The power of simplicity

Today we had a seminar or a face to face with the creative head of bbdo and someone who has worked with almost everyone the lintas',the ogilivy's and many other global advertising giants.His name is Josy Paul.Well,my admiration towards him goes back when I had come across an article on him.A very strange incident in the article made him someone who would always be etched in my mind and someone whom I would google regularly ,to find what all was happening off late with him.And then all of a sudden,a week back,I was to find out that he was actually coming to the college as a part of the ceo charter programme hosted by the block.I was delighted to see that and was telling everyone as to who he was and what all crazy things he had done.

There were three main incidents that I know of.First one was during the client meet with Philips,where he threatened tp jump out of the office window if they did not give him the thumbs up for that account.He says candidly when asked about it that he would not have got hurt anyway as he was on the first floor.And guess what ..he did bag the contract,although the Philips team requested the management to keep him away from the meetings.
But then things rarely flow in the same way .Once during a pitch to a leading insurance company he suddenly stood on the meeting table to get a point across that life is uncertain and one needs to be prepared for it.However,the clients did not find the drama unfolding in front of them impressive enough and shrugged off from the contract.
The third one that I read was regarding another contract handling.He was waiting for the appointment when he saw the mission statement on the wall and noticed that the company had done nothing to fulfill that statement.He slyly went and uprooted it and whacked the mission statement and used it in the meeting to show how the company had lacked in certain things and how it could be done rightly and while all this was happening the watchman came and started shouting thief thief!!
Well actually I asked this question when he was here and everyone started giving me this strange look as if it suggested 'dude!you are not supposed to ask stuff like that!'
After the whole ceo charter was over ,there were people who walked up to me and were like'man!you embarassed him royally'..Well that was not even my slightest of intentions and he would know that.An advertiser has to be four things:-
-An explorer,who goes out and does the unconventional
-An artist ,who can paint the thing the way he wants it
-A judge,who will in the end judge if the product ad is good enough or not
-A warrior,who will fight on and vouch for his ideas at any stage
and he told ,that while doing all those crazy things,it was this warrior urge ,which made him do so and he was effective more often than not.
The ads he showed were of top notch quality calibre,as all of them were something we could relate to everytime,allthroughout and not the noisy ,'i am here' kind of ads.All the ads that he showcased were silent ,with hardly a line or two there and quite fantastic that actually touched ones emotional chords.All the ads were so wonderfully crafted and made in such a way that you could hardly tell how long the ad was,as you drown into the ad completely.There was one particular ad of the argentinian airlines that was extremely beautifull, that any attempt to explain that ad would be unfair.so i have put up the link for the ad on youtube
http://youtube.com/watch?v=5b19izPaox8
then there was this wonderful volkswagen polo ad that was based on such a simple observation that many of us would have missed but the ad creator used it and made it one of the best selling cars in europe ,when the trend in the 79s and 80s was having big swanky cars.the address of that ad too is mentioned below
http://youtube.com/watch?v=XEVvlyHQVjs
he laid specific stress as to how we badly need to simplify things around us and see things from the perspective of a 6 year old kid.he had started an ad agency of his own called david,where one would not get a letter of appointment but a letter of resignation.The letter of resignation was a declaration that one has abandoned adulthood and has resigned from it and will now on start looking things from the perspedctive of a six year old.A promise that he/she will be ever so inquisitive,ready to stub sticks into the sand,have that multi coloured candy ,throw stones in the water and see the ripples and a lot lot more.I want to write in so much more but time doesnt Permit me as of now nor do the mosquitoes.Just smashed one.Its 3:34 am!!!