Last Week in Strategy: I have the heart of a lion and a lifetime ban from the Bronx Zoo
Hi Strat Pack,
Gong xi fa cai! Friday began the start of Lunar New Years which is generally one of the more things on my social calendar. But I would be remiss if I didn't mention the massive increase in violence against Asians recently. I've talked a lot last year, and will continue to say that it's not enough to be 'not racist'. In this reality, we all need to be anti-racist. As they used to say on the subway (remember transit?) "If you see something, say something." I think we can and should aspire to be better and more proactive in 2021. And supporting our fellow humans is a great way to do that.
Was last week the longest week since lockdown for everyone? Or was it just me. I am honestly so brain dead. And honestly I can't believe that the Super Bowl was only a week ago. We're going to talk more about that in a little bit but I have to admit, I was disappointed. The game sucked. And the ads were not great. I'm really hoping that this was a Covid blip. I mean I have to believe that. I work in advertising because I genuinely love the creativity of ads. I think they can be great, and I work in this industry because want to make them better. But I look at *gestures wildly at every holding company* and I just don't know man.
Then like any strategist worth his salt, I go on Reddit. And man are they insane. But in a fun way. And it gives me hope that it's not humanity that's lost our creativity, it's just our industry that's absolutely cratering. And it's just a matter of time until we hit the bottom and finally figure out a business model to do great work again (not sarcastic: I'm actually hopeful). Anyway, I came across this great thread: What fan theory do you 100% accept as true? and there are some real deep cuts in there that I think everyone should check out. My personal favorite is: James Bond's primary purpose is to be a distraction to keep attention off the spies who actually spy. Villains and other spies know him, he rarely takes an alias, he makes his presence known early on and keeps messing up operations for the villains, but other spies have already infiltrated their ranks and work while Bond does as much visible damage as possible to keep the others safe.
Like. It makes sense. I'm into it.
Friends of the newsletter know that I love space. Big fan. And I really don't know how I came across it but, I found this very cool NASA/Smithsonian website A Universe of Sound. We all learned in elementary school that there's no sound in a vacuum. But space isn't a true vacuum. Which means that soundwaves can travel through space. And telescopes like the Chandra X-Ray Observatory are using sound to study the weirdest/coolest things in the universe. What does a neutron star sound like? Find out!
About halfway down the page, we hit what I think is the coolest part - Sonification which is basically like data visualization but with audio. The light of objects located towards the top of the image are heard as higher pitches while the intensity of the light controls the volume. Stars and compact sources are converted to individual notes while extended clouds of gas and dust produce an evolving drone. The crescendo happens when we reach the bright region to the lower right of the image. This is where the 4-million-solar-mass supermassive black hole at the center of the Galaxy, known as Sagittarius A*, resides, and where the clouds of gas and dust are the brightest. It sounds awesome. I am obsessed. Listening to the universe is beautiful. 10/10 would listen again.
Event alert! The Cooper Union is hosting A panel of graphic designers discuss the work of Milton Glaser, a 1951 graduate of The Cooper Union on Wednesday Feb 24th at 7pm eastern. It's free. I signed up and so should you. I'm a big fan of Glaser, and if you care about design you should be too. As an aside, when Glaser reworked his iconic I love New York after 9/11, he was threatened with a lawsuit for copyright infringement. "When I did 'I Love New York More Than Ever' [after 9/11], the state threatened to sue me — they said I was infringing on the copyright. You realize when you’re dealing with any bureaucracy that they’re so indifferent to anyone but themselves,” Glaser told the Voice." The event is sponsored by Brooklyn Brewery which would be nice if it were in person, but because it's a YouTube event, there's a 0% chance I will be getting any free drinks out of it. (YES, I know that the Brooklyn Brewery logo is basically what made Glaser financially independent, don't @ me.)
Alright, stop messing around trying to figure out how to sue me getting you addicted to those space sounds. Let's jump right in.
The one thing to read this week
1) Stop the Semantic Obfuscations: This Is Why People Don’t Like Strategists and Planners [AdPulp]
A follow up to the discussion we discussed last week.
Toby Donaldson cuts right to the chase: It literally does not matter what you’re called. They’re just words. Go do your job. (By the way, this is also why account handlers and creatives don’t invite us to the pub.)
The current debate began with an argument about the difference between long and short planning/strategy — as in when to leave things alone and when to meddle. It was posited that ‘strategists’ are persons who mess about with things like long term brand strategy, whereas ‘planners’ focus more on tactical activation, day to day stuff.
