The Rise of Wanky: Here to Stay?

Recently, within a few product categories, there has been a rapid increase of the wanky ad.

First evident in TBWA’s Starburst followed by Crispin Porter Bogusky’s VW & Burger King and now with Wieden + Kennedy’s Old Spice stealing the show with their latest slew of “Smell Like A Man, Man” ads. The question is are these ads shifting pop culture or vice versa has a new generation of dry humor, evident in the target market, given way to wanky ads to grab attention? The viral pop culture success of Old Spice’s “The Man Your Man could Smell Like” proves that this advertising, whether or not sparked by the target market, is at the very least able to spread quickly when the target’s sense of humor is imbedded in it.

The question is, is this a passing fad or a method of cutting through the clutter that will continue to prove successful?

The Agencies with A Bright Future Have: -insert-

I’ve found that the agencies with the brightest futures have a strong sense of comradery through the aspects of humility, positivity and healthy levels of competition.

What inspired me to think about this was when I was looking back at an old youtube video of the group of Lucky 13 interns, (posted above) that I was fortunate to be a part of, and remembering how we seemed to accomplish the impossible by having a healthy environment set by Campbell Mithun.

One the most important pieces, especially for young creatives, is the aspect of humility. By having the opportunity to work with senior creatives and directors that take the time to give direct feedback and collaborate on solutions creates a great sense of trust and respect. The killer of this at agencies can easily occur with a prima donna. I’ve found the ego quickly kills creativity.

The second most important strength seems to be having a great sense of positivity that doesn’t bleed into nieve. By remaining positive in the face of a client review, a rethinking of a campaign structure or simply staying late to get the work done at a high quality, is such an important piece to finish strong. Those that try to lead with fear often see the best within their ranks leave for a positive work environment in order to produce good work.

Finally, the most important piece (and most difficult to balance) is encouraging the right amount of competition within your ranks. By pitting a new creative against one that has been at an agency for a long period of time can lead to strained relationships and allows for the lack of communication to fester. Yet, to strike the perfect cord of inspiring competition within teams to produce the big ideas; but, allowing for a healthy amount of collaboration, can produce some of the best ideas hoped for.

Yet, the real conundrum seems to be that each individual responds to stimuli differently and what is appropriate for one isn’t necessarily for another. Thus the search for the perfect fit of agency and creative individual continues until the best creative work that one can produce comes to fruition.