The Golden Age of British Advertising Creativity Watching this twenty-year-old plus documentary on the rise and fall of British advertising is a worthwhile endeavor. The film is centered on groundbreaking revolutionaries at the agency CDP. This was a unique moment when all the stars aligned perfectly to create something quite remarkable. The agency had leadership that enforced a creatively-led culture, the world was changing and a fresh approach was required- as in the 1960s cultural revolution, advertising before this period had been direct and pretty dull and CDP's talent was on a mission to change the business- with Alan Parker and David Putnman two of the leading lights. The agency exploited the media revolution dominating the most important media of the day by buying all the slots on the key commercial break on the news at 10 and buying every print space in the radical Sunday Times Magazine- the first news magazine printed in color. The agency brought wit, art, and an understanding that people were prepared to watch and look at entertaining and engaging ads. The film makes it clear that Bernbach's work for VW influenced the people at CDP, but their brilliance was to find a unique British approach. At one point in the agency's evolution, it used just two directors to make its TV commercials: Ridley Scott for the expensive, luxurious, flashy stuff and Alan Parker for the witty, more down-to-earth British work. The film's major failing is that although it mentions several of CDP's brilliant alumni- including Hegarty and Saatchi, it chooses to focus only on Saatchi and ignores BBH's impact and the impact of other notable agencies like AMV and HHCL to mention just two. The world appears to end when Saatchi tries to buy a bank, which is not quite what happened. The big takeaway however is the importance of the media changes that opened up slots for brilliant creative work to fill. With limited options, people were captive and would pay attention as long as the ads were as good as the content. The major impact of the evolution of digital advertising has been to reduce the window available for creativity, and the advent of AI is likely to reduce this window even further. What the film proves if anything is that while the talent at CDP was undoubtedly brilliant, the conditions played a critical role in providing a platform for creativity to thrive in a way that is impossible to imagine today. While creativity is still very much alive there are many reasons why we are no longer operating in a world that's as kind to creativity as Britain was during the period 1967-1978. #advertising #creativity #british #cdp #franklowe #saatchi #sirjohnhegarty #ridleyscott #tvads
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CSO type
10moloving this