Guy Goma was due to do an interview at BBC Television Centre.
He went into makeup, he had a microphone attached, he was taken to the studio and seated in front of the cameras.
The interviewer began asking him about a trademark infringement case.
The surprising result of the ongoing lawsuit between Apple Computers and Apple Corps, owned by the Beatles.
Guy Goma was from the Congo, and spoke with a French accent, making him a little difficult to understand.
BBC Interviewer: “Guy, were you surprised by the verdict today?”
Guy Goma: “I am very surprised to see the verdict has come on me, because I was not expecting that. When I came they told me something else, and I am expecting an interview, that’s all. So yes a big surprise anyway.”
BBC Int: “A big surprise, yes indeed.”
Guy Goma: “Exactly.”
BBC Int: “With regard to the cost that’s involved, do you think more people will now be downloading online?”
Guy Goma: “Actually, if you go anywhere you’re going to see a lot of people downloading from the internet and the website, everything they want. But I think it is much better for development and to improve people, to get what they want and get on the easy way, and so faster the things they are looking for.”
BBC Int: “This does seem to be the way the music industry’s progressing now, that people want to go onto the website and download music.”
Guy Goma: “Exactly you can go everywhere on the cyber café, and you can go easy. It is going to be an easy way for everyone to get something through the Internet.”
BBC Int: “Guy, thank you very much.”
And the interview went out live
And it made the BBC look ridiculous.
Because after the programme, the producer found the person that was meant to be interviewed, Guy Kewny, was still sitting in reception, waiting.
Before the programme, the assistant had simply rushed downstairs and said “Is Guy here for the interview?”
Guy Goma had put up his hand.
Because he was there for a job interview in data support in the IT dept.
But Guy Kewny, who was a famous technology journalist, and was due to be interviewed live on-air, hadn’t heard.
So the programme went out on time, but they got the wrong person.
And, as usual, the urgent took over from the important.
Isn’t that how we do our jobs?
We haven’t got time to worry how good the work is, just get it out.
Apparently the bidding process for an advertising slot, between algorithms, takes 2 nanoseconds.
That’s how much thinking goes into advertising: two billionths of a second.
And we’re proud of that.
No wonder it’s like a conveyor belt.
The other evening, I was watching a film on the Sony Channel.
There was an advertising break every 20 minutes and the break had 14 ads.
Assuming each ad was thirty seconds, that’s 7 minutes of ads every twenty minutes.
That’s around 30% of our viewing time.
There isn’t enough time to think about getting it right, just for shovelling it in front of people.
Just fill the space and get on to the next, thinking takes too much time.
What percentage tint of ‘Deep Blue’ are we at now in Advertising?
Hi Dave,
Great article as always.
A few years ago, I had written a radio script for Argos.
It was pretty basic and hard sell: the proposition was that they had hundreds of half price toys and gifts.
One of the mandatories was that we had to use either Dermot O’ Leary or Davina McCall to do the VO.
Argos had already paid for them to do VOs over the course of the year and they didn’t want to pay extra for a new VO artist unnecessarily.
Fair enough.
So I wrote a commercial where Dermot was doing the VO and he became so excited that he rushed out of the studio to go and buy some half price toys and gifts from Argos.
At this point, Davina saved the day, hurriedly finishing the VO before also dashing out of the studio.
This wasn’t a Cannes Lion winner but it went live and nicely announced the offer whilst also solving the problem Argos had.
It actually exceeded their expectations as they got to use two famous voices instead of one in the same commercial.
Shortly after it went live, the date the offer was due to end changed.
Dermot’s VO was cool as he dashed out before getting to this important piece of info.
But Davina’s VO needed to be recorded again.
And it needed to be done urgently.
The account girl tried to call me to say we were recording that afternoon but I was in another studio recording another VO for another commercial and I had no signal.
So the account girl decided that, as the only thing that was changing was the date, and she had the original script, she would oversee the new recording on her own because it was urgent.
However, between her, Davina and the sound engineer, they all missed what was important.
The new date was added but nobody realised that Davina didn’t rush the end of her new VO.
So instead of her saving the day, hurriedly providing the information before dashing out to Argos, she just read it at a normal pace and left.
That evening, the new VO was emailed to me with a note saying it was all sorted.
When I pointed out the error, I was told there was no way of getting Davina back in to record again as she had now gone on holiday.
Urgent was more important than important.
Incidentally, that account girl is now a successful Marketing Director at one of the biggest companies in Britain.
Before computers existed in advertising I had to create an ad for a new property development up in Hull. I’d come up with this lovely sic-fi treatment of a glowing wireframe building the original form of wireframe graphics had been invented, and managed to produce this “glow” effect by image manipulation caused by trial and error on exposures. The final effect was stunning at the time and the proof was fantastic. The PR man responsible for the business was in such a hurry to get the approved ad to the printers, he rushed off in his jag with the colour separations and accidentally dropped them in a dirty puddle in his rush to get them to the printer in time. Not knowing what he had done, he then proceeded to wipe the dirty water off with a tissue. (DOH!) When the ad came out there was nothing but a black smudge where there should have been a brand spanking new shopping centre. Time to put the hood over one’s head.
Another nail hit on its head.
Looking at adland right now, you can see how it is still shooting itself in the foot again with projects (Urgent) v long term growth business (important). The object of the game seems to be ‘How fast can the mouse run inside the treadmill?’ Answer: “Until the wheel falls off!”