Rick Rubin is a legendary American music producer, co-founder with Russell Simmons of Def Jam, home to Beastie Boys, LL Cool J, Public Enemy and Run DMC.  According to MTV in 2007, he was the most important producer of the previous two decades.  He’s also produced Red Hot Chilli Peppers getting them their breakthrough album,…

Back to live events. It’s great to be able to attend conferences in person again.  The IPA Effworks week of sessions was vibrant, informative and stimulating. But have you ever (at other conferences of course, never the IPA), ended up feeling that you have been shortchanged because the panel on stage just end up agreeing…

Watching old movies on a long haul flight I caught the 2010, teen movie Easy A with Emma Stone.  It’s essentially a movie about judgement.  Loosely (very loosely) based on the Scarlet Letter by Nathanial Hawthorne, it recounts the experience of Olive, who is condemned for being promiscuous based on rumour – to be fair…

Access to modern contraception is vital to the empowerment of women and girls worldwide.  There are 160 million women worldwide who do not have access and a $59bn cost to fulfilling unmet contraception needs.  Even when contraception is available, cultural pressures: social norms, traditional gender stereotypes, prejudices and stigmas mean that many women do not…

Pricing is a marketing issue, especially as cost of living crisis mounts. “We should not talk down the power of advertising in the wider marketing mix. When a brand buys advertising, it sends a message: that it wants to be noticed and win approval, that it wants to generate desire and drive behaviour.” Gideon Spanier,…

Going outside is a transition, a transformation.  And readily available when anyone is stuck for ideas. Going outside can be the start of a new adventure. There are, of course, more than one way to go outside: you can go through a door, step outside of your social or work bubble, dive into the natural…

The world has changed, but the way that we operate in many spheres has not changed enough. Not enough systematic change.  This is true of many sectors, including advertising. Not enough change.  It’s true of fiscal policy according to Conservative Party leadership candidate Liz Truss.  She’s advocating tax cuts, arguing that the Treasury has outdated…

Serena practicing at Wimbledon. Photo by Clive Brunskill/Getty Images A new film about John McEnroe was released as this year’s Wimbledon tennis tournament came to a close, which prompted me to think a bit about tennis. McEnroe is famous of course for being outspoken.  In a corporate world some people find speaking bluntly can be…

I won a free pass to Cannes this year, VIP, access all areas.  You can win one next year – just enter The Brief #2 – exercise some creativity for good, and, if you have the luck of the draw that I did, meet some friends for life and become part of the exclusive Cannes…

Despite more than £6 billion being spent on Diversity and Inclusion initiatives, the workplace is still full of inequality, prejudice, discrimination, marginalisation and harassment. More than £6bn ($7.5bn) is spent on diversity and inclusion initiatives every year. There is very little evidence, however, that this expenditure in fact leads to increased diversity, especially at the…

There are 48 techniques that can transform the creativity of the work that you do.  Here’s the sixth technique:  What if we exaggerate? Take an idea, take a problem, take a question and exaggerate it to help you find a creative outcome. One of the most iconic pieces of advertising did this beautifully.  The Sony…

A Forrester report in Campaign from late 2021 claims shockingly that only a third of USA ceos think their marketing chiefs grow business. This just doesn’t ring true to me. Every CMO I’ve met is driven by growing business, effectiveness and creativity. Is there an issue with the language of branding in those board rooms?…