Singapore’s Creative Directors Want Love Not Money

According to Singapore’s Institute of Advertising, the City’s Creative Directors are feeling distinctly unloved these days. They are being overlooked by the government and the public and are, as a result, suffering from low self-esteem. In a response to this terrible state of affairs, it has initiated a competition to find the ‘Creative Director of the Year’. Patrick Mowe, Honorary Secretary of the Institute, is quoted as saying: ‘Some of these talented people feel they are not appreciated outside a very narrow group and the generous salaries are no compensation.’


We couldn’t agree more. All of that dosh just doesn’t make up for the fact that the general public doesn’t know, or care, just how clever we really are and what a huge contribution we make to society as a whole. It’s heartbreaking really.

The generous salaries, long lunches, exotic location shoots and annual trip to Cannes, are scant reward for the emptiness and lack of self-esteem that anonymity brings.

Could this lack of respect and recognition be because creative directors are, on the whole, such a modest and unassuming bunch; preferring to stay out of the limelight while others bask in the glory? After all, when was the last time you saw a creative director step forward to take the credit for a piece of award winning work that he or she was only vaguely connected with?

To be fair to Mr Mowe, his brief is to ‘Brand Singapore as a creative hub’, whatever that means. But I wonder; if the general public were to really find out what goes on in the average advertising agency would they be falling over themselves in approbation?

The Great Escape

If it’s true that every advertising copywriter is a frustrated novelist at heart it is surprising that so few make the leap into the literary world. This is possibly a reflection on the writing abilities of the average copywriter; or perhaps it’s due to the fact that these days, copywriters are seldom called upon to actually write any copy.

One who has made it out into the real world to put his talents to better use is our very own Malcolm Price. Malcolm is a hugely talented writer who now boasts three successful novels to his name, with a fourth about to be published.

I say ‘our very own’ as Malcolm was, before his move to the rarefied world of literature, once part of the Naïve Network’s vast pool of talent.

So when we got the chance last week to hear the man himself do a live reading at the Oriental Hotel in Bangkok we jumped at the opportunity. Apart from the free wine, which is always guaranteed to pique our interest, we were looking forward to picking up some tips on how we too might escape the ad world and join the grown ups.

So we trooped into the Author’s wing of the Oriental to mingle with the throng of ‘fans’ who had turned up to see Bangkok’s finest expatriate writer in residence. (I can say this with confidence having read some of the work of Bangkok’s other feted expat writers in residence).

With the ghosts of Maugham, Conrad and Green possibly still inhabiting the suites upstairs, it must have been somewhat daunting for our old copywriting mate to hold forth on the charms and idiosyncrasies of Aberystwyth – the unlikely setting for his series of novels featuring private eye Louis Knight – in such venerable surroundings. However he pulled it off superbly and held the audience spellbound for an hour and a half with a mixture of self-depreciating humor and personal anecdotes. Even his ultra- cynical former adland colleagues were impressed.

Although, if truth be told, we were far more impressed by the female groupies who hung on the author’s every word and who rushed to the stage at the end of the talk to get their book signed by the man himself. Just one of the perks of fame I suppose.

For more on Malcolm’s books click here

Do Not Adjust Your Set We Are Still Here.

After a long hiatus the NN blog is back! This is in response to a comment from a reader (our first) who, quite rightly, pointed out that things have been a little quiet around here.

I would like to say this was because the Naïve bloggers were away joining the hordes of agency creatives who descended on Cannes last month. But unfortunately the Network’s budget doesn’t stretch to anything more than a weekend in Pattaya at the moment. Instead we, and some of our freelancers, have been hard at work covering for the multitude of freeloaders who, at their agency’s expense, trooped off to bask in the reflected glory and sunshine of Cannes. So many Asian creatives are now attending this event that many big agency creative departments are seriously stretched at this time of year. Stretched with real work that is and not the stuff you’re likely to see on the Croisette. And since it takes most of them a week to recover from the drugs and the booze consumed they are effectively out of action for 3 weeks!

In fact we are thinking of marketing our services to agencies whose ranks are depleted by these events: ‘Need some cover while your boys (&girls) are sunning themselves and getting blotto at your expense?’ would be the gist of the message. And given the number of award shows’ now proliferating we think the potential is huge.

What the bloody hell does it mean? Slogan baffles Japan

This article in today's Melbourne "Age" highlights the pitfalls associated with using colloquial language in international ad campaigns.

The new Australian Tourism campaign has been attracting a lot of attention recently for it's controversial tag-line "So where the bloody hell are you?" (see it here). In Australia "bloody" is the universal adjective used to describe just about anything when the speaker can't think of anything more articulate to say (which is most of the time). However, in many other countries, it is considered offensive, or worse, as in the Japanese example where it has no equivalent at all. Which also begs the question, why didn't the Aussie Tourism Board find out in advance if anyone in their second largest market actually understands the expression?

The campaign has attracted a lot of media attention lately due to this controversy, which is not necessarily a bad thing if you come from the school of thought which believes any publicity is good. It's also spurned several parodies (piss-takes, if you're Aussie) which can be seen here:

Piss-take 1
Piss-take 2

The second of these piss-takes is noteworthy because of the further controversy it has created - seems the Aussie government only likes the joke to go as far as they want it to.

In complete contrast, the new Singapore Tourism Board TV campaign uses no language at all - just a stream of fast cutting images set against a jarring soundscape reminiscent of a car accident. Their tagline - "Beyond Words" - describes it perfectly. Needless to say, this campaign has attracted no media attention whatsoever. In fact it can't even be found on the STB website... hello?

Adfest 2006

The team from Naive is looking forward to pressing the flesh and rubbing shoulders with those poor sods who have real jobs at Adfest 2006 in Pattaya from March 9-11.

For more info, click here.

Welcome to The Naive Network blog page

The Naive Network is Asia's only independent creative network.

From time to time we will post our views on advertising and marketing activities in Asia, for what they are worth. For starters, let's piss a few people off by saying what a bunch of self-congratulatory wankers most advertising people are... which is why we decided to strike out on our own in the first place.

Stay tuned for more exciting insights like this.