such a great team of people, a dream-team really, plus the most fascinating subjects.

We of course had no idea how well they’d be received, especially as some of them are kind of nerdy and long. So, yeah, the recognition and awards have been very, very cool. The shots Awards two years in a row are the bee’s knees and beautifully bookend the journey these films have been on.

The Times/The Sunday Times, The Unquiet Film Series, The Art Of Satire

“I was also drawn to the theme The Power Of Words, about how writers use words to change the world, even in small ways, and to spread ideas and change perceptions.”

Liz Unna, director

EDITOR OF THE YEAR

Joe Guest

Yours is an impressive body of work from the end of 2014 to the end of 2015. Can you feel when a project or a series of projects is really working well? Thanks. You can tell when a project is working by the feeling in the room and the response you get from showing it to colleagues or family. I’ve recently started showing my son, Stanley, who’s six, my edits and it’s fun to watch his face and get his first response to things: “Ohhhhh… Daddy, that girl nearly smashed the house up by dancing.

Your shortlisted work is quite eclectic, from penguins to flying t-shirts to dancing children. Does that eclecticism make your job more enjoyable but also more challenging? That’s what keeps me going. It’s good to challenge yourself. Working with a wide range of directors means every job is different. Although the three jobs you mentioned are all from one director. There was a lot of heavy post work on all of these jobs, except for the Thinkbox spot [Harvey And Harmony], as that dog gave an amazing performance in every take. It’s not often you get away with dogs having sex in the back of a car in an advert is it? The challenge in postheavy jobs is still telling a story with the main character missing. There’s a lot of acting and wild pointing going on in the edit suite.

One of the judges said that editing works best when you don’t notice it. Would you agree? And can being inconspicuous be difficult sometimes? It really depends on the work you’re doing. If it’s music based then you can get away with some heavy cuts that hit you in the face, but for more narrative based jobs it’s good to be more subtle when the footage allows.

When a job comes in that requires the film to feel like a one-shot, that’s when the challenge begins. If it’s not fully planned out then getting it to time can prove difficult. It’s always good to edit on set on those jobs, so you can work it out with the director.

How important is an editor’s relationship with the director in creating the best work possible? I have many directors that I have been working with over the years now and it doesn’t hurt to know what they want or expect from you as far

“The challenge in post-heavy jobs is still telling a story with the main character missing. There’s a lot of acting and wild pointing going on in the edit suite.”

as the editing process goes. It’s important to be on the same page with the director and be able to bring their vision to the screen. Then again, there’s nothing wrong with a good argument about a certain shot selection.

You’ve been shortlisted for this category for the last three years. How does it feel to win in 2015? It was an amazing honour to win this year, and also unexpected as there was some great work from the competition. The fact that Final Cut also won best edit house for the second year running was awesome.

Is there a project from last year that you look back on most fondly? Both John Lewis ads, Monty’s Christmas and Tiny Dancer, were great fun to work on. The girl in the latter gave an amazing performance, so it was a joy to edit.

It’s often said that a commercial – or any film project – is made in the cutting room. Have you ever had the urge to step behind the camera and shoot the frames you’re cutting? I love editing and I work with a great bunch of talented directors who all shoot amazing work, but never say never…

It’s an impressive body of work from over the last 12 months. Can you feel, over a period of time, when the company is really firing on all cylinders? James Studholme [managing director] Yes, I do feel when the company is running well, but there tends to be a lag between what’s happening in the company and how the company is perceived, for better and worse. Sometimes I feel we are underperforming, or our roster is in need of rejuvenation, but we’re winning awards like crazy for what we did the year before so the general impression is that we’re smashing it. Very exciting things are happening below the surface in the company, with the next generation of talent starting to break through. I do feel the last 12 months have been terrific for Blink overall but I’m more inclined to look at what’s wrong with the company and worry about the bits that aren’t firing on all cylinders.

The shortlisted work is also very eclectic, with comedy, VFX, animation and emotional work all present. Is that mix something you specifically aim for? Not exactly, but I’m reassured that it might be perceived in that way. We’re pretty much omnivores. We like to have a crack at anything with a great idea in it. Especially if it has a big old heart and we haven’t done anything like it before. We also love story and craft challenges, but they can come in so many forms depending on what the idea demands.

This is the second successive year in which Blink has won Production Company of the Year. What do you put the company’s continued successes down to? I’d say, top line, it’s obviously about the great group of creative talents in the form of directors (the presence of the peerless Dougal Wilson and his consistent transcendent excellentness as a director cannot be underestimated), animators, puppeteers, musicians, photographers and illustrators. Equally important, but less lauded, are my long-term management collaborators. It was a big challenge for me, in a company that I’ve had for over 30 years now, to work out meaningful succession. I have been fortunate to find fantastic partners both to keep us consistently strong in our core advertising work but also to expand the scope of the company.

PRODUCTION COMPANY OF THE YEAR

“We like to have a crack at anything with a great idea in it. Especially if it has a big old heart and we haven’t done anything like it before.”

James Studholme, managing director

Blink London

One of the judges stated that Blink’s work “creates connections that spark curiosity”. Do you think that’s an accurate description of the company’s output? That sounds fantastic but I’m not sure exactly what it means! The way I would like to interpret this is that hopefully, through the increasing diversity of work that we’re producing, we’re sparking the curiosity of the wider world beyond just advertising agencies and thus making new connections. That’s definitely happening now and certainly our aspiration and part of our grand plan over the next couple of years.

What piece of work from the last 12 months have you most enjoyed seeing come to fruition?

As a piece of work I’d say The Layzell Brothers’ Harvey Nichols Freebie viral. Just so clever on so many levels and beautifully realised. For me the most thrilling thing that’s happened here this year is the extraordinarily rapid evolution of [executive producer] James Bretton’s world, Blink Industries. We started the year with a desire to commit to programmemaking and not much more. We ended the year with a crack team of development producers and a very clear proposition. We’ve got a TV show on the go with Disney and a slate of other kids TV, animation and comedy shows in different stages of development.

What does winning Production Company of the Year at the shots Awards mean to you?

Given the long-earned reputation of shots as a cultural beacon of good taste, it means a very great deal, particularly as there are so many other marvellous companies out there doing extraordinary work under often very difficult circumstances.

Did you know, when making Monty’s Christmas, that it would be as well received as it was? Richard Brim [ECD at adam&eveDDB] Not at all. It was our last script and having written a fair few, I think we had lost all perspective on what was good. My first inkling that it may be ok was when we showed it to our MD, Tammy Einav, who runs the John Lewis account. On any normal day you would hear the words, “This will never see the light of day,” but that day we heard “Love it, love it, love it. But then I do love penguins.” That was when I first thought we might be on to something.

The next [inkling] was when we showed it to our CCO, Ben Priest, who agreed to present it even though they had bought another script. Four hours later we were upstairs at John Lewis with the toy buyer designing penguins and the script was sold. There were a couple of times during production when both Dan [Fisher, former CD with Brim on Monty’s Christmas, now ECD at The Martin Agency] and I smiled at each other, that ‘This is going to be good’ smile. The first one was in our first meeting with Dougal [Wilson, director], who’d more or less boarded it all out and you got to see it in some sort of shape for the first time. The next was when we went to MPC to meet Monty. He was no longer a grey blob floating awkwardly around the screen, but a moving, waddling, blinking real-life creature. We had spoken about him so much; what will he look like, how will he walk etc… and there he was.

One of our judges called it “original and charming”. Firstly, are they two of the key elements you need to incorporate into such a film, and, secondly, what other elements are important? Well that is very kind of whoever it was, please make yourself known and I’ll send you a tenner. Contrary to popular belief I don’t think there is a formula to getting these spots right. All we try to do is think of a unique story around the notion of thoughtful gifting and to tell it in the most emotionally engaging way possible. So with that in mind, ‘original and charming’ is a very good place to end up.

It was up against some strong opposition on the shortlist. What do you think made it stand out? I have absolutely no idea. I never do with our work that has done well.

You worked, once again, with Dougal Wilson on this spot. What is it that Dougal brings to a project, and specifically to John Lewis campaigns? Dougal is a brilliant director and such a lovely fellow, too, so working on projects with him is a lot of fun. He has been on the journey with the agency and John Lewis from the very beginning and I think he stops the spots from taking themselves too seriously. It is his uncanny knack of seeing the fun and humanity in every situation and showing it with such ease that I think makes him the amazing director he is.

What was the most difficult element of putting Monty’s Christmas together? It was making Monty as believable as possible and trying to get a penguin to show emotion. We decided to use an Adélie penguin because they have these amazing eyes and also they move with a funny little waddle. To make the job as easy as possible we found clips of penguins that related to the action in the script. So, for example, when Monty picks up a piece of Lego, that exact action was copied from an Adélie picking up a rock. In terms of getting emotion out of Monty we soon found out that it was by doing nothing too dramatic, but more the slight widening of the eyes or a wobble of the throat.

Another difficult element was keeping the plot a secret. As always the crew are NDA-ed but the public guess when they see a shoot with snow in the middle of summer. There was one situation where we were shooting at St Paul’s late one Friday night and two well-oiled ladies walked past asking if it was the John Lewis advert. Out came their phones at the very moment the stuffed penguin, used as placeholder, was taken off set. We were very lucky because ten minutes later the photo found itself on Twitter.

It’s a question you must get asked all the time, but as each year comes around, how great is the pressure to deliver another great John Lewis Christmas spot? The pressure is pretty tough and there is absolutely no formula as to what makes it right, which makes it even more terrifying. I think The Long Wait, with the little boy, is still the one to beat and that is what drives you as a team.

Production Company of the Year is sponsored by:

TVC OF THE YEAR (over 60 seconds) John Lewis Monty’s Christmas

“There were a couple of times during production when both Dan and I smiled at each other, that ‘This is going to be good’ smile.”

Richard Brim, ECD at adam&eveDDB (right), with Dan Fisher, former CD with Brim on Monty’s Christmas

BEST USE OF ANIMATION Coca-Cola Man And Dog

When W+K gave you the script, did you immediately envision how you would approach it?

Todd Mueller and Kylie Matulick [directors, Psyop] We had a very clear idea of how we wanted to approach this film. The story felt very whimsical and earnest so we gravitated towards a more classic animation style. We wanted a timeless Disney/Miyazaki feeling where the environments are more painterly, have depth, and a lot of atmosphere, but the characters remain flat and graphic. This style would also help us to create a colourful distinction between the mundane human’s POV and the fantastical dog’s POV. We explored many different dog designs before we locked in on a favourite, but we found our hero guy pretty quickly.

How much freedom was there in terms of the direction and how you interpreted the idea? This was one of those genuinely collaborative projects. We were all very open and interested in gathering as many ideas and points of view as possible. We tend to try and get lots of ideas then whittle them down to the best. Having agency partners as open and talented as Hal [Curtis, CD], Jason [Kreher, copywriter], and Nate [Nowinowski, art director], made the process a total pleasure. The hardest part was realising not all of our fun ideas could make it into the film. We so badly wanted to make this spot longer.

Why did you decide to use the style of animation you did for the spot? The moment we read the script we wanted a classic hand-animated style. Obviously, we love 3D animation but the story was just so timeless that it seemed to be begging for 2D. We also wanted to make a spot that wasn’t obvious when it was made.

One of the Awards judges referred to it as “the most beautiful piece of storytelling in the category”. How important is the balance between what you can do with animation and telling the story well? That’s an incredible compliment! It’s a very visual story that mostly comes through the juxtaposition between the man’s POV and the dog’s. To us it’s all about the story and the animation has to serve that as much as possible. Luckily, during the dog POV moments, we were able to experiment with the animation a bit more to capture his pure joy at the things around him. It’s funny though, one of our favourite shots is the opening where the man and dog have a very quiet, unspoken exchange. It’s totally understated but you understand everything they’re thinking.

“To us it’s all about the story and the animation has to serve that as much as possible.”

Todd Mueller and Kylie Matulick, directors, Psyop

What was the most difficult part of making Man And Dog? The dog design was a challenge because everyone has their own favourite version of man’s best friend. We developed many versions but found ourselves always returning to the scruffy mutt that’s in the spot.

shots Awards 2015

To see the full list of winners go to shotsawards.com

shots Awards 2016

The date for the shots Awards 2016 is already set –Wednesday 9 November 2016, at The Brewery, London. Entries for this year’s awards will open on Thursday 31 March 2016 and full details of categories and criteria will be available soon on shotsawards.com.

SueTerryVoices

Self-taught directors, the Malloy brothers, built their reputation on filming daredevil surfers and high-scoring sports stars. Like their heroes, their career has been a steep learning curve that’s threatened to bring them crashing down with each new challenge.

But Iain Blair finds the pair’s anythinggoes California mindset has helped them catch every wave of their mindbogglingly wide roster of commercials, music promos, docs and features without losing their cool

Cleveland celebrates the return of basketball player LeBron James in the Together spot for Nike. ‘Rock star’ limes hit the clubs in slo-mo for a Sauza 901 tequila commercial. Metallica rock out as they thrash through St. Anger for their – literally – captive audience in San Quentin prison. Olympic gold medallist Shaun White catches air big time as he perfects another impossible trick snowboarding move.

All these diverse images and stories were created and crafted by the Malloy brothers, Brendan [opposite, left] and Emmett, the LA-based team whose work spans ads, features, documentaries and music videos. Of all of these, perhaps the inspirational 2014 Nike spot best sums up the brothers’ creative approach and work philosophy. “We love sports. It was a huge story, and a very cool ad for us,” notes Brendan. “Most ads come and go very quickly, but this really captured and documented

an important moment – LeBron’s comeback. I think it’s one of the first times Nike ever ran a major two-minute ad campaign, and I think it also feels special because it features so many real Cleveland fans, and we always like to make our spots as real as we can. They’re so passionate about their team, and we’re passionate about our work and trying to expand our horizons all the time, so it was a good fit for us.”

As was their 2011 Love The Game spot for Jordan. “The NBA had gone on strike, so all the players were playing in these spontaneous pick-up leagues,” says Emmett. “So Jordan came up with the idea to bring all the big players out to these leagues. It was a huge sports moment where we got to shoot with these iconic players all over the world. That was so much fun for us.”

Their high profile commercial clients have included Verizon, Budweiser, Virgin Mobile, Coke, HP, ESPN, Heineken,

MaLLoyS the

EA Skate, and the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art. They shot the acclaimed For The Love Of Baseball spot featuring Bryce Harper for Major League Baseball, and were nominated for a DGA award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Commercials for Nike’s The Huddle, featuring LeBron James. Their first feature film, the surfing adventure Thicker Than Water, a collaboration with musician/filmmaker/ surfer Jack Johnson, was named Surfer Magazine’s Movie of the Year in 2000. They’ve shot music videos for N.E.R.D, Vampire Weekend, The Raconteurs, Wolfmother, The Cold War Kids, Empire Of The Sun, Jack Johnson co-starring Ben Stiller, Metallica, Matt Costa, Jimmy Eat World, The Kooks and Japanese Motors. Their video for the Foo Fighters’ Breakout won Best Directorial Debut at the Music Video Production Awards in 2001, and their video for Blink 182’s Rock Show won best rock video at the 2001 MTV Europe Awards. The brothers were also nominated for Director of the Year at the 2004 and 2006 MVPAs. Then there’s their hilarious cross-promotion work done with Will Ferrell performing Afternoon Delight from the hit film Anchorman, and the bittersweet video made for The Shins’ New Slang, which was featured in the award-winning film Garden State. In 2009 the Malloys directed Under Great White Northern Lights, the Grammy-nominated full-length documentary on the White Stripes, in 2012 they produced HBO’s critically acclaimed cinéma-vérité series On Freddie Roach, by filmmaker Peter Berg, and in 2013 they took home a Grammy for the long-form music video The Big Easy Express, featuring Mumford & Sons, Edward Sharpe and others. They also produced Shaun White: Russia Calling, an NBC documentary that aired in prime time, following the champion snowboarder as he fought to gain a spot on the US team for the 2014 Winter Olympics. As if all this wasn’t enough, in addition to his production and directorial accomplishments, Emmett Malloy also manages musician Jack Johnson with whom he co-founded Brushfire Records. Their roster includes Bahamas, Matt Costa, G.Love and Neil Halstead.

