Every once now and then you come across a piece of writing, a quote, or an interview that just makes you smile, take a deep breath and go “Wow!”. Ladies and Gentelmen of the fraternity, i just read David Droga’s interview and its a ‘must read’ when you have just had that ‘another brilliantly potential award cannes winning idea’ thrown into the can.

Here are a few things that i thought was very aptly put by the man himself.

David Droga on the ‘Profession of Advertising’

“This is such an insane profession, we’re used to things dying around us, we’re used to falling in love with things that are not going to see the light of day and we have to build up this resilience. I always say, if we were in any other profession I would get out of the business.”

David Droga on ‘motivation’

“…a really surreal mix of ego and insecurity – you have this thing where you stare at a pad and go, “Well I’m f*cking great. I’m going to write something great.” And this other little voice says, “Well, what if you don’t?” And that’s what makes you work until 2 or 3 o’clock in the morning.”

David Droga on ‘leadership’

“..But if I’m going to tell someone to work a weekend, or expect them to work through the night, you can’t do that and then say, “See you I’m going for dinner.” They just don’t believe in it. They should see you working your *ss off. They should see you sweating things. They should see you taking things personally. I believe that. I just don’t think the higher you go, the cushier it should get.”

David Droga on ‘Creative Directors’ .. ( i love this one )

“…some Creative Directors they take all the best briefs for themselves. I think this is a waste of time, just go back to being a writer or an art director, or some Creative Directors get so upset that they have to put their name on it, so they might change a word or one little thing or make a suggestion and then want their name on it as writer or art director. That is so petty.”

David Droga on ’success’

“I always constantly try to do something that’s better and improve. If there’s a personal mantra of mine, it’s “Live up to your own expectations.” That’s how I live my life. Live up to your own expectations and don’t be a d*ck.”

Click here to read the interview

Entry? City101.6 Print Campaign. Category? Poster/Design. Status? Confirmation of receipt. Announcement? September 07

Hopes? High. Wishes? all that i can get !! so get on your knees before bedtime and spare a few seconds y’all

Waited for a whole year to release this ad… so finally here it is in this morning’s paper (Khaleej Times). A Big shout out to Sakib, Sandeep and Blair for getting this ad out – Thanks guys! but on a more serious note to every smoker reading this, Please QUIT SMOKING! it can’t possibly be worth the price

Headline reads: Listen …to your lungs
Copy reads: Chest pain, difficulty in breathing and coughing up blood are the first signs of lung cancer. To quit smoking before it’s too late, visit www.cancer.org.
Click on ad to see in full size.

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That time of the year again… Bassam and i teamed up to represent TBWA\RAAD at the Cannes Young Lions. Despite all our speculations that the brief in question would be Global Warming, we were expectantly dissapointed when it turned out to be a ‘Call for donation to UN’s World Food Programme. BUMSAC !!

8 hours later, a stressed out art director and a trigger happy ideator (with a case of unexpectedly varying level of blood pressure) produced these two press ads.

Not overly happy with what we came up with but must admit that this time round we were sharper and more polished than last…. We’ll get there eventually

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Clearly one of the most amazing tv commercials i have seen.

i’m speechless…

ARN finally released my ad that i designed for Tia’s show ‘The Big Picture’. As usual a big shout out to Yasmine, Hywell and Ayat for their truck loads of enthusiasm.

btw….. just between overzealous ‘you’ and bashful ‘me’ … i do think she looks quite delightfully dainty here ..

….. and to my left, Maestro Ezzat on the guitar

Last night, I chanced upon this link (click here) on a third party orkut scrap and till that time i hadn’t heard about the brand Carmex Lip Balm. Between now and then .. i have indirectly told over 20 people about it. Multiply that by another 20 and in 40 hours you have informed atleast 400 people about Carmex.

0 to 400 in 40 hours ain’t no bad deal … thats Absolute Viral Marketing folks!

Here is a little more for the road www.carma-labs.com

Here is a little something that i’ve been a little busy with lately. Too many late nights and weekends but good fun! Click on the thumbnails to see them upclose and personal

92FM Dubai Campaign

101.6 CITY FM Campaign

Hit96.7FM Campaign

Special Thanks to Yasmine (Account Manager) for being patient and proactive , Hywell Waters (Photographer) for playing along and being a sport, Sakib Afridi ( Associate Creative Director ) for letting me fly free.

ok .. so am on a ranting spree.. wtf are you going to do about it ?

see, i just had a startling realisation .. actually two to be precise.
1• the world is just full of people who think that their job isn’t done until and unless thay have an opinion.
To illustrate my theory better, here is an example – take a perfectly designed ad and put three suits in front of it (Suits is a term popularly used to refer to client service personel in an advertising agency. Most of them resemble the likes of bugs bunny pretending to be Mr. Smith from Matrix – sophisticatedly annoying). The ad has been finessed and loved and masturbated upon by everyone in the agency, but in the wee hours before the presentation, a very dutiful suit always has to point out the possibility of perhaps moving the headline 2.24 cm up and making the shade of blue closer to the color of his grandmothers porch. Does he not realize that the ad already looks lie it has OD’d on some potent garbage fumes already ??? and that changing color won’t make it any more marketable than it is. Bah!!!

2• There isn’t too much difference between ears and arse! All you have to do really is move the letter ‘e’. Afterall, we all kinda get used to hearing so much shit from everybody everyday that it really doesnt matter if your ears and arse have an organ exchange programme afterall.

And whilst i am still ranting about the idiots around me. Here is a person who has made ranting into the most beautiful piece i have ever heard – Ani Difranco and her piece ’self evident’. Although melo, these have got to be my one of many favorite lines from the track.

“yes, us people are just poems, we’re 90% metaphor with a leanness of meaning approaching hyper-distillation …….we are 10% literal, 90% metaphor, 3000 some poems disguised as people”