Ground up thinking # 2

“Culture of the mind must be subservient to the heart"

Mahatma Gandhi

20 Years of Rave

Image from PYMCA

I'm absolutely loving PYMCA (Photographic Youth Music Culture Archive) at the moment. As well as an excellent image library to use and peruse, it has had two cracking exhibition's on recently. This was England and more recently Pills, Stills and Bellyaches - 20 years of rave. Rave was probably the first musical subculture that influenced me and my circle of friends. Living near Brighton, the South Downs became an area rife with raves (and still is by the looks of things here). As organisers looked for larger spaces to hold bigger gatherings and keep events under the radar, the countryside close to London was perfect.

At the time there wasn't really any interesting subcultures to identify with. It was the point of transition from the 80s to the 90s where not much was really happening. It was unclear who was who and who was into what. Clubs and pubs were pretty uninteresting. There wasn't much live music, they weren't playing the music that certain people wanted to listen to because of its association with drugs and they had strict dress codes to supposedly keep the 'riff-raff' out, but essentially made everyone look the same. I guess you could call it a relatively boring middle England at the time.

This meant rave spilled out into warehouses and open spaces where people were free from the restrictions placed on them by mainstream culture and that's when it really took off. It became a real herd movement I suppose. The obvious illegal element attracted rebellious young people who loved the secrecy surrounding many raves. It was fuelled by unstructured mass gatherings that my generation at least had no experience of. It wasn't just about the music, in fact I prefer more of the genres it inspired rather than rave as it was back then. It was more about the social side of it, it was the feeling and the atmosphere that the music created among huge groups of people and to be honest I don't ever recall there being much trouble at raves.

On top of the music, the atmosphere, going to Sterns, hassling older mates to give us a lift and traipsing about fields, there was the whole interaction between each other that also united our group of friends. We used to spend hours of an evening copying each others tapes and weekends were spent going round the record shops listening to vinyl and getting all the latest flyers that would decorate our bedrooms. Some of which would become quite rare. So much so, people were even buying and trading them, they were a bit of a social currency. You would then have to keep the flyers of the rave and cut front covers out of them for your cassettes. Man, talking about cassettes and flyers makes me feel old.

After emerging from the acid house movement in the 80s, rave culture's association with drug fuelled space cadets with glow sticks and whistles overshadows the influence it has had on a number of other genres such as hardcore, jungle, drum and bass as well as more recognisable bands such as Happy Mondays, Primal Scream, New Order and The Stones Roses. Bands you could arguably say have then gone on to influence the likes of Oasis and Kasabian.

Ground up thinking # 1

“The best thing a man can do for his culture when he is rich is to endeavor to carry out those schemes which he entertained when he was poor”

Henry David Thoreau

A visit from Tony Hart

Just for a bit of fun and to celebrate the creativity in us all, everyone in the agency were invited to exhibit their own personal art and photographic creations in the bar last week. To round things off the legend Tony Hart came in to judge the work and spend the afternoon trying to explain to people why the pictures they sent in didn't make it on to 'The Gallery'. Tony was on TV for about 50 years and so I think pretty much everyone in the agency grew up watching him on various programmes that included Vision On, Take Hart and Hart Beat. Tony's not in the greatest health, but he still has an obvious passion for the arts. Thanks Tony for a great day.

Me and Tony


and just in case you have forgotten...

The Hart Beat theme tune - "Left Bank", by Wayne Hill


The amazing adventures of Morph


Take Hart

Planning from the ground up

Lately I've been thinking of giving this blog a bit more direction, even if it's just for my own personal fulfilment. Whilst I'm more than happy just to ramble on about communications and stuff I feel there are just too many, albeit interesting blogs that do just that. I still think blogging is a great way to develop/record your thoughts, opinions and arguments, so I'm not giving it up, I'm just going to make my posts a bit more focused on what I'm interested and what I believe in.

