Strands of Genius: The Ultimate Rock, The Shape Of Things, The Best Job In The World

Guest curated by Yash Egami, Chief Operating Officer, The One Club for Creativity

Oct 31, 2024

:: A BIT MORE ABOUT GUEST CURATOR, YASH EGAMI ::

LOCATION: Fairfield, CT

I've met Faris several times over the past many years though I couldn't tell you when or where I first met him (OK, I guess the where is pretty obvious -- through the One Club or One Show). I've been here for 20 years now, and when I tell people that, they usually give me that look of awe and confusion, like I had just told them I had three kidneys.

Now this is the part where I get to show my age: When I first started at the One Club, the ad industry still had its larger-than-life creative heroes, people like George Lois, Hal Riney, Dan Wieden, Cliff Freeman, David Abbott and Mary Wells, all of whom I've had the pleasure of meeting. I even met Julian Koenig who was probably 90 years old at the time. We were at an exhibition opening and he pointed to the wall and said, "George (Lois) took my idea." I guess some feuds never die.

But I consider myself lucky to be in this industry surrounded by so many creative and talented people. People on the outside may look at it and say, eh, it's just advertising and selling stuff. My parents think my job has something to do with famous people on TV. But when you see nutty ideas come to life and turn into gold, when your neighbor starts talking about that Progressive commercial with Dr. Phil that made them laugh, or you see that Sandy Hook Promise commercial that brings anger and tears, then you realize why it matters.

Editor’s Note (Genius Steals): Faris and Rosie had so much fun at the Brandside Reception in Nashville where they got to meet up with Yash and many other friends! Yash is a very nice man and incredible champion of creativity that Faris has had the pleasure of bumping into a bunch over many years. From about 2009 when he got C-level agency jobs that didn’t fit properly into the existing boxes, Faris was championing new kinds of creativity and invited to judge most of the global creative award shows, which was nice. Not being a CCO mostly confused all the other CCOs who always judge award shows (this is of course by design, since they are also the biggest customers of award shows). It was a lovely decade, very instructive, a great pleasure and privilege, that Faris took seriously.

As part of that he made observations about the content&contact and integrated juries that he chaired for the Clio Awards. Too much time being spent discussing whether or not a piece ‘fit’ into the category, which led him to create the NEW category for the LIAs. Here he got people from outside the industry, like the founder of Foursquare for example, or the founder of a games company, to judge as well as agency folk, to hopefully splice together new directions from the industry. But we digress.

Being at award shows and judging means you mean the same group of people who are always there, from the award shows, trade press, and agencies. Faris was kindly invited to judge some OneShow awards and so got to know Kevin, Yash, Bob Isherwood & co, who are fighting the good fight for creative being excellent and fun. There don’t seem to be as many legendary creative figures about as there used to be, but perhaps that’s a good thing. Or legendary status takes a long time to bestow. Arguably, the most famous creative directors ever remain famous because of their writing (Ogilvy, Bernbach, are obviously most quoted / used totemically).

Speaking of which, the ONECLUB asked Faris to write for them, which led to this piece we often revisit about “What do Advertising Agencies Do?”. It remains relevant, arguable more so than ever, as the industry continues to reshuffle, to ask what business are you in? As marketing mastermind Ted Levitt loved to point out, people want holes, not drills. Railroad companies grew and them stumbled in USA because they arguably misunderstood what business they were really in. If you work at an agency, what business is it really in? Think hard.

Thanks so much Yash for the excellent edition and see you soon, somewhere.

(click for pdf of the article)

:: THE LINKS ::

THE ULTIMATE ROCK

Genius on so many levels. Game of Thrones + Fender, two legendary brands. Iconic guitarists all playing together. Brad Paisley stealing the show. Branded entertainment at its finest, I've watched this an unhealthy amount of times. (YouTube; Fender )

THE SHAPE OF THINGS

When I was a kid I wanted to be an architect. I used to love staring at buildings and marvel at their shapes and sizes. And who doesn't like a good design blog? Especially one with such pretty pictures. (Design Boom)

THE BEST JOB IN THE WORLD

Like a lot of teenagers these days, mine don't really watch TV, they watch YouTube and Tiktok. Makeup videos, food, travel, Mr. Beast challenges, that sort of thing. But even the most casual viewers of creator content know Nick DiGiovanni. This kid travels the world, eats the most expensive food, cooks with exotic ingredients and racks up millions of views. I still don't understand how creators like Nick learned how to host and produce their own shows at such a professional level that they eclipse what you see on daytime TV. He and many of his counterparts are the new Oprah. (YouTube; Nick DiGiovanni)

Looking for more from Yash? Coming Friday, look for an interview from him in your inbox!

:: AND NOW… SOME FAST FAVORITES ::

:: Game :: Spades

:: City :: Stonehenge

:: Song :: Heroes by David Bowie

:: GIF ::

Yours Truly, Madly, Deeply,

- Yash

Strands of Genius is currently read by more than 15,000 subscribers. Support us by sponsoring an issue, encouraging friends or colleagues to subscribe.

It's called Genius Steals because we believe ideas are new combinations and that nothing can come from nothing. But copying is lazy. We believe the best way to innovate is to look at the best of that which came before and combine those elements into new solutions.

Co-Founders Faris & Rosie are award-winning strategists and creative directors, writers, consultants and public speakers who have been living on the road/runway since March 2013, working with companies all over the world. Our Director of Operations is nomadic like us, our accounting team is based out of Washington, our company is registered in Tennessee, and our collaborators are all over the world. Being nomadic allows us to go wherever clients need us to be, and to be inspired by the world in between.

Hit reply and let’s talk about how we might be able to work together :)

Strands of Genius