Latest AD THEORY articles

The Creative Solution Agencies Seek is Within

I can tell you one of the things that keeps you up at night once you’ve reached the “heights” of Chief Creative Officer is, “Where’s the next job going to come from if this one doesn’t work out?” Actually, now that I think about it that was probably my wife whispering to me as I tried to fall asleep. It’s not like there are many openings for that title at any random time given the average number of years a person stays ensconced in the position, considering they define the agency’s style and voice.

Why Your Idea Sucks

I hear it all the time. In fact, I’ve even done it myself and just recently a good friend of mine said it to me over a beer: “man, I had this great idea the other day but I didn’t write it down.” Sounds like a pretty shitty idea to me…

Paul the Octopus is full of mussel shit and other advertising lessons as observed from the World Cup

I watched pretty much every game of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, waking up at 7AM to get in as many of the matches as I could. Even when the ihaveanidea team was in Cannes, I made sure to not book important meetings around Brazil, Argentina, Germany and Holland matches. I cried, I screamed, I laughed. I vuvuzelaed. And today when The Netherlands went down to Spain in the Finals, after an entire month of dedicating my life to this ‘peaceful world war’ I realized that like the kids from South Park, I also had learned something today. And everything I learned I could relate to everyday life in advertising. Let the game begin…

Howard Draft: Introducing The Gunn Report 2009

Howard Draft, Executive Chairman of Draftfcb, served as Guest Editor of the 2009 Gunn Report. The fine folks at the Gunn Report were kind enough to share some of Howard’s thoughts on the most awarded ads and campaigns of the previous year or so. Howard pulls no punches; just because an ad won enough gold to outshine Fort Knox doesn’t mean he necessarily loved it, and he doesn’t shy away from telling you so.

How to Train Ideas to Come When They’re Called: Notes and Advice for Young People in Advertising PART THREE

What happens if you do something unexpected with your product or your medium or an everyday object? Many years ago, Volkswagen found a way to make the shape of their car say something about thrift in tough economic times (agency: Doyle Dane Bernbach, New York):

How to Train Ideas to Come When They’re Called: Notes and Advice for Young People in Advertising PART TWO

Let’s talk about another process for idea generation. This process isn’t specific to advertising, but it can work very well for what we do. It’s called SCAMPER, and it is attributed to a writer named Bob Eberle. SCAMPER is an acronym in which each letter suggests at least one exercise we should try when facing any creative challenge.

How to Train Ideas to Come When They’re Called: Notes and Advice for Young People in Advertising PART ONE

In this article, I’m hoping to impart some useful information about advertising ideas and how one arrives at them. I’m hoping this information will bring comfort and peace and a touch more confidence. Not to you, of course, because I know that you personally have no particular anxiety about your ability to produce great ideas on demand. [...]

Conversational Capital: Rituals

As some of you might be aware, Sid Lee, the on-fire Montreal ad agency, has produced a book entitled “Conversational Capital”, and has asked us at ihaveanidea (and by extension our own readers) to give it the once-over. Read it, poke and prod at it, find truths in it, find faults in it, whatever. Kind [...]

Luke Sullivan: Brand = Adjective

ihaveanidea is pleased to present the fourth in a series of excerpts from Luke Sullivan’s third edition of his renowned book Hey Whipple, Squeeze This. To order your copy today, click here. Essential pre-Portfolio Night reading here, folks.
Each brand has its own core value. Dan Wieden says it another way: Brands are verbs. “Nike exhorts, [...]

Luke Sullivan: The Enemies Of Advertising, #2: The Koncept Krusher 2000

ihaveanidea is pleased to present the third in a series of updates and excerpts from Luke Sullivan’s third edition of his renowned book Hey Whipple, Squeeze This. To order your copy today, click here. It makes an excellent gift for St. Patrick’s Day, the Vernal Equinox, or any other celebration this month.
This actually happened.
After several [...]