In fact, if anyone in your strategy/planning department ever says to you, “Oh that’s not really a job for me…I’m more strategy and that’s planning.” (or vice versa), please feel free to smack them around the head with a rolled-up trend report. It’s like a mechanic saying they’ve fixed your carburetor but that the brakes aren’t their problem.
As with most things in life, the root of this problem comes not in the symptom, but in the cause. That cause is navel-gazing, which is a time-honored practice throughout the ranks of our major agencies.
Maybe this leads to trying to look too smart for our own good. Many strategists have siblings that are doctors, lawyers, and hedge fund managers. My sister, for example, has a high-powered job, a house, and a husband. I, on the other hand, had a fish finger sandwich for lunch both today and yesterday.
This I am certain of…strategists and planners tend to share a defining trait. At times, we are deeply insecure about how clever we are. This insecurity rears its head in many forms; most recently those pastel-colored librarian glasses, utilitarian mandarin collars, and meta opinion pieces about ongoing internet debates with an alternative view.
The problem is that this insecurity is bad for our business.
The smartest and most useful strategy and planning people are the clearest. The best condensers. The most voracious editors. They detest fluff and obfuscation because it’s limescale on the wheels of progress. They’re confident and self-assured in their style. And most importantly, they’re not precious.
So, let’s end on a positive conclusion, the same one we need to keep reminding ourselves of. Go walkabout, get out of the industry, get out of your echo chamber, talk to real people, feel the sun on your face, smell the flowers.
Re-realise that there are remarkably few things in life (and in strategy/planning) that actually matter. Very few indeed. Go from there.
2) A collection of rapid-fire takes on Super Bowl ads from yours Truly [Here's a link to CNBC where you can watch all the spots]
T-Mobile. Oh T-Mobile. They had the Gwen Stefani one on TV and the Gronk one on line. I don't get it. To me, the conceit of the spot is that shittier networks produce better outcomes. Adam Levine couldn't quite hear Stefani so he set her up with her current husband. Gronk couldn't hear Brady so he ended up winning another Super Bowl. Wouldn't their outcomes be demonstrably worse if they had a clear signal? Or is the joke that T-Mobile is a bad network and hey, look at what happens when you go with us! From Publicis
Rocket Mortgage - loved Tracy Morgan, thought this was great. Did they need two spots? Probably not, and the first one was better. From Chicago-based agency Highdive
Reddit - Yes it was a :05 bumper. But it worked. Talk about owning press coverage. Did this win ad of the night? Maybe! Done in-house (I think)
Let's just do a quick hit of bad ads:
Oatly - OK here’s a spicy take: the Oatly CEO (yes, that was really the Oatly CEO) could have given each of his employees $19,000 instead of running this spot. I read on Ad Age that this spot was originally created for the Swedish market 5 years ago. And maybe it should have stayed there. Watching it I couldn’t help but compare it unfavorably to those Ocean Spray ads. It’s regular cringeworthy, not fun/campy cringey. And this dude (who is the actual CEO) is so off key.
Fiverr - this was a miss to me. Great for them that they were able to capitalize on the Four Seasons but I just don't get the ad. I think maybe it tried to get too esoteric. And are they trying to reframe their business? That was unclear. I've always thought of fiverr as the place where I can pay someone $5 to assemble my Ikea furniture. But now they're a clearing house for freelance talent? Who are they competing with? Creative Circle? If this was a B2B spot it didn't get the job done
Bass Pro Shop + Cabelas - This spot had good production value. I know it was pretty Covid-y, but honestly that wasn't a huge issue for me. What really threw me off is that it was just SO at odds with the positioning of these brands. And was completely unmemorable. I had honestly forgotten about this spot until right now. Produced in-house wth creative support from agency Kuhl-Swaine. Hm.
Hellman's Fairy Godmayo - on behalf of white people everywhere, I'm sorry.
Cadillac - Edward Scissorhands - Timothee Chalamet can do no wrong in my eyes. A Winona Ryder reprisal? Hell yeah. I think naming a car "lyriq" is dumb but that's a different story. This hit all the right notes for me. From Leo Burnett Detroit
The Anheuser Busch corporate spot - I think this is what Bass Pro Shops was trying to do, but the difference is, it works. And this, in a nutshell, is my argument for hiring and retaining top tier agencies + talent. From Wieden + Kennedy, produced by filmmaker David Fincher and scored by Atticus Ross. Yep checks out.
