This is not just one of those books that makes you think. It challenges you to think. It demands that you think, and to beware of all those obstacles that would stop you from trusting your instincts and finding an idea.

— Lee Clow, Global Director of Media Arts, TBWA\Worldwide

An original and beautiful book. It suggests that the surest way to liberate ourselves is through the power of our ideas.

— Nelson Mandela Foundation

Buy a copy of John Hunt’s book to put within reach on the bedside table. Buy a copy to keep next to the tub in the bathroom – permanently. And one on the stove. (And one in your car for “kill myself” traffic.) And a bedroom extra to keep under the pillow as talisman. It really is that good-gorgeoususeful-inspiring-profound. (As you can doubtless tell, I’m quite taken by The Art of the Idea.)

— Tom Peters, Bestselling author

A book review by Mark Tungate

This book is tougher than it looks. At first glance it resembles yet another theorizing tome written by an experienced adman – in this case John Hunt, a giant of South African advertising and worldwide creative director of TBWA. But it soon transpires that the book has little to do with advertising: the word is never mentioned. Instead, “The Art of the Idea” has more in common with Paul Arden’s “It’s Not How Good You Are, It’s How Good You Want To Be”. It’s an inspirational tool, a guide to the creative process for when your back’s against the wall.

Hunt is a copywriter and an award-winning playwright, so the short book is stuffed with memorable epigrams: “No-one orders a bouquet of beige flowers”; “Change doesn’t keep regular hours”; “Trust your instincts or they will go away.” Some of the content is familiar – for example the theory that ideas often come to you when you’re thinking about something else. Other sections are more personal – such as Hunt’s musings on the correlation between diversity and creativity.

The copy is clear and lucid, deliberately avoiding doublespeak. Hunt has enough of a sense of humor to realize that fake intellectuals just end up looking dumb. “Original thinking comes from making a complicated thing simple and not the other way around,” he writes. Actually, fake intellectuals are one of book’s many targets.

And here we get to the crux of the matter. “The Art of the Idea” has an edge. Under its cool prose and beautiful illustrations – by the South African artist Sam Nhlengethwa – there’s a sense that Hunt is seeking to vindicate original thinking. The title could just as easily have been “In Defense of the Idea”. Ideas are portrayed as delicate, ephemeral beings that should be given space to thrive. They are allergic to bureaucracy, politics, over-analysis, compromise and bland furnishings.

What’s packaged as gentle pedagogy is in reality a full-throated cry for creative freedom. It is a defense of instinct against statistics, a call for risk-taking, and a protest against expediency. Hunt famously advised Nelson Mandela during the first multiracial South African elections, and allusions to freedom of thought versus closed minds crop up throughout the text: “Free thought is what [authoritarian governments] fear the most.” More broadly, he warns that cold logic applied too early, “can stop dreamers dead in their tracks”. In that respect, the corporate world will get more out of the book than creative types, who will simply say “Yes, yes, very true” and nod their heads sagely in agreement.

Don’t get me wrong – “The Art of the Idea” is not a rant, far less a whine. Hunt’s tone rarely deviates from one of calm reflection, with occasional recourse to the wry aside. But the book is a reminder that ideas are as fragile as bubbles, and that too many people take pleasure in bursting them. Hunt is simply urging all of us to give ideas room to soar and catch the light. “The real value of an idea is to see how far you can push it,” he suggests. In other words, if you’re looking for an early gift for your client, you may just have found it.

Mark Tungate is the author of several books, including Adland: A Global History of Advertising.

Jean-Marie Dru is the Chairman of TBWA\ Worldwide. He writes a “Thursday” to TBWA’s worldwide staff every week. Sometimes, he shares them with us:

We all know that, sadly, a very large number of advertising campaigns are mediocre. And this is what most people outside of our business believe. But they have not realized that good advertising can inspire people, and great advertising, though rare, can impact the world.

This is why The One Club, the organization that recognizes excellence in advertising in the US, has asked Director Doug Pray to shoot a new documentary feature to promote those ads that are truly innovative and inspiring. It’s called Art & Copy.

The film also celebrates the people who made these ads. It is not only about the craft. It’s about artists. It’s about pioneers. And it’s about people like Lee Clow who come along and change the way people see advertising.

“What’s different and perhaps surprising about this movie, is that it isn’t about bad advertising, that 98% which so often annoys and disrespects its audience,” says Doug Pray. “I didn’t want to make a doc that just trashes trashy advertising. Too easy, too obvious, and why bother? Instead, [I was]granted access to a handful of the greatest advertising minds of the last fifty years. I felt it could be a more powerful statement to focus the film only on those rare few who actually moved and inspired our culture with their work.”

Doug Pray takes an in-depth look into the creative processes involved in some of the most renowned American ad campaigns of the last half century such as “Just Do It,” “I Want My MTV,” “Got Milk?,” and “Think Different.” He delivers this through the eyes of some of the most influential people in the business including George Lois, Mary Wells, Dan Wieden, Hal Riney, and of course, our own Lee Clow.

Here’s what Lee had to say about his involvement with this film:

“Being in a movie was fun. Going to Sundance, hanging out with Robert Redford, signing autographs, what can I say! But seriously, if you see the film it will make you proud to be in this fun creative business. I think it will inspire young people to want a career in ‘Advertising.’”

Art & Copy recently premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and is currently making its way throughout festivals and cinemas around the world. I encourage everyone to watch the film. Hopefully it will inspire you to do better work. To watch the trailer and find out more about the film, click here.

I’ll end with another quote from Doug Pray:

“Yes, I’ve made a positive film about ads. I’d once believed that our systems of commerce might go away, and with them, all unwanted commercial messaging, but they haven’t yet, and won’t soon. Advertising, in fact, may actually be an innately human act itself. But like all creative endeavors (books, paintings, movies, architecture) most of it is mediocre. Ultimately, I hope ‘ART & COPY’ inspires artists and writers to strive to make more meaningful, more entertaining, or more socially uplifting ads. With so much advertising surrounding us these days, it would be great to get that 2% figure a bit higher.”

If you have any comments please email Ulrich Proeschel.

The creative idea for this print campaign is simple: What if at the moment of death, life flashes before the eyes of not only humans but also pests. This campaign developed by TBWA\ISTANBUL for a turkish pest control product makes the audience look through the eyes of mosquito’s and the rat’s at the moment of their encounter with Esem Mat.

If you have any comments please email Ayşe Şenünver.

If it is you goal to communicate that the information you are providing is accurate, this is the right campaign.

CNN Turkey has developed with their agency partner a print and OOH campaign that says: CNN Weather Report. 99% accurate. If data proofs that this is correct, it is a great campaign for the channels complete program. If not, the potential for backfire is big.

The audience will decide if CNN behaves accordingly.

If you have any comments please email Ulrich Proeschel.

If anyone deserves their own holiday, it’s dogs. So let’s celebrate our best friends and recognize their contribution to the quality of life on earth. All we have to do is give our own dogs a little extra love, share our stories and pictures on this page and do a little something extra to make the world a better place for dogs.

So if you love dogs the way we love dogs, become a fan, post a picture, tell all your friends and family and download the flyers and stick them up all over.

Learn more about this international holiday for dogs.

And make sure to spread the word. All supporting material is available only one click away.

If you have any comments please email Ulrich Proeschel.