Last June I celebrated the 10th anniversary of my advertising
career. Like any career, advertising has left me with a lot of highs, lows, and
maybe a few regrets. I remember as a junior, I would always tell juniors the greatest
move I ever made was working on my portfolio rather than trying to get an
internship. While classmates ended up in
an uneventful internship doing very little, I used those 6 crucial weeks to
create 3 campaigns. Those 3 campaigns stayed in my book for many years, won me accolades
with an Applied Arts Advertising Award, along with my first real internship at
Grey. And since I was completing an actual internship, I worked on real ads, won
more real awards, and moved on to my first real job in advertising.
I owe a lot to advertising. Right now, I am reside in Doha, Qatar
working as a freelance copywriter, and I know that I would not be here today without
advertising. The reason to work overseas was an easy one. Once my future wife
to be introduced me to travelling, I was hooked. I then realized that rather
than having advertising trudge me through the mud with long hours, unreasonable
clients, and last minute changes, I needed to use advertising to further my
life. Instead of advertising using me, I used advertising to explore the world,
meet new people and broaden my horizons. So when I got the call to go to Oman,
the decision was already made. To put this into greater perspective, for the
first 30 years of my life I had visited a total of 4 countries, including
Canada. And in the last 4 years, I have visited 34 countries.
Advertising has also brought me many regrets. The first being
having to turn down an opportunity to work at Biggs Gilmore in Michigan.
Although I had a great interview, and really enjoyed meeting the team, I unfortunately
had to turn down the job due to family reasons. It was just bad timing on my
end. I look back and think about what my career would have been if I had taken
that job. Remember, Biggs Gilmore is a digital agency, and entering the digital
market so early in my career would have put me ahead of the game today. You
just have to wonder and remember that everything happens for a reason.
Another difficult decision was having to leave Penny right before
the wedding to work in Budapest. Working at Scholz & Friends gave me the
opportunity to see the beautiful city of Budapest, but was a step backwards
career wise, considering how little actual creative work I did.
But I digress. I may have changed a few things here and there, but
the important thing is that I am still in the game today. Every now and again,
I have to remind myself how lucky/unlucky I am, considering I am still doing
what I love. Considering I graduated in 2003, and up to 75% of my class moved
to other fields within the first year, I am grateful. I still do keep in touch
with some of my classmates who have successfully created their own paths,
whether be it as a photographer, chef or stay at home mother.
So as I look back on my 10 years, I have decided to celebrate with
my top 3 commercials. I strongly believe that these 3 commercials are the most
strategic, insightful, creative, well written, well art directed pieces of
commercialism that I have ever seen. I'd say that in my 10 years, I have probably
seen at least 5,000 commercials, and these 3 stand out to me the most.
3. Coca Cola Border
This gem for a global brand works on so many levels. First, the
fact that it's for Coke makes it interesting. I say this because it's often the
biggest brands in the world that often provide the biggest challenges. Creating
happiness sounds easy, but creating something with such a broad USP is not easy.
What I love about this commercial is that it hits on the insight of a brief
moment of happiness in such a relevant and unique way. It's not flashy, but
it's memorable, strategically perfect and well directed.
2. Career Builder - Tips
Where. To. Start. This was one of those commercials that when I
saw it for the first time, I gathered
everyone within a 20 metre radius to watch with me again. The difference is
that after all these years (4), I still remember the commercial to the very
end. This commercial is a personification of a great story being told. It has
memorable characters, a plot that builds, suspense as to what is going to
happen next, and of course a show closing brand. Unlike the coke ad above,
which some may say doesn't make you go out and buy a bottle of coke
immediately, this made me go directly to careerbuilder.com. This commercial was
a micro site in the making where they could have taken the story so much
further. And since this was all based on an insight that we can all relate to -
bad coworkers - the idea had enough legs to make it to the next Super
Bowl.
1. Apple Think Different
I realize that many intelligent advertisers put Apple's 1984
commercial as the greatest commercial of all time. Sure 1984 had a big budget,
impact and buzz, being only aired once during the Super Bowl. But let me ask
you this? How many Super Bowl commercials do you see more than once? Or care
to? The reality of the situation that people will never talk about because of
the 1984's God like status is that sales actually went down after the release
of the commercial. For me, Think Differently is a commercial that is a better
example of everything Apple stands for. It illustrates in an effective, simplistic
way the mantra of. And 17 years later, it's still relevant to everything Apple
does.
Some people say that you know a commercial is great when you wish
you thought of the idea. But I think a commercial is great when you believe
there is nothing humanly possible to add to a commercial to make it better.
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