Advertising is a wonderful business in that it recognizes talent very quickly. It applauds it, rewards it, and promotes it. The only problem is, it also forgets it very quickly.
The word “history” in our industry is almost a dirty word. We’re obsessed with tomorrow and the next big thing. In many ways that’s what makes it so exciting. Constant invention is at its core. Creativity is, after all, about breaking something down and putting something new in its place.
But sometimes this can work against it. I was lucky enough to be taught history by an inspirational teacher who’s mantra was “history isn’t about the past, it’s about the future.” Understanding where we came from, why we did what we did, and how it could influence tomorrow was at the heart of his teaching.
It is this that makes this book so special.
Yes, it is about the past. It’s about a moment in time when everything changed and modern advertising was born. It will make you laugh and wonder at the characters that inhabit these pages, and teach you how to recognize true creativity as opposed to the illusion of it.
It will also give you an insight in how to run a creative company, and make sure it continues to be successful—Bernbach’s brilliantly insightful letter to his staff about the dangers of bigness and conformity should be plastered across the walls of any creative organization. Not that this is a “how to” book. Far from it. But like any great story it carries within it lessons that go beyond the intended narrative.
Andrew Cracknell’s writing captures the passion, madness, and mayhem that is all part of a creative revolution; the courage and determination it takes to succeed and, most of all, how to conjure magic out of nothing.