Get out of your minivan and into our spaceship

4 Get O ut of Your Minivan and Into O ur Spaceship Get O ut of Your Minivan and Into O ur Spaceship 5

table of contents
4
Intro
8
It’s OK to live in your mother’s basement
12
If experiences were drugs, we’d be in rehab
16
That’s too much cleavage, button up
20
Smooth talk won’t get you laid
24
Don’t drink the Kool-Aid, make your own
28
Open mind, open wallet
32
Not your momma’s stick figure
36
Hate the paper, not the words
40
Our life is a 4:4 beat
44
Set fire to the hives
48
Babel 2.1
52
Embrace the glitch
56
Epilogue


CONTRIBUTORS
Writers Drawers
Adam Shigem Chris Dunn
Avinanda Mukherjee Dana Centofani
Chris Leone Hao Wang
Drik Ghosh Jackie Jané
Elizabeth Scherer Jingxuan Yue
Evan Caughey Meagan McNulty
Jon Lobello Michael Saiewitz
Jono Decosta Nikola Sudelija
Mariah Raspen Yihun Ha
Priyanka Nigam Lexie Yan
Silviya Krasteva Bella Kuo
Todd Buckholt Suzie Wyman


SPECIAL THANKS
Editors Designers/Art Directors
Todd Buckholt Evan Caughey
Silviya Krasteva Chris Dunn
Mariah Raspen Jackie Jané
Elizabeth Scherer Hao Wang
Adam Shigem

This wouldn’t have been possible without the following
individuals. A special thanks to our video production crew:
Max Belin, Forest Lin, and Ryan Whitten. Their hard work
was essential to documenting this experience.

We extend another thanks Rob Colucci for all of his help with
anything we needed. His assistance was greatly appreciated.


PREFACE
This book was conceived, written and produced in three hours
in a class called Strategic Creative Development at Boston
University’s College of Communication.

INTRODUCTION
We are the future of advertising. Over the next few years we
will begin our careers in an industry that’s in the midst of a
dramatic transformation. Technology, social media, collaborative
consumption, hyper-connectivity and a demand for real time
interactivity have changed everything. The work. The teams
that make it. The briefs that inspire it. And the advertising
agencies themselves. The pace of change will only accelerate.
Here’s what we can bring to push it along.


Okay, so no one wants to hire a lot of us after graduating.
Now some of us have ended up moving into our mother’s
basement. We’re broke and shit out of luck. Might as well
give up on any dreams of working in advertising, right?
Give up and get some crappy used car salesman job.
But what if our mother’s basement is our first step
to greatness? Some of the greatest things have come out
of basements. Many of the most successful agencies in
the world have started out of homes. Kaplan Thaler,
for example, began in a small brownstone apartment.
Everyone has to start somewhere.

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We have to think about why we are in this situation
and grow strong from our early challenges. The greatest
thing about advertising is that people come from all kinds
of backgrounds. It’s this pay-it-forward industry, where
people want to help. We may be at the bottom right now.
But don’t worry, we’ll climb out and keep on going.


We seek out new experiences like junkies. We constantly seek
our next fix because we have an addiction that can only be
satisfied by living. We’re always reading, meeting new people
and traveling to new countries. Never happy with what we
know, we always want to know more.
This addiction gives us a breadth of character, a well-
rounded outlook that leads to an unparalleled creativity.
We can take a little bit of this and a little bit of that and
synthesize it into something remarkable.


We are skydivers, quilters, painters, runners, travelers.
Each of us is the sum of all our experiences. And when
we come together, as teams,collaborators and sharers, the
possibilities are endless.
So watch out. Experiences are our drug and we’re gonna
get our fix. But in the end they won’t leave us dazed and
confused. They’ll make us sharper and more focused.


Advertising needs to have a little less flash and a little more
substance. After all, too much flash can be blinding. Let’s
co-exist and co-create. Let’s get humble.
Meet Xavier, he’ll ask you to call him “X”. He’s the new
advertising intern cliché. A few experimental choices make
him think that he’s seen it all, been there, done that. And he
lets you know it.
Now meet Johan, he’s an executive creative director, and he’s
earned his corner office and the right to wear that beret in 2013
by burning midnight cigarette butts through the 80’s. He’s from
the days when advertisers were the ultimate social players. But
then digital came onto the scene, and geeky became sexy.
So now when X meets Johan, in an advertising environment
charged with egos and the constant need to face-off, “tension”
is an obvious by-product.