“Neither of us went to film school, and we didn’t know anyone in the business. We both started in the 90s at a company that made movie trailers.”

footage of,” explains Emmett. “So we lucked out in that regard, as there was already this built-in audience for our little surf films.” These “little surf films” were instrumental in kick-starting their careers. “They allowed us to learn so much, as we were trying to tell little stories,” Emmett adds. “And all those early surf films led to a lot of bands going, ‘Hey, we really like that surf movie you put our song in,’ and then we’d link up with them and do their videos.”

It was an era – the late 90s – when music videos were seen as a hotbed of fresh, exciting directorial talent, and the Malloys quickly parlayed their initial successes into a more ambitious game plan. “We worked hard to build up our own body of work and try to do interesting stuff to get some attention, and the first couple of videos we shot helped us get in with some record labels,” recalls Brendan. That in turn led to writing and directing bigger projects, including the videos for the Foo Fighters and Blink 182. “We were suddenly ‘official directors’, and we began submitting treatments – things we’d never done before,” Emmett adds. “We had to learn how to handle big budgets and all the increased expectations, and it was pretty challenging and quite a steep learning curve for us.”

The first time ever we saw a crane…

The big reality check came when they shot the follow-up to their well received Teenage Suicide video for punk band Unwritten Law. “We had a very low budget for that first one, and it had a lot of character,” says Emmett. “But California Sky, the second video for the band, was really a debacle. We had all this expensive equipment, like a crane, and neither of us had even seen one before, and we were just like, ‘This is so hot.’ Unfortunately, we forgot about the plot and story, and I was only able to save it in the edit and make it more of a performance video ultimately.”

Let’s go directin’ now, everybody’s learnin’ how

What’s truly impressive about the Malloys isn’t just their Stakhanovite work ethic, it’s also the fact that they’re virtually self-taught in the arts of writing, producing, shooting and editing. “We don’t come from a showbiz family,” states 43-year-old Emmett. “Our dad was an underground contractor, who helped lay all the storm drains and water pipes throughout the city, and it was him who suggested we might want to try to do something else for a living. As we grew up in Hancock Park, L.A., very close to Hollywood, the entertainment business seemed like a logical thing to try. It was all around us, it was a cool area to grow up in, and our offices and homes are still in the same neighbourhood.”

“Neither of us went to film school, and we didn’t know anyone in the business. We both started in the 90s at a company that made movie trailers,” says Brendan, 41. “It almost felt like working at an ad agency. I was a copywriter and Emmett was an editor, and we did that for several years, learning some of the basic skills and working on some very big movies.”

While there, the brothers moonlighted as nascent music video directors, “doing any projects that we could get our hands on”. Those jobs – and a family connection – served as a springboard for the duo’s first foray into feature films. “Our cousins happened to be very well-known pro surfers, so all their friends were these top surfers that everyone wanted to see

It was a hard lesson to learn, but a necessary one, he admits. “When you’re self-taught like us, then you inevitably make bad mistakes, and you have to learn the hard way. And we’ve had a couple of those reality checks where we were elevated to that next level, and it took us a little while to understand it and find our footing, as we’d never been there before. We were simply out of our depth.”

Although the brothers have come a long way from the days when they “didn’t really know” what they were doing, they still make music videos and documentary projects as well as big commercial jobs and movies. “I think doing all those different things is still very important for us as directors,” says Emmett. “I think it makes us better as commercial directors, as you can pull from all the different experiences – especially working on documentaries where you really are shooting real subjects and high profile people like Kevin Durant or Freddie Roach. That’s so helpful when you’re shooting a spot, as you can question yourself, ‘Does this feel real?’ and go back to how you worked in the documentary. And it’s especially helpful when you’re trying to capture reality in a spot. A lot of the spots we do are more stylised and more visual, and you’re not pulling for that as much, but on the others it’s a great resource to have.”

“It’s a fairly humbling business. After the Nike spot, we thought we were hot shit, but then the next minute you lose a job. So you just have to persevere.”

After stints with Propaganda and RSA – “where we did most of our music videos”, Emmett reports, the duo switched to HSI, which then morphed into their current home, Superprime. “We’ve been there about six years now,” says Brendan. “We began really focusing on commercials around 2002, 2003, and our first spot was a jeans commercial that was more music- and style-driven. So we had to transition into those kinds of spots that felt more like music videos, before we got into more traditional, dialogue-driven spots.”

The Malloys

Representation

London & Paris iconoclast.tv

Rest of the world superprimeﬁlms.com

Key work

• nike, Together

• Jordan, Love The Game

• the white stripes,

Under Great White Northern Lights

• google, Android One

• foo fighters, Breakout

But it wasn’t easy transitioning out of music videos and their comfort zone into the bigger, more demanding commercial world, they admit. “It felt like no matter how big our videos were, it didn’t help us break in to commercials,” says Emmett. “Ultimately, it was our documentaries and surf films that persuaded people we could make the leap – but then all those coloured perceptions, so that people felt, maybe we couldn’t shoot stylistic stuff. So it’s an ongoing refinement.”

“It’s a fairly humbling business,” he adds. “After we did the Nike spot, we thought we were such hot shit, but then the next minute you lose a job. So you just have to persevere.”

There’s a car ad waiting for these guys

In the past year the pair has scored major spots for Goodyear with their yearly NASCAR launch, and “a very cool” Chevy/Manchester United spot. They’ve also been busy prepping The Tribes Of Palos Verdes, a low budget movie that’s due to start shooting this spring. “It’s a family tragedy, a dark tale based on a bestseller, and it’s been on-and-off, which wreaked havoc with our normal productivity last year,” admits Emmett. “But it’s coming together now, and we have Jennifer Garner and Maika Monroe, the star of It Follows, so we’re pretty excited.”

Looking ahead, the brothers plan to pursue more movie projects, but stress that they will always do commercials, “as we have such a passion for them,” says Brendan. “And videos and documentaries,” adds Emmett. “We want to do it all.”

Nike, Together

2 Jordan, Love The Game

3 Justin Timberlake as Rick ‘Sour’ Vane in No Limes Needed for Sauza 901

ON THE MOVE

For Damon Stapleton, chief creative o cer of DDB Auckland, the world of advertising is no run-of-the-mill, working nine-to-ﬁve existence –just like his unconventional upbringing.

Stapleton’s family moved around a great deal, venturing across the globe, living in various hotels and exotic locations. As a child he enjoyed the perks of room service, and garnered a collection of short stories that were set in hotel lobbies to include in his memoirs. Forever the new boy at school, he attended 16 academic institutions and proudly remarks he was only expelled twice.

On the plus side, he learnt how to adapt and thrive in various environments whilst immersing himself in di erent cultures, dealing with all sorts of people, which became a pivotal element in his life and eventually his career. “Growing up wasn’t

For

always easy,” he remarks. “When you’re young, you don’t know that it’s abnormal to live an existence constantly on the move, yet when you’re older you look back and think, ‘That was pretty wild.’”

Embrace the crazy

A day in the life of Damon Stapleton is, in one word, unpredictable. “Every day is di erent. That’s probably one of the reasons why I like the advertising business,” he says. “It could be anything from a television shoot to a big meeting or travelling somewhere; every day di ers and has its challenges. Most people’s jobs tend to be routine, or can be. In the advertising world there is no routine. I’m used to the unconventional. I suppose it stems back to my childhood. I’ve learnt to embrace the craziness.”

chief creative o cer

of DDB Auckland,

Damon Stapleton, change is run-of-the-mill and risk is the safest place to be. With his peripatetic childhood as inspiration, he’s embraced the unexpected and rejected routine in his country-hopping career. But, he tells Carine Buncsi, living on the edge doesn’t mean hogging the limelight. He likes to step back and let his creatives start their own ﬁres

Strolling down memory lane, Stapleton candidly talks about his hotel-hopping days, “I never really lived in houses, mostly hotels, and that was the norm for me whilst growing up. My father was a rock star in the 60s [he was in a band called Mike Shannon and the Diamonds, later Mike Shannon and the Strangers] and then my late mother, together with my father, worked in the hotel business, at one point running a hotel by the name of Chobe Game Lodge, in Botswana.” The hotel was made famous by Elizabeth Taylor, who secretly wed Richard Burton there. “Peter Sellers would also come and hang out,” Stapleton says. “The hotel was in a far-o village in the middle of nowhere, attracting a lot of celebrities. It was kind of a strange existence back then.”

While growing up, did he ever see himself ending up in the advertising industry? “I wouldn’t say I thought about a career in advertising [but] I always knew I wouldn’t be a chartered accountant,” he quips. “Instinctively I knew I would be a creative and pursued a number of activities in my twenties to ﬁgure out what it was I wanted to do.” A man of many talents, before his foray into advertising Stapleton dabbled in ﬁlmmaking, fashion and war photography.

So what eventually attracted him to advertising? “I suppose I was pretty broke at the time,” he laughs. “When you’re a freelancer, like I was, every day you’re on struggle street, trying to make a buck. Back in the late 90s I walked into a well-known agency in South Africa. It just amazed me that you could go in every day and come up with ideas, and then make them happen. That’s something that fascinates me.”

Yet, Stapleton believes advertising doesn’t always get the credit it deserves. “Just think of all the countless ideas that are thought up and

happen every day around the globe,” he exclaims. Stapleton references a John Hegarty talk in which he mentioned that The Rolling Stones can rest on their laurels, they can still sing a song from the 70s and everyone thinks it’s fabulous, but that if you’re in advertising you need to have a new idea every day. “It’s cheeky but it makes the point,” says Stapleton. “It’s a real discipline to have to come up with new content every single day and can be quite scary, but also exciting and invigorating. That’s why I’m so attracted to the industry.”

Top brands and trillion dollar notes

Stapleton has worked with a collection of great brands, including Heineken, Jameson, Visa, Cadbury and BMW, and is a highly awarded creative, but the work he is often recognised for is The Trillion Dollar Campaign, for the South African-published newspaper The Zimbabwean, in 2009. Then with agency TBWA\Hunt\Lascaris, Stapleton helped promote the newspaper, as well as increasing awareness of Zimbabwe’s problems with hyperinﬂation, by creating an outdoor campaign printed on Zimbabwean money –expressing how the currency was e ectively cheaper than the cost of paper. The campaign was a huge success and won a slew of national and international awards. Throughout his career, Stapleton has produced world-class work that cannot be ignored, with a bunch of prestigious awards to boot. His career highlights include a D&AD Black Pencil and international awards ranging from a Cannes Grand Prix and several Grand CLIOs to an ADC Black Cube.

After his stint working in South Africa, Stapleton felt he had done everything he could at the agency. “It was time. I was seeking a new adventure. I wanted to test myself and see if

“It’s a real discipline to have to come up with new content every single day and can be quite scary but also exciting and invigorating. That’s why I’m so attracted to the industry.”

I could be creative in another country.” Not short of o ers, Stapleton had various agencies calling from London, Singapore and Sydney. Crazy times called for some big decisions and in the end, “after ﬂying to London for one day and sweating for a weekend in Singapore, I chose Sydney because it felt right for my family and secondly for the connection I had with the CEO who was starting at Saatchi & Saatchi at the same time.” Stapleton left South Africa at the end of 2011 and embarked on his Aussie adventure in 2012 to explore the creative landscape. “I always admired the great work that has come out of Oz. It has a scale as well as a sense of freedom to it.”

Sydney without the tra c jams

Since he left Sydney and joined DDB Auckland in 2014, the agency has been flying high, winning two Grands Prix at Spikes Asia for BMW’s memorable Reverse April Fools campaign, and Unforgotten Soldiers, a film and installation project for Sky’s History Channel. Recently DDB’s Pop’s Gift Lotto film captured the nation’s heart and imagination, voted by New Zealand’s public as the best ad in the country for 2015. “What I’m most happy about is the quality of work we are doing at DDB Auckland in di erent areas.” How has he found the move from Saatchi & Saatchi Sydney to DDB and life in Auckland? “Well for one thing the weather is better for me because Sydney is designed for thin people,” he laughs. “Sydney is a great town but there is a fair amount happening in Auckland. Think of it as a smaller version of Sydney, without the tra c jams. In a nutshell, moving to DDB was a question of creativity and doing more of it. Shane Bradnick [ECD at DDB Auckland] was working at DDB already so that was a big part of why I went to the agency. I knew if we worked together again we would create some really out-there stu .” Stapleton and Bradnick both began their careers in South Africa, almost 20 years ago. Partners in crime since their early days at TBWA\Gavin\Reddy, they displayed considerable ingenuity and madcap humour and are finally reunited at DDB Auckland. “I’m aware of New Zealand’s reputation for creativity, it punches above its weight,” Stapleton says. “There’s probably a little less red tape here, you get stu done faster. I asked myself, what’s the best place for me creatively? And at the moment that’s NZ.”

Being the band manager not the star

Stapleton’s approach to being a chief creative o cer is simple, yet profound. “I think the ﬁrst thing is not to compete with your own creatives. When people become creative directors or executive creative directors, they think they can do better than their own creatives,” he says. “As

1 Sky, The Unforgotten Soldiers

Sky, Murmuration

The Zimbabwean, The Trillion Dollar Campaign

time rolls on you have to learn how to allow [your creatives] to be the people who have the ideas.”

His primary role as CCO is to create a space and environment where creatives can do just that.

“Maybe the best way to look at it is, you go from being the lead singer in a band to switching to the role of band manager. There are so many people in this business that can take away your conﬁdence and it’s normally done under the guise of having high standards.”

Stapleton tends to write about what’s on his mind in his blog damonsbrain.com. “There are a lot of things out there written by marketers or suits in the business,” he says. “However there isn’t all that much from the perspective of how it is to be a creative. The thing that bugs me most about advertising is there are a fair amount of people who break other [people] down. I actually believe creatives should build each other up.”

Magic Moments

When it comes to key moments that have impacted on his life, Stapleton has a couple that spring immediately to mind. “I have never felt more pathetic and more grateful to be alive [than] on a pier in Cannes,” he explains. “To put it into context, my grandfather called me out of the blue. Feeling glum, I mentioned the agency I was running hadn’t done that well and that I was feeling the pressure. After a moment of silence he said, ‘What, you get awards for advertising? That’s ridiculous. In my late teens, most of my squadron died in the Battle of Britain, but we had a saying – keep pulling the trigger until you see the fuckers smoke.’ Simple, succinct, honest words that really put it into perspective.”

The other moment which he cherishes as one of the best moments of his career is when he walked on stage with Wilf Mbanga [editor of The Zimbabwean] at the D&AD award ceremony. “He appeared like a wise old African Buddha,” Stapleton says. “So debonair, wearing a tuxedo as we received the Black Pencil for The Trillion Dollar Campaign. It’s only a single moment but when you realise what it meant to him, the impact it made, it’s so much more important than an award. Wilf was so gracious and brave after everything he had been through, enduring death threats, arrests, living in exile. Our team was overjoyed that we could make a di erence in his life and the lives of others, whilst also restoring lost conﬁdence in the agency.”

For Stapleton, seeking out the creativity that lives in the cracks – for it’s the cracks that let the light in – is where opportunities lie. Embrace the fear, tackle it, move forward and replace it with opportunity. “As a creative force, it’s all about being bolder and braver in our choices and when we are, we do work that often surprises the world.”

Damon Stapleton is inspired by…

What’s your favourite ever ad? I tried. I really tried. I even asked Siri for an answer and I got a strange clip of Roger Federer. Sorry, after 20 years in the business that one is impossible to answer.

What product could you not live without? An iPhone and biltong, which is a South African delicacy now made in New Zealand.

What are your thoughts on social media? I think we need to remember that distribution is not the same as engagement. It has its place but it’s not a silver bullet.

