(Part One)

(Part Two)

Hunt was born in Zambia and educated in England and South Africa, he was the Creative Founding Partner of TBWA Hunt Lascaris.

 TBWA Hunt Lascaris has now grown to be South Africa’s premier advertising agency – named Agency of the Year six times in the last seven years. 
In 1993 John was intimately involved in Nelson Mandela’s first ANC election campaign. Three years later, he joined the South African Advertising Hall of Fame – the first working creative to be so honored, and in 1997 he received the Financial Mail’s Long Term Achievement Award.

TBWA has been named by Adweek magazine as the “Global Advertising Agency Network of the Year” in both 2007 and again for 2009. Led by CEO (and Berlin School Board of Governors member) Jean-Marie Dru, the full-service agency has more than 250 offices in 77 countries. Some of its major clients include Adidas, Absolut Vodka, Apple, Henkel, Mars, Nissan, and Sony PlayStation.

Check out reviews of the book on adage.com and mad-blog.com.

More background, click here.

If you have any comments please email Ulrich Proeschel.

Happy Holidays,

Ulrich

One more thing, if you are still looking for some holiday fun. Read our top five posts of all time:

(1) Insights on the revolution by Michael Zorn (TBWA\BERLIN)

(2) The Age of Media Arts by Lee Clow (TBWA\WORLDWIDE)

(3) Disruption is Liberation by Dr. Sven H. Becker (TBWA\GERMANY)

(4) Disruption in a disrupted World by Jean-Marie Dru (TBWA\WORLDWIDE)

(5) Let’s do things we think we cannot do by John Hunt (TBWA\WORLDWIDE)

Mad-Blog had a camera running so you can be part of the conversation between John Hunt and Stefan Schmidt (CCO TBWA\Germany) to get John’s opinion on how ideas relate to diversity, Google, apartheid, life or logic. Enjoy.

(Part One)

(Part Two)

Check out reviews of the book on adage.com and mad-blog.com.

More background, click here.

If you have any comments please email Ulrich Proeschel.

Many of the photos became part of a traveling photo exhibit, which took place in Stockholm and Belgium. Then, TBWA\Berlin took the idea and created an outdoor photo exhibit, featuring the images in billboard size on the walls of buildings throughout Munich, Cologne and Hamburg. They even provided a site map and audio tour. A perfect example of the art of Media Arts.

I believe it’s ideas that prod and push the world forward.  They’re the ultimate currency of worth.  I felt the need to celebrate why ideas happen and to highlight why they sometimes sink without a trace. I spend a lot of time in meetings around the world where the goal is simply to come up with a great idea. I found the situations in which we succeeded had certain things in common. A pattern began to emerge. I came to the conclusion that there were specific circumstances in which ideas flourished. So I decided to share those observations.

It struck me that beneath the book’s apparent gentleness there is a faint seam of anger, as if you’re standing up for the rights of the creative community. Is that so?

I certainly didn’t write it with a soapbox beneath me. But I do feel frustrated that good ideas are often killed by compromise, a need for category sameness or politics. Good ideas often look a bit daunting at first, because they’re different and unexpected. But, that’s no reason for  dismissing them out of hand. Most innovation comes from having a healthy disrespect for the status quo.

You equate the generation of ideas with freedom of thought. To what extent has this book been inspired by your experience of South African politics (including advising the ANC during the first multiracial elections)?

Mandela was a perfect example of somebody with an idea attacking a horrific status quo.  The fact that he could do it with such calm grace was miraculous and awe inspiring.

Many people are threatened by ideas, according to the book. You even state that a good idea should make people a little nervous. Are ideas dangerous?

Ideas can certainly make people feel uncomfortable. A great idea often has no precedent, so there’s no reference point. You feel lost. At first it’s difficult to tell whether it’s just a plain bad idea, or whether it’s the precursor for something dramatically new. But, those are the very ideas we should embrace and nurture. The initial discomfort might be the first signal that you’re on to something special.  Unfortunately, most of us are trained the other way.

Is the book subtly addressed to risk-averse clients?

