Book Babble #22: "Creative Mischief" by Dave Trott

Creating mischief, in the advertising industry and beyond!

So what mischief are we creating here, Dave?

Here we have a great little fun book, veering off slightly from the norm of this series. It's not so much personal growth, business, sales and the like… although it does draw from the experiences of a man in the advertising industry, which is of course all related.

Dave Trott is a creative director, copywriter, and author. He studied at the Pratt Institute in New York, majoring in advertising before going on to found the agencies Gold Greenlees Trott, Bainsfair Sharkey Trott and Walsh Trott Chick Smith. So he has a bit of pedigree both in the UK (born in Essex) and across the pond. This book delves in to some of the highlights of his 40+ year career.

It has lots of stories, ideas and references and is spaced out in a manner that makes it an easy read. Oh, and there are a few ol' nuggets in there too!

This appeared on my list as it came up somewhere as a good reference book for humour writing. I haven't seen it on any 'must reads' but certainly all very valuable content…

[On the subject of creativity, and in particular the education system, check out an old post I did based on a famous TED talk!]

Some mischievous quotes from the book, followed by my creative thoughts…

To be noticed, we need to do something different. To be different, we need to break the rules. To get away with breaking the rules, we need to be clever.

We have to mix it up if we want to be seen (in whatever capacity) and perhaps colour outside the lines where it makes sense. True in advertising, true in business. That can still be done in a professional and amicable manner but something has to differentiate you from the rest.

Castlemaine lager’s campaign, ‘Australians wouldn’t give a XXXX for any other lager’. The poster campaign for French Connection UK: FCUK FASHION and FCUK ADVERTISING.

A couple of cheeky advertising campaigns from years passed. Aussies 'couldn't care less' about other lagers which made use of the brand Castlemaine 4X. And FCUK just takes a little jumbling and makes an emphatic point from a couple of angles.

I seem to recall from my college days (not in the book), that FCUK either had to change it or ensure there were full stops/periods in between the letters to be clearer it's an acronym for the company, ie. F.C.U.K (French Connection United Kingdom). So, 'F.C.U.K. Advertising'. Not quite the same impact but a good example of begging for forgiveness, rather than asking for permission.

The Sun’s headline when Tammy Wynette died, COUNTRY STAR TAMMY: D-E-C-E-A-S-E-D.

Another one from that low-level tabloid in the UK, The Sun. Obviously a play on Tammy's famous song, D-I-V-O-R-C-E. Too soon Sun, too soon…

That song though will always remind me of Billy Connolly's parody. Oh look, here he is! (sorry Tam)

As Dawn French says, “If it’s funny it’s not bad taste. And if it’s bad taste it’s not funny.”

There's a fine art and a subtle balance. The key is, is needs to be funny if it is a little risque, and I guess you need to know your audience (and self).

Dawn French is a comedienne and is generally well liked. I just read an article that she moved to Cornwall (countryside) from London as she wasn't a city person, and that she arranged a tour with her comedy partner Jennifer Saunders in order to pay for renovations on her property.

It reminds me of something Lennon and McCartney supposedly said to each other back in the day when setting out to write a hit - let's write a swimming pool!

French was also married to Lenny Henry. I imagine that all got a bit tiresome…

What seemed to be facts were only true if I subscribed to it being that way.

Question everything. It's all a suggestion.

Creativity isn’t a particular discipline. It’s the quality of originality and unexpectedness that you bring to whatever you do.

It could be anything. It's funny when people say they're not creative and they just don't recognise the creativity in what they're doing, plus the rest that is bubbling underneath and needs to be drawn out.

Conflation is another word for creativity.

Merging two or more sets of information, texts, ideas, etc. into one. This is happening all around us and part of your day to day life.

Every purchase decision is a combination of ‘desire’ and ‘permission’.

You have the desire to buy something. Then you need to allow yourself to go ahead and do it. You need both of these in order to take that action. Advertising in its element is addressing these exact things, heightening that desire and helping you to justify it.

‘BRITAIN AND GERMANY IN THE FINAL’

Some British humour and opitimism. The above was on a placard of a newspaper seller during world war two… America weren't in it yet and the rest of Europe had fallen.

Apparently it was the Victorians who invented the concept.

The concept of swearing. Very interesting. There were words that existed before but no concept that words could be unfit for use before the Victorians. Look into it, it was to do with the advent of road signs and nicknames for them… (or tell me in the comments and I'll elaborate).

A picture may not always be worth a thousand words, but to see something is often more emphatic than just hearing it.

In advertising, as well as elsewhere, seeing is believing.

Visibility isn’t about being right. It’s about being interesting.

We tend to remember extremes, not much in the the middle. So, very good and very bad are equally memorable and where great advertising plays its hand. It's like that old saying - there is no such thing as bad publicity. It's still publicity (there's a certain president out there who's a master of this game) and gets seen, whereas hanging around in the middle leaves you unnoticed.