Lesson learned...
As the next generation of ad men, we need to think straight,
and be humble. We can’t act stupid or bigger than we are.
But we need the veterans, too. To pass us the baton, and
nurture our young talent so we can become tomorrow’s creators.
Together, why not learn from each other and not waste time
flashing our egos or simply calling attention to ourselves.


Dating is a form of advertising. You dress yourself up, slick
back your hair, and have a compliment ready to go when you
pick them up at the door. You make yourself look as good as
possible in the hope that they will buy your product.
They are the consumer, and you are the brand. But it’s
not enough to just say things about yourself. Consumers
are savvy. They’ve heard it all before and they’re skeptical.
Sure, you may get a kiss at the door, but before they let you
into their bed, you need to prove yourself. And words aren’t
enough.
Consumers today want real value, not pick-up lines. They
want to see what your brand can do for them. They want
connection, utility, and a reason to believe your claim. In the
dating world, smooth talk is your tagline. It’s snappy,


enticing, maybe even sexy. It’s good for drawing them in, but
if you don’t deliver they’ll be quick to leave you for the next
person who talks a big game.
Consumers have grown up with plenty of empty talk. They’ve
been on plenty of bad dates, and now, they want to settle down,
find a brand they can actually spend some time with.
We understand this. We’ve been on plenty of bad dates, too,
and we don’t want anyone else to suffer. It’s this perspective
that will allow us to truly connect with consumers. To give
them what they want. To show them that brands are worth
their time. To prove that we mean what we say.
We’re pretty good at smooth talk, but we’re even better
at sealing the deal.


Please, don’t drink that Kool-Aid!
You know, the bland, sugary and spiked-with-mediocrity
blend that transforms you into a member of “the middle.”
I mean, didn’t you enter this industry because you craved
to be original, and knew you could do better than that
crappy TV spot?
But, oh my… it’s so tempting to drink it. And it gets to
your head pretty quickly too, making you think you’ve done
something super badass even though all you did was exercise
your awesome copy-paste abilities. It helped you do that
awesome thing that someone else did.


You know what, though? The Internet is a bitch. It will
know you drank it. Someone will tweet your cheat move,
you’ll end up on Reddit and die as a bad meme.
Would you do that to impress an agency? You’d better
not. After all, they hire armies of young people fresh out
of college. Us. And, mind you, we’re perfectly capable of
brewing some damn good psychedelic Kool-Aid of our own.
So I’m going to give you some sharable advice: being
fresh is what agencies are hiring us for, and that’s what you
should want to be too.
And that means brewing fresh, original Kool-Aid.


On the subway you’re reading the New York Times on your
iPad. Somebody’s written about a new deli opening right
down the street from where you work. He raves about the
most incredible Reuben he’s ever eaten—the freshness of the
bread, a touch of sweetness in the sauerkraut, how the thick
cuts of meat left the author satisfied for the rest of the day.
Your mouth is watering.
Four hours later, you’re at that deli, ordering that Reuben.
We can all learn from journalism.
Advertisers sell products. Everybody knows that. But
journalists sell something a little more meaningful than
products. They sell ideas. They sell concepts. They sell the
truth. Perhaps most importantly, they sell open-mindedness.
And as advertisers, we know that people with open minds,
open their wallets.


If people hate ads because they feel like they too often
lie or mislead. A more journalistic approach -- accurate,
objective, transparent and honest -- might quell the
skepticism. Opening minds and wallets in the process.
Maybe we should bring a little more of that to our
industry.
Open mind, open wallet.


Remember when you first learned to scribble? Probably not,
but I bet your mom or dad has that first drawing framed
somewhere and if you asked for it they could pull it out in
a hot second.
Drawing may be an advantage when it comes to getting
pictures on your mom’s fridge, but to be an art director
these days you better know how to turn your images into
something more. We, as the future art directors, may still
love our No. 2’s but we also have a passion for new ideas,
new technologies and new revolutions.


We know how to create things. We invent. We build
prototypes. We add dimension, visually and conceptually
to everything we create. And because we know how to talk
to coders, our ideas can actually live in the real world. We
take the time to learn how to speak in all languages. We’re
masters of our own, but respectful of all.

After all, advertising is now about creating things. Taking a
small idea and making it into a revolution. We are the art
directors of the future. Not your momma’s stick figure.


Words will never die. They move us. They teach us. As writers
we love words. We like playing with the language and making
connections. We respect the power that words have. The
strength to breathe life into something dull. The ability to get
into people’s minds and play with their imaginations.
However, we are natives. We grew up in the new landscape
where words take shape as text messages. Words flow in a
stream. Words appear in new places almost daily. We read
them on our smartphones and stream them to our laptops.
We post them on social media succinctly in 140 characters
or less. We can scratch them on sidewalks for passersby.
Sometimes we share them on apps that dissolve, taking the
words with them.