How do you relieve stress during a shoot? I slowly creep towards the craft table and eat many biscuits. What’s the last ﬁlm you watched and was it any good? It was a documentary called Going Clear about Scientology by Alex Gibney who is one of my favourite documentary makers. I also saw Star Wars: The Force Awakens and thought it was very similar to the ﬁrst one.

What ﬁctitious character do you most relate to? Jeffrey ‘The Dude’ Lebowski.

“I’m aware of New Zealand’s reputation for creativity, it punches above its weight. There’s probably a little less red tape here, you get stu done faster.”

What was the last gig you went to? Florence and the Machine.

What ﬁlm do you think everyone should have seen? Unfair. I have to have more than one. Dr Strangelove, The Godfather, Searching For Sugarman, Cool Hand Luke, Man on Wire, Il Postino, Cinema Paradiso, Raging Bull, Citizen Kane. I really could go on but I will stop there.

If you weren’t doing the job you do now, what would you like to be?

A photographer. Or, if I ever ﬁnd a large amount of bravery, a stand-up comic. Or a barista who had immense wealth and didn’t have to care how long it took to make your coffee.

Tell us one thing about yourself that most people won’t know… Deep down, I truly believe I could be a worldclass athlete, it’s just that I have never been given the right opportunities.

From a start in food photography, German photographer Oliver Schwarzwald has expanded his range to create fantastical still lifes and landscapes for fashion editorials and ads for top clients like IKEA, Davidoff, Martell and more. Carol Cooper meets the refreshingly sunny surrealist

1 Ribbon Tree

2 Fashion Vanitas, Stern

Page 34 Untitled – work in progress

Page 35 Dust Colour

Since the Manifesto Of Surrealism was published by poet André Breton in 1924, surrealist visual artists have been wandering in the hypnagogic hinterlands between our conscious and unconscious, exploring themes of madness, dreams and sexual ecstasy. These wanderings have resulted in such images as melting clocks, sliced eyeballs and men with apples for heads, which can – depending on how much coffee/sleep/absinthe you’ve had that day, along with the general state of your mental health – provoke responses ranging from a jaunty chuckle, through a vague sense of unease, to the outright screaming abdabs.

Though much of Oliver Schwarzwald’s works can be described as surreal – Dalí, Magritte and Duchamp were early inspirations – he is definitely at the jaunty chuckle end of the spectrum and would never wish the screaming abdabs on anyone. He’s just too nice. The Hamburg-based, married father-of-two lists Man Ray and Guy

Bourdin as his favourite surrealist photographers, but whereas they both often depicted distorted or disconnected female body parts, Schwarzwald shuns such darkly sexual iconography. His work radiates a light and whimsical glee, with any disembodied parts seeming just happy to be roaming free from the tyranny of the body, onto the pages of such publications as Loved&Found, Le Figaro and Stern. Disparate objects tend to wander into his landscapes, too. Hurdle, which appeared in the East Wing Biennial exhibition in London’s Courtauld Institute of Art this January, features a ping-pong table bearing bright pompoms inexplicably placed in a misty field.

A yearning for the bigger picture

Born in Gdansk in Poland in 1973, Schwarzwald moved with his family to Germany when he was two. He always wanted to be a photographer. “Art and sports were my favourite subjects at school,

but maybe I was led to photography because I wasn’t a very talented painter. Photography appeared to me as an accessible medium.”

It’s hardly surprising his work leans towards the conceptual rather than observational, as he has always had a philosophical bent. “School was not a fun time for me. In history you had to learn all these recent details and dates, but I always wanted to see the big picture – from cavemen to modern times. With maths, I questioned what it was good for, why should we learn it? It put me off doing any further study.” Instead he learnt on the job by spending four years as a photographer’s assistant; his most significant mentor being the Danish photographer Mads Madsen, who helped him marry his two loves – photography and cooking. “When I first got into photography I was interested in fashion or journalistic styles. I’d look at work by Jeanloup Sieff, Richard Avedon and Sebastião Salgado. I hadn’t thought about food

“In my ‘spray paintings’ the spray-painted blobs stand for the skull in vanitas art –but I wanted to turn the idea around and create symbols of life and happiness.”

photography, though I loved to cook and even thought of becoming a chef. But I realised that a chef’s working life was not for me. I was a shy and sensitive teenager and couldn’t have coped with stressful kitchens. Then I met food photographer Mads, who took me to a food shoot and I thought ‘Wow – you can take pictures and talk to chefs about food!’ I wanted to learn all I could.”

It was Madsen who helped him learn about the creative process. “He taught me how to work up a concept, how to properly research your idea, to prepare shoots and always try to find a new way. He was so inspiring. We would be like kids playing around with ideas, having fun.”

Fun does come across loud and clear in his work – his landscapes as well as his still lifes often hint at some mischievous narrative that’s told in a palette of bright or pastel colours against a light background. Even those of his compositions with a darker palette maintain the playful tone; some

pay homage to the vanitas still life paintings that flourished in the Netherlands in the early 17th century. This genre was influenced by the region’s prevalent Calvinist ideology and encouraged the viewer to consider mortality and reject depravity. The sombre works would contain objects, such as a skull, that symbolised the inevitability of death and decay and the vanity and pointlessness of earthly pleasure and material gain. Schwarzwald has reinterpreted the genre, giving it his own sunny spin. “In all my work I like to tell a story, to convey a message, and in my ‘spray paintings’ the spray-painted blobs stand for the skull in vanitas art – but I wanted to turn the idea around and create symbols of life and happiness.”

He’s not averse to a little ironic vanitas, though: in a fashion editorial for German magazine Stern he’s popped in a cheeky peeled lemon – a symbol of both the bitterness of earthly beauty, but also a luxury item it was vain to desire. “Lemons

were used in vanitas paintings to encourage moderation. Obviously, I had to include it in a picture about fashion luxuries!”

I ask him if he always starts his work with a planned concept or if he ever goes out with a camera to seek ideas. “Sometimes I snap things I like when I’m out with an iPhone. But I do need a certain idea to start taking photographs. I write down my inspirations in a sketch book. Ideas are like friends, you have to treat them with respect or they’ll go away!” He’s such a thoroughly good bloke, he’s even kind to his own ideas.

The bearable lightness of being

For a recent personal project, The One Euro Sculptures, he’s created sculptures from three items, each worth just one euro, the idea being to sell prints of the sculptures on eBay and give the money to charity. He’s also working up a three euro project: “In Germany, welfare allows just

3 Hurdle

4 The One Euro Sculptures 2.0

three euros a day to feed a child, which I think is ridiculous. Before making a fuss about this though, I want to find out, in a rational, objective way, what is actually possible within this budget.” A rational approach for a man whose work is so in touch with the irrational.

He is adept at working in such a variety of styles, I ask him how he sees his commercial work developing in the future. “I like working with people who want to develop a certain look or a language and not just do an ordinary job to sell a product. I suppose I’m still naive to think like that, but I do love my profession. As long as I’m still doing still life photography, I’ll be happy.”

Schwarzwald and I were communicating over Christmas, and in one of his emails he didn’t just wish me Season’s greetings, he wrote: “I wish you a happy new year, full of joy, sunshine and health!” One hopes that someone as gleefully good-hearted as him will always find happiness and success. S

4 1 Flower, from The Wishing Table exhibition

Uriel With Dot

SOUTH AFRICA

Visiting a South Africa that’s been slowed by cultural confusion, a tardy take up of digital media and a sluggish economy, Selena Schleh finds welcome signs of a country starting to speed up

Still seeking the rainbow’s true colours

It’s over 20 years since South Africa was dubbed the Rainbow Nation, yet the country’s still struggling to find its identity and the slow progress of racial and cultural transformation is reflected in a too-white ad industry. This, plus fiscal woes causing safe work, has hindered creativity. Yet glimmers of bolder, more diverse campaigns have been bringing brighter hues to the scene

Epic thunderstorms and heavy downpours traditionally mark the beginning of autumn in South Africa, but when shots visits in late November, the rains still haven’t arrived. The country is in the grip of a devastating drought, and crops are shrivelling in the fields. In Johannesburg, there are emergency water restrictions, adding to the misery of loadshedding – scheduled power outages designed to prevent a city-wide blackout. Arriving in the busy suburb of Sandton during rush-hour, all the traffic lights (‘robots’), are down, turning the streets into a horn-honking free-for-all. It takes an hour to crawl a single block.

Our sluggish progress through town is an apt – if obvious – metaphor for the slow pace of change in other areas, namely South Africa’s economic growth and cultural transformation.

The recent #FeesMustFall protests, where thousands marched against proposed tuition fee hikes, billed as discriminatory to poorer black students, is a stark reminder that more than 20 years since the birth of the Rainbow Nation the country is still struggling to define itself. “It’s a tough time for the country: there have been promises that haven’t necessarily been delivered on, and that makes for a palpable tension,” says Jonathan Deeb, ECD at FCB Johannesburg. And it seems there’s a similar identity crisis occurring in the advertising world. South Africa has always punched above its weight creatively, but in recent years there have been fewer knockout blows, particularly on the global awards stage. In stark contrast to the blossoming fields of music, art, fashion and film, “advertising has become sanitised – we’re in dire need of some craziness,” says Ahmed Tilly, founder of Black River FC.

More balls, bravery and black talent

So what’s to blame? The flagging economy, for one: while the weak rand has been a boon for production service companies, attracting a huge amount of international work to Cape Town, in the local market it is causing clients to jettison creative brand-building in favour of short-term retail solutions. “Our ideas have always been our most powerful asset,” says Pete Khoury, CCO of TBWA\Hunt\Lascaris Johannesburg, “but you can only make what you can sell.” Mariana O’Kelly, ECD at Ogilvy & Mather Johannesburg,

2 3

1/2/3 KFC Soundbite, Interactive Music Table, Gloo@Ogilvy 4/5 Coca-Cola, Rainbows For A Rainbow Nation, from FCB Johannesburg

agrees: “We’re lacking brave work, ballsy work, because there’s not the money to try because you don’t have room for failure. ROI is the centre of every single conversation with brands.”

While there’s little to be done on the financial front other than sit tight and ride out the storm, the other major challenge – that of increasing cultural and racial diversity or, to use the buzzword on everyone’s lips, ‘transformation’ –is within the industry’s power to change. “Big strides have been made already; there are some very top level black creatives and agencies with significant black representation,” points out Jonathan Beggs, CCO of Saatchi & Saatchi BrandsRock. On the production side, the likes of Arcade’s Lebogang Rasethaba (see page 52) are leading the charge for a new wave of young black directors, and, says Melina McDonald, EP at Darling, “every South African production house is committed [to transformation]; they’ll have at least one black director and it’s not just tokenism.”

However, the general consensus is that it’s happening far too slowly: “You go to awards shows, marketing events, and looking around it’s still very much a white industry,” says Tilly. Aside from black economic empowerment (BEE) now being mandatory in law, there’s a strong business case for speedy transformation: advertising is, after all, based on communication and human insights. With consumer spending increasingly moving into black hands, “creating commercials for the country requires representation of those

“We’re lacking brave work, ballsy work, because there’s not the money to try because you don’t have room for failure. ROI is the centre of every single conversation with brands.”

different cultures in creative departments,” states Beggs. “It’s not saying a white person can’t make an ad for a black person, but you do need a creative cultural mix,” adds Deeb.

Cry freedom for freelancers

The question of whose responsibility it is to bring talent into the industry is the subject of much debate – is it the government, industry bodies or agencies themselves? Many feel that agencies must prioritise identifying and growing talent from the ground up. A key step is broadening recruitment drives beyond prestigious local advertising schools such as Vega and AAA, whose steep costs have made them the preserve of ‘wealthy white kids’. Charitable initiatives, such as Digify in Braamfontein and the Creative Circle-backed Umuzi Photo Club offer alternative

routes into the industry, by offering subsidised training programmes and internships with top-flight agencies to impoverished youngsters. There are also pro-bono education schemes such as Joe Public’s One School At A Time, which works with two underperforming schools in the townships of Diepsloot and Soweto [for more on that, see page 56].

As well as difficulties with sourcing black talent, agencies are struggling to hold onto the people they’ve trained. Poaching by rival agencies and clients is rife, as well as leakage into independent entrepreneurial ventures. Deeb experienced this first hand when three of his junior creatives left to pursue their photography project, I See A Different You [see page 58]: “It’s something I encourage and support, because that creativity ends up coming back fourfold

and supporting the industry, but we still require creative talent within agencies,” he says.

Another factor is the financial lure of freelancing, where the combination of limited supply and massive demand for black insights has driven up rates, says TBWA’s Khoury: “Talent of colour are saying: why am I working for a salary? I’m going to be a freelancer and charge 30 per cent extra… It’s becoming unaffordable, and it all comes down to whoever is able to pay

“Agencies are not black enough, they’re not confident enough to put a stake in the ground and say ‘This [work] is something which comes from this community,’ so they find a universal treatment, which may be very charming, but it doesn’t get under the skin.”

the most money gets the talent.” When it comes to young black directors, local production companies are calling for agencies and clients to take more risks and offer more opportunities, following the lead of fast-food giant KFC – a brand that is really pushing the agenda by giving the majority of its work to directors of colour.

Awarding an African aesthetic

Also linked to the thorny issue of transformation is the question of a unique South African aesthetic. Whether one voice can encapsulate a cultural melting-pot of 11 languages is a moot point, but the fact remains, says Brad Reilly, ECD at Net#workBBDO Johannesburg, that agencies don’t do enough locally-inflected work. “Agencies are not black enough, they’re not confident enough to put a stake in the ground and say ‘This [work] is something which comes from this community,’” adds Tilly, “so they find a universal treatment, which may be very charming, but it doesn’t get under the skin.” Two of Black River FC’s recent spots have sought to change the status quo: Mazda’s Unarranged Marriage fused a traditional African narrative with manga cartoon visuals, and TV promo Captain Makhamisa And The Vuzu Amp Starship was rich in local slang and humour. Though popular with their target audience, neither spot has won a

single award, which supports Reilly’s claim that “A lot of the very South African work that is more skewed towards a black market doesn’t get through [in awards].” According to Xolisa Dyeshana, ECD at Joe Public and the current Creative Circle chairman, local awards bodies need to put structures in place to recognise distinctive local work, such as the Loeries’ New Voices category, as well as transforming juries.

Truly local campaigns may be in short supply, but as FCB’s Deeb points out, the industry also operates on a world stage and South Africa is capable of creating exceptional global work if that’s what a brand demands. “We’re not in isolation, and people don’t just want to see a mirror held up to themselves. We enjoy being global citizens and we enjoy seeing a combination of work.”

Transformation isn’t the only thing people are talking about: ‘content’ is another buzzword, as South Africa wrestles with new marketing mediums. The country has been slow to the digital party, thanks to a lack of infrastructure and a telecommunications monopoly, which has driven up the costs of connectivity. As a result,

1/2 Chickin Lickin’s The Great Dlamini, from Net#work BBDO

3/4 Mazda, Unarranged Marriage, Black River FC

5 Captain Makhamisa And The Vuzu Amp Starship, from Black River FC

be done when only the well-off can afford to access it. “Finding the right balance of mediums will be so important in our future, when we can look at tailor-making different content to appeal to different sections of the market.”

For now, in terms of sheer mass-market reach, the traditional TVC still rules supreme. “A few years ago, everyone was predicting the end of television, but that hasn’t happened,” says Bobby Amm, head of the CPA (Commercial Producers’

“content is not really fully understood in South Africa, compared to the rest of the world,” says Deeb. O&M’s O’Kelly notes that the digital wave has still not hit the country – the average media spend on digital is a fraction of that dedicated to TVCs – but agencies are nonetheless expanding their digital capabilities and experimenting more and more with integrated campaigns and content. O&M South Africa, for example, recently merged with digital specialists Gloo and IHPCs (in-house production companies) are also on the rise.

