Every day I travel to and from work on the tube.
Every day I see people without manners.
And then I look more carefully at them and I see they’re not really nasty people.
They’re just not thinking.
They’re not aware of what’s happening around them.
In their environment, their context.
A young man is sitting in the seat that’s reserved for the pregnant, the disabled, or the elderly.
He’s listening to his iPod, oblivious to the old lady standing next to him.
He’s not a bad person, he’s just not aware of her.
A young woman is sitting in a seat while her bags occupy the seat next to her.
She’s not a bad person, she’s just oblivious to the people standing, holding onto the straps.
As we try to get off the train, people stand on the platform in front of the doors, blocking our exit.
Oblivious to the fact that they can’t get on unless we got off.
I try to walk up the escalator but there are people standing and talking, occupying the whole width so no one can pass.
They’re not bad people, they’re laughing and chatting.
They’re just oblivious to the fact that the left side is for walking, and the right side for standing still.
Outside the station, I go to cross the road and nearly get run down by a car that turns without indicating.
He’s not a bad person, he just wasn’t thinking.
I cross a street in Soho and nearly get run down by a bike going the wrong way up a one-way street.
None of these people are bad people.
None of them are purposely nasty.
They’re all just not thinking.
They are unaware of what’s going on around them.
Oblivious to anyone or anything, other than what’s going on with them.
Exactly like most advertising.
We’re oblivious to the environment, the context the work has to run in.
The client goes to a media company with a budget.
The media company looks at the numbers and recommends the media.
The client doesn’t question it, he passes it on to the agency.
The agency doesn’t question it, it’s already been decided, so they work to that brief.
The creatives don’t question the brief, they start work.
They look on YouTube for a new technique or they write a vaguely related joke with a pun at the end explaining the link.
The ads are then ‘researched’.
‘Research’ consists of asking people who have never worked in advertising, and know nothing about it, what they think of the work.
How would they make it better?
What they say is never questioned, just acted upon.
And all the while, everyone is just concentrating on their own little part of the job.
It never occurs to anyone to step outside their discipline and look at the environment we have to work in.
To consider the context.
It never occurs to anyone to think, beyond simply reacting.
To do anything but operate on autopilot.
No one means to be stupid or narrow minded.
No one is purposely ignoring what’s going on in the outside world.
We’re just not aware there is a world outside our little world of advertising.
And that for anything to work, we have to consider the context.
We have to be constantly aware of what’s happening in the environment, all around us.
It just never occurs to anyone to be aware of that.
It’s not that we’re bad people, we just don’t think.
Dave, I used to think that, but then I realised that people who don’t take responsibility for themselves and the people around them ARE bad people. It’s too easy to let people off the hook—to make excuses for them. I like that you’re being inclusive and sensitive to the industry, but as a member of Gen-Y struggling to find strong values and people to look up to, I’d prefer if you were more critical. A little like your last post actually.
Tait - 20 June 2012 6:08 am
Living where I live, I see that kind of behaviour taken to its extreme every day.
And I think it is a kind of wilful ignorance of people around you.
It’s not that people don’t realize there’s a world outside their Apple-induced force fields, but they simply don’t give a damn.
The same probably goes for advertising. Yes, we know that FB app is just adding to the pollution, not achieving anything worth a dime. But hey, what do we care?
As long as that case study looks cool for a shortlist.
Abhishek - 20 June 2012 7:44 am
Think sometimes manners is a matter of georgraphy. Each time I go to London, I see how annoyed folks are when people don’t stand on the correct side of the escalator. But then, when I’m back in Asia, I see so many guys from Britain – can tell by their accent, and passports sometimes – totally clueless about this escalator thing. You’re right, they ain’t nasty folks. Just unthinking and darn irritating.
Robin. - 20 June 2012 8:13 am
I’m with Tait. In my opinion people should not be allowed into Zones 1&2 (basically Central London) unless they have passed an exam on how to live, work and move around in the least annoying way and carry a licence allowing that person access. My mate thins that anyone found without the licence should be shot but I think he’s going too far. 121 days in prison shoud do it.
