Wednesday, May 16, 2018

In which (the great) Dave Trott explains it all. (And agrees with me.)

If you're a "recent-ist," that is you care only about things that have happened recently to the general exclusion of history--and the general exclusion of the foundational minds of our business, you may not know Dave Trott.


Dave is one of the great minds, and great creatives of British advertising. He's also, famously, the proprietor of two great advertising blogs:

1. http://davetrott.co.uk/
2. https://www.campaignlive.co.uk/author/4561/Dave-Trott

And the author of numerous intelligently simple and simply intelligent books on advertising.

1. One + One = Three.
2. Predatory Thinking.
3. Creative Mischief.
And more...

Over the last five years or so, Dave and I have become friends of sorts. By that I mean we are the sort of friends who have never actually met, but we write to each other about advertising issues large and small, and we have a standing offer to buy each other drinks, or dinner, if Dave's ever in New York, or I'm ever in London.

Dave wrote to me this morning about yesterday's post in which I ruminated on issues of liberalism and effetism in both politics and the world.

Dave's note needs no preamble or explanation. So, I'll leave you with it, and with, hopefully, things to ponder.

Your last post really made me think – about the parallels between liberals and creatives.

IMHO, putting it simply, both were centrist but both moved to the extreme.

Liberals used to speak for ordinary people, but political-correctness alienated them from ordinary people.

Their agenda became PC for its own sake, not for benefit of the masses.

Creatives used to speak for ordinary people, but awards alienated them from ordinary people.

Their agendas became awards for their own sake, not for benefit of the masses.

So the liberals and the creatives are left talking to themselves.

The problem isn’t that everyone voted for Trump.

The problem is that the centre can’t find anything to vote for, no one cares about.


In politics or in advertising.

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