With data a downer, TVC still rules

Central to digital strategy is mobile, the country’s largest and most powerful platform, with roughly nine in ten South Africans owning a cell phone. Until recently, much like the rest of the continent, the lo-fi feature phone dominated, and mobile campaigns, such as 2011’s Be The Coach for Carling, revolved around clever uses of basic USSD (unstructured supplementary service data) technology. With smartphone usage growing rapidly, that looks set to change – though while broadband and data costs remain steep, there is, says Khoury, a limit to the kind of work which can

“A TV spot has to cut across South Africa’s multiple cultural and linguistic divides, which inevitably leads to generalised and less distinctive work. Political correctness has also hampered scripts.”

Association). It might be a popular choice for clients, but there’s a general feeling that the creative standard has dropped in recent years thanks to the challenges of reaching such a diverse market. Unlike the cheaper medium of radio and print, where one campaign can run in multiple languages, a TV spot has to cut across South Africa’s multiple cultural and linguistic divides, which inevitably leads to generalised, less distinctive work. Political correctness has also hampered scripts to the extent they “end up trying to tick too many boxes”, says Pete Carr, EP at Bouffant, concluding that “TV has definitely suffered as a result.” Helena Woodfine, EP at Velocity Films adds there has been a big increase in the amount of research demanded by clients who are bringing directors into the process earlier and testing at every single stage, “which is a bit of a creative handbrake”. Combined with

“Finding the right balance of mediums will be so important in our future, when tailor-making content to appeal to different sections of the market.”

THINK BIG

budgets that, according to Darling’s McDonald, haven’t risen in the past five years, this might explain why South Africa’s performance in film at global awards shows has been somewhat lacklustre recently. Aside from the lack of gold Lions, this watering-down of creativity has commercial implications too: “You might be appealing to a huge section of the market, but you’re alienating more sophisticated audiences, and the fall-off from [that market] is also quite significant,” says Khoury.

Radio glory and relentless optimism

However, it’s not all doom and gloom. 2015 brought bonanza turnovers for many of the country’s production service companies thanks to the weak rand attracting overseas agencies seeking world-class film production at budget price tags. “We’ve had an excellent year, everyone’s been extremely busy,” states Velocity’s Woodfine. The production house, which was ranked number one at the 2015 Loeries, represents directing heavyweights Greg Gray and Keith Rose who were behind bronze Lionwinner The Notebook, for Dialdirect and

1/2/3 Dialdirect, The Notebook, from Joe Public

4/5/6 Coca-Cola, Bobby, out of FCB Johannesburg

Carling’s The Horse, two epically-crafted spots that prove South Africa is still able to produce blockbuster ads. Insiders also point out that the knowledge and experience that production houses are gaining through exposure to international agencies will eventually filter through to benefit local productions.

Also worthy of celebration is South Africa’s enviable performance in radio. While the rest of the world has seemingly dismissed the medium, it’s still one of the strongest channels in South Africa for targeted campaigns. “There’s huge value in speaking to people in their own language,” comments Beggs. Through the wealth of its ideas and the talent of its writers, South Africa also shines on the global stage with witty and colourful campaigns: O&M Johannesburg won the Cannes 2014 Radio Grand Prix for its Lucozade work and TBWA\Hunt\Lascaris was named Cannes Lions’ 2015 Radio Agency of the Year after bagging a trio of golds for its Doom insecticide trilogy Lance The Bedbug; Cheryl The Fishmoth and The O’Flannagan Cockroaches.

Undoubtedly, it’s a tough time for the industry, but South Africans have a secret weapon:

relentless optimism, perfectly captured by Coca-Cola’s Rainbows For A Rainbow Nation, which saw colourful symbols of hope projected across Johannesburg.

There is huge untapped potential in the continent, and the unique geographic position that South Africa occupies. For global brands looking to expand into Africa, it’s a natural gateway: Net#work BBDO Johannesburg, for example, has created a string of successful ads

“We have such diversity and talent. There’s so much freshness in our narratives and aesthetic, so much to give that the world has never seen before. We’re just a little bit too scared to do that at the moment.”

for Diageo in the Kenyan and West African markets, and aims to ‘turn the world upside down’, i.e. place Africa at the top, in all its future work. Guinness’ Made Of Black showcased the eye-popping creativity springing up across the continent – in fashion, music, art and design –that’s contributed to an undeniable hip-factor. “Africa’s very cool in the world, and we’re not making as much of that as we could,” says Juliet Honey, CD at Net#work BBDO Johannesburg.

Ultimately, everyone just needs to be a bit braver, says Khoury. “We have such diversity and talent. There’s so much freshness in our narratives and aesthetic, so much to give that the world has never seen before. We’re just a bit too scared to do that at the moment. Being African, truly African, in aesthetic and in the narratives we tell, will be refreshing for us as locals, but also to the world and how they see us.”

“Being African, truly African, in aesthetic and in the narratives we tell, will be refreshing for us as locals, but also to the world and how they see us.”

PETAR SPILJEVIC

GORDON LINDSAY

DEAN BLUMBERG

THABANG MOLEYA

MZI KUMALO

MARC SIDELSKY

ANDRE LIEBENBERG

MICHAEL MACGARRY

Reflecting the rainbow nation

Moleﬁ Thulo, CD at O&M Johannesburg shuns praise for his witty Loerie- and Lionbagging Lucozade campaigns, which have helped to raise his agency’s rankings. After all, he still believes that there’s room for improvement in his country’s advertising. In particular, he’d like to see European and US styles eschewed in favour of more work with a genuine South African aesthetic

Grey College in Bloemfontein, South Africa, knows how to breed future rugby stars. Since 1906, the school has produced more Springboks (38 and counting) than any school in the country. Luckily for the advertising industry, though,

Moleﬁ Thulo’s rugby career broke o , quite literally, at the age of 16, when a particularly vicious tackle snapped both his collarbone and his nerves. “There’s something about breaking a bone that dampens your bravery,” he deadpans.

Nonetheless, after school he headed for the big bad city to study marketing at Jo’burg’s Wits University. Originally destined for the client side, his fascination with TV adverts and the process of “having an idea come to life on the screen” inspired Thulo to apply to advertising agencies instead. He got his ﬁrst job as a junior copywriter at DraftFCB thanks to Nkwenkwe Nkomo, former group chairman at the South Africa o ce and a major proponent of transformation in the ad industry: “He believed in me as a young black person, and gave me a chance.”

Things can always get better

Another mentor in those early days was Brett Morris, FCB’s current group CEO, whom Thulo credits with inspiring his love of radio – the medium on which Thulo has built much of his success to date. They worked side by side, penning copy for audio spots such as Raid’s Nothing Should Get In The Way Of Dreamtime “He was an incredible writer, sharp and intelligent,” remembers Thulo.

Nine years later, he joined Ogilvy & Mather Johannesburg, soon winning a promotion to creative director, and began working on one of the agency’s biggest accounts, Lucozade. 2014 brought his biggest career success to date with Give Me Strength, a radio campaign that, instead of playing on the obvious sport-performance

angle, focused on the drink’s ability to get people through everyday frustrations: a kids’ party; a PowerPoint presentation; even (shudder) an Enrique Iglesias concert. It won a Grand Prix at Cannes that year, bolstering South Africa’s impressive reputation for radio advertising.

Asked why South Africa excels in the medium, Thulo says it’s “tight deadlines, forcing you to think and plan clever”, plus healthy competition: “You look at the work of Jenny Glover [ECD of TBWA\Hunt\Lascaris Jo’burg, number one radio agency in the Cannes 2015 Global Creativity Report] and think, how can I be better?” He adds that the volume of radio work produced by the region gives agencies more practice, too.

Last year, Give Me Strength expanded into a TV and integrated media campaign, including four hilarious spots directed by Bou ant’s Dean Blumberg featuring exhausting encounters with children and performance art. The team also added a clever digital activation based on the desk-bashing despair induced by slow internet connections: they embedded audio clips on WeTransfer pages exhorting users to persevere. The campaign picked up three Loeries in 2015, but Thulo is quick to bat away praise, saying success was down to a group e ort: “[Group head copywriter] David Krueger, [art director] Tammy Retter and [CD] Peter Little are a highly talented bunch of people who push you to be better… And Dean is this amazing, calm individual who won’t stop until he gets the right results.”

As for the general creative standard, Thulo says frankly there is still room for improvement. “To say it’s at a high level we’d be lying to ourselves. If we didn’t have anything to go by in terms of past records, you could say ‘Ah, well, this is the best we can do’ – but we know we can do better.” Thulo notes that festivals are calling for more South African ﬂavoured work, but “the

tricky thing is identifying exactly what that is. We are a rainbow nation, but some may default to American- or European-style work, rather than something that’s truly South African.” His 2012 Sithi Salute Kleva campaign for KFC featured local slang and celebrated local personalities – the ‘abokleva’, or self-made entrepreneurs – but this type of work is still the exception, not the rule. Talent, not tokenism, required

Many in the industry say faster transformation is critical to producing work that’s truly reﬂective of the country. How much responsibility does Thulo, as a rising black creative, feel to engender change? “I always look at it in the sense that someone gave me a chance back then and it’s my responsibility to do the same thing. You can’t expect to change the world overnight, but you can try.” He’s adamant, though, that transformation requires real talent, not tokenism: “A lot of people think it’s just balancing the scale, but it’s not about that. We’re not going to put someone in a role if they can’t deliver. You’re not doing anyone any favours that way. But when you ﬁnd someone who’s really talented, Ogilvy gets behind them.”

Identifying young potential is the ﬁrst step, and Ogilvy is creating internship programmes for those who can’t a ord the traditional route through advertising school. What about the issue of talent retention later down the line? Thulo admits that the hefty freelance rates commanded by black creatives, particularly in the current economy, are creating an exodus from agencies, but “perhaps it’s more to do with wanting creative freedom, having a bit more ﬂexibility or being entrepreneurial.” With Ogilvy currently top of the 2015 Loeries agency rankings, and last year’s merger with award-winning digital agency Gloo bringing “new energy into the building”, Thulo is happy right where he is.

“To say [SA’s creativity] is at a high level –we’d be lying to ourselves… we know we can do better.”

A master of the art of influence

How many likes did your last Instagram selfie or #avotoast pic get? Ten? Twenty? That’s chicken feed to 29-year-old influencer Gareth Pon, whose arresting landscapes and self-portraits can rack up 5,000 likes a pop. The photo-sharing platform is still in its infancy in South Africa but with 260,000 followers at the time of press, Pon is clearly one of the country’s leading lights

Imeet the photographer, filmmaker and consultant (he describes himself a ‘multi-faceted creative’) in a suitably ’gram-worthy café in the upmarket Sandton district. Tattooed baristas grind Fairtrade beans and perfect latte art, while outside a bustling street market sells vintage clothing, artisan cookies and jewellery. Dapper in a black fedora, Pon is the embodiment of the rainbow nation: half-Chinese, half-Mauritian by blood, but born and bred in Johannesburg. In true millennial fashion, his career has followed a meandering path through the creative industries, dipping his toe into fashion design,

retail marketing (creating high-tech window displays for the likes of Nike and Xbox), events and film production. He first experimented with Instagram in 2012, while studying for a degree in visual communications. “I was trying to work out what exactly this app did, how could I use it?” He ended up majoring in film while using Instagram as a platform to build up a photography profile. “In terms of style and subject matter, I’ll shoot whatever,” is how he describes his approach, “but one common theme I try to bring out is the level of emotion and relatability.” Pon’s landscapes are breathtaking even on a tiny iPhone screen –

a boat left high and dry on Mozambique’s ribbed sands; a volcano in Réunion scarred dramatically by a chalk-white path – but it’s the less conventionally photogenic settings that interrupt a scrolling thumb. Jo’burg will never rival Cape Town for stunning geography, but in the stark geometry of its cityscapes Pon reveals an unexpected beauty. “Portrayals [of Jo’burg] can be very negative, and there’s a lot of opportunity to break through that, to show the fun and beauty that isn’t normally seen,” he explains.

1 Vilankulo, Mozambique

2 Cityscape, Johannesburg

As Pon’s follower numbers swelled, he realised “how Instagram was a way to bring different ideas into the country – but also centralise and push something out as well.” Inspired by the chance to show another side of South Africa to the world, in 2013 he set up the country’s first official Instagram community, organising regular ‘Instameets’ for users and providing a platform for them to mingle, create and gain local and international exposure. At the time, he was working in film production, but when international media outlets such as Huffington Post and Instagram’s official blog spotlighted his account, he faced a career crossroads: set up his own production company or travel the world and research Instagram’s possibilities? He picked the latter, of course, and spent a few months “visiting different spots in Europe and the States, meeting and learning from the communities and how they did things overseas, because that activity wasn’t happening at all [in South Africa], yet.”

The age of the influencer is upon us

It’s this combination of research, marketing nous and creativity that has kept Pon at the top of the influencer food chain as the platform gains in popularity: South Africa user numbers have leapt from 1.1 million in 2014 to 2.68 million in 2015. He’s since seen “a lot of spin-off groups and other

communities being set up. People ask me if I get precious about it, but I don’t. It’s amazing.” While the cost of advertising schools is a major access barrier to the industry, Instagram has proved a democratic platform for creativity, says Pon. One of his favourite projects has been to organise and shoot the campaign film for South Africa’s first national Instameet: “My approach was simply [to show] how different colours can come together and explore diversity. Every [Instagrammer] had a different approach, so it’s seeing the value that all those differences can bring.”

On the commercial side, Pon has worked with creative agencies and brands, including Samsung (he holds the grand title of ‘digital imaging ambassador’), high-end hotel chain LUX* and the South African tourist board. He also consults on influencer marketing and Instagram strategies for

brands and individuals. How social media-aware are brands in South Africa? “To be honest, most still take a very conservative approach on social media,” says Pon, “and budgets are a fraction of those allocated to more traditional advertising [channels], like TV.” Why is that? Pon puts it down to South Africa’s mobile data limitations: “Not everyone will have access to 3 or 4G.”

Another sign of Instagram’s immaturity as a marketing space is the lack of influencer agencies, specialist companies identifying and connecting influencers with brands. “It’s getting there,” says Pon, pointing to Webfluentials, an influencer database, “but there are no traditional agencies representing [influencers] yet.” Asked if he’s been tempted to fill the gap himself, he says a photography studio with a creative management arm is “in the works” – he’s just trying to work

out the right business model. As an influencer himself, Pon knows all too well how “people won’t trust their creative to just anyone and [marketing] relationships need to be fluid, dynamic.”

Pon describes his hometown’s current vibe as progressive. “I like to think of Jo’burg as a small London; it’s got the same energy, it’s multicultural, there are lots of creative spaces opening up. There are markets in the malls, community drives, an emerging cycling culture…” For Pon, it’s all part of the region’s huge creative awakening: from film to art, once-derivative mindsets are moving to original thinking. “South Africans love to repurpose: we’ll take an idea that worked in London and do the same thing here. But now, I’m seeing a lot of people starting to think for themselves,” he concludes. “We’re realising we have unique stories to tell.” S

“I like to think of Jo’burg as a small London; it’s got the same energy, it’s very multi-cultural, there are lots of creative spaces opening up.”

The future vision of South Africa

Filmmaker Lebogang Rasethaba has always stood out – as a relatively well-off kid in Soweto, a black copywriter in South Africa’s predominantly white ad industry, and as a South African studying for a film

MA in Beijing. He combines his outsider’s insight and an eye for the cool and applies them to impactful documentaries and branded content that make a difference

At the ripe old age of 32, director and filmmaker Lebogang Rasethaba has done some phenomenal stuff. He’s released a globally acclaimed documentary. He’s co-founded Arcade, one of South Africa’s hottest new production companies. He studied for a Masters in film in Beijing and defended his degree in fluent Mandarin in front of a roomful of Chinese academics. However, he’s no match for a commonor-garden bee. The day before our meeting, Rasethaba gets stung on the neck and winds up in hospital. Luckily for all parties (except the now-deceased bee) there’s no lasting damage, and Rasethaba is able to join shots to talk about being part of South Africa’s new creative class and his adventures in the world of branded content.