We seem incapable of judging for ourselves what’s good, we need someone to tell us.

We gets told what's good and bad and follow along. A piece of art becomes valuable when we're told so and see other people saying so. The same piece of art could be a piece of junk but becomes the pièce de résistance when someone 'in the know' puts it up in a gallery and other people start looking at it and 'pontificating' its virtues.

In Singapore they have an expression for this sort of herd behaviour. It’s called ‘Kia Soo’. Loosely translated as ‘fear of being left out’.

The ol' FOMO. Must stay with the crowd for safety! An evolutionary thing to be fair, but played out in funny ways in the modern day. Although it makes sense, you want to check out what everyone else is looking at…

George Lois’s book ‘The Art of Advertising’

A book rec on advertising. The author's top pick.

‘Positioning: The Battle for your Mind’ by Al Ries and Jack Trout.

Trott's other recommended book on the subject.

If you aren’t different, you have no identity. You’re just a commodity.

Exactly. What we need to understand in the business world. What do you or your company offer that the others don't? And why should we pay you?

Maclaren understood that people buy a product for what it DOES. But they buy a brand for what it SAYS about them.

"People don't buy what you do, they buy why you do it" ~ Simon Sinek

How the mind works is called ‘Gestalt’

The mind is a pattern making machine, grouping together various information as there is just too much at any given time. This makes us efficient and allows us to function. Check out The Chimp Paradox BookBabble for more on the 'monkey' mind and the functions the different parts of the brain play.

the mind is a pattern-making machine.

It's necessary to batch everything so we can operate without becoming overwhelmed. This is useful of course (or we'd co crazy) but also to our detriment when we box and dismiss things.

Orwell parodied this in Animal Farm. ‘Four legs good. Two legs bad’

Propaganda = oversimplifying

Van Gogh was treated as a fool in his lifetime, and died a pauper

Poor Vincent. Other than the whole ear thing, he didn't have it so good (probably explains the ear situation). He never sold any paintings during his life, and was thought of as poor. After he died, he became one of the most famous and influential figures in art. Go figure.

So I didn’t let him write my agenda.

Play your own game.

As Buddha said, “Act, don’t react.”

Keep calm. Stay rational. Put a space between stimulus and response.

If no one makes it happen, it doesn’t happen.

Sometimes the situation needs to be created. Trott thought there was no way of getting in to art school in New York, but his sister had other ideas and made it happen.

When you let something that doesn’t even exist control your life. See we don’t live in reality. We live in our interpretation of reality. And that’s what stops us.

Get out of your head. No-one really cares about you as much as you may think. They're probably a bit busy doing the same thing.

“The squeaky wheel gets the oil.”

You need to make a noise to get what you want. Advertising was (is) no place for shy people and this was an expression used by New Yorkans when he was there. No squeak must mean it doesn't need any oil?

That’s how advertising works. And that’s why good advertising started in New York.

Go massive or go passive. (I've no idea where I got that one, but it rhymes)

“When the only tool you’ve got is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a nail.”

Making everything fit the same box. You need a full tool box and adapt for the situation at hand.

I learned never take a risk that can kill you. But I also learned: no risk, no reward.

Calculated risks and taking chances are a good idea. Too much can be a bad thing. Err on the side of too much.

If it’s the right thing to do we must be able to explain it. If we can’t explain it maybe it isn’t the right thing to do.

Keep it simple, and be able to explain it, as if to a child. Refine as necessary.

Over 2,000 years ago, Democritus said, “The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be ignited.”

Give people the power. Give them what they need in order to shine of their own accord. Teach them to fish.

“Simplicity is genius”

Brian Clough, Bill Bernbach and Ron Greenwood (3 of the author's heroes) said this. Keeping it simple is common advice, but less than common practice.

Think of it as an oyster. You start with a piece of grit, and build a pearl around it. People buy the pearl, they don’t buy the grit. But no grit, no pearl.

Gritty.

As Bill Bernbach said: “Hard sell may not always drive out soft sell. But in advertising, as in life, the energetic always displaces the passive.”

Get people excited. Enthusiasm wins.

Pablo Casals. “Every moment is a new and unique experience that will never come again. And what do we teach our children? That two and two makes four, and Paris is the capital of France.”

Yeah, they need to get on it.

There’s a true Zen story that takes place two hundred years ago in Japan. It was raining as the two leading Zen masters met to debate their different styles of teaching. The first Zen master was seated drinking tea. The second master entered and sat opposite him. The first master said, “On which side of your shoes did you leave your umbrella?” The second master paused, and realised he didn’t know. He immediately gave up being a master and became a pupil of the first Zen master. By not knowing something as simple as that, he realised he had been thinking about the debate instead of actually being alive.

Because its always worth a Zen story or two.

And I guess that’s what real creativity is. Energy.

It's all energy.

See, we think our mind interprets reality. But actually our mind creates reality.

