By HUSH, The SCA Intake of 2018/19

 

A mentor you would love to have

 

The SCA mentors are legendary, but we pondered on who we’d like to support them, dead or alive. Certainly we’d want them alive for the session.

 

P.T. Barnum. Session on whipping up a frenzy and using circus tricks in communications. Honestly, I’d like to have Leadbelly, Nina Simone or Sun Ra come and tell us tales, but they would probably just give us nightmares. (Ruby)

 

Stevie Martin: Masterclass on comedy and stand up. I want to be funnier and more confident presenting and she’d be the perfect person to help me. I also love her podcast NobodyPanic and just genuinely adore her and her sketch comedy group – Massive Dad. Check’em out. Females can be funny!!!!! (Lucy P)

 

Steve Martin – I want Steve Martin to give a masterclass on playing the banjo, comedy and art history. Why? Because he’s the closest thing we have to a modern day renaissance man.

 

Cindy Gallop – I would love Cindy Gallop to come in and shed some light on being a ‘woman on top’ in advertising, and to talk a bit about makelovenotporn.com (the sex positive porn website she founded!) (Zoe)

 

Robin Williams – Session on improvisation and comedy.

(Jemma )

 

Vicki Maguire – Chief Creative Officer – GREY (Mary)

 

Caroline Pay  – formerly CCO of Grey, now of Headspace

 

Leonard Cohen. Masterclass on poetry. His lyrics are beautiful! (Alex B)

 

George Lois. He’s one of the biggest legends in advertising. After reading his book, Damn Good Advice I have a huge interest in meeting him. (Marta)

 

David Droga: He’s just a Genius, he won his First Cannes Lion at 19 Yo. He’s one of the most inspiring and talented Creative of the 21st century.(Thomas Larthe)

 

Prince Harry: Fuck the rules (Lina)

 

Damien Hirst because there’s a man who knows how to create a personal brand and sell shit that nobody needs to people for millions of pounds if I ever saw one. (Alysha)

 

1. Babinet. With a lot curiosity a session on his own experience when he works in different countries and talking about his creative process, how his ideas come without we worry that it’s too commercial. (Jennifer)

 

Naresh Ramchandani – Hope we can actually get this guy in – founded Karmarama and was Dave’s partner but went down another path. Won best ad in the world at Cannes one year, also does a lot of really fun side projects like writing his own album and performing at his own birthday party. By accounts I have heard he’s the kind of person we should be learning from, plus now he works at Pentagram, which is sexy. (Joe R)

 

Ian Dury – the lyrics the nestled in that mans noodle are legendary and speak miles of wisdom. Would have been nice to hear them in a conversation. Also his energy for life. (Alfie)

 

Nicolas Winding Refn : He is an amazing director. I would love a masterclass about how using lights properly in a film and also how directing actors and create powerfull links with them (Mathieu Massé)

 

Sadiq Khan – Have this point of view on what’s happening to London, and Brexit. Know more about his career. I think it’s important to know what’s happening around us in advertising.  (Charlotte)

 

Stefan Sagmeister : Masterclass on graphic design and typo. Always challenge the brief (Camille)

 

St. Paul – possibly the best adman of all time, an incredible thinker, writer and individual, and lived a life that outdoes most Hollywood blockbusters. (Phil)

 

Eminem: The man isn’t exactly the artist he used to be, but we all know he has a way with words. Would be amazing to listen to him talk about his creative process and how he comes up with ideas for his songs & lyrics. (Patxi)

 

Matty Mo: He went from being a very successful tech entrepreneur to having nothing left, so he decided to make & sell art. I think the way he openly speaks about his criticized art and how he does it just to get famous are really interesting, as well as he tells how to work on themselves to improve them & their work everyday. (Leonore)

 

Deborah Frances-White: creator of the Guilty Feminist podcast and all round great gal. She gives siiiick masterclasses on public speaking and storytelling, as well as empowering men and women alike through the art of stand-up comedy. (Sophie)

 

Lin-Manuel Miranda: Writer/Creator of musicals In The Heights and Hamilton. He is also the force behind the music for Moana. Genius writer, rapper, songwriter, poet and activist. He understands how storytelling and emotion can be communicated through multiple mediums. His sonnet from the Tony awards is one of my favourite things. (Holly)

 

