Advice from Lee Clow, Global Director of Media Arts, TBWA Worldwide
To be in this business today, you have to have some of the classic art and copy and visual storytelling skills plus a deep interest in the way brands and their stories resonate in today's media culture. Everything is media, so creative people today have to be interested in all expressions of the brand. I have been around for a few more years than most people in our company but I never stop coming in to the office being excited about the possibilities. I believe as opposed to our business becoming too complicated and less creative, we're moving into the next golden age of creativity and I want to be a part of making that happen.
I don't call what we do advertising any more. I call what we do Media Arts. I believe everything a brand does is media and the art of telling stories using everything from the internet to painting a message on a wall is the broad definition of our future. Back when there were only three TV stations and no internet it may have been simpler, but at the same time, advertising has always been about ideas. Now there is a greater complexity of media with which to express those ideas. I think the options make it more exciting.
There are two big challenges ahead for agencies: 1) Transforming ourselves into total media communications agencies, and 2) Educating clients on the real possibilities of the new media world that we live in. I've seen recessions before and the only advice I can give is stay on the offense, not on the defense. It'll be over sooner that way.
What I've learned about leading creative people is that if you are passionate, you can get that same passion back from any good creative person. In our business, you lead by example. For more years than I can count, I've come in early and stayed late. I'm learning everyday from the young people that work for us. Everyday I learn that there's another medium to be explored and understood. People come in early, stay late and care as much as I do.
I've always been a glass-half-full person. I don't get down and I don't get depressed. I don't see things that didn't work as failing, because I learn from everything I do. As Jeff Goodby once said, "If you don't fuck up, what you're trying to do isn't hard enough."
I think I've become really good at nurturing people and helping them maximize what they are able to accomplish. I had a good teacher in Jay Chiat and am proud that I have been given the opportunity to continue the Chiat legacy of allowing people to be as good as they want to be and, sometimes, better than they thought they could be. I am bad at sitting in long, boring, stupid meetings. I'd rather go make something.
All things visual inspire me. From fine art to film, from architecture to a beautiful sunset. Hey, I'm an art director. I believe a picture is worth a thousand words. I'm really a boring person. I have a simple life. I have dogs and a boat. I've had the same job for 40 years, the same wife for 40 years. And I love my wife and I love my job. How boring is that? Maybe if I started over I'd be an architect, but now I remember I hated drafting. I'd probably go into advertising.
My bulldog makes me laugh.
(My pal Lee gets it. He understands.)
Views: 29
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by luap on -
There was a time when I idolized him as an an ad man and as a man. Now I still dig him as a man, but I've moved on quite a bit as an ad man myself...I wish he'd embrace the REAL challenge: 21st century marketing and sustainability. Yet C/D still does the best work of any big shop consistently IMHO.
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Permalink Reply by Buddy 'Friendly' Wachenheimer on
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So luap, what do you think is the answer to the REAL challenge: 21st century marketing and sustainability?
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Thanks luap
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Permalink Reply by luap on
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I think that the answer towards my stated goal of 21st century marketing + sustainability is built and predicated thusly:
1. Public personal panic/pain OR sexy fashion image success tipping points (thanks MG)
2. A spirit of deep collaboration and cooperation similar to rationing scrap drives and community at large drills during WWII with media/public communication participating
3. landmark brands shifting profitably towards this and leading a categorical, or industry charge
4. local, micro-community togetherness that breeds a simpler, more socially rich lifestyle instead of over-consumption and isolated living waste and bringing more sharing, pooling of resources and habitat.
5. web social sites, key leading manufacturers, in food, technology, transportation and fashion leaders embracing, publicizing, modeling this systemically (FB, twitter, Apple, Levis, grocery chains, et al)
If any 3 are achieved, I predict a mellower society, a slower more joyful world, whether noticed on one's block, circle of knotted friend networks or the entire country/hemisphere....
always more to come....
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luap...so, what makes you think Lee Clow is not dishing up this receipt and others with his chow?
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Permalink Reply by luap on
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Well, basically my old mentor/pal Leland and I are on different paths.
I seek peace, love, understanding, ecological neutrality, sustainability green initiatives and progressive, peaceful social justice for all via 21st Century marketing that dispenses with aspirational image... and he's still doing cutting edge mainstream brand creative in all media for whoever comes to - - - -\Chiat/Day.
Nothing wrong with either, just different aims.
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SE FUERTE MI AMOR
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Permalink Reply by Diana Oyaga on -
Good observation, love the media arts, i think everyone should be creative while searching possibilities in all kinds of media. And also, if this year there are still ad people not thinking digitally and exploring media and trying to link all sorts of media with the brand, they are kind of screwed, or at least will be in a short future.
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