Born in Soweto township in 1983, Rasethaba came into the world during a turbulent time in South Africa’s history. His “politically disruptive” father was being investigated by the South African Special Branch and fled to the US where he spent years in exile. It sounds like the plot of a tragic film, but Rasethaba insists his was a pretty normal background. “I would never say I was part of the ‘have-nots’,” he says firmly. “My mother was

training to become an attorney. We had a car, a TV, a VCR – and a hotplate.” Of course, crime was unavoidable, and from the age of six, Rasethaba would stand guard against theft… of apricots from the tree in their front yard.

Later, the family moved to the leafy, predominantly white suburb of Midrand, where for the first time Rasethaba “became aware of [my] blackness as something bad, or wrong, or ill-fitting in society”. The situation of being the “first black ‘something’” – and all its attendant issues – has touched his career at many points, most notably during his brief stint in the agency world. Working as a copywriter at JWT Cape Town, Rasethaba was struck by the “tangible absence of a black creative class” – particularly in an industry communicating to a black majority. Under-representation aside, “it was really nice to be exposed to that level of talent: we’ve got the most amazing cinematographers, storytellers, designers… Everybody that does something creative ends up in advertising.”

For Rasethaba, however, it was only ever a pit-stop and, after whiling away a year “writing random shit – poems to girls I liked, stories

about my friends – with no real intention of doing anything with it, just writing for the sake of writing” – he quit to do a Masters degree in film. Given the choice of studying abroad, most aspiring filmmakers would probably head to the birthplace of the silver screen, but Rasethaba chose China instead: “All the problems in the world come from Hollywood – all those representations of race and gender and class, and I didn’t want to be part of that. Why not go to a place where they use cinema for something completely different?”

I see a different South Africa

Five years later he was still in Beijing, making short films about “the hip-hop community –skaters, misfits, people who had dropped out of school to run clothing stores – the real marginalised in Chinese society”, whom he befriended by explaining the nuances in Nas’ and Biggie’s lyrics. He became fluent in Mandarin –albeit a slang-heavy version which made his professors blanch – and even defended his thesis in the language, a surreal experience in which he “rambled on for an hour about African

“I was one of the very few black filmmakers that had been given all these chances, money and resources, and I just never really lived up to the hype.”

1/2/3/4/5

“The

problem with South Africa is we often don’t realise how interesting, how valuable and how insightful our personal narratives are.”

cinema” to a roomful of Chinese academics, while the dean of the university sat on an elevated chair, clad in a red qipao.

Experiencing original sub-cultures, a side of China most foreigners never see, was fascinating territory for a filmmaker and Rasethaba says he could happily have stayed in the Middle Kingdom – but browsing through blogs he noticed a similar creative surge back home. “I was making films about cool Chinese kids doing cool stuff in China, but there were cool kids, like I See A Different You [see page 58], doing that in South Africa, too. I wanted to be a part of all the exciting things that were happening.”

Mixing the raw and the well-cooked Rasethaba wanted to come home to make documentaries that did more than just scratch the surface. “The problem with South Africa is we often don’t realise how interesting and how valuable and how insightful our personal narratives are,” he explains. “And we often cap ourselves. We say ‘No, we’ve done enough about that [particular subject].’ And I really don’t think we have.” In his documentary, Prisoner 46764,

Rasethaba covers the much-discussed antiapartheid struggle – but via an unsung hero of the movement, Andrew Mlangeni, who spent 26 years behind bars on Robben Island, while 2014’s Future Sound Of Mzansi explores South Africa’s underground electronic music scene in unprecedented depth and breadth.

Future Sound…, co-directed by acclaimed South African music producer Spoek Mathambo, was the film that made Rasethaba’s name; a paean to the unique sound of the cities and townships of his homeland. We’ve all heard of dubstep and deep house, but what about Durban qhum, which grew out of the city’s strong drug culture, or Shangaan electro, a musical expression of the eponymous tribe’s marginalisation?

For Rasethaba, the most interesting revelation of the film is how the internet has levelled the playing field for music-makers: “You’ve got all these different people producing these different sounds in response to their environment, and for the first time in history people have equal opportunities to share [those sounds] with consumers.” Critically acclaimed, the film has been screened around the world, including on VICE’s Thump channel.

Future Sound… was also the first time Rasethaba saw how the two worlds of “raw storytelling, with no filters or barriers to the characters” and “the highest-level production finish possible” could happily co-exist – a breakthrough realisation for his commercial work, which would ultimately lead to the formation of Arcade. Since signing to Egg Films in 2013, he’d been struggling with the transition from a lo-fi approach of shooting and editing everything himself, to “the fucking circus that is a team of 40 people who are all going to rally behind your vision.”

Recalling the first “very, very mediocre” TV commercials he made through Egg, Rasethaba can laugh, but at the time he felt “really shitty” for letting down Egg’s founder Colin Howard: “I was one of the very few black filmmakers that had been given all these chances, money and resources, and I just never really lived up to the hype.” He knew he had some talent as a director – the success of Future Sound Of Mzansi was

proof of that – but it didn’t fit the rigid confines of a 30- or 60-second spot.

What allowed Rasethaba to “deliver at [my] optimum level, creatively and narratively” turned out to be branded content. Early in 2015, together with Howard and producer Will Nicholson, Rasethaba launched Arcade as a new division of Egg, devoted to commercial films combining a more minimal, guerrilla style of shooting with the backup of an established production company.

With a growing reel of films for the likes of Ballantines x Boiler Room, Absolut, Red Bull and adidas, Rasethaba is confident that he’s found his niche: “I’m never going to make a really good advert for sugar, but what I can do is help a brand interact with a subculture in an interesting way.” And while he’ll “never claim to be some pioneer or maverick on branded content, what I have been able to do is negotiate how these two [elements] come together, because I understand both of them quite independently of the other. That’s what brands want and what content needs to be.”

He points to a recent project, Ziyabanda for Castle Lite beer, featuring a song made by sampling ice-related sounds and recorded at -2.5C (the temperature at which the beer is ‘lagered’) as an example of a local brand that’s taken a leap of faith and been rewarded. “We’re taking a chance with people that are willing to take chances with us,” is how he explains Arcade’s approach. “Maybe some stuff will fail, but if the stars align and shit comes together, it will be pretty amazing.”

The future plans of Rasethaba Rasethaba’s year ahead sounds pretty amazing too, with plans to grow Arcade’s roster of directors (“We need to. I’m swamped and I don’t like saying no to work.”) and two big projects slated for release – an MTV documentary on race in South Africa and the highly anticipated follow-up to Future Sound… – which look set to cement his status as one of Johannesburg’s creative luminaries. And for now, that’s exactly where he wants to be. “Sure, I guess I could go to Cape Town and be a hip young filmmaker, but I don’t want that shit. I want to be part of a class of people that are actually going to be remembered one day as having had an impact on our society.”

“I’m never going to make a really good advert for sugar, but what I can do is help a brand interact with a subculture in an interesting way.”

1/2/3 Ballantines x Boiler Room

4 Castle Lite, Ziyabanda

Missions to fly, alchemy to perform

With such stunts as staging a UFO crash to promote a futuristic energy drink, agency Joe Public is proving that the galaxy is the limit when it comes to its creativity. As CCO Pepe Marais and ECD Xolisa Dyeshana reveal, they have several mission statements, along with doing ‘epic work’, they aim to inspire social change, celebrate diversity and turn their bronze Lions into gold

Liberty can be a very hard-won thing. Just ask Pepe Marais, co-founder and CCO of South Africa’s biggest independent advertising group, Joe Public. In the agency’s Jo’burg o ce hangs a glass box containing a pen, a Champagne cork and a contract, dated 26 January 2009 with the words ‘Never ever sell your soul’ scrawled on it. It’s a daily reminder of Joe Public’s turbulent fortunes, which have risen and dipped like a dodgy sou é since 1998, when Marais and partner Gareth Leck ﬁrst opened the agency. Following early success with the (then) revolutionary concept of ‘takeaway advertising’ [low cost, more accessible work], the business was sold to DraftFCB, but the partnership wasn’t a prosperous one for Joe Public. In 2006, things went from bad to worse: their biggest client left, rendering the agency practically bankrupt. The silver lining? Share values plummeted, allowing Leck and Marais to buy back Joe Public and restart with a handful of sta . “It’s quite a business to get yourself back from an international holding company,” concludes Marais ruefully. Hence the ‘shrine’.

Since its rebirth in 2009, the agency’s rise has been meteoric. Joe Public Jo’burg’s sta has grown to 200, while the group now encompasses a brand design agency, a PR agency and a business activation agency, plus o ces in Cape Town, Namibia and Amsterdam. Its roster of top clients includes Nedbank, Nike and burger chain Steers.

When shots meets Marais and his charismatic ECD, Xolisa Dyeshana, it’s the hectic preChristmas period and the pair are “in the trenches”, but brimming over with enthusiasm for their latest project – an integrated experiential campaign for food and beverage giant FutureLife, which launched the previous day. Having teased consumers on Twitter with hoax UFO sightings, Joe Public engineered a ‘spaceship crash’ in

central Johannesburg: as o cials in hazmat suits examined the smoking wreck, they revealed boxes of a new, futuristic drink. Social media went wild. The stunt rounds o a successful year for the agency, which picked up a slew of Loeries and three bronze Lions in Outdoor, Promo & Activation, and Film. The latter, for Dialdirect’s The Notebook ended a bit of a drought for South Africa in ﬁlm, with a Greg Gray-directed tearjerker about a little boy who does all the chores so that his harried mum can attend his school play. Chasing Lions with local relevance

Marais and Dyeshana want to turn those bronzes into golds. “We have huge growth potential, we want to do epic work,” says Marais. “We really feel that we’re at the beginning of our decade. We’ve been focusing on local awards for many years, but now we’re starting to shift our focus to Cannes.”

With three ‘equivalent calibre’ spots lined up for 2016, Marais says ﬁlm is the agency’s best hope for global success. That’s not to sideline the use of new media, which “have caught up with us quicker than many anticipated”, says Dyeshana, quoting the success of the FutureLife campaign.

Of course, there’s a danger in chasing Lions: the work risks becoming Eurocentric. Dyeshana insists though that “local relevance is something [Joe Public] will strive to keep because it’s the soul of our work… the balance is always to keep it real for our market ﬁrst.” Having been recently named chairman of the Creative Circle, the body dedicated to improving South African advertising’s creative standards, developing a “proudly South African aesthetic” is an issue close to Dyeshana’s heart. “From a [local] awards point of view, you have to ask yourself have we promoted that kind of work, have we put structures in place to recognise it? And we haven’t,” he concludes. However, he is hopeful

that “going forward, we’ll start seeing work that is a lot more celebratory of our di erent South African cultures and our combined South African culture as well – whatever that looks like.”

Local ﬂavour is important, but the agency is also committed to “ﬁnding a higher meaning” in its work, says Marais, referencing a recent anti-underage drinking campaign, Be The Mentor, for the country’s top beer brand, SAB. “We found an angle that’s more inspiring than just ‘drink beer’, and if we pick up more liquor business in the future, we’d probably use the opportunity to make important statements.” It’s all part of Joe Public’s mandate to inspire social change. “We talk about ‘an ecosystem of growth’, because we believe in the growth of our clients, which feeds the growth of our people, which feeds the growth of our country,” explains Dyeshana. “South Africa has so many social challenges because of its past: businesses exist as part of a community and we all have a contribution to make.”

One such contribution has been the Loeries E ectiveness-winning CSR programme, One School At A Time, working with underprivileged schools in the Jo’burg townships of Soweto and Diepsloot. “The school system feeds an economy with huge growth potential; so ﬁx education and you ﬁx the economy,” says Marais. Many of the agency’s sta come from underprivileged schools, so “people are inspired by the fact that not only are we catering for ourselves as Joe Public but also for their wellbeing, and the country as a whole,” adds Dyeshana. Looking to the future, the self-billed ‘creative partners in crime’ are feeling “very optimistic” about the industry’s prospects, and South Africa as a whole. “There are huge things that not everyone agrees on, but that’s the stu that creates the next big wave of change,” concludes Marais. “The country is in turmoil, but what better place is there to be now?” S

“Local relevance is something we will strive to keep because it’s the soul of our work…”

““We have huge growth potential. We’re at the beginning of our decade.”

“The country is in turmoil, but what better place is there to be now?”

Pepe Marais, CCO

“…businesses exist as part of a community and we all have a contribution to make.”

Xolisa Dyeshana, ECD

A certain style of positivity

With their swagtastic street-style threads, awardwinning branded photo series, collaborations with names such as Diesel, Grant’s and Visa and their infectiously positive attitudes, the members of Soweto-based creative collective, I See A Diﬀerent You, are showing the world the more chic and hopeful side of their troubled Jo’burg township, and of South Africa as a whole

“No matter where you are, in any part of the world, there is positivity around you.”

The guiding principle of Soweto-based creative collective, I See A Different You (ISADY) is more than just a tagline, judging by the beaming smiles and ready laughs of founders Innocent Mukheli and Vuyo Mpantsha (the third, Innocent’s twin brother, Justice, is away on a shoot) and ECD Neo Mashigo, during our Skype interview. Despite a dodgy internet link and a distance of some 8,000 miles, their chutzpah lights up the laptop screen. Turns out there’s plenty to smile about: they’ve just spent two months shooting around South Africa for a new photo series, SA Kings; they’ve secured a slew of lucrative brand collaborations and, to top it off, won the 2015 AdFocus New Broom award, which recognises groundbreaking young talent shaping the local industry.

Life through an optimistic lens

It’s a long way from the humble blog that the Mukheli twins and their childhood friend Mpantsha started in 2011, when they were junior creatives at FCB Johannesburg. Keen amateur photographers, they came up with the idea for ISADY following a business trip to Kenya, where Innocent was struck by the difference between popular preconceptions (“I thought it would be all tall people and poverty”) and the “cool and beautiful” reality he discovered. Back in the sprawling Johannesburg township of Soweto, where the trio had grown up riding bicycles and playing soccer outside at night, kept an eye on by friendly neighbours (“Everyone was your parent in the ’hood,”) they decided to challenge the mass-media image of burnt-out cars, riot police and grubby kids, through a more optimistic lens. “If you’re always fed negativity, you start believing it,” agrees Mashigo, who, having mentored the trio throughout their agency

Editorial shoot for True Love magazine

“[Clients] are making us part of the process rather than just telling us what to shoot because they want us to help bring this idea of a ‘pure’ South African voice to life.”

Neo Mashigo, ECD (not pictured)

I See A Different You founders (from left) Innocent Mukheli, Vuyo Mpantsha and Justice Mukheli

“At first people were very

conservative

and would

dress according to what

they

saw on international style blogs. But now they’re starting to show their personalities. And the style is very diverse: old school mixed with urban; tailoring; African prints and patterns.”

years, recently left his role as co-ECD at Ogilvy & Mather Johannesburg to be executive creative director of the collective full-time. “We wanted to create a feeling that no matter where you are, in any part of the world, there is positivity around you – it’s just what you choose to look at.”

Shooting around Soweto, the neighbouring township of Alexandra and Johannesburg’s many suburbs – in locations deliberately chosen for

1 Township Weekends

2 (From left) Justice Mukheli, Vuyo Mpantsha and Innocent Mukheli

3 Visa, The Children of Sky: an orphanage in Kliptown, Soweto

their dodgy reputations – they began capturing a colourful cast of neighbours, family and local characters, even putting themselves in the frame. A burgeoning local street-style scene was already gathering pace, thanks to groups such as the ‘Swenkas’ – working-class Zulu dandies who’d gather to strut their stuff in fashion shows-cumbeauty contests – and ISADY’s eclectic mix of swag, including brogues, denim jumpsuits, Starsky & Hutch-style leather coats and sharp suits, perfectly caught the zeitgeist.

