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More craft please
I
remember my irst (paid)
day in advertising like it was
yesterday. My boss ushered
me over to the studio and showed me a
“mechanical” and explained how an ad
becomes an ad. For my irst year, this was
all I was there to do.
The truth is there was a craft to
advertising that involved a collective of
skilled individuals working together in
a kind of ofice relay race. Each passing
of the baton was a crucial step towards
completion and anyone who dropped
that baton would put the whole race in
jeopardy.
Is the craft still an essential part
of advertising today? The traditional
notion of crafting an ad seems tactile
and physical, yet our world has become
digital and virtual. The onslaught of web
advertising altered expectations too fast
and cheap and, well, something had to
give. With less time and money, quality
– the other point on the “triangle of
tradeoffs” – took a beating.
We’ve found and even created tools to
help us move faster and cheaper. So now
anyone with a Mac and Creative Suite 6
can create a magazine ad. Get yourself
a Canon 5D and,
guess what, you’re
a videographer.
Technology has
done so much to
make our industry
move quicker. But
has the pendulum
swung too far?
EMMA HANCOCK is a
founding partner of Torontobased
Heroes & Villains
Advertising. After 15
years of diligently crafting
campaigns, she’s become a
strong believer in the power
of storytelling and its ability
to turn brands into heroes.
According to
veteran creative
director Rick
Kemp, “topicality
and immediacy
has superseded
craft – everyone
now has the tools
at their disposal to
create content and
The author’s mom Judy Hancock at her first AD job at Toronto type house Mono Lino.
upload it for the world to see (and hope
it goes viral) without paying too much
attention to the craft, if at all.”
South of the border, Greg DiNoto,
CCO at Deutsch New York, says, “more
and more, consumers believe they have
become connoisseurs of advertising and
marketing. And we are slaves to that
connoisseurship. We must be excellent
storytellers, strategists, ilmmakers,
developers, producers and fortunately
we live for being excellent.”
With craftsmanship still paramount,
but harder to come by, I wondered what
was happening at the academic level.
I spoke to Tony Kerr, associate
professor at the Faculty of Design at
OCAD: “Has the emphasis on craft
diminished in the ad industry? Yes. Has
the emphasis diminished at OCAD? No.
A brand has a story and storytelling can
come out in many different ways and
that’s what we have to perfect. It takes
craft to do that.”
What about the arts? Does
craftsmanship still get top billing? I
spoke with Martin Campbell, the director
of the Bond movie Casino Royale. Why, I
asked, did he have to crash three Aston
BY EMMA HANCOCK
Martins for a 15-second sequence of
ilm? Couldn’t he just simulate that? The
answer was an emphatic “never.”
“The audience can sense when it’s CGI,”
Martin said, “and they disengage – they
feel they’ve been cheated.”
Terry Collier, one of Canada’s foremost
photographers was matter-of-fact saying,
“I prefer to get everything in-camera.
That’s where the craft comes in. It’s easy
to throw stuff in after-the-fact but it just
never looks real.”
Finally, I explored the hypothesis with
fashion. In today’s world of one-seasononly
apparel, does craft really matter?
“Absolutely,” says Bruce Sinclair, director
of fashion and luxury goods at Styleczar.ca.
“While technology may be able to replicate
some of the functions, it is the craftspeople
who innovate, create and push the
boundaries.”
So it looks as if it’s unanimous – craft
still matters. Is it essential? Unfortunately,
no. Does it make things more desirable?
Yes. One thing I know for sure is that
now, craftsmanship is a meaningful
differentiator in advertising.
March 2013
57