The Power of Guilt.
“What inspired you to publish your book?” The seven-going-on-eight-year-old asked.
“Hana, we don’t have time, finish your breakfast!” Mum saved me in the nick of time.
Because the truth was almost spilling out:
For the money, of course.
To capistalise on my skill, duh.
Which explains my nagging guilt, because at the back of my head, I know you’re paying for this newsletter, and I know I promise to update once a week, bi-week, month, and that guilt compounds when I complain about my guilt to friends / clients / creators / the mirror without actually posting.
Especially when compared to Hana’s godmother who updates three times a week about their six-month world tour.
Check out the audacity.
You guys go work hard in debt and fund for private education, I take time off with my kids and chill with James Bond on his James Bond Island, fishing with Maeghan and Harry.
We are not the same.
Give it a subscribe, and see your productivity / life choice tumble in shame.
My point is, ‘happy’ writing, and ‘work’ writing are different.
My Japan writing is always cheerful, and Melbourne newsletter writing is blah blah food blah blah economics blah blah cynicism.
“You think too much,” a friend said over lunch.
“No offence, but you think too highly of yourself. We don’t follow or subscribe to you because you’re some gourmet authority, or Hemingway, we do it because we like your voice and you have an interesting outlook in life and we just want to support you.”
Ok, wow.
What do you mean I have no authority? No offence?
Unfriend.
While I process that betrayal, let’s step away from food writing and talk about marketing. My old flame.
This billboard on the way to the airport terrified me.
Those of you who dabbled in creative adverting should know, that the highest form of creative work, is reduction.
The pinnacle of copywriting, is no copy.
It’s creative advertising 101: the more you take out, the stronger the message.
I have left the industry for decades now, but even I know this will win awards.
It will win awards, because clients, especially, Australian clients are risk-adverse.
‘Will they get the message if we don’t spell out for them?’
‘Will they know it’s us, can we make the logo bigger?’
‘Can we keep this idea, and combine it with three other things we need to address?’
The billboard shows a biker in an outback with full reception. That’s what the four bars are for. That’s what the logo is for.
The terrifying part is that Telstra, the owner of the logo is the market leader.
Usually, the biggest guy are the least creative. Because they have shareholders to answer to. The big guy is focusing on their bonuses. Goliath, bad.
The competition? Well, Optus can’t even hit the ‘raise hand’ button in the advertising space since their data leak meltdown, Vodafone merged with TPG to form their little power ranger to cushion their operator lost since 2018.
So yes, this is the biggest player walking in with the biggest gun.
Maybe it’s a one-off.
We call them scam ads. Ads you run once so you can enter awards.
But whoa, check out their outdoor campaign.
All typography; no photographs.
The pinnacle of art direction, is no image.
I mean, it’ll make me squint and hit a pedestrian, but that’s another pencil / lion / trophy magnet.
Did they do TV ads? Oh did they.
They made sixteen of these 16-second snappy clips, and before you say they reminded you of Wes Anderson, yes, that’s Wes’ actual crew.
It’s focused on regional Victoria, because guess which part of the country desperately needs reliable coverage?
Market leader, insane production, single-minded proposition.
This is not a fight; it’s an execution.
I’m not sure if you remember Coles’ ‘Down down prices are down’ campaign from 2009 that set back the country’s creative IQ by 20 points, this feels like the complete opposite.
If I were you I’d be observing Telstra stocks with keen interest.
This is me, with a quick post.
To feel less guilty over the weekend.
Hopefully, today you learned that:
It’s not easy to sell creative work;
It’s not easy to buy creative work;
Creativity is, according to Dave Trott, the only legal unfair competitive advantage you can deploy. (Think Don Draper’s ‘It’s toasted’ pitch for Lucky Strike tobacco. If everyone is selling the same thing, you can say whatever you want as long as it makes customers happy. )
Guilt can be a powerful motivation. I probably published a cookbook because I was guilty of not being productive during COVID.