“At first people were very conservative and would dress according to what they saw on international style blogs,” notes Innocent. “But now they’re starting to show their personalities. And the style is very diverse: old school mixed with urban; tailoring; African prints and patterns.” It wasn’t long before the international fashion pack picked up the scent, and in 2013 denim giant Diesel and EDUN chose ISADY to front the new Studio Africa collection, alongside rising African film and music stars.

They’ve proved to be much more than mere clotheshorses, harnessing their huge social influence for brands as diverse as Grant’s whisky and Visa. For the latter’s 2015 #MyEverywhere campaign, promoting Johannesburg’s hiddengem travel activities, they conceived, shot and starred in a raft of video content covering everything from thrift store bargain-hunting to cruising town with a local hipster cycling club.

Tribal chiefs and turntables

Having quit their nine-to-fives, the trio remain grateful for the ‘amazing learning opportunities’ of their agency background; a boon both in terms of having credibility with clients and the knowhow to grow their own brand strategically, always a concern for influencers. And with a prominent industry figure in the form of Mashigo, the current Loeries chairman, at their creative helm, ISADY looks set to go from strength to strength. Following local awards success, the aim is to win international

“We wanted to create a feeling that no matter where you are, in any part of the world, there is positivity around you –it’s just what you choose to look at.”

advertising plaudits: “It’s a competitive industry, so it’s important to stay up there,” says Innocent. Beyond their personal goals, the team are excited about ISADY’s potential to shape a uniquely South African advertising aesthetic. “[Clients] are making us part of the process rather than just telling us what to shoot,” says Mashigo, “because they want us to help bring this idea of a ‘pure’ South African voice to life.”

2016 will see a 50-50 split of commercial and artistic work, and the unveiling in May of SA Kings, a photo exhibition exploring the legacy and descendants of South Africa’s tribal chiefs. Dethroned during the apartheid era and replaced by regime-approved puppets, “They were the original freedom fighters, but their stories have never been told,” explains Mashigo.

ISADY is also dabbling in DJ-ing; their debut album of electronic music is due out soon. Given their passion for fashion, could a collection be on the cards? “People are always saying we should do a collaboration with H&M,” laughs Innocent. “But we want to do things right and not rush it.”

There’s obviously plenty of substance behind ISADY’s style, and the team seem refreshingly unfazed by their fame. Asked what it means to be the faces of young, black creativity in the region, the response is hoots of bemused laughter: “Poster boys? We didn’t know that’s what we were… we’re just boys from Soweto!”

Going native: Johannesburg

You can enjoy a trip to this buzzy, eclectic city with your nerves and your wallet intact, if you avoid doing anything stupid and you get out of the malls, says Brad Reilly, ECD at Net#workBBDO Johannesburg

If Johannesburg were a product, what would it be?

Tequila. The ﬁrst shot is taken with a measure of apprehension, but once it’s in, it feels kinda good and ends up being pretty fun.

One table, four places. You and who?

Haruki Murakami [author], Desmond Tutu and Kate Moss… playing strip poker.

What’s Johannesburg’s favourite pastime?

Shopping. It’s difﬁcult to avoid the malls, and with Jo’burg being the City Of Gold, where people come to make their money, that money begs to be spent and Jo’burgers happily oblige. Beyond the malls however, there are more eclectic options in the form of weekend markets, like Neighbourgoods and

What’s the best thing about working in advertising in South Africa?

The amount of work you get to produce. Lots of work equals lots of opportunity.

And the worst thing?

The amount of work you have to produce. The sheer volume means that we struggle for time to craft work to its ultimate level.

If you were booking a hotel in Johannesburg, where would you stay?

54 on Bath in Rosebank is well positioned to explore the different parts of the city: the business district, Sandton, the parks etc.

There are decent bars and restaurants nearby, you can walk to the Gautrain and it has a cool rooftop terrace for breakfast that makes you feel like you’re eating among the trees.

What do you miss when you are out of the city?

The late afternoon summer thundershowers. My family.

What’s the best South African ad you have seen in the last year?

Given the context of this article, I would say the best piece of South Africana that came out last year was the Santam Insurance spot, One Of A Kind, which reﬂected South Africa through the conversations of foreigners. It was a light-hearted look in the mirror that negotiated both the good and the bad.

Who do you/would you love to work with in the industry?

My old art director, Jonathan Santana, who, unfortunately, is now too many miles away working at Mother London.

Where’s the best place to eat in Johannesburg?

The Leopard in Melville is a really cool little chef-owned restaurant that always manages to surprise with its small, but constantly changing menu of eclectic fusions. It’s got a down-toearth cuisine feel that makes every visit special.

And the best place to have a drink?

Hell’s Kitchen, which is round the corner from

The Leopard, so no Uber required. Alternatively, a Sunday sunset at the Living Room in Maboneng looking over the city and sipping on a naughty cocktail.

What advice would you give to a visitor?

Relax – people often arrive with preconceived notions that Jo’burg is a recreation of Grand Theft Auto

Jo’burg has dos and don’ts like any city in the world, and if you don’t do anything stupid, you should make it out with some good memories and your wallet. Get out of Sandton – too many visitors go there and never leave the mall. There are many other amazing areas: bohemian Melville, hipster Braamfontein, the Afropolitan Maboneng and the cosmopolitan and historic metropolis of Soweto. Jo’burg is a city that can only be explored by car and Uber is strong here, so no excuses.

The Farmers’ Market and creative retail hubs, like 44 Stanley Ave and 27Boxes.

What’s your one-line life philosophy?

What’s the worst that could happen?

If you could have one question answered, what would it be?

What’s the worst that can happen? S

Santam, One Of A Kind 8 Local Soweto transport –hop on, hop off

“People often arrive with the notion that Jo’burg is a recreation of Grand Theft Auto.”

What will Dubai Lynx 2016 reveal of creativity in the Middle East and North Africa regions? In advance of the festival Joe Lancaster talks to four jury presidents – Susan Credle, Anathea Ruys, Laura Gregory and PJ Pereira – about such issues as the point of a local awards show for local people, the pros – or cons – of the foreigner’s gaze and the wisdom of withholding the top gong

the LYNX effect

In recent years, as advertising folk have come to find themselves rubbing shoulders with increasing numbers of clients at award show bars around the world, we’ve seen a huge boom in the mini-yet-lucrative creative awards industry. It makes sense; if the people with the money are taking an interest in these trophies, ad people should probably be trying to win them.

Naturally everyone wants to get their hands on the international prizes that are acknowledged globally, but what about local competitions? Do we need them? Some people think not – i.e. your best work should be world class and therefore good enough to compete at international shows. But, when winning a Lion is so difficult, perhaps it’s good to have a chance of being recognised at a local level, where you’re not up against work from potentially more liberal markets, and where clients you actually have a shot at winning will more likely be watching.

Since 2007, Dubai Lynx has provided that local platform for creative work from the Middle East and North Africa region. But although it’s admittedly big business for Lions Festivals, which runs Dubai Lynx, it isn’t a case of just raking in entry fees and dishing out awards to the best of the received work, regardless of its standard. Not if the juries have anything to do with it (which, of course, they do).

Traditionally, very few Grands Prix have been won at Dubai Lynx, with just seven handed out last year across 15 categories (two campaigns won twice) and a meagre four top honours awarded in 2014. Does that mean that MENA is trailing behind the more prolific ad markets like the UK and USA? In terms of the quantity of creative work, probably. But don’t think of it as a region stuck in the past. In fact, most of last year’s Grands Prix came in non-traditional categories like Promo & Activation, Interactive, and Branded Content and Entertainment, rather than the likes of Film, Radio, or Print, which all yielded none. There is exciting work coming out of MENA and as David Lubars said in 2015, having chaired several juries at the festival, “The jury and I saw some work that is as good as any in the world.”

Possibly in an effort to enhance international awareness, credibility, and potentially even impartiality, Lynx jury presidents tend to come from outside the MENA region and this year, the tenth in the festival’s history, is no different. What will they be looking for? Can they tap into the idiosyncrasies of the region’s myriad cultures –more diverse than the whole of Europe’s? Does it matter? We spoke to four of them to find out.

SUSAN CREDLE

Global CCO, FCB

Film/Print/Outdoor/Radio/ Print & Outdoor Craft/ Integrated president

What attracted you to the role of jury president for Dubai Lynx?

The festival’s commitment to creativity is obvious from the overall quality of the work coming out of MENA. That, plus the fact that no Grand Prix was awarded in Film, Print, Outdoor, Radio or Integrated last year means standards are high. I’m interested in every region that takes creativity seriously. When they asked me to participate, there was only one possible answer – nem fielaan [‘Yes’ in Arabic].

Why do you think regional festivals are important?

Regional festivals allow more people to participate in the celebration of creativity. In doing so, they raise the standard of the global conversation we need to have about what constitutes great work. Winning regionally also raises the confidence of young talent and encourages them to take more risks. Nothing’s more important for building an environment that will produce great work.

What’s your approach to presiding over a jury of your peers?

When I lead a jury the first thing I bring into the room is respect for the other jurors. As president, I try to make sure the dialogue is fair and balanced. More often than not, I restate opinions rather than express my own. I also make it clear that it is more important to put a great show together than to let politics govern one’s voting. For the sake of our industry, we must realise judging is an honour. And we must respect why we are here. This is not about helping our agencies and networks to win. The winners must inspire us all to use creativity to solve problems for our clients and the world.

Do you think splitting work by media type is the best way of categorising for award shows rather than, for example, judging all car ads against each other regardless of the media type used?

I think film is film no matter where it shows up. I do think the amount of time one is given to express oneself creates an unfair judging situation. Thirty-second, or four-minute or 15-minute films will all require completely different skill sets and they should be judged accordingly. And where films show up is about a media buy, not necessarily the creative product.

Now, if you are asking should we judge ideas in totality for a category like cars, regardless of the way those ideas are expressed – technology, experiential, new product, design, film, PR, print, social – that’s an interesting thought and perhaps the purest way to express the concept of media agnostic. I’d like to see how to put a jury together for that.

“For the sake of our industry, we must realise judging is an honour. And we must respect why we are here. This is not about helping our agencies and networks to win.”

the LYNX effect

SUSAN CREDLE

Global CCO, FCB

Film/Print/Outdoor/Radio/ Print & Outdoor Craft/ Integrated president

What attracted you to the role of jury president for Dubai Lynx?

Why do you think regional festivals are important?

What’s your approach to presiding over a jury of your peers?

Do you think splitting work by media type is the best way of categorising for award shows rather than, for example, judging all car ads against each other regardless of the media type used?

“For the sake of our industry, we must realise judging is an honour. And we must respect why we are here. This is not about helping our agencies and networks to win.”

What will you be looking for in the work?

Every time I have served on an international jury, I have been amazed at how often we all gravitate towards the same work regardless of our geographical individuality. We love work that is human, emotional, solves a problem, progresses our thinking or is simply beautiful. Great work deserves to be in our world. It transcends the word ‘advertising’. It becomes content that stands.

No Grands Prix were awarded in your categories last year. Is it healthy for juries to withhold top honours? What will it take to win one in 2016?

The pressure on juries to award a Grand Prix definitely exists. We want the shows to be euphoric, a celebration. Clearly, “no Grand Prix was given in this category” is a bummer. But if we simply fill in the blank with the best of what was entered this year, we dumb down the show. It is important to keep the bar high or the show will lose credibility.

Can people from overseas judge regional awards with the same insight as locals who might better understand the different cultures of the markets?

Great work speaks of human truths. And cultural sensibilities are really frames and prisms on those truths. Our job is to extract the cultural context from the case study, without letting it influence our view of the creativity or importance of the work.

Does coming from overseas make a judge more impartial?

I’m reading a book by Dan Ariely, The Honest Truth About Dishonesty: How We Lie to Everyone – Especially Ourselves, which includes a look at conflicts of interest, and I do think having less of an awareness of the regional competition among agencies, of the regional biases of agencies and talent helps me be slightly more impartial.

ANATHEA RUYS

Head of Fuse, APAC

Branded Content & Entertainment president

What attracted you to the role of jury president for Dubai Lynx?

Two of my personal favourite pieces of work when I was judging the Branded Content & Entertainment category at Cannes Lions last year came from MENA so I’m really excited to see more of what the region has to share.

“I love the idea of celebrating the nuances that make each region different. With content specifically, that nuance is really important to acknowledge.”

Why do you think regional festivals are important?

I love the idea of celebrating the nuances that make each region different. With content specifically, that nuance is really important to acknowledge. Look at the cuttingedge creativity so prevalent across Brazilian content, the way a small budget can unlock brilliance in a market like New Zealand, how strong UGC is in the Philippines and the complete dominance of Bollywood content in India. While they all are relevant on a global stage, it’s absolutely fitting to recognise the work that is being done regionally. We also have to acknowledge that different regions are at different stages of development when it comes to using branded content as a way to connect with people. Out of the finalists and medallists at Cannes in 2015 there were only a handful from Asia and MENA. That means there is plenty of opportunity for growth on that global platform, but it’s important to recognise the fantastic work that is being done and how that is growing the category and communications in general.

What do you think makes a great piece of branded content?

It has to be something that when you engage with it you understand why and how the brand is part of it – that there is a genuine reason for the brand to have been part of it. It has to provide something of value – entertainment, information, experience, social currency – which means it has to be led by what people want to hear, not what brands want to say.

Do you have any pet hates regarding ad award shows?

Don’t enter a piece of work into several categories without editing the video and changing the written entry. There’s nothing more frustrating than watching a video in the Best Use of Branded Content in Print that launches with “We made a video.” And remember that everyone says “Best of all, we started a national conversation.” You probably didn’t! But that doesn’t mean it wasn’t a great piece of branded content.

What will you be looking for in the work?

At heart I am a media girl so I want to see that something has worked. I love that creativity and innovation drives business results and I want to see that. I want to see well-crafted entries that don’t make me work too hard to find the gold. Consumers won’t jump through hoops to engage with our content and we need to be able to express ourselves clearly, concisely and in interesting ways. I want to be challenged, I want to feel uncomfortable and I want to feel jealous of the work people are doing. Mostly, I want to leave feeling proud of the work we have selected.

Less than half of the festival’s categories garnered a Grand Prix last year. Is it healthy for juries to withhold top honours? What will it take to win one in your category? I can only speak for the jury I was part of last year, which was the Branded Content and Entertainment jury at Cannes. We wanted to award a Grand Prix. We worked very hard to do so. And we had some incredible pieces of work to consider. The jury agreed that if the not-for-profit entries were eligible there would probably have been a Grand Prix. But none of us felt there was a single piece of work that cut across the individual categories and stood out as the work that would define the category in 2015. I’m stealing David Lubars’ approach from last year in wanting this jury to walk away feeling proud we have seen and awarded the pinnacle of the category in this region.

Does coming from overseas make a judge more impartial?

It probably helps that I won’t necessarily have seen all the content we’re judging but I don’t know that ‘overseas’ really means much these days. I am an Australian, who lived in NZ for over a decade, who now lives in Singapore and works across varied Asian markets, who is fully connected with the work created by her global network with offices in over a hundred countries! I think we have to rely on personality and intent to keep judging impartial.

LAURA GREGORY

Founder and executive producer, Great Guns London

Film Craft president

What attracted you to the role of jury president for Dubai Lynx and what’s your impression of MENA advertising?

I was invited to speak last year, which was my first year at Dubai Lynx. The attendees were keen to network, attend all seminars, and share their work with the world. It’s a fast-growing festival and I can see it becoming one of the key global festivals in the future.

What’s your approach to presiding over a jury of your peers?

Usually the jury will meet for the first time on the first morning the jury sits. We discuss the overall role of the jury and the outcome we’re aiming for. The juries I have led and served on have always had personalities, some large and some quiet, but all have a background of outstanding achievements which define the reason they have a seat on the jury. It’s a given that they will have valuable insights, feelings and emotions to share. The best work always rises to the top and little is missed. Sometimes it takes an impassioned speech to revisit a decision, but that’s the fun of a strong jury. Some are so impassioned it takes your breath away. The best juries are where we have a unanimous decision and find a gem that could have gone unrecognised.

