Quote of The Week, Foster - 1/11/09

The adult thinks too much and has too much scar tissue and is manacled by too much knowledge and by too many boundaries and rules and assumptions and preconceptions . . . The child is innocent and free and does not know what he cannot or should not do. He sees the world as it actually is, not the way we adults have been taught to believe that it is.

-Jack Foster

I've always thought that rather than children being little adults, adults are just big children.

It's sort of a glass-half-empty way of looking at it. But us being big kids is way more intriguing and inspiring and liberating than kids being little us.

dubs. out.

Care

I love making ads. It sounds ridiculous. But I really do.

There’s always that feeling of starting out without any clue. That momentary panic when you’re given an assignment. That ‘oh, shit’ minute.

‘This is it,’ you silently say. ‘This is where everyone’s going to realize the true hack I know I’ve always been. Where the genius I will never become will finally—and thankfully—be exposed.’

But part of you thinks something else.

Part of you thinks about what you could do. The anticipation of doing what’s been done by no one before you and conceivably, by no one after you.

And that’s the part I love.

Could this be the one that defines my career? The one that people will see and get excited about and remember and love? Could this be the one that inspires someone to do something they’ve always wanted to do and never have? Buy a product they’ve never bought that will change their life? Get involved in a cause they’ve always felt strongly about and never realized?

Could this be the one that makes someone see some aspect about the world in an entirely new and different and amazingly optimistic way that makes him or her think, ‘Man, that is so right on. That’s how I see things, too. I just never knew it.’

I love how advertising makes the mundane seem extraordinary. How it forces you to see the wonder in literally everything that exists. This wonder can make train transport remarkable, multivitamins incredible, insurance unbelievable.

I love that there’s a certain amount of fear in this business. But I love even more the pride. Because pride is where the fear comes from. It’s worth more than the money and the fame and the toys. It can’t be shown off on your wrist or backed out of a garage or sipped from a glass.

Pride is what keeps you working two days straight not because of a paycheck or a promotion or an awards show, but because you truly want to make it great for no one but you. It’s knowing you’ve figured out and created something no one out of 6 billion ever could.

It’s someone coming up to you and telling you your work touched them. I can’t say I’ve ever experienced what that feels like, but I know this much.

It's worth caring about.

dubs. out.

100000000000000000000

I was wondering when something like this would finally happen. Welcome to the "Save The World Contest." $10 million up for grants.

Of course it's Google's idea.



dubs. out.

Quote of The Week, Palmer – 9/7/08

It’s a great time to get into advertising because people are in a panic, and they’re open to new ideas.

-Benjamin Palmer, CEO, Barbarian Group

Benjamin Palmer and his partner, Rick Webb came to speak at our Friday Forum last week. It started out slow, but when the guys got into some of the web stuff they've done (including Subservient Chicken, and CNN t-shirts) it was clear that there was this electricity in the air, the kind that happens when you know everyone around you is feeling inspired. It's those magic moments that you wish were constantly happening, when you see and/or hear something that motivates and stimulates you. A lesson from a teacher, a lecture from a speaker, something in a book or video, anything that makes you want to bust out of the doors and create something cool. It felt like a more tangible version of the word 'possibilities.'

When Benjamin said the quote above, I wrote it down feverishly. Because although I already knew it in the back of my mind, I had never heard it put quite so bluntly. I never realized how true it really was.


It's become sort of a cliché in the industry because everyone always says it, but people really are scared. As far as advertising goes, especially with technology and innovation moving at the pace it is, they're open to literally anything they can use. Clients, agencies, Creative Directors, whoever. Everyone wants to know what the next big thing is. What the next crazy way the web can be shaped and molded to sell something to someone. Or what the next crazy way something off the web can be shaped and molded to sell something to someone.

People just want to know what's possible. And whether it comes from some 35-year-old flash developer/VP or some punk 24-year-old ad school student with a head full of what hasn't been done before, if it's cool, people want it.


dubs. out.