The great balls of yesteryear

A well known industry exec asked an interesting question the other day. He wanted to know what agency, of any era, you would turn to to market a cool new product (in this case, flying cars). 

I love these kinds of theoretical exercises. My mind started spinning right away. Chiat from the 90s? Hal Riney from the 80s? Turn of the millennium Fallon? Or perhaps Cliff Freeman, remember those guys?

As I read through the comments, it was clear everyone was having a similarly enjoyable run down advertising memory lane. Ogilvy when David Ogilvy was actually there. Wells Rich Greene, mid-90s Arnold, 1970s DDB... and so on.

An impressive list of choices, to be sure. I get goosebumps just thinking about what some of these folks could have done with just about any product, let alone a flying car. 

But.

One thing became painfully obvious as I scrolled through dozens of excellent and evocative answers. Not one person seemed to even consider that a contemporary agency might be the best option. 

Not one. Yikes. 

What does it say about the state of our industry, that a fairly large sample of folks, many of whom currently work at some top agencies, felt compelled to crank up the way-back machine to find a suitable partner for this hypothetical new brand?

It probably says a lot of things. But the one that jumps out to me is balls. All of those “old school” shops had ‘em. Big ones. They were not afraid to speak the truth, even if it meant ruffling a few finely pressed pocket squares along the way. They had faith in their ability to solve problems with beautifully simple creative work. Because that work, worked. 

Yes, we still see some great creative today. Because we still have a ton of talent fighting like mad to make it happen. But it seems almost shocking when those ideas makes it through the “how can we make this process ever more complicated” gauntlet that we’ve been concocting for the past 20 years or so. 

The world has changed a lot since people like Hal Riney, Lee Clow and Mary Wells Lawrence were gracing the covers of AdAge and Adweek on the reg. But the value of a powerful idea has never wavered—despite our industry’s best efforts to obfuscate that fact. 

I think it’s time we start flexing those creative muscles more frequently. I have a hunch we’ll rediscover our balls in the process.