…was Trevor’s subject heading when he first told us about the Jack and Ada Beattie Foundation.
Jack and Ada are Trevor Beattie’s late, great parents. An inspiration to him (and now us all). So much so, he set up the charity in their name.
Pick your battles.
That’s what we often say in advertising – some days you have an idea and you want to defend it from all possible enemies that come along and fight for it no matter what. Other days, you just know it’s not going to come out how you want it, it’s not worth fighting for and it’s a ‘get it out the door’ jobbie. And rather than getting frustrated, you just know it’s about choosing your battles.
That’s kind of the thinking of the Beattie Foundation. It sets out to solve managageble problems and achieve small, realistic goals. Rather than solving world peace this second, or tackling climate change by next week, The Beattie foundation is about fighting battles we can win.
Like assisting the vulnerable and marginalised of the Midlands and London, with grants of between £500 and £2,000 to individuals and charities whose aspirations match the spirit of Jack and Ada. And like supporting the D-Day Veterans to the Gift of Flight for the disabled. Hence their mission statement:
“Knowing that someone is fighting your corner is half the battle won.”
But that’s not all you can win.
On Friday 18th November, if you come along to the Landmark Hotel Gala launch event and bid, you might come home with anyone of these frankly LUDICROUS prizes:
– A private flight for 2 to witness The Northern Lights.
– An afternoon at the BBC, sitting in on the Richard Bacon Radio Show. With a celebrity guest of your choosing.
– 2 return flights to Australia and backstage VIP passes to meet Eddie Izzard.
– A flight in a Spitfire… A chance to tour Tower Bridge and operate the raising of the bridge to let a ship pass…
– Your portrait by Rankin.
– Oh. And a trip to Necker Island. Yes. Necker Island.
That’s just a taster. If you’d like to get your hands on any of those, you can apply for a gala ticket here
You can also check out the Beattie Foundation site which explains the cause and the people they’ve already helped much better than we can.
LORELEI MATHIAS 
Really interesting, Dave. As a young man who also can’t explain storytelling, I figured that…
Stories help us learn > Learning keeps us young > Everyone wants to stay young
Maybe?
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Steve, Nick, Micky,
Nice to know I’m not the only one gentlemen.
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Very well said Mr T 🙂
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Was Max Bygraves in Advertising?
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Hi Dave,
I worked @ GGT in media from ’87 to mid 90’s; don’t be too hard on trendy lad, maybe he meant that a good story with creative impactful can be told in 20 seconds – viz your “kid drinking toilet water” 3rd World Debt ad. (Maybe one of the purest “GGT” ads ever made). Pity he didn’t have the vocab to get his opinion across, but that’s the BBM/TXT generation/situation that now prevails, as any ful no.
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I totally agree Jeff, it makes sense.
But if he meant that, why didn’t he just say it?
I suspect he’d heard the word but didn’t know what it meant.
And wanted to use it to sound knowledgeable.
Like ‘meme’ and ‘iteration’ and ‘touch points’ and ‘brand interface’.
All sensible ideas that could be explained simply.
But make you sound much more professional when put into technical jargon.
the idea being to obfuscate not clarify.
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Dressing for the Occasion
The First Time I saw Chris Wilkins – (Cresta Bear:’Its Frothy Man’ – Cadbury’s Smash:’Intelligent Life in Huddersfield’ – all at BMP). He was dressed Black Tie: it was a the Introductory Presentation to United Biscuits, by the Saatchis, just after they had taken over Garland-Compton. He was introduced as the latest Creative Acquisition (Leagas made a silly joke about waiters , at his expense), off to an Awards Ceremony.
I worked and drank with with him on various UB products later and he was as scruffy as he cared to be – Cartier lighter, latest BMW including Beer Glasses, the lot, he thought it was fun.
The Last Time I saw Chris Wilkins, he had his own shop in Soho, and was dressed like a Country Gentleman, complete with tie, slightly-misplaced In Town – probably because he was appearing at a Client Meeting.
My view: Know how to dress for the occasion – It may be important to your client.
Kind Regards
Shannon O’Hara
PS Of course, you don’t watch Mad Men, no sensible person does, nor do I, but I shall not soon forget the episode when Don is confronted by a pair of Creative Brits(?), who refuse to be hired without each other, weird or what? And then when he realises that they are not necessarily homosexuals, very weird.
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Art Directors trained to make emotional decisions? Instinct is distinct.
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And the wrong arm at that, Nelson.
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Years ago I told my agency colleagues I would give them £10 for each time they heard me use the word “like.” It’s a dangerous word, leads us into subjective preferences. We’re not supposed to be mind readers of individuals in meeings, we’re professional mass communicators. So instead of “like” all future discussions became about is the work good or not in terms of answering the brief, and whatever the point of view it had to be backed up by an arument or creative rationale. And that’s a lot more demanding than just saying you like something or not.
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Brilliant Bob,
That’s exactly right IMHO.
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what about planners that are “creative planners”? (i never understood that… it´s so stupid…. ) i was telling someone about a job i was doing at the moment (analysing numbers/figures/market share) and he said: oh, i don´t do that. i am a creative planner. what? i too think that my job is to be a strategist. i don´t do what creatives do. i have been working in ad agencies for 15 years, and i know they have a talent that i don´t – and vice versa. it´s so good to hear YOU say that, dave. i am so tired of planners that hate numbers, and figures and market research… and are pseudo creatives…
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Hi Juliana,
I absolutely agree with you, but more than that creativity should mean different things to different departments.
Check out this planners view of what Stephen King meant: http://coffeeanddonutswithjwtplanning.blogspot.co.uk/2007/12/why-agecies-should-employ-more-fish-guy.htmlhttp://coffeeanddonutswithjwtplanning.blogspot.co.uk/2007/12/why-agecies-should-employ-more-fish-guy.html
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I used to think long term,
then I ran out of time! 🙂
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Jeff,
it’s all about targeting.
Work out what your strengths are, and who you’d appeal to (just like doing an ad).
Then hone in on that area, just like doing an ad.
When I started I just targeted creative directors specifically.
Research your target market, just like doing an ad.
Find out (individually and generally) what they want.
Do a SWOT analysis on yourself, the market, and the individual and their agency.
This automatically gives you an advantage over everyone else.
They are acting like robots and doing none of this.
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Just tell them how great they are Jeff,
that usually works!
Apart from the smart ones – like Dave 🙂
I was going to ask where Grilla had gone,
but I’m not sure I’ve got the energy?
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Ah, good old personal abuse – the refuge of a man without an argument or without a brain
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There are more important things than money. Fatuous of me to say it I know, but sometimes even ad people believe it, and might regret the price tag the money came with. I resisted wearing red today, Jezza, out of respect for those of my ad chums who are sad, you’ll be pleased to hear.
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