BEN GEORGE

COPYWRITER
www.btgeorge.com
PORTFOLIO NIGHT 9 LOS ANGELES PARTICIPANT

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Why is there so much bad advertising out there?

“Bad advertising exists for two reasons:

1. Advertising is subjective. As much as we all like to pretend to know what’ll hit, even “the best” shops plop out uninspired work, fail to meet the targets, and lose clients. We’re all human. We’re going to make mistakes. (Hopefully only occasionally)

2. However, the fear of making these mistakes breeds laziness and nudges most people towards playing it safe and recycling old ideas. (Clients are guilty too)

Case in point: A creative at a now world-renowned agency refused to let an idea die when his CD rejected it. He believe in his crazy idea so strongly that he canvased the agency for what little support he could muster, filmed it in his own ratty apartment, wrote the code, and posted his final execution to little fanfare. Millions of free impressions later, The Subservient Chicken still does pervy little dances at your command.

These happy accidents can start advertising revolutions. If you’re too scared to land on your face, then you’re dead in the water. Sorry for the rant. Keep your chins up, kids.”

Can creativity be taught?

“Absolutely, but it’s more a process of un-teaching conformity, peeling back the layers of fear and years of being told “you can’t do that”, and learning to play again. It helps if you never went to law school and never studied accounting.”

Tell us about the most unusual job you ever had.

“After answering an anonymous ad for a copywriter on craigslist, I found myself outside a dilapidated housing complex. I walked past hanging crystals and dreamcatchers to a garden where a chiseled man in only a loincloth sat beside a trickling fountain resistance training with a live, six-foot, Albino boa constrictor. A sixty year old Chinese woman and her twenty-year old husband sat me down to a vegan (and I’m assuming laced) meal from their “New Reality” garden and proceeded to babble on and on about energy fields, Chakra, and “Synchronicity” as I passed out. I’m not sure what I ate, what I wrote, or what they did to me, but I got out of it alive and they even paid me for what I assume was days of work. It was like some kind of New Wave Deliverance. I’m tired of freelancing…”

What was the last email/URL you forwarded to everybody because it was so amazing?

“Croatians, how do they work?“

What song pretty much captures how you are feeling about your advertising career right now?

“Tom Waits ‘Chocolate Jesus‘.”

Everybody knows Crispin Porter + Bogusky, Wieden + Kennedy and Droga5, but do you have an agency that you absolutely love that you find few people know about?

“Wexley School for Girls. The school does a lot of local branding for places near and dear to my heart and hometown of Seattle, WA.

WEBSITE TIPS:
-The only thing sweeter than their uniforms are the cookies they bake.
-Watch the short “Winner Take Steve” then try NOT watching it four more times. STEVE!
-Click on the censored bar for a fun surprise.”

HANNAH ARUSELL

ART DIRECTOR
www.hannahmakesart.com
PORTFOLIO NIGHT 9 AUSTIN PARTICIPANT

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How would you explain your future job to family and friends who don’t know anything about the ad industry?

“I usually don’t. My family and friends think I’m writing jingles and creating cartoon mascots for companies and brands. My aunt said she thinks I’m affiliated with the CIA because no one seems to be able to define exactly what I do, or what I want to do- and I’m OK with that!”

What are you favorite non-advertising related creative outlets?

“I’ve always wanted to be an interior designer or decorator. I spray paint almost anything that sits in one place too long. I make Christmas ornaments as gifts every year. I cook, more food than I can eat, so I invite people over to try my recipes all the time. I’d love to be a wedding planner some day. Occasionally I paint, but I have trouble finishing a painting, so it’s usually a longer process than I care to endure.”

Do you prefer to think things out with a pen and paper or on a computer?

“Pen and paper. I’ve always hand written notes and ideas because I remember them better when I physically write and see them. Ideas flow more freely when I can use a combination of words, doodles, lines and shapes splattered across the page.”

How do you know when you’ve seen the best idea ever?

