Ford

I don't know. I just know that we got pulled onto it, and it was ongoing for a while. Us and others, but so we just went in and did some totally fun stuff, you know, we made songs. We actually recorded them, just about, just goofy stuff, [914],[915]
I don't know. I just know that we got pulled onto it, and it was ongoing for a while. Us and others, but so we just went in and did some totally fun stuff, you know, we made songs. We actually recorded them, just about, just goofy stuff, not Adam Sandler-esque, these songs, but just weird stuff about MPGs and all that, and then we called in, my CD called in some favors at sound houses, and we got music. We recorded it. This was all for the presentation and it was really good. We went and we called some animation houses and they made some comps for us, and everything looked really good. I even sang, I sang one of the songs, and it was a country one. [882],[881],[880]
It was beautiful. Tai, you know the head guy here, he loved it, everyone here loved it, and we took it to the client and Tai said it was the worst presentation experience he ever had in his whole life. They didn't want it. They didn't want good stuff. You can see what they're doing now, it's not good. Up until that point, it was all hurrahs, patting each other on the back. [916],[884],[917],[885],[918],[883]
It was all internal. It was a pitch, so it was us against other agencies, but we nailed it. We nailed the strategy, and then they wanted us to come back with anthem spots, you know. Because, see the weirdest thing, the meeting before, they just wanted the strategy and they wanted product spots, so we had to do one for the Ford Focus and one for Sync and one for this and that, and we gave them spots and they loved it. They said it got a standing ovation or something like that, they loved it. [886]
He said it was one of the best presentations he'd ever had. It went from, so then they wanted anthem spots to go with it. Anthems are like, it tells what this brand is about type of thing. Ford is about going green now, whatever, and so okay, we gave them that, and we did it in a totally different way. I thought it was fresh, cool, and awesome, and I would love to have it in my book. It went from us being great, he said it was similar to a dead man walking. People at JWT Detroit found out about what was happening or something like that, and this dude that always presents with them called them the day before and was like, I'm not going to present with you. He said he walked in, it was like in the jungle. There's the circle of monkeys and the big monkeys fighting and they're all, ah, ah, and all of the sudden they all go quiet, and all of a sudden the big monster or whatever comes out, the big snake or something, and that's what it was. They were all the client monkeys waiting for him to be pounced on. Creatively, everything went great, and it couldn't have been better except for the ending. [887]
It went from us being great, he said it was similar to a dead man walking. [919]
People at JWT Detroit found out about what was happening or something like that, and this dude that always presents with them called them the day before and was like, I'm not going to present with you. [920]
Oh my gosh, death by committee. A lot, more than I know. I didn't deal with them. [888]
There's always one guy that controls it all, in any dynamic there's always one person, leader, guy or girl, I'm sorry. Yeah, there was definitely a committee, because that's like, CCO, you wouldn't present it to the board or whatever. I just had to present it to my CDs. [889]
I think the idea was, because we had this, we kept changing the brief, which is another issue. You know, no, it was USA. It was USA. [890]
I think the idea was, because we had this, we kept changing the brief, which is another issue. [921]
I know, it's ridiculous. You know, American, bigger is better. I think they dumbed down one thing about America. I think they underestimated, me being from Nebraska, I don't really think, especially I think there's a chip on the shoulder of people on the coast that the Midwest are a bunch of freaking idiots, you know what I mean? [891]
They say they want something new, but they don't really want something new, you know what I mean? They want to feel, I think they really want to think they do, but they don't. They want to stay in their comfort zone. I understand why, because it's a lot of money, you know, and it's hard for people who think in spreadsheets, this is a number, and I need this number to equal this number. It's like how accounting is, you take an accounting class and everything comes back to a perfect little package, you know how it works, and then you ask them to go out, and how do you measure something that emotional, that's an emotional connection or that's just feeling. There's no chart. They try to do it with testing, but I don't think testing works. That's how they tried to meeting in the middle, but it doesn't work, because there's no way to quantify moving somebody or making somebody entertained. Do you find that entertaining, have you ever looked into what testing is like? [896]