Tony Kaye: Masterclasses on film and direction (Coco)

 

Zadie Smith: She is able to paint an intricate picture of very real people and places with her words. She’s also not a middle-aged white man. On that note I’d also like to hear from Benjamin Zephaniah and Roy Williams, a poet and playwright respectively. I’d just love to hear from people who can create worlds with their words. Andy

 

Tony Hsieh: He started his first company selling pizza out of his dorm room in college. By 25 he’d sold his second company ‘Link Exchange’ to Microsoft for $265 million. He seems like a genuinely interesting down to earth guy. He’s also written a great book called Delivering Happiness that focuses on his success’ and failures throughout his professional career. (Joe Bee)

 

Charlie Brooker: Marta already mentioned George Lois so I’m going to go with Charlie Brooker  Black mirror is insane, I love how tells the dark side of technology in a very human way.  I would love to hear his process into creating ideas for his show (Lauren)

 

Banksy: Not in advertising technically but his work gets seen everywhere by everyone – which is our goal. He’s a brilliant communicator. It would be cool if he gave a masterclass with a paper bag on his head so we wouldn’t know his identity. Or he could tell us. Whatever. (Maddy)

 

Ido portal: His movement is a way of life. A real depth of knowledge of the body and how to train. He moves with control and elegance. (DJ)

 

Marcel Duchamp: “I don’t believe in art. I believe in artists”. One of the greatest modern artists of last century. His masterclass will be called “How I showed the world that rules are made to be broken” and we will learn how and why an urinal can be a masterpiece. (Gémina)

 

Hans Zimmer: Good music in an ad will forever get my attention. I would love to hear from him about how and when to pair certain notes with visuals in order to get the emotional response you want. (Forrest)

 

Phoebe Waller-Bridge: I would love a masterclass on writing, acting and comedy from PWB – she’s got one of the funniest and most idiosyncratic writing voices ever. Fleabag and Killing Eve are complete masterpieces in my opinion. [I also second Andy’s suggestion of Benjamin Zephaniah] (Josie)

 

Alastair Campbell: He has a profound understanding of the British public and how best to communicate with them (Tarun)

 

Agatha Christie: I mean, who wouldn’t want the chance to talk to the Queen of crime! I’m sure she would make an amazing mentor, and with her experience in writing complicated plots she would definitely teach us a thing or two on planning and working on your ideas.  (Vic)

Paula Scher: (one of my favorite graphic designer) to understand her creative process and bribe an internship at Pentagram NYC (Charlène)

 

Tom Carthy: Literally my hero in terms of craft. Worked for AMV in the 90s early 00’s did some of the best work out there.  Mike said he knows both him and Walter Campbell, so very doable please Marc. (Tom)

 

Russell Howard : I’ve always been inspired by how he manages to encapsulate an audience with his stories. He makes you feel like you was there with him and this makes the pay off a lot more rewarding. I think we could learn a lot and this would benefit us in how we sell our ideas. (Max)

 

Fred&Farid: Masterclass on Art Direction & Strategy (respectively) because well…. They’re the founders of an agency that produce some of my favourite work. Easy peasy. (ps. Going to work there one day at some point as an FYI). (Saphire)

 

Stephen King: Imagine getting advice on how to write from the man who is the KING of flipping worlds on their heads. He has a way of creating a landscape that is unique but also familiar and throwing in the unfamiliar and weird all at the same time. Perfect for those rules of distorting ads we learned during our scamp week. (Fraser)

 

Nnedi Okorafor: A superb author whose speciality is short fiction. She also Is a woman of colour writing in sci-fi and fantasy which is massively over saturated with the white male voice. I think she would give some really interesting and thought provoking insights. (Rob)

 

Ariel Khan: A lecturer (I think he’s a professor actually) at Roehampton uni. The classes on graphic novels changed my understanding of the relationship between picture and word.  He genuinely forever affected how I look at any medium where words and images come together. I think he could provide a really interesting outside look at how we construct print campaigns. He’s also just lovely. (Rob)

 

Noam Chomsky: He’s a brilliant man. I’d be interested in his approach to this industry. He’d probably hate it. (Rob)

 

Ralph Steadman: Amazing artist, worked with loads of fascinating people. I feel his “brand spirit” (urgh)  fits really well with ours? Something like that. (Rob)