The future is here 🚀 it’s just unevenly distributed 💥
And cue fireworks. Happy New Year! January beckons, named for the Roman god of beginnings, transitions and endings. Janus, with his two faces, looks forwards and backwards. After a spectacular silly season, my New Year is traditionally the time for doing just that. 2017 was a freak of a year for me: very good and […]
Continue readingAdvertising’s own worst victims…
… are the people who make it. We all love to talk about ‘imposter syndrome’. In agencies. In consultancies. In studios. In AA meetings. In life. It’s rampant. Why? Because we’re all impostors. For most of my career, I wasn’t imaging that I was an impostor. I was one. Advertising is legalised fibbery. We make it […]
Continue readingGOODBYE STORYTELLING… HELLO STORYDOING.
Storydoing. There’s a word your spell check won’t recognise… yet. But think, what is your brand doing? ‘Storydoing’ is the latest buzzword I’ve unleashed on my director’s treatments. Agency creatives love it, It has a calming effect on account service and sends clients into paroxysms of pleasure normally associated with unfeasibly high focus group scores. As […]
Continue readingBERLIN PITCH KREIG … SOLVE PROBLEMS, BE HAPPY
Late summer means it’s time for my annual pilgrimage to one of my favourite towns where 50% of the population’s single, you can drink in the street 24 hours a day and it’s so safe you can get gold out of the ATMs. Apart from London, more than any other European city, Berlin is in […]
Continue readingSECRETS TO WRITING CLEAN
Six years ago today, I felt worse than I’ve ever done. Stuck in a second rate production house, in a third world market, I felt like a first class fuck up. I knew drugs and alcohol were ruining my life. All the Singapore glory, HK glitz and Bangkok glamour had got up and gone. I […]
Continue readingCONFESSIONS OF AN ADVERTSING HITMAN
UPCOMING SHOTS INTERVIEW: HOT SEAT WITH TV COMMERCIAL TREATMENT WRITER PAUL REGAN SHOTS: What are your thoughts on writing a winning a TV commercial treatment? Writing is telepathy: I’m sending my thoughts into your mind. I know exactly what I wanted to see in a treatment when I was a creative director and how I could […]
Continue readingHow to write a killer director’s treatment – here’s the secret sauce
What does a director’s treatment writer do? I MAKE IDEAS SEXY. Advertising ideas are my stock in trade. I’ve created, written and sold hundreds of millions of dollars of advertising ideas. Ideas expressed in TVC’s, print and digital media. Ideas that build brands. Ideas that drive sales. After graduating in my home town of London, […]
Continue readingHIT AND MYTH – ART OF THE TREATMENT WRITER
“I make ideas sexy” Try that over drinks as see how far you get. Whilst that’s exactly what I do, it’s rarely how I explain it in person. As an ex-Mad Man working across Asia, I’ve always relished the international man of mystery aura. Being a ghostwriter to the advertising gentry does that reputation no […]
Continue readingAdvertising’s best kept secret…
That would be me. Like anyone who provides a clandestine service (escorts, hitmen, shrinks), I understand the need for discretion. And while advertising may not be the world’s oldest profession… it certainly comes close. Happily, I don’t feel old. But with 25+ years in advertising, I’ve certainly learnt a trick or two. That’s why I’ve […]
Continue readingBETTER TO TRAVEL WELL THAN ARRIVE
It’s official. Vogue informs me that transformative travel will be the travel trend for 2017. A nice snappy marketing moniker for what I’ve been doing for decades. As dear old Keith Reinhard quipped “live in the current idiom and one day you will create it”. As a creative director and treatment writer that’s become a way of life. I’ve spent my […]
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