Day 6; Word of the Day is: Passion

 I have to say I'm disappointed in myself right now. Well, maybe not in myself but definitely in my musical knowledge.

We attended a seminar about music in the Ad Industry that featured Patti Smith. She even read a private letter to her best friend and music collaborator who passed away recently after a battle against cancer as well as performing a private acoustic selection for the audience.

The passion that Smith exhibited throughout the entire seminar (and especially during the performances at the end) was unrivaled by anyone I had seen in a long time.

We were informed that she has been ranked as one of music's 100 most influential people by Rolling Stone. She's performed with the likes of Janis Joplin, Bono, Bruce Springsteen, and many others. She revitalized a dying poetry and rock and roll scene in the late 60's.

And I had no idea who she was.

I am still severely disappointed by my lack of knowledge on her, especially coming from a family of professional musicians.

The Rock Gods are definitely hating me for this one.

All that aside, she and a representative from the Grey Group talked about the passion of her music and of music in the advertising landscape. It was most certainly the most passionate seminar anyone of us had been to.

We heard many a story of her beginnings into poetry and music, of her views on certain musicians throughout the history of rock and roll, and of her passion for her work. Right away she made a point to get the audience interacting with the panel by telling everyone that she has always been “uncomfortable not being able to cross the line of the metaphorical stage to the audience” and the she is “the biggest fan or her fans”. I thought that this was an incredible analogy to creative marketing. Just as she hates not being able to interact with her fans, we as creative marketers have to love interacting with the people partaking in a certain brand. Both are forms of 2-way communication and getting people to interact with the brand, whether that be a band or a brand.

#Smart

She was asked about her views on musicians like Jim Morrison of The Doors. “Jim was a true poet in form” she said. She elaborated on that statement by telling thrilling story after story of Morrison and of other artists such as Jimi Hendrix. Because her roots of rock and roll begin with poetry she went into different aspects of the lyrics of Morrison.

I think Morrison would have been a helluva creative. Smith described him as having a “Shamanistic Style of Rock” which I think would have translated in to brilliant, creative ways of reaching consumers.

I'll definitely have to putting “Break on Through” on repeat at max volume the next time I have to create a campaign for a brand. Perhaps that will spark some alphawaves I mentioned in a previous post.

My favorite quote from her was on Jim Morrison. She said that, “He was truly gifted at mixing the mystics of language with the primal instrumentation of a guitar” and that it was the best way to “entice the people”.

Pretty heady stuff if you ask me.

She also gave us the chance to hear about some enthralling stories about her days living in the Chelsea hotel. One that stood out in particular was about Janis Joplin. Smith described to us a recurring situation Joplin was put into and most likely attributed to her depression, drug use, and eventual death.

Apparently after many a show, Joplin would be the queen of the night. She would go to the bar next to the Chelsea hotel to socialize with many admiring young men but as the night would end, these same men would split off to find someone in their minds was more attractive, perhaps one of Joplin's female groupies, leaving Joplin alone and depressed.

That story truly brought a somber and melancholy mood over the entire audience. But that mood was just getting started

We then were treated to one of the most special artistic performances many of us had seen. Smith read a letter addressed to her late best friend describing the pain that she felt for him, and how it couldn't even compare to the pain he was suffering. Needless to say she was close to tears afterwards.

It was truly moving. Truly passionate.

Smith then made her way over to the microphone where an electric-acoustic guitar lay, and started playing a song she had written. Unfortunately I can't remember much of the lyrics but I can assure you guys that it was beautiful and would have made my pseudo-hippy mother jealous beyond belief.

Talk about going out with a bang. The entire audience was on its feet in a standing ovation. I wish you all could have been there.

Now I feel bad for the other speakers and seminars we attended today. It'd be like following a performance by Led Zeppelin if you were Deep Purple. I'm not saying Deep Purple is bad, in fact they're amazing, but Led Zeppelin is...well...they're Zep. Can't get much better than that.

We attended a masterclass hosted by one of the best creatives at BBDO, Marcos Mediros. He went over the BBDO Sao Paulo's though process behind their award winning campaign for Billboard Magazine. We even got to Billboard ourselves into pixelated images, where the pixels were faces of our favorite artists. It's tough to describe so I guess you'll have to do yourself a favor and do a search for it and experience it yourself.

After that seminar, the president and CEO of BBDO Atlanta (internship, please) Chris Hall lectured to us on the top three things to take away from the festival:

1. Creative Communication is far more effective than non-creative communication.
2. We're in the Golden Age of creativity.
3. Great work is a team sport.

He went into an in depth discussion of each aspect and we were all inspired to take the information we've learned so far and RUN with it.

I also got to tell him that their work for the Georgia Lottery with their Red Hots campaign was some of my favorite advertising to come out of Georgia. Think Kevin the fire-breathing Goat. Hilarious.

Unfortunately when I asked him how the creative landscape of my hometown Atlanta has changed throughout the years, he said it was a pretty stagnant scene. One of his main goals is to turn this around. I feel like Atlanta has some of the best potential for some great creative work. Maybe some day I can be a part of it.

I kind of like the thought of being the Savior of Creative Marketing of Atlanta. But that's just my super inflated ego and imagination talking. But damn, the thought of me on the front page of the AJC (If it still exists #unlikely) with the subtitle reading “Atlanta's Creative Marketing Mind”...I'll go ahead and entertain the thought.

I feel like I should probably cut myself off with that last remark. I'm not trying to become a bigger asshole than I already am. JOKE. But in all seriousness...

Until next time!