I have never left a single jury without feeling empowered and enriched by the intense time I have spent in a dark room with my peers.

What will you be looking for in the work?

Greatness in every aspect.

Last year there was no Grand Prix awarded in Film Craft and only two campaigns won gold. Is it healthy for juries to withhold top honours? No award is given, it is earned.

You recently signed a brilliant Cairo-based director, Omar Hilal. What do you think of MENA filmmaking talent in general and how can it be developed?

The local talent is developing fast but there are still only two major talents in my mind who can work in any market in the world: Omar and Ali Ali. Their work is of a standard that is as good as any director anywhere in the world. We need to see more local directors coming through. Perhaps the volume of good content work makes this a slow process. Some of the more interesting directors come from the agency creative side too, like Omar and Ali Ali. I don’t think that’s a surprise – when they work with so many international directors, they learn fast and lower budgets give them a chance to direct.

“The best juries are where we have a unanimous decision and find a gem that could have gone unrecognised. I have never left a single jury without feeling empowered and enriched by the intense time I have spent in a dark room with my peers.”

Do you think it takes a local director to capture the right feel for a film?

Not at all. Performance is performance the world round, an idea is an idea, and sometimes a nonlocal director sees things in another location that the local director might take for granted. Did Richard Attenborough need to be a local to direct Gandhi, or Danny Boyle to direct Slumdog Millionaire, or Bertolucci to direct Last Emperor?

How much impact does budget have in this category? Can a low-budget film compete with an expensive one? Budget has no impact at all.

Do you have any pet hates regarding ad award shows?

The gong dinners are always too long and the winning work is shown on a bad screen/sound system and everyone’s talking and eating and couldn’t care less. Put the money into a cracking party and website and VR tour of the best work? I don’t know what the answer is.

What else will you do during your stay in Dubai?

When I leave the darkness of the jury room, I’ll sleep and enjoy Dubai’s best restaurants. My top tip is Qbara.

PJ PEREIRA

CCO and co-founder, Pereira & O’Dell San Francisco

Direct/Promo & Activation/ Interactive and Mobile president

Why do you think regional festivals are important?

There are some ideas that only do well in these smaller, local shows. Ideas that count too much on specific cultural traits. One of my favorite campaigns ever is for a milk brand in Brazil, but no one outside LatAm has ever heard of it. On the agency side, for those who

“We [the jury] are there to be the eyes and the ears of the world, not the holders of the truth. To listen and spot brilliance, not to make a point. To learn, not to teach.”

“Foreigners bring outsider eyes to help shine light over things that would really impress the rest of the world, but the regionalisms will never be spotted by one of us.”

understand award shows as a sign they’re doing something right (as it should be), local awards allow you to get that level of reassurance on the work that doesn’t have a global accent but is still really good.

In new media categories (e.g. Mobile), is there a danger for entrants to focus too much on the medium rather than the idea? That is true of any new format. Meta-ideas that use the medium as part of the idea are a great way to get a point across, but eventually the formula gets tired. It happened with the web, for example, when ideas that played with roll overs, and cursors etc. finally got retired. But every now and then you see something brilliant that still uses a particular technique as the central idea, and if that still widens my mouth, that’s just fine. The worst thing a jury can do is get in there with opinions so strong that they will prevent them from liking something that is different from that. We are there to be the eyes and the ears of the world, not the holders of the truth. To listen, learn and spot brilliance, not to make a point.

Pereira & O’Dell’s mantra is, ‘What if advertising were invented today?’ How does that fit in with the way award shows split work by the media used?

I bet if we were inventing advertising now, we wouldn’t worry so much about formats, just like it must have been at the start of this industry.

I think one day every big show will reflect that perspective. Every top creative I’ve talked to seems to agree. But the reality is our business still works with these ‘divisions’ and having the categories allows us, or rather forces us, to look at the work from different angles so more great work can be recognised. If there is only one way of looking at something, no matter how great this way may be, it is still a limited look in an industry that should be all about variety and diversity.

Do you have any pet hates regarding ad award shows?

Not sure which one I dislike the most out of the following…

1) Judges who go there who are more interested in making a point than in learning from the work.

2) Work that spends more money and energy on the case study than the work itself.

3) Jargon-filled entries.

What will you be looking for in the work?

A feeling. That ‘Damn! I wish that was mine!’ or ‘I wish I was capable of doing that!’ kind of feeling. Anything else is inappropriate.

Less than half of the festival’s categories garnered a Grand Prix last year. Is it healthy for juries to withhold top honours? What will it take to win one in your categories? There is a lot of pressure to find a Grand Prix that unites all traces of greatness in a campaign. And that rarely happens. We can, as an industry, decide that only those expressions of the advertising gods will win a GP, or we can choose a simpler path: the best work wins. I subscribe to the second group. The best work – nothing more, nothing less – deserves the biggest of the awards. And there will always be one that stands out. Even if it’s not as good as the previous year, that work deserves to be made big. Denying the category a Grand Prix is a decision that shouldn’t be taken lightly or give anyone pride. I hope it doesn’t happen with us.

Can people from overseas judge regional awards with the same insight as locals who might better understand the cultures of the markets concerned?

No. Foreigners bring outsiders’ eyes to help shine light over things that would really impress the rest of the world, but the regionalisms will never be spotted by one of us.

Does coming from overseas make a judge more impartial?

It helps. In other shows I’ve judged I’ve seen a single foreigner make a difference. Because this person doesn’t understand the local politics, it’s hard for other judges to defend points of view that aren’t strictly related to the work.

what kind of execution are you looking for?

What will you be looking for in the work?

No Grands Prix were awarded in your categories last year. Is it healthy for juries to withhold top honours? What will it take to win one in 2016?

Can people from overseas judge regional awards with the same insight as locals who might better understand the different cultures of the markets?

Does coming from overseas make a judge more impartial?

ANATHEA RUYS

Head of Fuse, APAC

Branded Content & Entertainment president

What attracted you to the role of jury president for Dubai Lynx?

“I love the idea of celebrating the nuances that make each region different. With content specifically, that nuance is really important to acknowledge.”

Why do you think regional festivals are important?

What do you think makes a great piece of branded content?

Do you have any pet hates regarding ad award shows?

What will you be looking for in the work?

Does coming from overseas make a judge more impartial?

FROM THE SPARK TO THE BIG FINISH.

Magnet is Dubai’s first creatively driven integrated content production lab. By combining content production with in-house creative capabilities, we are more than just producers, we actively participate in the creative process with our clients in order to deliver great content.

PHOTO: MARTIN BECK

LAURA GREGORY

Founder and executive producer, Great Guns London

Film Craft president

What attracted you to the role of jury president for Dubai Lynx and what’s your impression of MENA advertising?

What’s your approach to presiding over a jury of your peers?

I have never left a single jury without feeling empowered and enriched by the intense time I have spent in a dark room with my peers.

What will you be looking for in the work?

Greatness in every aspect.

Last year there was no Grand Prix awarded in Film Craft and only two campaigns won gold. Is it healthy for juries to withhold top honours? No award is given, it is earned.

You recently signed a brilliant Cairo-based director, Omar Hilal. What do you think of MENA filmmaking talent in general and how can it be developed?

“The best juries are where we have a unanimous decision and find a gem that could have gone unrecognised. I have never left a single jury without feeling empowered and enriched by the intense time I have spent in a dark room with my peers.”

Do you think it takes a local director to capture the right feel for a film?

How much impact does budget have in this category? Can a low-budget film compete with an expensive one? Budget has no impact at all.

Do you have any pet hates regarding ad award shows?

What else will you do during your stay in Dubai?

When I leave the darkness of the jury room, I’ll sleep and enjoy Dubai’s best restaurants. My top tip is Qbara.

PJ PEREIRA

CCO and co-founder, Pereira & O’Dell San Francisco

Direct/Promo & Activation/ Interactive and Mobile president

Why do you think regional festivals are important?

“We [the jury] are there to be the eyes and the ears of the world, not the holders of the truth. To listen and spot brilliance, not to make a point. To learn, not to teach.”

“Foreigners bring outsider eyes to help shine light over things that would really impress the rest of the world, but the regionalisms will never be spotted by one of us.”

Pereira & O’Dell’s mantra is, ‘What if advertising were invented today?’ How does that fit in with the way award shows split work by the media used?

I bet if we were inventing advertising now, we wouldn’t worry so much about formats, just like it must have been at the start of this industry.

Do you have any pet hates regarding ad award shows?

Not sure which one I dislike the most out of the following…

1) Judges who go there who are more interested in making a point than in learning from the work.

2) Work that spends more money and energy on the case study than the work itself.

3) Jargon-filled entries.

What will you be looking for in the work?

A feeling. That ‘Damn! I wish that was mine!’ or ‘I wish I was capable of doing that!’ kind of feeling. Anything else is inappropriate.

Can people from overseas judge regional awards with the same insight as locals who might better understand the cultures of the markets concerned?

No. Foreigners bring outsiders’ eyes to help shine light over things that would really impress the rest of the world, but the regionalisms will never be spotted by one of us.

Does coming from overseas make a judge more impartial?

1 MacBook Air

everyone has a laptop these days, but my little 13” MacBook Air is a wonder and I use it in so many ways it’s hard to elaborate without writing a book. It’s so useful for me personally, and professionally, and is so light and sturdy that I pretty much carry it with me everywhere. I was filming in the remote mountains in central America recently, and just tucked it into my backpack for a week.

Seene

one of my favourite apps. It’s basically Instagram but for 3D photos. While you take a picture, you rotate your phone slightly and essentially what your phone does is create a small 3D scan of the subject, which allows you to see the photo in 3D afterwards. the whole process takes a matter of seconds, but the results are stunning. here are a few nice examples:

seene.co/s/tPhfXA

seene.co/s/xejBte

seene.co/s/7h2PcD

seene.co/s/bqQkLk

3 Canon Mark III

My trusty old camera, it’s travelled everywhere with me, and been a part of countless adventures and projects. I am considering – with a heavy heart – replacing it with something smaller now.

4 HTC Vive VR headset

I’m working with a small team on a VR game called Storm, which launched last year. We’re now improving it and we have just received a Vive developer kit, from the folks at [software platform] steam, to port the game over. It’s an eye-opening experience, when you’re submerged in a virtual environment and your VR headset is tracking your movements in 3D space.

favourite kit anrick Bregman Director, unit9

5 Sony VPL-EX7 projector

I got my old projector for an installation I did years ago with my good friend Luciano. the installation was called Kissing, and we demo’d it at a few festivals. By modern standards it’s a monster, but it’s still purring along perfectly; I’ve had it at home and use it for both work and leisure time –perfect in combination with Google chromecast and Netflix. But like all good things, eventually someone makes something better, smaller and smarter. so I’m considering upgrading to a Beam smart projector.

6 Wime Talkase mini mobile phone

I bought this credit-card sized mobile phone on Kickstarter last year. It piggy-backs via Bluetooth off your main phone’s sim card, wirelessly. It’s turned out to be quite useful. Rather than buying and carrying a second phone when I’m travelling in the Us, I can have two phones in my pocket, and am reachable on both numbers.

7 Typewriter ok, to be honest, I don’t use this typewriter every day. I hardly use it at all. I initially bought it so I could film it for a project for stella Artois. But using it and keeping it with me reminds me that most modern technology has a simple mechanical history. there is a beauty in these mechanical machines that it’s important not to forget.

I SEE IT

dave buonaguidi THE WAY

Born in ’64 and (temporarily) dead by ’78, Dave Buonaguidi was resurrected in the nick of time. He became a creative and in 1995 co-founded St Luke’s – a revolutionary agency co-op, where every staff member had shares in the company and a say in how it was run. He helped the shop win huge clients with great work, including IKEA’s Chuck Out Your Chintz campaign, before leaving in 1998 to work for Channel 4. In 2000 he co-founded Karmarama and in 2003 co-created the Make Tea Not War poster that became the unofficial icon of the London anti-war march. In 2014, disillusioned with advertising, he left and spent a year working on both his screen-print art and Gratis, a free creative school he hopes to get funding for. Recently appointed CCO at CP+B London, he tells Joe Lancaster about the pros and cons of wearing sandals to a pitch and brandishing twin AK-47s at a charity auction

“I have 263 faults. I would love to change them all, but if I had to change one thing it would be my overtrusting nature.”

I was born on 13 August 1964 in Paddington, London.

My earliest memory is watching my sister get slapped by a horrible-looking monkey in a zoo in Italy.

My dad was an optician in Italy, but when he came to London he became a restaurateur. My mum was a model. Growing up in an Italian household is noisy, chaotic and fun; the perfect place for a child. Growing up in an Italian restaurant is even better because you also have unlimited access to cigarettes and olives.

I was useless and totally disinterested in school. I had two qualifications: art and woodwork. I am technically as thick as shit.

I died when I was 14. I have no recollection of what happened. I was found hanging from the bannister at home by my sister and when the ambulance arrived they said I had been dead for five minutes. They got me breathing again, but everyone was told I would probably die that night and if I was lucky enough to survive, I would be in a coma. I was very lucky. I was in a coma for a few days, and when I came round I didn’t remember much. I’m not the type to commit suicide. I think I was pranking my sister and pretending to hang myself, and it all went wrong.

My dad had a restaurant called San Frediano in Chelsea, London. It was near lots of agencies and was always crammed with beautiful advertising people. I was a young scrote working behind the bar, and just watched them all day long having fun. Confident men, beautiful women and long lunches – why wouldn’t you want to get into advertising? I went to art school and managed to wrangle a placement at some agencies, where my dad knew people. I was very, very fortunate.

In my early advertising days I was cocky, cheeky and not very good, to be honest, but I was very eager to learn. I was also lucky that I worked in places that were changing and adapting, which made them much more interesting experiences. Every place where I have worked has taught me something that I have taken to my next job.

I used to play for an advertising cricket team and one of my teammates was Charles Vallance from VCCP. He was a very skilled and technical spin bowler whereas I was a volatile, ill-disciplined and over-aggressive fast bowler. His dad was a member of the MCC and had come into contact with an Italian dude called Simone Gambino, who was obsessed with cricket and was setting up the cricket league in Italy. I met Gambino in London and, after a short interview that involved him squeezing my arm and saying ‘Strong!’, I was invited to trial over in Verona and ended up playing against cricketing giants Germany.

I played professionally for a club called Cesena near Bologna and was really getting into it. Then the Chiat/Day sale happened and because we had to set up St Luke’s, I had to pull out of an important international tour of Argentina. Gambino was livid and told me that because I chose my career over my country I would never play for the national team again. He was right.

When we set up St Luke’s in 1995, we came out of the sale of Chiat/Day to TBWA, so our first mission was to survive. It was a great time for a start-up, the technology at the time was fantastic, the creative workforce was very fresh and energised, and that combination meant you could do anything, and our main mission was very simple: we wanted to fucking change everything.

I was very disappointed that the alternative structure of the agency led to arguments and problems. We sidestepped lots of the old paradigm business issues and discovered lots that we had never experienced before. What ultimately killed St Luke’s was the same thing that kills all interesting companies: rampant egos, greed and a lust for control and power. The values disappeared. The culture died. The work suffered and the nosedive was impossible to pull out of.

The main lesson I learned from St Luke’s was to have confidence in my own ability. People moan about how shit everything is all the time, and never do anything about it. A small bunch of ambitious young people who don’t give a flying fuck can create something really remarkable. The problem is, the minute you believe the hype and relax, it’s all over.

I want to fill my life with as many interesting things as possible and I am always attracted to missionary brands, so the chance to work as a client at an incredible place like Channel 4 was irresistible.

I loved it. When we set up the in-house agency 4Creative [in 1998], the people, the attitude and the experience was just awesome. However, I decided to leave and set up another agency, Karmarama [in 2000], because working at a dynamic, modern place like 4 showed me a faster, better way of working that could be a different kind of creative company. Also, I’m a sucker for a start-up.

