When I was a junior at BMP I wanted to create an advertising course.
The idea was for students to get taught by working professionals.
So I wrote a letter to about sixty copywriters and art directors.
I invited them to come over to BMP to discuss it.
To elect someone to run it, and each pick a date to teach a class.
I got in lots of beer and sandwiches for the meeting.
Then I waited for everyone to turn up.
And I waited.
And waited.
And no one turned up.
No one except Jeremy Sinclair, the creative director of Saatchis.
I was furious.
In the end I said “Fuck it, that’s the end of that. Everyone talks about helping youngsters but no one can even turn up for a meeting. Bollocks to the whole idea.”
But Jeremy Sinclair didn’t get angry.
He said something really insightful.
Something that shows his understanding of how the human mind works.
And how he got to be Chairman of Saatchis, and founder of M&C Saatchi.
Jeremy said “Calm down Dave, no one knows nobody else turned up. Everyone thinks they’re the only one who didn’t come.”
At first I didn’t understand what he meant.
All I knew was that sixty people didn’t come.
But what he spotted was brilliant.
He said “So far as anyone knows, everyone else turned up and we had the meeting, so let’s proceed on that basis: I’d like to nominate Dave Trott as Chairman.”
Then he said “Carried unanimously by all present.”
Then he said “Right, now let’s start putting names next to dates when each person will take a class.”
So that’s what we did.
Nobody else was there, but we started putting their names next to dates for them to take a class.
Then the next day I got a secretary to type it all up and send the list back out to the same sixty people.
And Jeremy was right.
All sixty people agreed to teach a class on the dates we gave them.
Because everyone thought they were the only one who didn’t come along.
They must be, because everyone else agreed to those dates
That became the D&AD Advertising Concepts Workshops, and it ran for twenty-five years.
It trained lots of London’s top creative directors.
All because Jeremy Sinclair understood how the human mind works.
Jeremy understood that each person lives in their own head, in their own universe.
I thought everyone would know sixty people refused to come.
I thought the whole idea would be a laughing stock.
But Jeremy knew that no one would know.
Everyone would assume they were the only one who didn’t come.
Jeremy understood you don’t think of people as a group.
You don’t talk to them as a large mass.
You think of them as individuals.
And you talk to them as one person.
Inspirational: but the one thing missing here for me, as I was working with Dave at the time is the remarkable stand that Dave was and still is, for the industry he loved. If Dave had not made a stand nothing would have happened. Dave was the cataslyst for change creating opportunities for young talent that we had, to train and coach them in the skills and distinctions that allowed them to discover their own creativity and produce award winning advertising. Dave I salute you.
Thanks Mike, some of my happiest memories in the business are the years we spent working together
What I love about this story is that it could only ever happen with the absence of the internet/social media. Otherwise everyone would’ve caught up pretty quickly to your plan, Dave.
As someone who attended one of the D&AD Workshops, I’d like to say thanks for initiating them Dave. And I hope you and Jeremy enjoyed the beer and sandwiches.
Cracking story, Dave, but you’ve told it before!
Dave,
Could the initial problem been that, unbeknownst to you, you were aiming at opinion followers and not opinion formers?
Jeremy used to hold Chairman’s reviews at Saatchi, when the account, planning, and creative teams would talk about a client’s business and the work. At one session, the creative team were moaning about the **** client turning down a particular ad. Jeremy said: “So because they’re the client, they’re wrong?”