Next time you’re patting yourself on the back for that particularly
witty (or brutal) criticism you said or wrote about someone else’s work,
do me a favour and ask yourself when was the last time you built
something up?
Each time a new campaign launches in this region
there’s a predictable wave of negativity. We’ve come to expect it. It’s a
phenomenon I’ve thought about a lot since hearing a speech delivered by
the ever-inspirational James Hurman at Circus this year. James was the
planning director of Colenso BBDO in New Zealand before moving to China
as planning partner at Ogilvy Shanghai.
In his talk he was
trying to unlock the secret of Colenso’s historical success, and
highlighted a particular trait of former managing director, Brent Smart –
one of its most successful recent leaders. What was Smarty’s unique
characteristic?
He talked people up behind their backs.
He was a builder, not a bomber – whether to your face or in your absence. And I know this from personal experience.
As
James talked about Smarty’s influence, I felt the room go a little
silent – uncomfortably so. In my opinion a lot of people in the room,
myself included, were having a good look at themselves, and I’m not sure
everyone was thrilled with what they saw.
It’s an interesting
thing about this industry, isn’t it? We spend so much energy trying to
convince our clients to be positive in the face of difficult times, yet
gleefully descend in epic proportions upon each other’s work like a
bunch of nay-saying seagulls on a chip.
Now I’ve always been a
defender of the anonymous blog post. The minute we shy away from the
harshest criticism of our work is the moment we lose one of the greatest
motivations to sharpen it.
But has it become the pervading
voice? The loudmouth in the room who drowns everyone else out? I think
it has, and that’s frustratingly lazy.
Bombing is easy, any
four-year-old will tell you that. And it’s fun. Grab a hammer and go
postal. I have a bit of a temper, and there’s nothing I like more than
breaking shit to let off a bit of steam. But it requires little to no
skill or creativity, and adds very little to the world.
Building
is different. It requires talent, perseverance and, most importantly,
courage. When you build something it’s there for all to see – for all
the bombers to take aim at. And when you build by pointing out the
strengths of something someone else created, you become part of that
target by association.
It’s uncomfortable, but who would you rather be?
Now
I’m not suggesting we become an industry dedicated to Pollyannaism, far
from it, but there needs to be a balance. At the very least we need to
be aware and wary of this pervading negativity we seem to be nurturing.
We’re an industry that’s meant to be built on inspiration, let’s start being a bit more inspiring, eh?
Paul Nagy
Executive Creative Director
Clemenger BBDO Sydney