For Better or Worse, the Past Is All Around Us

Davidson Pearce was a great agency amp160Based on the fact that agencies are only ever as good as the people who work there itamp8217s interesting to reflect that the agency spawned media luminaries like Ray Kelly one of the founders of TMD that in turn became Carat Mike Sell founder of Total Media and Allan Rich founder of The Media Business that became MediaCom as well as creative geniuses like Norman Berry and Allen ThomasThe ads werenamp8217t half bad either the PG Tips chimps The Observer Citizen Kane spoof and a fantastic print campaign for Colt air conditioning stand out in my memory but there were dozens moreThis week many of us gathered to remember the agency and each other amp160It was of course an excellent afternoon and as was only right evening amp160Thank goodness for largeprint name tagsIamp8217m sure the Zenith guys had a brilliant reunion too as indeed do the Leo Burnetters given Burnett was blessed with superefficient account people those reunions happen every yearThis started me thinking whether in 30 yearsamp8217 time the likes of the large platforms the programmatic salesmen the DMPs and data aggregators will gather to remember the good old days when algorithms were truly algorithms and java scripts argued the toss over a pint or two okay Iamp8217ve run out of analogy here with pixels amp160Happy daysItamp8217s easy for any generation to look back and say yes we were the golden ones We may have been but someone will say no it was far better further back or whenever amp160But I doubt there would be many saying it is all far more fun nowCampaignamp8217s 50th birthday edition is wonderful amp160A nostalgiafest that truly captures the industryamp8217s journey over the magazineamp8217s lifetime amp160Itamp8217s also a printed thing it simply wouldnamp8217t work as well in any other format although you can of course trail bits of it very successfully onlineThatamp8217s not to say print is always great and online always sucksamp160 The media world isnamp8217t binary despite the efforts of far too many ignorant people to try to make it so amp160TV is dead print is great and all that crapBut sometimes print is great amp160Kudos to the Account Planning Group the APG for their Eat Your Greens book of essays on how to improve your brandamp8217s health by considering the facts as expressed by a stellar array of writers bloggers and thinkers amp160Far better as a printed thing if you ask meFinally in Cynical Old Gits Week I shall set aside my innate sense of cynicism to offer huge congratulations to my friends at Suzuki and the7stars for winning Gold at the IPA Ad Effectiveness Awardsamp160 I may be wrong but I think this is the first time a media agency has won one of these without a creative agency coauthor amp160Certainly there werenamp8217t any in the year I was a judge amp160Suzuki is a brave and innovative client and theyamp8217ve found themselves the perfect fit in the7starsamp8220Study the past to divine the futureamp8221 said Confucius probably when he was at JWTDisclosure amp160BJampampA has done work for both Suzuki and the7starsPhoto creditamp160 Ben RosettUnsplashClick the social buttons above or below to share this content with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writers

APPLY FOR JOBS | SUBMIT YOUR RESUME | REGISTER FOR FREE MEDIAVILLAGE CONTENT

For Better or Worse, the Past Is All Around Us

Author

Publish date

Channel

Brian Jacobs

APPLY FOR JOBS | SUBMIT YOUR RESUME | REGISTER FOR FREE MEDIAVILLAGE CONTENT

For Better or Worse, the Past Is All Around Us

Enjoying This Commentary? There's More to Love

Brian Jacobs

Cookies