Ask people who work in the advertising industry what their favourite TV show is, and many would say “Mad Men”. Well I don’t wanna sound clichéd but Mad Men is one of my favourite TV shows too (although my no.1 show is still “Criminal Minds” after all these years).
For those of you who haven’t watched Mad Men yet, the drama serial is about an American advertising agency (Sterling Cooper) set in the 60s. The show revolves around the Creative Director Don Draper and how the company would deal with clients and briefs (and their personal lives) during that era. The show deservingly won the Golden Globe Award for best Television Series (Drama) – 2008, 2009 and 2010 [List of awards Mad Men won].
What I love about the show is the way Don Draper would tackle briefs, so much so that whenever I get a new brief and am not able to “crack” the brief properly, I seriously ask myself – “What would Don Draper do?”
[Click on pic for higher resolution]
Another thing I love about the show is how these Ad people in the show would be chain smoking and drinking right in office as they discussed about work. Such things are not possible today for the obvious reasons (Oh here’s a trivia – In the TV show Mad Men, all the people smoke all the time, but since they (actors) are not allowed to smoke cigarettes in the film studio according to California Law, they are actually smoking herbal cigarettes on the sets!)
Recently, I wrote about how I went directly to Lonavala from Mumbai airport after flying back from Delhi. Well, that is when Mad Men kinda happened...
It was one of the most memorable weekend vacations I ever had.
Memorable, because it was different.
Unlike other weekend getaways, this particular trip including the transportation, lodging, food and booze were all sponsored by my company – webchutney.
What we did too, was not just about fun and enjoyment. At 10am in the morning, after inhaling the pristine Lonavala sunrise mist, we had a briefing by our CD and ACDs over coffee and tea. They told us about all the briefs and what we were supposed to conceptualize.
The daily list consisted of around 6-7 big clients/pitches. And so all of us (the Creative Department) went to our happy places - our rooms, by the pool, on the staircase, in the loo etc. alone to think of ideas for the briefs.
Then at 2pm we had a group meeting and all of us individually shared our ideas for each brief with everybody else. There were feedbacks, counter arguments etc for every concept discussed.
After lunch, around 6pm we all met again to finalize the concepts for the respective clients and then the night party started.
The next day, the same routine took place again, for different clients and briefs.
What I loved the most was the fact that we could do anything we want while discussing or thinking about our concepts. Total freedom. And with freedom comes more uninhibited overflowing thoughts of raw ideas.
Eventually, with the entire Creative Department pitching in and bombarding all of us with new ideas and concepts, we had enough “ammunition” to handle our clients/briefs. And sometimes, luck does set in. For example, there was this really awesome idea contributed by one of our junior copywriters, but the idea just didn’t seem to fit in with the particular client/brand. And then our ACD said, “Wait a minute... why don’t we just change the logo?” And that was it – Voilà, we had an amazing concept for another (completely different) client of ours!
Here are a few pics of that memorable weekend. Workshops like this really should take place frequently. Not only was it refreshing, but we ended up doing a lot of important work too. Two birds with one brain, you know.
Click on the pics for higher resolution.
Set I. Pics courtesy Asha Edwin.
[Group briefing]
[Individual thoughts]
[After Dark discussions followed by dinner]
[Daytime discussions]
SET II. Pics courtesy my Samsung Galaxy S.
[Bonus: Lonavala The Land of Chikki!]
SET III. Pics courtesy Ram Singh
[Bonus: A little animation never hurts.]
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For those of you who haven’t watched Mad Men yet, the drama serial is about an American advertising agency (Sterling Cooper) set in the 60s. The show revolves around the Creative Director Don Draper and how the company would deal with clients and briefs (and their personal lives) during that era. The show deservingly won the Golden Globe Award for best Television Series (Drama) – 2008, 2009 and 2010 [List of awards Mad Men won].
What I love about the show is the way Don Draper would tackle briefs, so much so that whenever I get a new brief and am not able to “crack” the brief properly, I seriously ask myself – “What would Don Draper do?”
[Click on pic for higher resolution]
Another thing I love about the show is how these Ad people in the show would be chain smoking and drinking right in office as they discussed about work. Such things are not possible today for the obvious reasons (Oh here’s a trivia – In the TV show Mad Men, all the people smoke all the time, but since they (actors) are not allowed to smoke cigarettes in the film studio according to California Law, they are actually smoking herbal cigarettes on the sets!)
Recently, I wrote about how I went directly to Lonavala from Mumbai airport after flying back from Delhi. Well, that is when Mad Men kinda happened...
It was one of the most memorable weekend vacations I ever had.
Memorable, because it was different.
Unlike other weekend getaways, this particular trip including the transportation, lodging, food and booze were all sponsored by my company – webchutney.
What we did too, was not just about fun and enjoyment. At 10am in the morning, after inhaling the pristine Lonavala sunrise mist, we had a briefing by our CD and ACDs over coffee and tea. They told us about all the briefs and what we were supposed to conceptualize.
The daily list consisted of around 6-7 big clients/pitches. And so all of us (the Creative Department) went to our happy places - our rooms, by the pool, on the staircase, in the loo etc. alone to think of ideas for the briefs.
Then at 2pm we had a group meeting and all of us individually shared our ideas for each brief with everybody else. There were feedbacks, counter arguments etc for every concept discussed.
After lunch, around 6pm we all met again to finalize the concepts for the respective clients and then the night party started.
The next day, the same routine took place again, for different clients and briefs.
What I loved the most was the fact that we could do anything we want while discussing or thinking about our concepts. Total freedom. And with freedom comes more uninhibited overflowing thoughts of raw ideas.
Eventually, with the entire Creative Department pitching in and bombarding all of us with new ideas and concepts, we had enough “ammunition” to handle our clients/briefs. And sometimes, luck does set in. For example, there was this really awesome idea contributed by one of our junior copywriters, but the idea just didn’t seem to fit in with the particular client/brand. And then our ACD said, “Wait a minute... why don’t we just change the logo?” And that was it – Voilà, we had an amazing concept for another (completely different) client of ours!
Here are a few pics of that memorable weekend. Workshops like this really should take place frequently. Not only was it refreshing, but we ended up doing a lot of important work too. Two birds with one brain, you know.
Click on the pics for higher resolution.
Set I. Pics courtesy Asha Edwin.
[Group briefing]
[Individual thoughts]
[After Dark discussions followed by dinner]
[Daytime discussions]
SET II. Pics courtesy my Samsung Galaxy S.
[Bonus: Lonavala The Land of Chikki!]
SET III. Pics courtesy Ram Singh
[Bonus: A little animation never hurts.]
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