It was 1983 and British Airways had launched their groundbreaking “Manhattan” commercial. Suddenly, all us young creatives in advertising agencies were thinking BIGLY (and naively) about producing similar million dollar Close Encounters type work for our clients.
This is when Keith Reinhard, below, Head of Creative Services for ad agency DDB, stepped in and brought us down with a thud and drilled into us who were trying to make our mark in advertising that The Technique Is Not The Idea and to Break The Pattern.
Just to remind us not to fall into a black hole of clichés, Keith wrote the words “Break the pattern” vertically on a horizontally lined piece of paper and sent it to every writer, art director and creative director. I still have my copy.
Break The Pattern and The Technique Is Not The Idea were two of five principles of advertising for Keith, later Chairman Worldwide of DDB, and an incredible human being who was inspiring, caring, knowledgeable and a passionate creative person who provided direction to those under him.
This is what made him a fiercely charismatic and highly respected leader.
He invested so much of his time in us and opened the right doors and made it our job to see which one worked best for us.
Keith visited Hong Kong a few times to make those of us working on the McDonald’s business understand the ingredients that went into making a commercial for the Golden Arches memorable, and my then-wife and I got to know him well.
Where I really got to know Keith was whenever we would meet up and have long chats away from work at his home in Chicago, and then when he moved to New York.
We covered a lot of territory- films, music, new advertising campaigns, and especially the importance of Public Service Announcements, which he saw as our gift to the world.
This gift was in campaigns like bringing to attention the importance of water, the Olympics and teamwork, and other award winning pro bono work.
Only now do I realise that Keith Reinhard was opening doors for me to look into a new world of creative opportunities, especially what the music and film worlds might have to offer.
It was probably why for our worldwide marketing meetings, the Speakers invited were everyone from life coach and author Tony Robbins, film directors Joe Pytka, Steven Spielberg and David Lynch, and Jazz trumpeter Wynton Marsalis.
Maybe he saw that not all of us were going to be ad guys and needed to change career paths and was there to guide us?
With me, maybe he saw my growing cynicism towards certain aspects of advertising and dealing with clients who had the titles and not much else?
I think of Keith often these day, where the technique or the technology has become the idea and with the end result having no focus- and, well, no idea.
Does anyone care?
Whatever happened to those days when so much time and effort was made to produce good award winning advertising?
Well, I guess one could ask the same question about music and film
)Progress is a good, but dangerous animal that has introduced many to technological driven DIY worlds and push button “creativity”.
(Bold)This has given almost everyone the tools to become “creative”- but without the structure of strategic planning, teamwork and producing work only after knowing one’s audience
There’s then all the click bait and algorithmic clutter of “social media” which often morphs into self promotion through “likes” and emojis.
Numbers are numbers and can be so easily manipulated to meet KPIs- Key Performance Indicators- and how many keep their jobs these days.
I’ve seen it at work, first hand and it’s an interesting sight.
The important question is this: Where has the importance of finding The Big Idea gone?
Seen any good advertising recently that appeals to head and heart, breaks the pattern and where the technology isn’t the idea?
Then again, what is “good” these days and has any sustainability in this TikTok world?
Everything is moving at the speed of light with no time to catch your breath because, more often than not, one is busy doing nothing much and happy to accept mediocrity.
Why can’t some of those blue chip advertisers or new brands move away from working with the usual 4As advertising agencies and offer new creative talent an opportunity to work on one of their advertising campaigns?
Call it The Big Bang Pitch and film the entire process and have viewers interact with what they see.
Who knows where this might lead?
This creative renaissance needs to start somewhere- and now.
Footnote: Keith instilled in us to always scribble down ideas, no matter how weird they might be. “Let ideas in, but don’t let them out”, he would say. It’s something I still do today by punching these thought bubbles into my mobile phone.
Around four years ago while navel gazing, I wrote down the non word “jamble”.
Why “jamble?”
“Jamble” instead of “gamble”?
Maybe- just maybe- a new creative journey has begun.
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