When we set up Karmarama we just wanted to have fun and do interesting stuff. We had a vision to become a genuine creative resource, not just another ad agency. We based it on karma: that doing the right thing was of karmic benefit, and we had integrity and strong values. ‘No creative awards’ and ‘no wankers’ were just two of them.

It was very different for a while. I think it was the only agency that didn’t enter creative awards and probably the only agency that didn’t have any wankers in it. It was a great place for staff and I think it was pretty good for clients, too.

I believe in creative awards, I just hate it when they overshadow our main goal, which is to improve our clients’ business. For me it’s very simple: we work with clients, build good relationships, improve the work, build stronger relationships, learn, share, improve and keep fucking going, working to create a gulf between your client and its nearest competitor. That is our most important job, and why they pay us. If you create work at the end of that that is worth an award, take the rest of the afternoon off, but if you are only interested in glory and want to miss out all the business stuff in the middle of the sandwich, go to hell.

“Let’s be clear. Advertising is not art, it’s business. This is my big issue with the majority of the people in the business: most of them think they are fucking artists who are being restricted by stupid clients.”

In 2003 I was working with a guy called Scott Leonard and he suggested doing a placard for the anti-war march in London. I absolutely love propaganda posters and the chance to do one was great. We knew there would be lots of very worthy placards: DON’T ATTACK IRAQ, THEIR BLOOD ON YOUR HANDS etc. so we thought, ‘Let’s have a laugh.’

It was great learning for us, because I believe we should create work that lives in the real world, in culture, and having an opinion about a stupid war was perfectly valid. I couldn’t ever imagine any

other agency being bold enough or stupid enough to get political. The mix of horror and amusement when I saw the Make Tea Not War poster on the front page of lots of Sunday papers was a great feeling and inspired me to try and do it more often.

My death didn’t really affect my outlook on life, but mentally I have always felt 14 years younger than I actually am. When I hit 50 and realised I had fewer years ahead of me than I had behind me, I decided to adjust my life a bit, to only have two agendas: to be around decent people and have fun. Which is very liberating.

I am a disaster waiting to happen. HR’s biggest nightmare. Of course bringing AK-47s to the office is naughty, but there was actually a valid reason at the beginning, I just got carried away.

There are two types of bosses: those who set up businesses and bring excitement, personal values and passion to the party. Then there are those who just get hired to run the business. Management types. I believe that as a boss, your job is to lead and also to inspire, motivate, challenge, excite and mentor your people. You must care for your staff, like you care for your kids.

“Googling yourself is like masturbation. We all deny we do it, but we all know the truth.”

I left Karmarama because I didn’t like what I was doing anymore or where it was going. I knew I had three options: Stay and slowly go insane. Stay and quickly go insane. Or leave and do something new. Which is what I did.

There is a big problem with diversity in the creative industries. It is still far too white, male and middle class. Further education is far too expensive and the only people who can afford to do it are pudgy white boys from London whose parents work in advertising, and we don’t need any more of them.

In my year of gardening leave after Karmarama I had a dream to set up Gratis – a free creative school that enables anyone, regardless of sex, religion and ability to pay, the chance to have a life in the creative industries. I’m still working on it with the guys at Future Rising, and I will do anything I can to make it happen. We’ve had lots of support and goodwill, but we need money. I’ll do it one day.

Working for yourself is a thankless task and not much fun. You worry about everything, you take everything personally, and no one gives a fuck about you.

Having set up three businesses and ultimately left all of them, I was pretty much done with the ad business, but CP+B is different. It’s not an ad agency, it’s a creative company, and that’s a big difference. It’s the company I dreamt of creating and never got close to with any of the businesses I founded. For me it’s like coming home.

The guys at CP+B in the US use the phrase, ‘a return on creativity’. I really love that thought and as a creative entrepreneur that concept has been my driving force for years.

I had met Chuck Porter in the past and was very impressed with the way CP+B approached creativity and business – they really get it, whereas London is still light years away from understanding the relationship and the power of business and creativity, preferring to get excited by the fluffy, superficial side of the business. I came in and had a one-hour meeting with the team and signed on the spot.

The best piece of advertising I’ve ever seen? I love the work that Red Bull has done – Felix Baumgartner was very powerful – but the Domino’s work done by CP+B in the States is the most impressive and inspirational case study I have ever seen. Nothing else comes close.

Being creative is a fantastic gift, and the ability to make money and a career out of something you are gifted at and something you enjoy is a wonderful thing. Let’s be clear, advertising will NOT give you artistic fulfillment, because it’s not art, it’s business. This is my big issue with the majority of the people in the business: most of them think they are fucking artists who are being restricted by stupid clients.

We have a mantra at CP+B – creativity is the cure. Creative thinking is the single most powerful tool in any modern business, but it’s not creativity in the traditional sense. Creativity is NOT a department that sits on the third floor, it’s about smart entrepreneurial problem solvers from many places, who are then gathered together and applied to solve the relevant problem. Our clients want our creative problem solvers to transform their businesses. That’s what they pay us to do, and we need to understand the reality of the business we are really in. Whatever the problem –creativity is the cure.

If either of my two kids came to me and said they wanted to work in advertising I would kick their arses. Seriously, I would ask anyone why they wanted to work in advertising. If the answer

was: ‘To change things, improve relations, offer a better, more relevant product and service, change the business and then change the world,’ I would encourage them.

The best piece of advice I’ve ever been given is that hard work and a refusal to give up far outweighs talent (anonymous).

Googling yourself is like masturbation. We all deny we do it, but we all know the truth. I care very much what people think of me. I am a service to my clients, the people I work with and even the people who buy my screen prints, so it’s important that I am well thought of and respected. Better than being hated, right?

I have 263 faults. I would love to change them all, but if I had to change one thing it would be my over-trusting nature.

I have no idea what the best day of my career was. I’ve never really been one to celebrate achievements, though I have had plenty of shit days. I once did a pitch in sandals. I thought it was a good idea at the time, but it was a fucking stupid idea. When I got on the train to go to the meeting, I knew it was going to be a bad day. The pitch was a total disaster, and that day will be forever burned on my soul and known as Black Wednesday.

Coming back from the dead was pretty good, the births of my two kids were amazing, and selling my first screen print was nice too. I’m lucky, I’ve not had a really bad day in my life.

If I was made prime minister for the day I would: 1) Introduce creativity into the school curriculum, so that creative kids wouldn’t get labeled as stupid and have their lives ruined from such an early age. 2) Make creative further education free and get the government to fund Gratis, to give all young creative people a fair crack at a truly fulfilling life. 3) Introduce and legalise low-voltage office tasers, to zap people when they’re being wankers.

The greatest human inventions are – fire, the wheel, refrigeration, tea, alcohol, the internet, motorcycles and flip-flops.

My biggest fear is running out of petrol when I ride my bike. It’s a metaphor.

I have always been into motorcycles. I love everything about them – the smell, the noise and the feeling. It’s very hard to describe the visceral, sensory feeling you get when you ride a bike, but riding my bike has got me through some dark times. I think this quote best sums it up for me. If you want to be happy for a day, drink. If you want to be happy for a year, marry. If you want to be happy for a lifetime, ride a motorcycle.

I have no reason to be angry at all, anger is very destructive, I find happiness is much more fun.

I have experienced many things in my life, and I was thinking about writing a book in the year I was on gardening leave after resigning from Karmarama. I ended up screen-printing my arse off so I did no book writing at all. Recently, I found some of the Word docs and thought a blog might be easier. It’s called Seventy Summers, to sum up the shortness and preciousness of life, because in life you get 70 summers if you’re lucky and in England summers are very, very short.

If I could be equally successful in another profession, I’d be a Hells Angel or an artist.

My ambitions are just to keep going. Nothing more, nothing less.

Between my two kids, my three cats, my dog and my noisy neighbours, I could always do with a bit more sleep. But honestly, I have very little stress in my life now. I try not to worry about things I have no control over. I do the best I can do right now.

I’d like people to remember me fondly.

At the end of the day, what really matters is living a positive life and recognising that smart minds are essential in curing so many of the world’s ills. Creativity is the cure. Boom!

“I once did a pitch in sandals. I thought it was a good idea at the time, but it was a fucking stupid idea.”

ALL FOR LOVE

Ryan Watson watches three distinct ﬁlms by new directors motivated by brotherly love, boots and beauty salons: a duo who’ve created a sad tale of sibling a ection, a former post whiz who’s made art out of a Nike boot and a science student lured from the labs to make a quirky promo

Dorian Lebherz & Daniel Titz

TV & CINEMA

Johnnie Walker [Spec] Dear Brother

In Dear Brother, a deeply emotional Johnnie Walker spec spot, the special bond between siblings is explored as two brothers roam the Scottish Highlands. As the story unfolds, through scenic shots accompanied by a stirring, poetic voiceover, the tale reveals the brothers’ deep connection and, as they reach the cli s of the Isle of Skye, it comes to a conclusion with a heartbreaking twist as one brother vanishes and the other scatters his ashes to the wind and sea.

The directing duo behind the ad, Dorian Lebherz and Daniel Titz, met on the first day of their course at renowned German film school, Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg, and hit it o through their love of visual storytelling. Listening to them talk about their film, which has notched up over three and a half million YouTube views at the time of going to press, you’d think they’d been doing this for decades.

“Our goal was to tell a story that creates deep emotions within a short period of time” say the pair. “We tried to add small visual clues that create the feeling that there’s something wrong. That’s why the dead brother’s glass is broken and the

framing of the camera is always focussed on the living brother and sometimes loses the other out of frame. We love including details that nobody might ever see.”

The directors have had little experience of making ﬁlms for agencies and clients but developed the idea themselves and set about researching a location. “Shooting outside of Germany was something we both wanted to explore and since neither of us had ever been to Scotland, doing it there seemed like an amazing opportunity to get to know this beautiful country,” they say. “We started by researching brands that originated in Scotland and especially ones we associated with the unique landscape. We decided to go with Johnnie Walker because we liked their ‘Keep Walking’ line very much.”

Despite wanting to eventually create longer form work, Lebherz and Titz are excited about doing more commercials and are conﬁdent they can bring a bold approach to the advertising process. “When you do a spec spot there is no client demanding you show the product more often,” muse the pair. “We are still learning in

many ways but we hope we can convince clients to take their audience more seriously. There is no need to show the product in every single shot if it is woven skilfully into the story and plays a key role rather than gaining importance from repetition. We can’t wait to go and show them what you can do when you are brave enough.”

As for the success of their spec spot, they say it’s come as a welcome surprise: “Up to now, we thought a ﬁlm had to be funny and eccentric to make some noise. We are delighted that people seem to appreciate a good story and an honest and emotional ﬁlm like Dear Brother. For us, this was the most surprising thing in times when you have to compete against fail videos and funny cats.”

“There is no need to show the product in every single shot if it is woven skilfully into the

story and plays a key role rather than gaining its importance from repetition.”

Norton

TV & CINEMA

Nike

Neymar Edition X Bruno Big

It was a brush with one of Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction cast members – Maria de Medeiros, who played Bruce Willis’ girlfriend Fabienne –that encouraged LA-based Norton to pursue a career as a director. As a teen growing up in his native Portugal, he came home one day to ﬁnd Portuguese actress de Medeiros ﬁlming in his house. It was a turning point in his life.

“My brother was a director and owned a production company in Portugal. I was already a ﬁlm bu but to come home and see this big production was incredible so I kept going on more shoots with him,” he says. “She was the best-known Portuguese actress at the time so it was a big deal for me and I still have her autograph saying ‘Good luck with your directing career.’”

After working in post in New York, where he edited, graded and created VFX for spots by

agencies such as BBDO and Digitas, he moved into directing and has just completed his ﬁrst piece of work with AKQA, through UK production company Archer’s Mark. Created for Nike, the global campaign promotes the new signature football boot of Barcelona and Brazil star, Neymar, and is inspired by a distinct pattern from urban artist, Bruno Big. Opening on Big sketching at his desk, the ﬁlm then follows him onto the streets of Barcelona, to a warehouse where he’s tasked with painting a wall of shoe boxes with the design.

The ﬁlm ends at Barca’s training ground, where Neymar is greeted with box number one of the 1,000 from the wall; the rest being made available for fans to purchase via an app.

The stylish ﬁlm was shot using a mix of time-lapse and stop-motion techniques to create a ﬂow-motion feel. Naturally, the technical side

of ﬁlming the artistic process was the toughest part of the job. “Bruno had two days and killed it,” says Norton. “It was fun because sometimes he would estimate that a part of the wall was going to take an hour to paint so we planned to move our stop-motion and time-lapse cameras in a

“When you do a lot of post you think in a specific way and can come up with solutions that sometimes other directors might not think of; knowing that you can shoot in a particular way helps with your problem solving.”

Maegan Houang

MUSIC VIDEO

Skylar Spence I Can’t Be Your Superman

During her time studying in Connecticut at Wesleyan University, it wasn’t the scientiﬁc o ering on the syllabus that got new director Maegan Houang excited, it was the fact that the school also had an “incredible ﬁlm programme”, which managed to lure her away from the labs.

Houang was raised in Michigan by parents who both worked in applied maths and computer science at Michigan State University, but Houang’s choice to follow a path into ﬁlmmaking instead of becoming a professor herself led to a move to Hollywood and she’s since directed a string of low-budget promos to build on a Masters in ﬁlm studies.

“Growing up I always loved movies, but it never really occurred to me that becoming a ﬁlmmaker was an option,” she recalls. “The classes [at university] all showed me the beauty of ﬁlm as an art form and ever since then I’ve been hooked. I just love movies.”

“Working on such limited budgets has definitely taught me to be more resourceful… Tenacity and passion are low-budget filmmaking’s two best friends.”

certain way, but he would misjudge it by about 15 minutes or so and we’d have to adjust things.”

Norton says the shoot was very intimate while working with Big at the warehouse but then switched to a bigger deal with Neymar, with as many as 300 people on set.

The campaign celebrates the artistry associated with Neymar’s game and at the end sees him kicking a ball around in his new boots. The success of the multi-layered production is testament to Norton’s talent both behind the camera lens and in the editing, which he did himself, drawing on his post background. “When you do a lot of post you think in a speciﬁc way and can come up with solutions that sometimes other directors might not think of; the knowledge that you can shoot something in a particular way helps with your problem solving.”

Her latest is a fun, somewhat twisted, video for electronic music artist Skylar Spence, AKA Ryan DeRobertis. Set in a nail salon, the story sees a group of gangsters show up to cause trouble for the owner, and what ensues is a bloody a air.

Created for Spence’s track I Can’t Be Your Superman, the video follows one of the salon’s sta members as she tries to help her boss who is being pummelled by the thugs. She disappears to the back of the store and mixes up a toxic concoction of chemicals to attack them with. It’s an action that leads to strange e ects with the men turning into life-size ﬁngers and performing a surreal dance sequence to the beat.

“I reached out to Skylar Spence’s manager, Chris Crowley at Salty Artist Management,

about doing a video for another artist and he asked me if I wanted to make this video,” says Houang. “I was really into the track so I pitched the concept to Chris and Ryan thinking there’d be no way they’d agree to do it as it was too crazy. But to their credit, they loved it and completely trusted my vision.”

The video was shot on a budget of less than $5,000. It’s a situation Houang is well used to and she maintains she is happy honing her craft on limited funds. “I often have to make a choice between doing an elaborate, perfectly executed camera set-up (I love dollies and cranes) or landing the narrative and emotional beats I need,” she says. “Working on such limited budgets has deﬁnitely taught me to be more resourceful, but I do always try to get exactly what I want despite the budgetary restrictions. Tenacity and passion are low-budget ﬁlmmaking’s two best friends.”

Houang is currently unsigned and her promo projects so far have all come about via her own pursuit of the artists involved. She also works as a writers’ assistant on the upcoming espionage thriller series, Counterpart, for the US cable network Starz, but she wants to make directing a full-time career. “I’d love to direct commercials and eventually make features or television. Basically, I’m happy to do anything that lets me practice the art of cinematic storytelling.”

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