Singapore – On the second day of the festival, the “godfather of advertising”, Neil French, sat down with BBC Hardtalk’s presenter Mishal Husain and talked about his life and experiences as a creative legend.
As reported in an article by Media, Husain asked French what he thought about such ads and whether he had a problem deceiving the consumer, wherein the adman replied: “None whatsoever. I’m in advertising; that’s what we do. I don’t mind kids trying hard and cheating and lying to get to the top.”
French was fired as WPP’s worldwide creative director three years ago for saying “women are crap” when he was asked why women were under-represented among top-ranking creatives.
Husain candidly touched this matter, in which French qualified his statement, “I didn’t say that. I said women will never be creative directors if they get married and have kids. You have to do one thing well. Unless you can commit 100 per cent to your job, you’re not going to make it. How many [women] make it to be super-dooper creative directors?”
French also mentioned that he has not seen any best ad from Asia this year, “It’s gone down everywhere, not just here.”
And when asked on the future of digital, "The people who run agencies are panicking. People are twittering to each other, and that’s far more effective than any ad," he said.
Spikes Asia is organized in conjunction with Haymarket Media.
(With additional reports by Media)