Lee Mallory - 20 June 2012 8:43 am
Dave
Why is a person on the other end of a mobile phone more important than the person you are talking 2 in person?
In terms of human manners, it’s one of the most noticeable declines I’ve yet observed.
Gotta take this call, hold on…
Grilla Login - 20 June 2012 9:50 am
I live in Sydney and see this kind of behaviour daily. Strangely when I lived in Perth, Western Australia this behaviour seemed far less common. The people in the smaller city seemed more aware. I think this is often true of agencies. Large agencies work in silos handing a job from department to department. Smaller agencies, which focus less on roles and more on the project itself are able to more easily work together.
Kelvin Jay Hourquebie - 20 June 2012 10:08 am
I often think there are no new ideas – only new contexts. Like when the the financial hoo-ha happened and overnight all the briefs went from ‘luxury’ to ‘cheap as chips.’
rachel - 20 June 2012 10:10 am
With regards to manners there’s a difference between not thinking and not caring.
Ed - 20 June 2012 10:15 am
Dace if you find travelling in the tube rude, don’t attempt China.
Peter - 20 June 2012 10:44 am
I wonder if anti-social behaviour is any worse than it ever was? It seems like it doesn’t it?
It’s interesting too that we say (in real life) little about it.
Oi! Let the lady sit down.
Oi! You can’t cycle that way, you dick!
Oi! If you just move aside we’ll be off the tube in 20 seconds.
So do we fight anti-social behaviour by being (more)social?
The worry is that the yewth I asked to turn down his mp3 player on the 73 might knife me. He didn’t. But he did want to know what my problem was. I didn’t tell him.
The scarey looking guy I asked to take his feet of the train seats,did. The mobile obsessed lady I asked to move her bag,did.
The chattering man I asked to move to the left, did. I stood up for the baby on board badge wearer. The very cool yewths my wife asked to pick their litter up, told us where to go.
So not a bad win rate?
You win some you lose some.
Jim - 20 June 2012 1:28 pm
I actually think the majority of people on the tube in London are considerate, giving up seats for pregnant women, standing on the right side to let people through and leaving a gap for people to get off. All this behaviour shows a mass of consideration for others around you, that’s why we notice most when this behaviour is not observed, and then it is often by tourists and people from out of town who aren’t as aware of the customs.
Although I can’t say this about the gobshites on the phone, but even then they are being considerate by letting me know who I should stab first…
Toast - 20 June 2012 1:30 pm
Sorry, but someone needs to pull Lee Mallory up on his comment. I’m sure he’s not a bad person. It’s just he’s oblivious to the fact that people exist outside of London. He’s not thinking, bless him.
P-Tizzle - 20 June 2012 3:10 pm
We are being rude to people when we create ads that insult their intelligence. Writing a bad ad is just as horrible as pushing an old lady down a flight of stairs.
Cal - 20 June 2012 5:36 pm
I gotta say in my humble observation when it comes to society at large, “What bloody intelligence?!”.
john p woods - 20 June 2012 6:54 pm
John, I’m with you. So many marketers say they want to treat the consumers with respect to their intelligence. What intelligence? We’ve all seen what happens in research. They are sheep. They don’t know what they want and if we are at all smart, we find one compelling reason to buy and they’ll swarm on it like ants to honey.
Tell them what the want and invariably, they want it.
Anyone bought bottled water in the first world lately?
Peter - 21 June 2012 1:27 am
I’m with Grilla on the phone thing. Especially annoyed when we go to customer service who then tell us to wait a moment while they help someone on the phone. Hey! We’re the ones who took our time to come to you, why would you prioritise someone half the world away?!
Irfan - 21 June 2012 2:24 am
As a long-time expat, I think that the disappearance of the English bus queue is a microcosm of what is wrong with society.
That, and the dominance of ‘World of LEather’ TV ads…
Tom - 21 June 2012 12:35 pm
See you read “Who Moved My Cheese” then
Tony
Tony Perry - 21 June 2012 12:52 pm
Tony,
I heard that story over 30 years ago.