“It’s shocking, surprising, makes me laugh out loud, unexpected, I want to share it with everyone and I think- why didn’t I think of that! I love exploring the world and finding great ideas!”

JESSICA LOCK

ART DIRECTOR
be.net/jessicalock
PORTFOLIO NIGHT 9 TORONTO PARTICIPANT

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When did you realize you wanted to get into advertising?

“After looking at a campaign that raised awareness about hunger. It suddenly hit me: how influential and advertising is. It’s more than just selling products; it’s a form of communication.”

What are some of your brainstorming techniques?

“Doing leisure activities, shifting my focus and let it run in the back of my head. Taking random walks (which usually can last hours), cooking, drawing or even running. Inspiration usually comes when my focus is on other things.”

If you could ask your favorite creative director one question and be guaranteed an honest, straightforward answer, what would your question be?

“How has advertising changed you?”

What’s the biggest misconception you had about the advertising industry before deciding to break in?

“That it was just about products. Never really thought of the extensive process behind it. The idea generation sessions, the creative approaches, the clients, the rejected ideas, the budgets, the impacts, absolutely everything!”

Give one example where you feel that advertising has made this world a little bit better.

“Advertising can change lives. By raising awareness in issues that many people ignore or aren’t even aware of. It can trigger compassion and bring people together for good causes. After all, it is a form of communication, a tool that helps people to help.”

What advice would you give to a student who is just starting ad school?

“With passion and perseverance you can go anywhere and do anything. Passion is contagious.”

JEFFERY WILLIM

ART DIRECTOR
www.willim.ca
PORTFOLIO NIGHT 9 TORONTO PARTICIPANT

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When did you realize you wanted to get into advertising?

“For a very large portion of my teenage life, I wrote graffiti. I painted everything from freight trains to box trucks, and absolutely loved having my messages travel from city to city, province to province, and state to state. I realized the elements of graffiti (typography, style, colour, strategy, technique, etc..) were the same elements contained in advertising. I grew up, decided to stop running from police, and went to school for Advertising & Graphic Design.”

Tell us about the most unusual job you’ve ever had.

“I was a chocolate tester for major chocolate brand while in high school. For twelve hours a day, I ate chocolate bars and made notes on the taste, texture, and appearance of each bar. I got sick of it by the first week. It wasn’t as ‘sweet’ as it seemed.”

What is your cure for writer’s block?

“Usually, I’ll go for really long bike rides along a straight vacant road. The repetition of street lights and lines on the road put me in a trance and totally clear my mind – leaving it ready to be filled with good ideas. If that doesn’t work, I’ll blast my ears out with Hardcore Dutch Speedcore, two-step around my office, sit back down, and then miraculously start sketching up thumbnails like crazy.”

What song pretty much captures how you are feeling about your advertising career right now?

“Devin The Dude ft. Snoop Dogg & Andre 3000 – “What A Job”“

Do you have a mentor? If so, how has he or she guided you?

“For every year of my High School career, I was taught ‘Media Arts’ by a teacher named Christine Carruthers. She saw great potential in me at a time when I saw very little, and encouraged me to pursue advertising in post-secondary school. I built my first portfolio with her, and found myself at Humber College shortly after. I’m not sure if I’d call her my mentor, but it’s scary to think where I could have ended up without that woman.”

“She held an art show during my graduating year, which featured live canvas painting in support of AIDS relief in Africa. My canvas featured complex graffiti on a galaxy-like background. Attendees purchased raffle tickets, and at the end of the night, the canvas’ were raffled off. The first ticket was drawn and a young, nerdy-looking kid quickly snatched up my canvas among all the others. I talked to him afterwards, and was truly moved by how much he loved the piece. He was amazed by my work, and told me that he would love to try doing something like that himself one day.”

“I look back on that night, and I feel as if the winner of my canvas was a reflection of myself years before. Just like him, I was inspired by creative people doing great things, and turned my inspiration into ambition. I thank Mrs. Carruthers for teaching me the power of creativity, and for providing me with experiences like that art show. It’s nights such as those that remind me why I even picked up those cans of spray-paint to begin with.”