But guess what?
Words don’t need paper. Not anymore. Look at this
book. It only exists as a digital file.
We don’t need the paper when the new world looks
like this.
Paper cuts our fingers and kills the environment.
We love words. Just don’t print them out.


“G ive me a break,” echoed Kit Kat in the 1980s. You
couldn’t help but sing along every time it came on the
television.
In the decades past, jingles had the power to sway
consumers. Now in 2013, music still plays a big role, but in a
different way. It not only defines our generation it’s part of
our digital behavior.
We hear an ad on TV with a catchy song, Shazaam it,
and add it to iTunes. We wake up to Jason Mraz, pregame to
Avicii, and with buds in our ears, we space out to Mumford
and Sons on the train.
As we sit in class, scribbling drawings on notepads and
glaring at Apple screens, it isn’t until the music turns on that
the ideas begin churning. What is it about music that makes
it so powerful?


It can tell a story of heartbreak, ignite any emotion, and
connect us in a way that words or pictures will never be
able to do.
Technology has progressed so rapidly that music can
be heard anywhere and in any way. We’re a generation who
knows this better than anyone. Maybe our obsession with
rhythm and sound can bring something new to the industry
and bring something back at the same time.
Long live the jingle.


You can do the scientific psycho-babble of reading minds,
or make things that set fire to the hives. We, the future of
advertising choose the latter.
We don’t think in terms of ads, but acts. Acts that not
only provide solutions, but that make the consumer think
the solution was her idea. Making the brand a part of the
user’s beliefs and values.
As digital natives, collaborative consumption and
crowdsourcing are second nature to us. But what really sets
our generation of idea-generators apart is that we’ve learned
to spend more time listening than talking. When you shut
the hell up, the insights float like oil on water.


There are new platforms, apps and technologies arriving
every day to help brands connect with their users, rather
than talk at them.
But the conversation begins with fire starters like us,
who took the time to listen and have learned to do more
than just talk.
By making more than campaigns that advertise the
brand, we create content and ideas that actually start fires.
And light up the hives.


The Tower of Babel finally reached a certain height. It
broke into God’s cloudy backyard, and pissed him off. So
he destroyed it, and we no longer spoke the same language.
Hence, chaos prevailed.
Now, Cloud tech is poised to become a new Tower of
Babel. This Babel 2.1 is an omnipresent, invisible network,
offering a multitude of choice and infinite files of limitless
data.
The next step is to revolutionize how we use the “more.”
More data. More access. More. More. More.
How will advertising adjust? We will need to both use the
information collected in the cloud yet constantly add to it.


Will we misinterpret what’s been gathered? Will it teach us or
confuse us? Can the new content we create grow exponentially
yet remain constantly accessible and always useful without
causing the tower to come crashing down?
Our generation can help. After all, we haven’t been
labeled tech-savvy and digital for nothing. We know how to
create and to filter. And we know how to use the tools. The
analytics, dashboards, filters and algorithms that make sense
of all the information.
This tower of data will grow each day. We’re coming to
make sure it doesn’t crumble.


Technology reigns supreme. Screens are used for everything
from finding directions to ordering burritos from Chipotle.
Four-year-olds are playing with tablets, and iPhones are the
hottest item at second grade show-and-tells.
The interpersonal skills developed at the beginning of time
are being lost. Nobody mails handwritten letters anymore,
they use WhatsApp. You don’t visit your grandparents, you
Skype with them. Technology is replacing human contact and
maybe even damaging the relationships that we cherish.
But these technologies aren’t going away. We need them.
We love them. We depend on them. But sometimes they go
down. Our battery runs out. Our Internet connection fails.
What should we do?


Embrace the glitch.
A technological catastrophe wouldn’t be the worst thing
because we can always revert to communication tactics
of the past. We should embrace things like face-to-face
exchanges and gathering in groups. After all, technology is
there to foster these interactions, not replace them.
So remember, while screens are here to stay, maybe we
should bring some of the past with us, too.


EPILOGUE
Three hours. That’s how long it took to conceive, write,
edit, document, draw, and design this book. OK, the
finishing touches went a little over the third hour. But the
point is, this book isn’t about talking. It’s about creating.
Or as we like to say “making shit.” It’s also about speed,
creativity, collaboration, problem solving, decision making
and expressing one’s self. Yeah, that’s what we do here.

Edward Boches, Professor of the Practice, Advertising
Boston University College of Communication

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Get out of your minivan and into our spaceship

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