Not well, if they did have risk tolerance, they would have ran our stuff. Our stuff was, like something new that has never been done. [924]
Not well, if they did have risk tolerance, they would have ran our stuff. Our stuff was, like something new that has never been done. It's not just, that's redundant. What they ended up going with was basically the same as any car, American car ad that they've been doing. [892],[894]
Not well, if they did have risk tolerance, they would have ran our stuff. Our stuff was, like something new that has never been done. It's not just, that's redundant. What they ended up going with was basically the same as any car, American car ad that they've been doing. You see this with clients a lot. They say they want something new, but they don't really want something new, you know what I mean? They want to feel, I think they really want to think they do, but they don't. They want to stay in their comfort zone. I understand why, because it's a lot of money, you know, and it's hard for people who think in spreadsheets, this is a number, and I need this number to equal this number. It's like how accounting is, you take an accounting class and everything comes back to a perfect little package, you know how it works, and then you ask them to go out, and how do you measure something that emotional, that's an emotional connection or that's just feeling. There's no chart. They try to do it with testing, but I don't think testing works. That's how they tried to meeting in the middle, but it doesn't work, because there's no way to quantify moving somebody or making somebody entertained. Do you find that entertaining, have you ever looked into what testing is like? [895],[893]
They say they want something new, but they don't really want something new, you know what I mean? They want to feel, I think they really want to think they do, but they don't. [922],[923]
They say they want something new, but they don't really want something new, you know what I mean? They want to feel, I think they really want to think they do, but they don't. They want to stay in their comfort zone. I understand why, because it's a lot of money, you know, and it's hard for people who think in spreadsheets, this is a number, and I need this number to equal this number. It's like how accounting is, you take an accounting class and everything comes back to a perfect little package, you know how it works, and then you ask them to go out, and how do you measure something that emotional, that's an emotional connection or that's just feeling. There's no chart. They try to do it with testing, but I don't think testing works. That's how they tried to meeting in the middle, but it doesn't work, because there's no way to quantify moving somebody or making somebody entertained. Do you find that entertaining, have you ever looked into what testing is like? [897]
hat was the, because they hated it, right, the board hated it, but they said they were going to put it into testing. [925]
That was the, because they hated it, right, the board hated it, but they said they were going to put it into testing. They put it all into testing to see, if it killed in testing, we would get past them. It would have to do stupendous. They put a whole bunch of limits on us. They wanted to change some stuff and they were like no, it goes as is. It was obvious they wanted it to die. I think it's really bad testing. I think it's a bad thing. You should look up on YouTube, are you familiar with the Apple 1984 commercial? It's like famous, right? Boston agency Arnold for their holiday party went and tested the 1984, they put it up on boards and they got an actual, the people to come into the room, I can't think of what they're called right now. They just showed the boards and they showed a storyboard of the 1984, which is one of the best of all times, and the people reacted horribly. People reacted horribly, they're like, I don't know why. Maybe they should put an Apple logo on the shirt so they know that it's Apple or something. It was just horrible. I just don't think that testing and creativity work well together. [899],[898],[900]
They put a whole bunch of limits on us. They wanted to change some stuff and they were like no, it goes as is. [926]
It was briefed three times, they kept changing the brief. The client kept changing their mind. What they wanted to do with the brief? [927],[901]