It's a collaborative process. And perception.

This quote was following a remarkable story about a tourist getting mugged in New York which shows how wildly our expectations can shape events.

‘on your tod’

There are a couple of explanations for the origins of this expression (meaning to do something alone). One theory is that it was cockney rhyming slang named after a guy called Tod Sloan, who also liked to be alone. Trott says it actually started with Elizabeth Taylor and to do with a Hollywood producer she married by the name of Mike Todd.

There’s a famous old Zen story about two monks walking alongside a river. A woman is standing there crying. The older monk asks what the problem is. She says, “I need to cross the river, but if I do I’ll ruin my kimono.” The older monk says, “Hop on my back.” And he carries her across, and puts her down. The younger monk is furious, and for hours the two monks walk on in silence. All day he rages inwardly, until at sunset he can’t stand it anymore. He turns to the older monk and says, “You broke the rule that says we aren’t supposed to have anything to do with women.” The older monk says, “I left her at the river, you’re still carrying her.” So I think the thing is, you might be right but what is it costing you?

Back with the Zen stories. It's a long-winded way of saying, don't carry old baggage. These things are all well and good but what you don't see so much of is the how of it all. I guess that's for us to figure out…

You haven’t got time to slow your life down to a speed at which you can gain everyone’s approval for everything you do. Do it, get on to the next thing.

Hanging around for approval can be a huge progress stifler.

I learned to forget the details and look at the big picture. I’m not still carrying the woman. I left her at the river.

This was in reference to a dispute with a former colleague. This guy 'stole' ideas from the author (perhaps unknowingly) but Trott maintains that he received even more in return from this guy, as he would never even have recognised them as ideas without him. There's give and take involved, and you have to run the risk of not getting credit for what you produce. You may end up with far more anyway. Karma will do its thing, however indirect the process.

The point is, he didn't dwell on the situation and saw the bigger picture.

“Please shout out the colours the words are printed in, not the words themselves.”

This was an interesting exercise which points out the power of the left brain over the right. Let's see what happens…

In each case everyone shouted out the word, not the colour it was printed in.

As in the word 'yellow' was on a green card. The audience said the card was yellow. Turns out your mind reads the words aloud and steamrollers right over the colour your eyes actually see.

“The client knows what he wants. The agency knows what he needs. The account man’s job is to get the client to want what he needs.”

The intricacies of the client relationship. What they want and what they need may differ, so figure out a way to get them there. Don't try to lead the horse to water - try to make it thirsty.

WHO should buy it. WHY should they buy it. WHAT should they buy it instead of.

Good questions to ask ourselves in any business or endeavour.

Which proves you need a creative pitch to win an account. But you don’t always need creative work

The marketing is superior to the reality. Unfortunately.

Ellen MacArthur

The sailor and her level of determination.

Jack Charlton

The football (soccer) player and manager. Had an older brother called Bobby who was even more famous and respected (they played in the England world cup winning team of '66). Jack went on to manage the Republic of Ireland quite successfully.

Jack was a pragmatist and did what was necessary. A little rough around the edges. He knew he was the underdog and not the most talented, so he did what he needed to do. And made the most of the gifts he had. Although not to everyone's tastes or approval…

Three lessons about creativity from Big Jack. Don’t trust anyone to do your thinking for you. Don’t accept that the brief can’t be changed. Always believe you’re the underdog.

Some Jackie Charlton wisdom!

Kinnock came from a poor family in Wales. When you’re poor the most important thing is survival.

Tony Benn had been brought up in the lap of luxury, survival was never even an issue. So, because survival was assured, principles became the most important thing.

The former labour MPs. Their upbringing and how that affected their values and politics.

Do you try to win new business by giving the client what you know he wants? Or do you give him the right answer even though you know he doesn’t want it?

The dilemma. This can be applied to all life. Pleasing the crowds or doing what's right?

Rock logic is: stay where you’re at and don’t move. Water logic is: try everything, see where it goes.

As Bruce Lee said - be water my friend ;)

Cheers Dave! Any more mischief to add?

In the introduction Trott says - there are 2 requirements from anything I read: I have to learn something or I have to be entertained.

Well, I got a fair bit of both from this book, and that is also a reminder for anything else you read… or write.

It's part Trott's autobiography, part short story, part how-to advice, with each of the entries mainly coming from his blog and put into book format. He has a couple more books out there written since, called Predatory Thinking and One Plus One Equals Three.

He also says we can find creativity everywhere and that we can learn from it wherever we find it. Absolutely true. Many people say they aren't creative, but that's nonsense. There are different kinds of creativity, sure, but when you were a kid you had an abundance of it, and then it got beaten out of you (Ken Robinson had something to say about that!). It's still there, although it may differ slightly from the next guy or gal.

Either way, if you're looking for a slightly different book, give this a look as you may well learn something and/or get a little entertainment.

Now go create! (with mischief ;))

Check out the others in the series…