NORTHERN PLANNER

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  I’m sure you’ve heard of Howies and their wonderfully rich, authentic, human tone of voice that transforms a mail order clothing company into a movement. While,the catalogue and the website are great, it’s the detail that brings it alive. When your jeans arrive, everything from the wrapping to the label inside, add up to pair of jeans you want to love so much, nothing will make them anything other than perfect.

I like working in a smaller place ‘Up North’. While it’s true that you sometimes lose out on clients that like the comfort of huge international networks, and ‘London’, theres a lot to be said for working with a smaller bunch of nice people.

1. You get to be media neutral. There’s not enough people to specialise , so you get used to having an idea first, instead of fitting into a pre-selected media.

2. You get the chance to make more mistakes. With less hierarchy, you get to try more things quicker, which means you learn fast, even though it’s scary sometimes.

3. You make each other better. Working with the same group of people more makes you closer, espescially when people where I live tend to be more honest and open.You share more things and trust them enough to say the unsayable- so you can help each other to avoid doing something really dumb, or stumble accross something really great.

4. Clients trust you more. They can see that the team’s close and sparks off each other- they begin to like joining in. Next thing you know, you can tell them their brief doesn’t make sense, and they can show you how little you really know about their business.

5. Less corporate culture, and the need to be what other people think you should be, means you can work in your own way. It also means learning to respect that other people want to do this too. Perversly less people around means more variation – you learn more from fewer people that are allowed to be different to each other.

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Every client relationship is different, but you won’t find many like this one. The budget’s tight, we need models to humiliate themselves in ill fitting 80’s gear. "No problem we’ll do it" (a bit too readilly by the way). With them it’s not a job, it’s simply what they do. There are no suppliers, just friends who help out.

Class.

Thanks to Open to Everyone,  my wife will be watching every move I make. After seeing me passing on Russell Davies’ advice that successful people are  getting up early , they’ve posted this article which suggests why.

Since I am neither a genius or creative (and I’m definitely not a success) my conscious is clear. The more gifted and acclaimed males out there had better watch their backs…

…it’s cool for a change so I should be happy shouldn’t I?

Happiness is everywhere, it’s easy to find and it’s a perfectly normal state for the human condition isn’t it? You only only have to look at the optimism in some of the coolest brands around, or see the bookshelves crammed with self help books to believe that if you’re not entirely happy, there must be something wrong with you.

In this article, Adam Phillips argues that a society this obsessed with happiness must really be in despair. Take it with a pinch of salt since, as a psychoanalyst, he has a vested interest in people being miserable, but I like his idea that we should be more realistic and learn to relish the challenge, that we should learn to love the journey as much as arriving.

I also like the thought of us all with a desire flaw-  our desires are insatiable. That’s why the breadth of choice described in The Long Tail is worrying, with infinite options you get infinite appetites.

Scientists are grappling with juicy enigma at the moment. There isn’t enough stuff in the universe. Seriously, there isn’t enough matter in the cosmos to account for all the gravity, there’s 10% unnacounted for, so they’ve decided there must be some strange invisible stuff out there that we can’t see.

Now this is the bit I like; it’s called Dark Matter, which gives it a mysterious, sinister tone of voice. Yep, they’ve gone for a slightly menacing science fiction – y name. You can imagine Ming the Merciless using Dark Matter to bring Flash Gordon to his knees, or Lex Luthor finding that it’s even more potent than Kryptonite in the battle with Superman. Who says scientists have no imagination?

This is great example of little mistakes that make a big difference.

The Observer has a fascinating article about the launch of new Coke. If you’ve seen the ads, it will come as no surprise to you that it’s aimed at young calorie conscious males who don’t want effiminate diet products. Probably the same ones that buy face fitness cream instead of moisturiser. Nothing wrong with that, and the idea of great bloke things without the downside (such as stag do’s without weddings) is fine too, although it reminds me of something Muller did once. The TV delivery is awful though,they’ve managed to shoot it in that mythical neverland that’s neither America or Europe, but some hideous hybrid of both. Have a look at the article here.

Madonna has always been the epitome of reinvention. Around the world, different generations have cited her as a definitive role model. How has she lasted so long? The answer is a useful guide for planning as well as lesson in celebrity.

She started selling donuts on Times Square and went on to be, at different times a Virgin Mary figure, a catholic sinner, horny teaser, disco diva, zen driven fitness fanatic, gay icon, bawdy cowgirl and everything in between. On the face of it, she’s wildly inconsistent and has stayed fresh by constantly changing. She sees is a bit differently.

" I hate this obsession people have about me reinventing myself. For me it’s all about revealing. I keep on taking off layers".

Assuming it’s true, Madonna displays layers of what she’s always been. Each reveal is just a different aspect of the same person. Edward de Bono discussed something similar in Six Thinking Hats. He argued that the best way to tackle a problem isn’t head on, but using your head. Each situation calls for a different approach, or ‘hat’. Madonna has just taken it a bit further: instead of putting on a different hat, she exposes another, hitherto, unfamiliar facet of herself. Even though it’s new, it feels strangely familiar.

Longevity doesn’t have to mean a choice between clinging to the same idea or constantly starting from scratch. Maybe a more useful way of looking at it would be what aspect to reveal this time. This needs a rich, authentic voice in the first place of course……