Squarespace 5 to 9 - Here's the thing. I'm a huge Dolly Parton fan. And the spot had really high production value. But to me, hustle culture is not something to be glorified. I don't think the message of "your day job doesn't pay the bills, so work hard at your night hustle in order to make ends meat" is the right tone for a spot that cost $5.5 million plus production. But that's just me. Done in house.
Jimmy Johns - Ok I honestly forgot about this ad, but it was one of my more favorite ones of the night TBH. Don't @ me. It was so appropriately campy. From Anomaly.
The Tide Spot - I didn't watch this ad before it came out. I only saw Jason Alexander's face on a hoodie. And I thought it'd hate it. But I found myself genuinely laughing. Well done, Saatchi & Saatchi.
Toyota - I mean. They clearly had this in the can since last year's cancelled Olympics. The thing is, the Olympics are not the Super Bowl. It felt very tonally off. It's not that it's a bad spot, but it just didn't fit in. It's like the difference between P&G Thank You Moms at the Olympics an Campbell Soup's NFL focused Real Real Moms spot. From Saatchi & Saatchi.
Bud Light Seltzer - Hell Yeah. I like how it talks about 2020 without talking about 2020. And a real product tie in! Also they cut to Dude With a Sign during the in-game footage who was also doing sponcon and I liked that integration. The commentators didn't know who he was which honestly made it better. From Wieden + Kennedy
DoorDash/Uber Eats - While I love Wayne's World, Sesame Street always wins for me. Also they got the product in there more which I think is good. But these spots were eerily similar. Which is why I am lumping them together. And in truth, both of these services (and Seamless/Grubhub) are killing restaurants by charging insanely high commissions (like 30%!) to restaurants. Uber Eats from Agency Special Group, DoorDash from The Martin Agency and directed by Michel Gondry (which probably explains why I love it).
M&M's - Very good. Dan Levy can do no wrong. Also are the M&Ms characters getting very accepting that their friends/colleagues are just constanty being eaten? Feels like that has become much more explicit recently. Either way it's working for me. From BBDO New York
Yes I know there were others (including that Will Ferrell GM spot, the sexy Amazon Spot) but these are my hot takes. For a full review, please send check or money order to @jordanweil on venmo
3) Normal is Enough [Normal Planner]
There is immense pressure for people to be 'more' these days. The vogue for side hustles, self-improvement, wellbeing as a project. You saw it in subtle ways we felt we have to use the last lockdown productively.
It's bloody exhausting.
You know what I did? I used lots and lots of little hacks and stuff to help myself and the people I care about retain a sense of normality. I suspect I'm not alone. I can only imagine the piles of books unread, the Netflix lists not watched yet. The aborted Sourdough Starter kits.
For years there's been pressure on planners to be interesting. In many cases, you won't get your first job unless you can show you've put something interesting out into the world. I liked some stuff ThinkBox did on how different people in marketing are to the people they are paid to influence and I suspect it's a real problem for strategy types. Naturally curious, usually quite clever, but also under constant pressure to say and share interesting stuff. I understand there's a role get stimulus into the creative process, to help clients be part of culture rather than interrupt it etc.
And yet.
In my experience, the best creatives, or whoever executes don't need much stimulus for 'cool stuff'. What they need is a greater sense of what real life looks like for the people they're targeting. Some of the very best (in the trade press at least) agencies I've worked with seemed to have a tin ear for what really moved people. Look at soap operas. There is a reason the good ones last for years and years, they relate to all of use and how we're feeling. Planners were invented to bring the real lives of real people into the process. I think we've lost that.
It's a commercial problem, because the data consistently shows that firing emotions build business effectiveness. Don't be fooled by 'Fame' Of course, getting the brand famous matters, but famous for what? Famous like Donald Trump?
It's a work life balance problem too, because constantly having to be interesting is knackering. I'm saying that we need more people who want to start with the fabric of everyday life.
Being normal is enough. You are enough.
4) Most commented subreddits, 2018-21 [Reddit]
This is a really interesting data visualisation. r/AskReddit is the top except for a few key points - r/Politics right around the US election, and r/WallStreetBets which went to the moon in comments but maybe not in the way they imagined (yes I stole that from the top comments)
Well what can I say guys. Short issue this week. Blame the Super Bowl. Blame how long it took for me to write up my hot takes. Either way. It was still pretty freaking long.
As always, the full archive is available here. Was this email forwarded to you? Want to start getting this on a weekly basis? All I need is your email, everything else is optional. Thanks for sticking around as always. See you next week