The blog has sort of evolved and gone in that direction anyway, but I've compromised and dipped in and out of things a bit. 'Punk Planning' was one thought that stemmed from a number of frustrations such as trying to get into planning from account service 3 years ago, people believing that agencies outside of London can't compete and finally the air of pretension and self importance that seems to engulf certain parts of the industry. However, I've been beaten to it by Charles Frith who has started a cracking blog. A coincidence? A source of inspiration? Either way I'm not too disappointed to have missed out as I think I have got something I'm probably more comfortable with.

Planning from the ground up. This isn't ground breaking or original I know, but I don't feel the need to develop a new theory and label it. I'm a massive believer in the school of thought that suggests the most interesting things in culture and society grows from the ground up and not the top down. With scarcity and solidarity being the two key components of cultural developments or the cause and effect if you like. I think I'm drawn to this for a number of reasons. It's quite down to earth and fits in with my background, beliefs and interests. It challenges without being too anti establishment. I'm also enjoying doing and reading ethnographic studies more and more. And finally it's a consistent theme that arises in a lot of the good things I've been reading over the last few months.

Dial up the crazy

I managed to get my backside to the D&AD President's Lecture the other night for the interview with Dan Wieden and David Kennedy. I wasn't quite sure what to expect. I knew it was going to be good, but perhaps a bit warm and fluffy. Thankfully I was pleasantly surprised. It had about the right mix of history and insight into the modern day agency.

Apart from W+K's work, the main highlights for me were...

Their huge enthusiasm is infectious and was always over an above just doing advertising. The pair opened with a comment along the lines of hating advertising and having to work. At the end when asked what they were most proud of, it wasn't in fact the agency, it was the initiatives they have started since retiring, such as encouraging creativity with inner city kids. Very inspirational.

They were really down to earth. It was a bit of a boys done good story, without having to compromise on the way up. Starting up in Oregon when the majority of agencies were in NY or LA probably seemed crazy at the time, but they still managed to attract the great brands. It really highlighted that anyone, from anywhere can be creative, albeit in different ways. Their commitment to maintaining independence and creating a culture that was stimulating and genuinely full of interesting people was admirable. From boxers to sex line operators for example.

The final highlight for me was the absence of this single minded vision. It was more about doing lots of little things around the agency that seems to create this fantastically creative and seemingly enjoyable environment.

Actually there is one more. Tony Davidson had to deal with a tricky question on whether or not they copied a short film by two Swiss artists for their Honda cog ad. Tony's argument, which I happen to agree with, is that there isn't anything left in the world that is truly original. The two Swiss artists were probably also inspired by something else they had seen or experienced. It is essentially about absorbing culture and being aware of what is out there. Once you have that inspiration it is about making it better and adding something different to the original idea. Tony has commented on this before: "Advertising references culture and always has done. Part of our job is to be aware of what is going on in society. There is a difference between copying and being inspired by."

The a-a-a-h-h-h moment

I really like the new Strongbow ad, it's brilliantly simple. As far as I'm aware not many brands have actually focused on people's relationship with their tipple in this way. It is such a simple observation I love it.

I'm sure anyone who likes a drink can relate to that release of steam after a hard week. The 'yeah, now I'm relaxed feeling'. Irrespective of whether or not you drink Cider, next time you are down the pub after work see if you do the same as the guy in the Strongbow ad - I bet you do. I personally don't drink cider, but my mouth does water a bit just writing this.



With advertising regulations getting increasingly stringent, alcohol brands have moved communications away from people actually enjoying drink, into sometimes unrelated territories that are more about entertainment and portraying a certain personality.

WKD is about the social interactions and the nature of 'lads'


Bud Light is more about being an entertaining ad rather than the light beer feature


Bulmers and Magners (not sure what the difference is, if there is one a at all) get a bit closer with 'Time dedicated to you' - it's just rapped up more in the ritual rather than the feeling.