14% SLUMP OF CREATIVES IN ADVERTISING AGENCIES

Richard Linklater’s Nouvelle Vague is an exciting movie about the birth of the French New Wave cinema spearheaded by a bunch of contributors of Les cahiers du cinéma who went on to revolutionise cinema, until Hollywood took notice. 

It follows Jean-Luc Godard filming Breathless (À bout de souffle), in a chaotic but always single-minded way of redefining movie-making in its entirety. Tarantino named his production company Bande à part after another Godard’s movie from 1964. He, in turn, injected some new blood into Hollywood.

What we’re witnessing in the advertising agency is the exact opposite of the wild creativity and the disregard for established rules by which Godard created his masterpieces. Gone is the priority for genuine creative personalities, in rationalisation and the rule of global networks, after cost savings targets. The result is a 14% slump in the creative headcount within agencies. 

I wish all those working on cutting costs would watch this movie and recalibrate their thinking. After the death of the DDB brand, we are at a dangerous point where the industry is losing sight of what makes good advertising and what attracts maverick and innovative spirits to advertising. 

Is it wrong to be nostalgic? Except this is not nostalgia, it is the reassessment of what makes an industry exciting and innovative, whether it is cinema, music, or advertising. We are not at that point yet. Advertising is part of pop culture; it needs to look back to be able to lunge forward and make itself attractive again. A film like Nouvelle Vague shows us how it’s done and what it needs before anything: single-minded individuals who believe in can be done in a different way and re-invent itself.