British advertising may have had more successful businessmen.
More accomplished creative directors.
Bigger award winners.
But never a better Creative.
No one has more ideas living in British people’s heads than John Webster.
They didn’t gatecrash either – they were invited in.
Singing and dancing their way past the barriers and into the national consciousness.
One big, happy conga line; Smash Martians, Cresta Bear, Honey Monster, John Smith’s Arkwright, the Prize Guys, the Humphreys, and on and on.
Born across four different decades.
Created, unlike other ads at the time – alone and using research.
Occasionally John and a writer are credited, but primarily John was both the art director and writer.
At the time, Bernbach’s 1+1=3 was the law, so that was very rare.
Rarer still, were Creatives who embraced research.
Creatives viewed it as a killer of creativity and innovation.
I thought I’d look into these aspects of John’s process.
First, by talking about how John created ideas.
Fortunately, Dave Trott broke his anti-podcast rule, which is great, because I couldn’t think of anyone better to talk to on the subject.
Dave worked with John through the seventies and is obviously a brilliant Creative in his own right. (He’s not just a blogger kids.)
Next, I’ll talk to planner Sarah Carter about how John used research to shape ideas, but first, here’s Dave…