Probably the most retrospective session of the week – and one of the most amusing too – was on behalf of the History of Advertising Trust, compèred by the former IPA executive, Geoff Russell, and featuring two genuine advertising stars with Jeremy Bullmore and David Bernstein.
Bullmore and Bernstein appeared first on screen as Russell took the audience through a 1966 advertising training film – Risk & Responsibility. In 1966 the Advertising Creative Circle’s presentation critiqued commonly held beliefs concerning the risks of doing distinctive advertising and pitted them against the real risks – of being safe, samey, bland and invisible.
Aside from the humour of the duo being Bird and Fortune-like in one section of the film, as they reviewed and modified a print advertisement for men’s shirts, the film was notable for the smog of cigarette smoke drifting upwards from the discussion table in every clip – fed by nearly all the participants.
When they came to the stage to a warm reception in the noisiest Ad Week location (“a bit like presenting in a bar”) they were quick to pick up on some comments made earlier in other sessions.
“I heard someone say earlier that TV is a point of sale medium… it isn’t,” said Bullmore, who added his view that “digital is what DM was in newspapers years ago.”
In answer to a question from the floor, he encouraged risk-taking today.
“You’ve got to be gutsy to take risks,” he said. “Show them three more outrageous alternatives; then your choice (the fourth) is greeted with a huge sigh of relief.”
David Bernstein weighed in with “if in doubt, do it,” as he told a tale of his early career when he was doubling up as a junior copywriter and account executive at the same time: “I’d take the brief to myself, produce some copy, take it back to myself, reject it and send it back to myself again.”
A vintage 45 minutes.