I probably could grab it for you. It was revitalize Ford, everyone things American car, they think American car company, you think dated, behind, but Ford is doing things with their, they have a couple, they have the greenest car plant in the world, and they have this car plant in Italy that's powered by wind. They wanted to push all these things and show that they're a forward thinking company. They basically wanted us to change the perspective of American automobiles. There's A, B, C, and D points that we can push that help that, that sink technology, biodiesel, whatever, a hydrogen car in the near future. [902]
I'm a little bitter. [904]
Yeah, we had to emphasize that Ford is changing, that there's a new Ford, that Ford's thinking about the future, to change perspective of how, I'm sure, I don't know how you think, but I know how most people think about American car companies, so that was the idea. Which is why it needed something completely different and not the same stuff. I'm a little bitter. [903]
It works. We make it work. It's nice to have two different perspectives. [928],[905]
Between us, it was great. We nailed it. [906]
Between us and between our CDs, it was like a team of four. We just sat down, we wrote the songs, recorded them. Everything just meshed, worked well. [932],[931],[929],[930],[907]
Our, what was our source of inspiration. Okay, sorry. Well, we came out of this meeting, we wrote a bunch of anthems, they're just like any other anthem. We came out of the meeting and our CD, Lisa, she just goes, you know what, let's just make songs. Let's just have some fun. [936],[935],[933],[934],[908]
I mean anthem spots like 1984 that says what this company's, we're turning around. They were good spots, but they were familiar, and then they all got killed or put aside, which basically it got killed, which happens a lot. That's one thing you have to be able to just take is people saying no, your idea's bad and just push it off. Anyway, Lisa's like, let's just have some fun and write some song. I went and started a song, and Josh started writing a song, and then we looked at, okay, we like this one, let's push that, all right, then let's get A, B, C, and D that I was talking about before in there, in a fun way. That was the inspiration, it's like, fuck this, let's have fun. [909]
Tight. It was a while back, I'm trying to think. I didn't sleep much, I don't know. We had a week to get it all produced. [910]
Oh yeah, though the ECD at the time, who has since been released, we didn't get along at all, none of us got along at all. [911]
He was a terrible, and in fact, yeah, most people in here did not like him. [937]
Yeah, he was an ECD. He was who we had to answer to. Executive creative director is what he was. As a team of four, we go present to him and Tai. He was a terrible, and in fact, yeah, most people in here did not like him. [912]
No, I mean, you only show it to people around. You get input when you present it to ECDs and stuff like that. There was an account person in there, I like this and that. You know, so you always try to get opinions, because otherwise you get locked into something, you can miss a gaping hole in the concept. [913]
Reference Tags
[914] Collaborative-Creative Disposition,[915] Creative Confidence,[882] Believes one has a hopeful path,[881] Ikea effect,[880] Win-win conflict about ideas,[916] Alignment,[884] Communication issues,[917] Effort justification,[885] Insufficient Feedback,[918] Overconfidence bias,[883] Peak-end rule,[886] Insufficient Feedback,[887] Peak-end rule,[919] Illusory superiority,[920] Unresolved relationship conflict,[888] Indecisive leadership,[889] Indecisive leadership,[890] Scope creep,[921] Indecisive leadership,[891] Subjective validation,[896] Lack of real innovation mandate,[924] Zero-risk bias,[892] Appeal to novelty,[894] Overconfidence bias,[895] Illusory superiority,[893] Risk compensation,[922] Alignment,[923] Lack of real innovation mandate,[897] Communication issues,[925] Alignment,[899] Authority bias,[898] Insufficient Feedback,[900] Yielding conflict about ideas,[926] Forceful conflict about ideas,[927] Indecisive leadership,[901] Scope creep,[902] Lack of real innovation mandate,[904] Negativity bias,[903] Appeal to novelty,[928] Collaborative-Creative Disposition,[905] Communicating ideas across domains,[906] Overconfidence bias,[932] Believes one has a hopeful path,[931] Believes one has high agency,[929] Collaborative-Creative Disposition,[930] Creative Confidence,[907] Overconfidence bias,[936] Believes one has a hopeful path,[935] Believes one has high agency,[933] Collaborative-Creative Disposition,[934] Creative Confidence,[908] Win-win conflict about ideas,[909] Win-win conflict about ideas,[910] Unbalanced workload pressure,[911] Unresolved relationship conflict,[937] Unresolved relationship conflict,[912] Unresolved relationship conflict,[913] Insufficient Feedback