EXTRA – ORDINARY

 

 

There’s an old Buddhist saying.

“The ordinary man finds wonder in the exceptional.

The exceptional man finds wonder in the ordinary.”

That always reminds me of John Webster.

John and I would have very ordinary conversations.

I’d say, have you ever noticed how men give directions by pubs rather than by streets?

So Barking to West Ham football ground is: “Right at The Captain Cook, left at the Spotted Dog, pass the Denmark Arms, and turn right at the Anne Boleyn”.

I thought no more about it, but a little later it turned up in a John Smith’s script.

It won a D&AD award.

I once told John about a dog, in a pub called ‘The Barge Aground’.

This bloke would order a pint and an arrowroot biscuit.

He would drink his pint while the dog would lie down with the biscuit on his paw, waiting for the correct signal, then he’d flip the biscuit in the air, catch it and eat it.

I thought no more about it, but a little later it turned up in a John Smith’s script.

It won a D&AD award.

A planner was once telling John how the women in groups referred lovingly to their kids as “little monsters”.

The planner thought no more about it, but that became the basis for the Sugar Puffs ‘Honey Monster’ campaign.

It won a D&AD award.

A TV producer was telling John about his teenage nephew: his pork pie hat, his shiny bomber jacket and strutting walk.

The producer thought no more about it, but that became the basis for the ‘Hoffmeister Bear’ campaign.

It won a D&AD award.

There are dozens of similar examples of what made John different to other creatives.

“Ordinary men find wonder in the exceptional.

Exceptional men find wonder in the ordinary.”

John would take little human truths other people couldn’t even be bothered with, and turn them into campaigns everyone talked about.

When I say everyone I mean everyone.

Not just the world of advertising.

I mean the other 60 million people in the country.

To the people who work in advertising, creativity is: massive budgets, huge sets, computer graphics, the latest trendy gimmick, expensive celebrities, flashy executions, write-ups in Campaign.

Their start point is: what’s impressive in the world of advertising?

John’s start point was: what’s going on in the streets?

What are real people doing?

So John didn’t have one-off stunts: hundreds of people singing and dancing in train stations, buildings falling down, interactive posters, big yellow explosions, cars crashing, expensive location shoots.

John had little things ordinary people knew about.

But of course, everyone’s an ordinary person underneath.

So everyone, even the people who work in advertising, recognised the simple, timeless human truths in John’s ads.

That’s why John was the second most awarded art director ever.

He was also the second most awarded copywriter ever.

Put those two together and John won more D&AD awards than absolutely anyone else.

 

Because even advertising people are human underneath.