Key takeaways from "Redefining Bravery" at Advertising Week Europe!
Last week, we watched our industry’s bravest leaders share the stage during Redefining Bravery at Advertising Week Europe talk about what it takes to be a truly courageous creative in our industry. We want to thank ANDY 2015 Jury Chair and moderator Colleen DeCourcy of W+K along with speakers Laura Jordan Bambach of Mr. President, Robert Doubal of McCann London, Ben Mooge and Andy Sandoz of Havas Work Club, and Ben Tollett of adam&evenDDB for being a part of this truly brave event. Here are the key takeaways below:
Ben Tollett opened Redefining Bravery with a bang by presenting his ‘Stupid Speech’ equipped with Stupid Tips for creatives who truly have the guts to be brave in advertising.
Stupid Tips by Ben Tollett:
- If you don’t know how to do something, do it anyway.
- Stop having ideas of your own. The best ideas are everywhere, and they belong to everyone.
- Make things really difficult for yourself.
- Don’t use your brain.
- It’s not a bad thing to stand out, be different, be the odd one out.
“It’s not just smart to be stupid, it’s brave.”
Our second speaker Ben Mooge did the bravest thing of all during his presentation – he didn’t speak. Though he was silent, his rules of bravery were not: be selfish, be rude and be manipulative. Being selfish helps with collaboration, being rude makes you become heard, and being manipulative helps people see your ideas.
“Those three things are the antithesis to what we’ve been discussing, and I love it,” Colleen said.
Next up was Robert Doubal, who taught us that we need to be brave enough to use the three keys to persuasion – pathos, logos and ethos – in our work. More importantly, we must seek out creativity, which “is the source to all goodness,” he said.
“It’s actually our duty to pursue the amazing. Creativity is about doing new things that includes a great deal of bravery.”
“[The] opposite of bravery isn’t weakness, it’s laziness,” said our final speaker, Laura Bambach. She noted that along with being brave creatives, we must bring out that bravery and creativity in others, and that it is everyone’s job to. We shouldn’t be thinking of only ourselves becoming rockstars in our industry, but advertising is a time to make others shine. “It doesn’t feel like bravery if you love what you do.”
“I don’t think we want to go backwards,” Colleen said. Whatever we need to learn from the past, we already did. This group of people is about what we’re doing in the future. For this very brave panel, thank you.”