Today’s Lesson from Pat Kelly: Ideas Are Like Balloons, Let Them Go…

Four point seven million years ago, when I was a baby copywriter in NYC, I was lucky enough to take a TV writing class from Pat Kelly at the School of Visual Arts. Thank goodness I kept copious notes. This hippy spouted wisdom like Old Faithful spouts water — or steam, or whatever it spouts.

I am thinking of Kelly because last night I was lucky enough to hang out at one of his alma maters, The Leo Burnett Agency. The thought of this bearded beatnick facing St. Leo himself in a creative review board is enough to give me pause. But I am really thinking about Pat (author of, most famously, the original genius iconic Federal Express Campaign) because the evening was devoted to IDEAS. A panel of Creative Circus grads who work at Leo were talking about ideas and the business today.

When these nine or so men and women, and their instructor Dan Balser, were talking about ideas, The Leo Burnett Agency did not seem like any kind of dinosaur to me. On the contrary, it seemed to soar. Good visuals. Strong concepts. Rule-breaking. Failing better. Fun. Risk. Responsibility. Zaniness. As far as I could see, those values are still being cherished over on Wacker Drive. 

I don’t know about the organization, but as for the people and their brains (and guts) ideas were the star. Which brings me back to Kelly, finally.

I remember sitting in his classroom, angry and fuming and working like a banshee on some ads for his class, and for my job up at Fort Ogilvy at 2 East 48th Street, clutching my fledgling ideas to my breast  in a fury. And Pat, in his calm, easy-going, possibly medicinally altered fashion, saying — “hey, ideas are like balloons. Just let them go. You’ll always come up with more.”

And I remember thinking — damn! how can this guy who has come up with so many of the most amazing ideas EVER be so casual about them!!!??? That doesn’t make sense??!!

And I remember how long it took me to work that generous way of idea making thinking into my work habits (I’m still doing it.)

Because the irony of both believing in the flow of ideas, as well as the preciousness of the great idea was on full display.

Somewhere Leo, and Pat, are smiling. Together.

Jingle, Jangle, Who Killed the Jingle?

One of the best pieces of advice I ever got about advertising, or making anything creative for that matter, was “when everyone else is zigging, zag.” And while those words of wisdom apply to everything, I can’t think of a more apropos object of their attention than the current state of commercial music. In fact, I was struck by a recent article in some newspaper about how commercial composers are back in demand. I couldn’t believe it. Hasn’t the hokey, hacky jingle been chucked into the dustbin of advertising history right alongside those guys who walk up and down Michigan Avenue or Fifth Avenue with sandwich boards advertising greasy spoon lunch spots?

But when this happens, my ‘zag’ radar goes off. Why can’t we make a fun Jingle? Why did Jingles ever work? How can we make a post-modern Jingle? Or, heaven forbid, an actual good one? It’s a well-known, well-worn fact in the creative departments of agencys that whole industries have risen up to mine unknown and cool-sounding indie bands to advertise everything from auto parts shops to erectile remedies.

Maybe that works? Maybe that doesn’t? But one hole in the market, I see, is the the catchy, hooky, tune that also stands for the product and the benefit. Not just the “intel inside” sound, a whole freaking “You deserve a break today with McDonald’s” song.

Wrong? Old-fashioned? Done?

Ignore it at your own risk. Sometimes the thing that is most wrong is the thing that is most right.

I’m just sayin…

Andy Warhol, Coca-Cola, and the radical democracy of the Internet…

And I’m not talking about the 15 minutes of fame quote, which, while cool sounding, never really made that much sense to me. No, I think I found an even better one. I was watching a TED talk with Rory Sutherland of Ogilvy and he name-checked a 1975 quote from Andy Warhol, artist and visionary. The guts of the quote — “A Coke is a Coke and no amount of money can get you a better Coke…” And this is also the thing about the Internet, and this blog, and every blog — it’s a wall-breaker-downer-machine. And that raised a question in my mind — can you create a brand, an irrational but powerful benefit — for specific bits and bobs on the Internet? Not just aggregating content, but new content? New destinations that deliver good feelings, regardless of the content they are delivering?

Now, while I let the coffee kick in (Peet’s), I’ll ponder this. Thanks Andy.

(btw — another favorite Warhol quote I’ve carried around in my mind for years, from an interview in the Village Voice I think, “My favorite restaurant in the world? The McDonald’s on the Ginza in Tokyo — because the food there tastes exactly like the stuff I get at the McDonald’s across the street from my studio in New York…” That Andy….)