I think he probably heard it from the same place I did.
Respect for managing to spin a short story out to a 200 page book though.
He could get a job as a planner.
Dave Trott - 21 June 2012 4:49 pm
Sid Vicious: The Sex Pistols … ‘I’ve met the man in the street and he’s a cunt’
john p woods - 21 June 2012 6:23 pm
No equally I’m with the John Webster school of thought.
As Creative Director, he gained a reputation as one of the most talented advertising creatives in London and won more creative awards than anyone else. To put this into perspective, let me quote leading ad man Dave Trott (the closest anyone is going to get to JW now):
“One year I won a Cannes Gold Lion for a commercial that I’d written. I felt pretty good. The same year John won three Gold Lions for commercials he’d written, another three for commercials he’d art-directed, and another three for commercials he’d actually directed himself. Nine times as many as me. Or, to put it another way, three times as many as anyone else in any field in our business. And that was just one year.”
But ironically, winning awards was the last thing on John Webster’s mind. Unlike many of his contemporaries who had been sucked in by the back-patting world of the London ad scene, John knew there was more to life than advertising. He knew that people switched the box on to watch Hollywood blockbusters, sitcoms and soaps. That’s why he pitched his ideas to the ‘normal’ people in the agency; the tea-lady, the odd-job man and the receptionist.
He couldn’t care less what his peers thought about his work. After all, they weren’t who he was selling to.
john p woods - 21 June 2012 6:31 pm
Oh no, Peter and John. ‘The consumer is not a moron – she’s your wife’ as David Ogilvy said. And John Webster never talked down to no-one.
rachel - 22 June 2012 12:24 pm
I’m with banana.
Grilla Login - 22 June 2012 2:53 pm
Rachel,
I never said the consumer was a moron just not as intelligent as some of us give them credit for (and Sid Vicious’ observation still stands). JW’s idea of ‘speaking to the masses’ was fine by me. Some of his ads were not just memorable, critically you could remember them too. Work that is rememorable is the aim for us all, don’t you think?
john p woods - 22 June 2012 6:50 pm
My observation is people don’t talk to each other
face to face as much as they should.
Their attention is averted by walls of nonsense.
Imagine Hampton Court Maze across London.
Everone is living in their own head
like a mass of boxed cells with constricted movement.
That’s Facebook.
One person makes the rules
everyone else follows.
While Dave plays Italian style,
UK Advertising says:
let’s play “I’m a celebrity get me out of here”.
At one point last night Wayne Rooney had
6 Italian players around him.
That’s over half the Italian team!
And still England would not pass the ball.
I watched Roy Hodgsosn’s despair as they just
lumped it up the park back to the Italians
who simply kept holding on to it by passing.
Pride.
Control.
Fear of letting go.
Fear of playing someone better than you?
Trying to hold on to something you’re gonna lose anyway.
Instead of just dropping it and doing something else.
This is Social Media.
A cash cow for it’s manufacturer.
For the public it’s time wasting pandering to ego
unless you are learning or teaching something
or communicating something of interest.
It sells nothing unless you are looking for it already anyway.
In most cases Social Media conditions people to think less
and believe without questioning because the need to conform and be part of
overrides the need to speak one’s mind because then you may be on your own.
The funny thing is…
and most people just don’t get this…
We are on our own anyway.
Ha ha!
Kev - 25 June 2012 7:57 am
“Imagine Hampton Court Maze across London.
Everone is living in their own head
like a mass of boxed cells with constricted movement.”
This is a great metaphor Kev.
I’ll be looking at my fellow passengers on the tube today and envisioning this.
Dave Trott - 25 June 2012 8:48 am
Heard a lovely one on Radio 4 Last night:-
“Science is imagination in a straightjacket”.
Kev - 26 June 2012 8:50 am
Dave,
How was the tube journey?
Kev - 27 June 2012 7:27 am
Kev,
Better, more interesting.
An opportunity to study the species.
Like having a David Attenborough VO in my head.
Dave Trott - 27 June 2012 8:35 am