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Losing my ethics. Finding the way.  By @shein_dean

By Dean Shein

 

Losing my ethics. Finding the way. 

Before I started SCA, I never would have dreamed of working on a gambling brief… But, this is our last chance to be punks before we enter the industry. Before we are banished to boring banking briefs. This is our time to cause a fuss. To Make some noise. To sell Tobacco, Alcohol & Frosties… Lets do it. Fuck it, why not chuck in a pro Brexit campaign as well. Let’s sell Roundtrees fruit pastels to children while we’re at it. Wouldn’t that be sweet? I believe you can still harness creativity while producing controversial work. 

For example, take this Oasis juice ad… ‘It’s summer. You’re Thirsty. We’ve got sales targets’. 

I also can’t stop watching the old Starburst ‘Berries and Cream’ ad. Dave Dye showed us this. It’s the perfect ad. The kind of ad I want to make. ‘Berries and Cream’ is said 11 times. It’s drummed into your head in a theatrical manner that distracts the consumer. It makes you laugh. It’s no suprise that I’ve been saying ‘Berries and Cream’ non-stop for the last few days…

SPOILER ALERT:

Within Dave Trott’s new book Creative Blindness, (And How To Cure It) the author draws on Churchill’s notion of ‘corkscrew thinkers’. These were ‘People who thought differently. People who could approach a problem inside-out. What we now call creative thinkers.’  It was this type of thinking that gave us Sten guns, made from bicycle pumps by a children’s toy manufacturers. Corkscrew thinkers gave us Bletchley park, which cracked the ‘unbreakable’ enigma code. They gave us anti-shipping mines made from gobstoppers, which sunk Japenese warships. 

This type of thinking is recounted throughout the book. The first example however, is absolutely mind boggling. The Washington redskins had a 25 year waiting list for season tickets. I.M. Detnaw who was the owner of ‘Flagship International Sports Television’ sent out invitations to a group of lucky individuals. They would be able to attend a Redskins game for free. It was a luxuary event with a special brunch too. The recpients couldn’t believe their luck! When they arrived it was a party like atmosphere. Cheering, Whooping and high fives all round. The fortunate attendees were lead into a hall and addressed by the head of marketing. He said ‘Ladies and gentlemen, we’ve got a special surprise for you today. You’re all under arrest. Get down on the floor now’. Yep that’s right, it was a sting operation. Everyone who had been invited was a dangerous fugitive. The police even had fun with it. I.M. Detnaw was an anagram of I.M. Wanted. Flagship International Sports Television formed the acronym, F.I.S.T. Fugitive Investigative Strike Team. Now that’s detail!

This is why a Phil & I are trying to get Master Dave to come and speak to us. 

This the type of thinking that makes everything clear. It bleeds rainbows. It oozes uzis. That’s why Trott keeps banging on about what Bill Bernbach said… ‘It may well be that creativity is the last unfair advantage we’re legally allowed to take over the competition.’ 

This is the type of thinking I was chatting to Alex Taylor about. It’s marvellous. It’s just so simple. It’s found in comedy. It’s the type of thinking that makes you just sigh and giggle. Like the lad from the ‘Berries and Cream’ advert. Oh Hurrah!

This is what where all roads lead us to. This is what we have been born to do. As Pete told me the other day… ‘We are mind controllers.’ Ironically, it’s been stuck in my head ever since. ‘We get people to do the shit we want ‘em to do. We lead ‘em in by the nose, through the story… Then ZIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNGGGGGG!’

And if it means someone takes up smoking along the way…

Then so be it. 

 

 

The copy scores 78.9 in the Flesch Reading Ease test

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