Warren Brown warns adland: stop making ads for yourselves
BMF co-founder Warren Brown, who announced on Monday he was stepping down from the agency he helped found 20 years ago, is unsure if he will find his way back to an agency, but has warned creatives to stop making ads to impress each other.
And he has fired a shot across the bows of creative directors trying to chase glory through scam ads, saying simple ideas and an honest approach was the key to success.
Brown steps away from the industry for a break with a body of work that has helped define categories from beer to sport, food and public health in both Australia and in his earlier years in the UK.
Along the way he has flogged Fosters with Paul Hogan, Levis Jeans, the benefits of meat and the curious Scottish carbonated drink, Irn Bru.
I have to say I agree with Warren. With social media and other digital disruption driving direct and real time contact and calls to action, ads are losing their appeal. In addition some of the ads are so creative that they make no sense to the target audiences nor invite you to act. I’m sure if you checked the response rates/data it would make you rethink creating a different ad for your clients.
I love these industry types that exit the building and then have an opinion on the industry they represented for years.
Don’t you think he’s earned the right to his opinion?
Have you?
I once saw a credentials deck from BMF that said we make advertising that’s ‘fresh and popular’ – I love that.
It is a half comment, a 50% statement, to say that “simple ideas and an honest approach is the way to success.” For instance, a complex idea and a dishonest approach, would have a chance of some measure of success, and a complex idea and an honest approach, would have as much chance of success as the suggested ideal.
to claim that some ads are “so creative that they make no sense to the target audience nor invite you to act,” is also a half comment , because the extent of the creative has nothing to do with the sense of the finished product, it is the intent that is obscured not by excessive creativity, but a deficiency in storytelling.
Having said this, I do believe that a simple story well told, via minimal dialogue and deep emotional overlay, is the best way to get a point across and to make an impact.
I site the Bic pen TV ads of the 1970s, featuring two young children in primary school, a dorky boy in national health specs, was encouraged to surrender his new Bic pen to, and by, a pretty girl in ringlets. Never out of date, base level understanding that everyone can understand at a glance, and a deep feel good emotion.
@ Richard Moss, have some respect for an absolute legend of the industry you halfwit
ad critic, I address you by the name you hide behind.
Your opinion is as welcome as anyone’s, but it seems likely that you don’t think your opinions through before committing them to words. I have the greatest respect for the good and the great practitioners, I have, and have always shown, great respect for the art form, for the creative and for creativity. I have worked at the very centre of it for 49 years. I have an informed and seasoned opinion which I am never afraid to voice, be it before a neophyte or an [quote] “absolute legend of the industry” [unquote]
I show no disrespect to anyone, which is more than can be said for you as you dub me [quote] “you half wit” [unquote]
If I were as reactionary as you appear to be, I might mistakenly or otherwise refer to you as a sycophant.