ZACK FILLER

COPYWRITER
PORTFOLIO NIGHT 9 MONTREAL PARTICIPANT

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What are you hoping to experience at Portfolio Night 9?

“For me Portfolio Night 9 is my second time. It’s sort of like “Portfolio Night II: Unfinished Business”. I see it as an opportunity to reconnect with some of the creative directors from last year and to meet new ones. It’s a chance to sell myself and my ideas hopefully that works because this year I’m leaving it all on the field.”

Why is there so much bad advertising out there?

“I think there’s a lot of bad advertising out there because some people in the industry have trouble selling their ideas to the client. If you look at a lot of online student portfolios, there’s a plenty of interesting ideas or, at the very least, ideas that are better than some of the middle of the road advertising. There isn’t an absence of interesting ideas, they are just not getting produced due to a lack of salesmanship. It’s part of the job of any creative or agency to build trust and understanding with the client (which is easier said than done). If this happens, brands are a lot more receptive to ground breaking ads (in my humble inexperienced opinion). When good ideas aren’t produced (and that can lead to fake ads at places like Cannes) it lowers the integrity of the entire industry.”

If you could skip advertising and take a totally different career path, what would you see yourself doing?

“Without a doubt, I’d become a pit master.”

Which brand would you sell your soul to work on?

“I would love to work on Audi. It’s an amazing product, what else can I say…”

.What’s your cure for writer’s block?

“My go-to technique has to be procrastination. Once I’ve exhausted that option I usually go to the library and look at books about advertising to see if anything inspires me. After that I might try using different literary devices to create headlines like, similes, irony, paradox, etc…..Until something sticks. If all that doesn’t work, I might make a stew-cooking can be a great way to relax and inspire.”

What song pretty much captures how you are feeling about your advertising career right now?

“Steely Dan’s ‘Any World that I’m Welcome To.‘ I think the song captures my desire to work for an agency and my desire to do whatever it takes to fit in and be successful. Of course, Steely Dan being well known for their dark sarcastic humor and studio perfectionism sums up my sensibilities perfectly.

PHIL WRIGHT

COPYWRITER
philwright.carbonmade.com
PORTFOLIO NIGHT 9 TORONTO PARTICIPANT

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What good are award shows for someone of your level of experience?

“To loosely gauge how good my work is. There’s always a market for the best of anything, awards shows act as a yardstick.”

Do you prefer to think things out with a pen and paper or on a computer?

“Pen and paper. The structure is less defined so I can map out my thought process more accurately. Also, I can’t get distracted by angry birds.”

What advice would you give to a student who is just starting ad school?

“Pay attention to the “rules” of ad creative. It’s only after you’ve learned them that you’ll be able to break them effectively.”

What are some of your brainstorming techniques?

“A magician never reveals his secrets!”

Why is there so much bad advertising out there?

“I would argue that a lot of marketers prefer to make the ad they want to see, instead of what their customers would rather watch.”

Created by The Development Factory, the Portfolio Night 9 app is a handy little guide to help you keep track of what’s going on in your city. You’ll see all of the CDs who are scheduled to be in attendance, a taste of Creative Bites and Ready To Shine, even a glimpse of some the best work from last year’s Portfolio Night that made it into the annual.

The PN9 app is free, and is available by clicking here.

COPYWRITER
minatzenova.carbonmade.com
PORTFOLIO NIGHT 9 TORONTO PARTICIPANT

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Name one ad or campaign over the past year or so that absolutely blew you away, and tell us why you loved it.

“I know it wasn’t exactly a fully integrated campaign, but I just loved this year’s Skittles commercials that were all over YouTube!! They were so interactive, getting you to actually be a part of the commercial, and they were absolutely hilarious! True, they were rather random and some a little creepy, (e.g. old guy in the orchard offering a ride) but Skittles are in themselves random, and they really just expanded the ‘taste the rainbow’ idea into all these other things you can do with the rainbow.”

