I've also heard that it was Eleanor Roosevelt who said: "Small people talk about people, average people talk about things, great people talk about ideas." Though according to the internet everyone and his cousin also said it. In any event what's important here isn't who said it, it's about what it means.
And I'm thinking that the quotation has something to tell us about advertising.
Along the way, a lot of junk gets in the way of doing significant work. There are fiefdoms, complicators, the political, the dumb, the impecunious. In other words, there are a lot of "people" aspects that interfere.
Then there are the "thing" interferences. Timing. Directors "vision." Technique masquerading as an idea.
Finally it comes time to analyze your ideas. Are they new? Interesting. Arresting. Build-upon-able. Or are they trite and formulaic.
Here's my two cents:
Ignore the people.
Ignore the things.
Focus on the idea.
7 comments:
A campaign I inherited that we are working on moving away from. The spots served their purposes. And will die before long, having spent their oxygen.
Thanks for the critique, tho.
Many of us talk a lot about the idea. We confuse ideas with the talk about ideas. The complex process that a so called idea has to fit becomes the idea. We can all recognize a great idea if we haven't been involved in the process. The process corrupts.
geo. Don't misinterpret. I'm a big fan of yours. Love the straight, shoot from the hip talk and the relentless fight for the big idea. Not sure the digital factory in Hell's Kitchen is your best platform. You're a change agent employed by a sweat shop.
Fran Liebowitz said it best:
Great people talk about ideas.
Average people talk about things.
Small people talk about wine.
Hey, Anonymous, in the future, let's take the "by name" discussions off-line. Not fair to me or my clients to name names.
Understood. Apologies. Off to JFK. All the best. I really am a fan tho.
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