No one was particularly “in my sights”.  Maybe it’s also addressed to myself.  To keep me honest.  We all have a tendency to play it safe. Not that I’m saying we should wildly adopt any idea that comes to mind.  But genuine creativity often requires an overturning of systems.  It’s bizarre, but we often cling to something even if it’s not working.  Habit give us a comfort that’s tough to shake off.

Unless I’m mistaken, you don’t mention the word “advertising” once in the book. Was that a deliberate or unconscious choice?

I didn’t want to write an advertising book because then people would look at it with their advertising blinkers on. I believe these observations are relevant to a wider community than adland. Besides, advertising agencies have moved beyond adland, we’re all chasing ideas now as an organizing principle.

You write that, information, no matter how beautifully packaged it is, will never equal an idea. Is that a message to the news media to provide more insight?

Not only to the news media, but anyone who thinks raw information is an end to itself. In the context of having an idea, it’s just a starting point.  I see this all over the world now: a person turns up to a meeting with a presentation stuffed with facts and tries to convince you they’re presenting an idea. But it’s just accumulated information. There’s no attempt to draw an insight from that data. So, no real insight means there’s no real idea.

Do I detect a slight negativity about the Internet?

No, it’s probably the greatest invention of the last hundred years. But what I don’t like is when people use it as an intellectual crutch. OK, there’s a certain skill in extracting information from it and presenting it in an interesting way, but if you’re not careful, that information can clog the system as much as illuminate it.

On a lighter note, you mention brainstorming sessions in the dark, while listening to music or on the roof of your building. Sounds fun. Is the book likely to generate new recruits to advertising?

I just wanted to make the point that creating the right environment helps. There’s also a tendency to dismiss playfulness in the corporate space.  I find the right place and mood helps generate ideas. Many times, I’ve been sitting in some beige meeting room with a bunch of people whose brains have seized up. Moving to the local coffee shop, relaxing for a moment and kidding around helps the ideas to start flowing again.  It’s common knowledge: the “eureka” moment often comes when you’re relaxing in the bath. Too often we attempt to bully an idea into existence.

Talking of creative people, how did you meet Sam Nhlengethwa, the book’s illustrator?

I wanted the book to be accessible, easy to read and maybe something worth keeping.  I think Sam’s beautiful artwork helps it be a “kept” book.  I’d never met him before doing the book, but the moment I saw Sam’s portfolio, I knew he was the guy I wanted to work with.  I only discovered after I approached him, that he was famous and had exhibited around the world.  I think that makes me a pleb.

Check out reviews of the book on adage.com and mad-blog.com.

More background, click here.

If you have any comments please email Ulrich Proeschel.

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

— Tom Peters, Bestselling author

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.

This is the 200th post on mad-blog.com. Congratulations and a big hand to all those who have contributed so far. Over 20,000 absolute unique visitors from 134 countries joined us, spending an average of 2:59 minutes on the blog. Over 4,550 people have subscribed to our rss feed. Thanks for all the interest and support.

This is the perfect opportunity to share the most read stories celebrating Media Arts and Disruption. Enjoy and pass them on:

(1) The audience is always right. (by Michael Zorn)

(2) Some brands don‘t like change. Change doesn’t much care. (by Michael Zorn)

(3) Cannes Lions 2009: Who will be the big winners? (by Rob Schwartz)

(4) Disruption is liberation. (by Sven H. Becker)

(5) Let‘s do things we think we cannot do. (by John Hunt)

(6) Change: What business can learn from politics 2.0. (by Frank Striefler)

(7) The age of media arts. (by Lee Clow)

(8) The Zimbabwean Trillion Dollar Campaign. (by Gavin Heron)

(9) Act like lovers do. (by Stefan Schmidt)

(10) adidas Originals: Connection with the original tribe. (by Moritz Kiechle)

(11) Images travel but disruptive ideas thrive. (by Perry Valkenburg)

(12)  The beauty of big. (by Jean-Marie Dru)

If you have any comments please email Ulrich Proeschel.