Why is there so much bad advertising out there?

“Being a student, I can’t exactly speak from experience, but I think there are a few reasons that explain the vast amounts of boring, badly-designed ads full of lame puns surrounding us. First off, clients always have the final say in an ad. Unfortunately, most clients went to business school, not design school. From what I’ve noticed through my observations, is that clients also seem to have a bit of an ego problem concerning their products, and seem to think that the whole world will willingly and happily read anything they put out there. Most brands that have great advertising have really good relationships with their ad agencies, and really put faith and trust in the creative process. Building this kind of trust can take years. Clients that can’t trust their agency likely won’t be able to put out great work.”

“Another factor that has contributed in the growth of bad advertising is the digital age. Once reserved just for designers, Adobe programs are now easily accessible to anyone with a computer, thus giving a new meaning to the term ‘designer’. Virtually anyone can whip up something on Photoshop and call themselves a designer, and smaller businesses that can’t afford to hire professionals will take a shortcut and do the work themselves.”

“Lastly, buying media space is really easy, and since anyone with the money can buy the ad space, we end up having our favourite TV shows interrupted by such intrusive and cheesy ads such as “Oliver’s Jewelry”, or “Harold the Jewelry Buyer”, that leave us shaking our heads in denial.”

What are your favorite non-advertising related creative outlets?

“I love writing, and I have a blog, but what I find really gets me thinking creatively is being with, and teaching kids. My part-time job through school is teaching swimming, and the pre-school levels never fail to stir up my imagination. I always have to try and come up with fun new ways of introducing skills to them, like pretending to be mermaids or having legs made of crayons or being pirates looking for treasure. Plus, kids always say the craziest things and can really flip your view of the world beyond upside down. I also am really into competitive power cheerleading, and am just getting into coaching, which keeps me always thinking of cool new dance formations, music, pyramids, and stunts, as well as thinking about new designs for uniforms, etc. Oh, and I’m majorly in love with arts and crafts.”

Can creativity be taught?

“Creativity can’t be taught, but it can be brought out in people. I believe that everyone was born creative, but some people (most) just sort of forgot how to use their imaginations as they grew up. Every child is very creative, and will always find a way to entertain him/herself (until they become spoiled on video games and pre-fabricated toys etc.). Children also have very different outlooks on the world, and what seems so logical and cut-out to us is full of possibility and question to them.”

“The reason why we lose our imagination is because we live in a very comfortable society. If you place people in a situation where they are constrained, and need to use their imaginations to survive (e.g. on a desert island), they will start thinking creatively to find food, build shelter, and most importantly, create their own entertainment. In our society, most people live like cattle, passively being fed pre-fabricated cookie-cutter television shows, music, and media. In addition, we don’t have to build our own furniture (which requires a sense of creativity), or design our own houses or clothes anymore. Anything we want is easily found in a store, and thus, our need to be creative has been vastly eliminated. I won’t go into the potentially devastating effects of our lack of creativity on humanity, but I will say that if we as a society want to bring our imagination back, we need to step out of our shells, and experience discomfort for a while. (Hey, the greatest musicians and artists led lives of suffering.)”

Which appeals to you more and why: working in a very small agency (10 people or less) where you’re involved in everything, or in big multinational (500+ people) with big clients and budgets?

“A smaller agency has more appeal to me, because in a small agency you are all a team, a family, and you’re all in it together, and each person is vital to the functioning of the team as a whole. Successes seem greater and failures that much more impactful. I also think it’s more of a fun challenge to work with low-budget clients, because it gives you the necessary constraint to think creatively.”

Do you prefer to think things out with a pen and paper or on a computer?

