A Night With Neil French

Brett McKenzie
Lead Writer
ihaveanidea

On Monday, October 3rd at approximately 1:00 PM, Neil French, Worldwide Creative Director of WPP, touched down at Toronto’s Lester B. Pearson International Airport, his very first trip to Canada. At that very moment, way on the other side of the tarmac, Political Correctness was just boarding a plane to some far off destination. Nobody knows where PC was going or who went with him, but he sure as f*ck wasn’t staying while Frenchie was in town.

Fast forward to Thursday evening at the John Bassett Theatre. After months of planning and running about, weeks of promotion (re: Ignacio and those blast mails) and a few days of agency visits, cigars and potent beverages, ihaveanidea would finally see all the hard work pay off. As people gathered in the reception hall, the careful observer would notice that the crowd didn’t only consist of the “usual suspects”, Toronto creatives and students looking to booze and schmooze. No, this time around the crowd consisted of many people on the client side, as well as advertising people from across the globe. Several students from the big American advertising schools such as VCU Adcenter made the trip to Canada, as did many of the top creative talent, such as Bobby Pawar VP of BBDO Chicago and Steve Hayden, Vice Chairman and Worldwide Creative Director of Ogilvy. This definitely wasn’t going to be a typical evening!

As the lights dimmed and the crowd hushed, a flamenco guitarist took to the stage. Accompanied by a trio of dancers and First Light imagery of bullfighting (one of Neil’s passions), Roger Scannura helped get the audience ready for the events to follow. After the wonderful performance, ihaveanidea’s own Ignacio Oreamuno stepped to the podium, gave a brief speech, said a few thank-yous and introduced everyone to the stars of the evening, American ad greats Rick Boyko and Mark Fenske, and the legend himself, Mr. Neil French.

As a tribute to the country where A Night With Neil French was taking place, the stage was set up like a northern Ontario lakeside cottage, with lots of Canadian paraphernalia, including a stuffed beaver, moose antlers and a snowmobile that looked circa WWI. While I somehow doubt French is familiar with Bob & Doug McKenzie of SCTV fame, the hoser-esque ambience certainly helped keep the evening a laid back affair.

The show began in earnest with Fenske showing French a series of popular TV spots, in order to get his thoughts on them. These included Bensimon Byrne’s classic “Rant”, Weiden + Kennedy London’s award magnet “Grrr” and the ad which Neil predicted would win the 2006 Cannes Grand Prix, George Patterson Partners Melbourne’s “Big Ad” for Carlton Draught. Of course, Neil’s responses were never cut and dry, but rather segues into entertaining stories about his past experiences, only interrupted by an attractive “French Maid” (get it?) delivering rounds of drinks for the guests. Hint to anyone who might have an opportunity in the future to buy Neil a drink: he likes Jack and Coke.

At times very thought provoking, at other times simply hilarious, and frequently both, Neil took us through some of his own creative work, as well as discussed his current role as the Godfather of WPP’s creative. He discussed his admiration and appreciation for clients (a rare step in the creative world) as well as his disdain for account executives (far from a rare step for creatives.) When questions came up from the audience, he answered them with brutal honesty, even if some of his answers wouldn’t likely sit well with the person who asked. Such openness was to be expected; Neil has a reputation for being opinionated well beyond the realms of political correctness, and he was in fine form that evening.

For those who weren’t in attendance but heard whispers about the evening, you most likely heard about the part when Neil’s musings turned toward the topic of women in advertising. Yes, the tension in the room definitely raised a few notches when Neil had some pretty harsh words for the females in creative. A number of people squirmed in their seats, and a few even got up and left the event altogether. However, whether you agreed with Neil’s views or not, or whether you thought HE believed what he was saying, or just turned up his opinions for shock value (as showmen tend to do) the majority of the crowd hung on his every word. There was a great moment of levity when an audience member asked Neil what he’d come back as if reincarnation existed, and Boyko and Fenske answered “an accounts guy! A FEMALE accounts guy!” Neil sheepishly admitted that if karma were real, they’d probably be right.

The evening continued on with more questions from the audience, and wrapped up neatly with French not wishing to keep everybody out too late. On the contrary; I don’t think I looked at my watch the entire evening, and I’m sure I wouldn’t be alone in saying the three of them could’ve gone on even longer.

If there was one disappointment for us at ihaveanidea, it was the number of empty seats at the John Bassett Theatre that evening. While we certainly thank the individuals and ad agencies who attended A Night With Neil French, and the feedback we’ve received thus far has been overwhelmingly positive, we can’t help but wonder what would have encouraged more of Toronto’s ad community to attend. Maybe the ticket prices were too high, or the awareness too low. Maybe more ads in the Globe would’ve really hit home the fact that we were bringing these advertising legends to our city. Or perhaps we just shouldn’t have scheduled the event so close to the beginning of hockey season (shootouts are a bitch, eh?) Whatever the reason, expect us at ihaveanidea to work even harder to make the next event even better.

Extra special thanks to our partners First Light, Ogilvy and our media sponsor The Globe & Mail, as well as Paradigm Events and studiom for all your help.

And of course, Rick Boyko, Mark Fenske and one and only Neil French.

Political Correctness, he’s gone, you’re free to come back home.