W+K London

December 18, 2010

Davidson Pearce agency Christmas party 1969

News

'Money spent on a set of eyelashes will always pay dividends in the office beauty stakes."

On Adam Curtis's The Medium and the Message blog, there is an absolutely fascinating record of the real life world of UK advertising, filmed roughly around the time that the last series of Mad Men was set. It's quite astonishingly strange. The boundaries between the sexes, between 'management' and 'staff' and between young and old seem so much more pronounced than they are today, and yet the essentials of human nature haven't changed at all. The idea that an ad agency party in the so-called swinging sixties would be planned to finish at 6.30 pm seems hilarious. At one point we hear what I think is John Lennon's Cold Turkey on the soundtrack. It sounds like a transmission from the future but was released in 1969 so it could actually have been played at the party.

Davidson Pearce was still going when I started in advertising. It was acquired by BMP in 1988, which was then itself acquired by DDB, creating BMP DDB Needham, now just known as DDB London.

I can't figure out how to embed the video on this blog, but it's well worth watching on Mr Curtis's site here.

"It's a wig, actually." Really?

December 18, 2010

R.I.P. Captain Beefheart: get the stink onto your work

Here at W2O we love the creative mavericks. So we mourn the passing of Captain Beefheart (January 15, 1941 – December 17, 2010). He was a true one-off. Here are his ten commandments of guitar playing. They're equally applicable to any creative tool or process. Get the stink onto your work.

1. Listen to the birds.
That's where all the music comes from. Birds know everything about how it should sound and where that sound should come from. And watch hummingbirds. They fly really fast, but a lot of times they aren't going anywhere.

2. Your guitar is not really a guitar Your guitar is a divining rod.
Use it to find spirits in the other world and bring them over. A guitar is also a fishing rod. If you're good, you'll land a big one.

3. Practice in front of a bush
Wait until the moon is out, then go outside, eat a multi-grained bread and play your guitar to a bush. If the bush doesn't shake, eat another piece of bread.

4. Walk with the devil
Old Delta blues players referred to guitar amplifiers as the "devil box." And they were right. You have to be an equal opportunity employer in terms of who you're bringing over from the other side. Electricity attracts devils and demons. Other instruments attract other spirits. An acoustic guitar attracts Casper. A mandolin attracts Wendy. But an electric guitar attracts Beelzebub.

5. If you're guilty of thinking, you're out
If your brain is part of the process, you're missing it. You should play like a drowning man, struggling to reach shore. If you can trap that feeling, then you have something that is fur bearing.

6. Never point your guitar at anyone
Your instrument has more clout than lightning. Just hit a big chord then run outside to hear it. But make sure you are not standing in an open field.

7. Always carry a church key
That's your key-man clause. Like One String Sam. He's one. He was a Detroit street musician who played in the fifties on a homemade instrument. His song "I Need a Hundred Dollars" is warm pie. Another key to the church is Hubert Sumlin, Howlin' Wolf's guitar player. He just stands there like the Statue of Liberty-making you want to look up her dress the whole time to see how he's doing it.

8. Don't wipe the sweat off your instrument
You need that stink on there. Then you have to get that stink onto your music.

9. Keep your guitar in a dark place
When you're not playing your guitar, cover it and keep it in a dark place. If you don't play your guitar for more than a day, be sure you put a saucer of water in with it.

10. You gotta have a hood for your engine
Keep that hat on. A hat is a pressure cooker. If you have a roof on your house, the hot air can't escape. Even a lima bean has to have a piece of wet paper around it to make it grow.

If you don't know The Captain's work, and you're intimidated by his 'avant garde' reputation, you could do worse than to try The Spotlight Kid or Shiny Beast / Bat Chain Puller. Both relatively accessible but still amazing and unique.