“Definitely pen and paper. There is just something about feeling the pen glide smoothly across the lines, leaving a rich trail of ink behind it…I even have my favourite types of pens that I can’t do without. Also, sitting down with a piece of paper makes me focus better, where a computer can often be full of distractions (YouTube is only a click away!). I also tend to scratch out a lot, and I like being able to look back on my progress, pages of scratched-out paragraphs and all. It feels like I can actually pour my true essence and soul onto paper, where pouring out my soul onto a computer just sounds silly!”

EOGHAN NOLAN

CREATIVE PARTNER
BRAND ARTILLERY
PORTFOLIO NIGHT 8 DUBLIN PARTICIPANT

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What is the stupidest thing somebody has done to get you to see them or their work?

“Someone sent me a lame, borrowed-shit line like ‘Have a break and review my portfolio’ along with a bar of Kit-Kat.
It was Summer and they sent it by post in a standard envelope. So what arrived on my desk was a greasy packet of melted chocolate and crumbs along with some stained, stuck-together pages. Unfortunately, we weren’t hiring fools that year.”

What are your biggest pet peeves about the work in most junior portfolios?

“The woulda-coulda-shouldas. Being shown things along with an apology for why they are the way they are, rather than the right way. In many cases, the right way wouldn’t have taken too much extra trouble. For once I’d like to see someone having finished work they way they wanted it rather than only present it the way forces various made it end up.”

“That and bad illustration, crappy type, or obvious typos. The time to turn professional is when putting together your first portfolio. Barter skills you have for those you don’t.”

List three adjectives that describe the ultimate junior creative.

“Hungry. Meticulous. Resilient.”

A top-notch portfolio is crucial, but how much does personality count towards making a hire?

“Personality is crucial and a lot harder to improve than a portfolio. As Da Vinci said, ‘you cannot get from the artist what is not in the man.’

“And as our Lord Bernbach added ‘You have to be nice and talented to work here but if you’re talented and not nice you won’t last any longer than if you’re nice and not talented.’)”

How do you know when you’ve just seen the best idea you’ve ever seen?

“Dizziness. Chest pain. Sirens.”

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When did you realize you wanted to get into advertising?

“In order to sell my Synthetic Paper, I had to develop finished products as per client & market specifications. That brought the creativity out of me. And my extensive reading and focused TV & website watching on advertising & marketing fuelled my passion for advertising. So at age 40+ I went ahead and did Foundation Course on Advertising and to upgrade my knowledge from analogue to digital, did Course in Pre Press Multimedia. Now, I believe that with knowledge & practical experience, a platform like PN9 will give me a chance to do the real stuff. “

Name three adjectives that best describe you.

“Ingenious, creative and Intellectual.”

What are your favorite non-advertising related creative outlets?

“Books, Watching or reading interviews of Who’s Who, News or special programs on TV, newspaper or any other format, Inquisitive about anything new or unusual, Films, Music, Travelling & Human behavior”

What would make you indispensable to an ad agency?

“Apart from the job essentials, I bring forth the depth of Practical and Technical Knowledge and Experience, Creativity, In-depth knowledge of Advertising, Event conceptualization and Marketing, Excellent Communication skills, above par Interpersonal skills and I am Computer and technology savvy. I also bring a unique combination of the Traditional and Digital Marketing practices and the much coveted Entrepreneurial approach. Took a sabbatical and spent last 5 years to upgrade my knowledge base from analogue to digital and also did Foundation Course in Advertising and learnt Pre Press Multi Media Course.”

You’re not from or based in Mumbai. Why did you
choose that city to attend Portfolio Night?

“Because it is the hub of advertising in India. I wanted to shift long back, but could not due to personal commitments. But now I am shifting to Mumbai for good, to realize my dreams to be known as one of the best Creatives in the world.”

Can creativity be taught?

“Never. It comes naturally, but according to Edward De Bono’s book- Lateral Thinking- it can be triggered. Creativity has two parts.
a) Left brain i.e. the science and art and craft tools or intelligence that you can acquire. The trigger.
b) Right brain i.e. the intellect, the power to think and ideate and come up with a new combination of existing ideas.
“