How vandalism will save advertising. This was the title of Jeff Goodby’s talk. Little wonder he delivered it to a packed audience.
“Is advertising fun any more,” he asked? You know the answer to this. Jeff Goodby is still having fun. But he’s not every adperson. Apart from being an ad legend, he’s an unashamed vandal. In fact, he recommends that everyone should be.
And to prove he is, Goodby began his talk with the pic below. It’s not his own work, but it made his point.
So why does vandalism matter? Well, morale within in the industry is at an all-time low, Goodby explained. Advertising has become so damn complicated. You talk to people about what you do and nobody else gets it. No one in the industry is famous enough any more.
Goodby has come to D&AD to present an ostensibly simple solution. Become a vandal. Reawaken that feeling of doing something naughty and enjoying the effect.
And because fear just stung you, by naughty he means rule-, category-, expectation-, tradition-breaking, not robbing a bank or egging a car, although the latter – a real part of Goodby’s teen years – is where the idea that vandalism is revitalising came from.
“We’re lucky to work in this business,” he reminds you. “It’s a silly business. Do something silly.”
That begins by (cliche alert, and it’s mine not Goodby’s) disrupting your everyday life. It clears the cobwebs and opens your mind up to the new:
https://youtu.be/bp-iuy4vx7U
- Take a different route to work every day.
2. Use the wrong hand all day.
3. Study jokes – they put your head in the right place for humour. “Be in a constant state of readiness” – keep alert for ideas.
4. Make it in-house because you have everything you need to hand and you can be spontaneous.
5. Use your client’s product.
Super Bowl – Doritos vs Mtn Dew Ice
https://youtu.be/dabWtif2gBs
Cheetos Museum
6. Get key marketing people onside by understanding the pressures they’re under.
7. Lastly, and most importantly, have fun:
