Paul Papadimitriou

Syncrisis

La belle Antiquité fut toujours vénérable;
Mais je ne crus jamais qu’elle fust adorable.
Je voy les Anciens sans plier les genoux,
Ils sont grands, il est vray, mais hommes comme nous;
Et l’on peut comparer sans craindre d’estre injuste

➡ Parallèle des anciens et des modernes en ce qui regarde les arts et les sciences, Charles Perrault, p. 173¹

Slowly first. Faster then. Jerking off.

That’s basically Miyazaki‘s definition of the iPad culture.

Of any culture that doesn’t use a pencil.

To each his own. I prefer sex over the iPad or a pencil.

But I dislike arrogance.

Arrogance, that bastard child of the classic case of the old v. new quarrel. The old-fart quarrel.²

In 17th-century Renaissance Italy, paragone -or comparison- was the hottest debate around. Being able to compare was the new paradigm. It equaled freedom of thought.

Boileau and Perrault were leading the same argument in France.
In red shorts, The Ancients, led by the former, believed we were stuck at imitating the perfection in Arts that the Greeks and Romans had set. Rules had to be followed. Dues had to be given.

The Moderns, in blue shorts, thought that new forms of art had to be invented. Rules could be broken. Innovation spurred.

Authority v. Progress.

Syncrisis.³

You aren’t going out into the real world and pouring your creativity into something [...] nothing more than consumers.

➡ How dare he dislike my gadget!

While Miyazaki makes a valid point about cases of herd psychology shown by people wanting the latest gadgetery⁴, his prism is blocked by his ceteribus paribus assumptions.

The real world is his own⁵. Creativity is his own.

These are his rules. His Greeks. His Romans.

Ironically, they collide with the credence -or authority- his comments are getting, as it is derived from the same factor the Japanese director criticizes: a communion of opinions, i.e. a mass of people flocking to see his art and approving it. Let’s call that mass approval⁶.

Creativity is not measured by the level of old-schoolness -or authority, again- you’ve got. It’s not because you’re using a ballpoint pen that you’re a better writer than someone using a typewriter. The same goes between analog and digital photography. Or a pen versus an iPad.

Don’t blindly follow those who tell you how things should to be done. Don’t fall into that type of herd behavior: non-sensical collective worship of modern so-called creative Gods. Miyazaki, Jobs, Nolan or Gladwell.

he is coming from an “All I need are pencil and paper” point-of-view. That might be all he needs. He’s Hayao Miyazaki!

➡ Hayao Miyazaki Compares iPad Use To Masturbation⁷

Get a clue. The communion of opinions about Miyazaki -his authority, again and again- validates the bashing of the communion of opinions on the iPad -his old-fartiness. Non-sensical.

Expertise -authority, yes …again- gives an opinion more weight -authority, always. It doesn’t make it of higher value.

Learn from the Ancients, respect them, give dues if you wish, but don’t let them tell you what your path should be. How your creativity should be shaped.

Don’t mix the medium and the format. Don’t mix the goal and the means.

Use a pen, an iPad, whatever suits you. Define your world. Break the mould. Be a consumer. A prosumer. A producer. A watcher. A stroker.

You’re probably going to become an old-fart anyway.

1. The great Ancient History always was venerable; But I never thought it was adorable. I see the Ancients without bending [my] knees, they are great, it’s true, but men like us; One care compare without fear of being unjust. Translation mine. [↩]
2. I’ll readily disclaim it. Not even 35 and I’m somewhat in the former category already. Took me ages to go from film to digital. Will take me forever to accept 3D movie technology, the most idiotic & useless trend. I’m an old fart. [↩]
3. Syncrisis [sin'-cri-sis]: from Greek syn ”with” and krinein, “to separate”/”to compare”. A comparison and contrast in parallel clauses. [↩]
4. or willing to flock to the latest movie …even when as stupid, boring and dangerously backwards as Avatar. [↩]
5. one which somewhat lacks introspection, the real world also meaning taking care of your son, in my humble opinion. The real world not being limited to staying in front of a piece of paper for hours. Again, to each his own. Maybe. [↩]
6. don’t get me started: you’ve got to be delusional -or Ancient- to derive authority from the essence of his art. [↩]
7. emphasis mine [↩]

Re: @OldSpice | Paul Papadimitriou

In the world of campaigns, there is nothing better than earned media — free television and radio exposure

➡ Being an Incumbent Has Many Benefits¹

Thank you Old Spice. Not for reminding me that I should work on my abs. But for proving me right.

Right about what? That the wall between earned media and social media is nothing but thin air. It’s not editorial efforts on one side and grassroots actions on the other². There’s only one wall. Between success and failure. Between phenomenon and oblivion.

Thank you Wieden + Kennedy. Thank you Iain.

Simple-minded social media experts -i.e. douchebags- will repeat the oh-so-often heard rule of engaging the influencers -to death. It’s not enough. On how to have a presence on Facebook. It’s not enough. Social media itself is not enough. You need much more.

In order to leverage the “grassroot” voice for an advertising campaign, you need a blend of creatives, marketers, writers & techies. You need people who breathe the real-time web. You need people who know what they’re talking/writing about, what they’re analyzing -and fast-, who they’re targeting. You need a plan. And you need the trust of your client.

W+K PDX had it all. The result is nothing short of admirable.

Over 185 videos, the Old Spice Guy answered online messages of celebrities like Alyssa Milano or Ashton Kutcher. And while he talked to them -caressing their ego- he messaged the rest of us. Real-time.

social media guys [...] figured out the who and where, spotting the opportunities, pulling out the gems and putting them cleverly back into the world. [...] [T]ech guys [...] pulled together a super smart workflow system

➡ Responding to allegations of douchiness and congratulations to a great @oldspice team

It was one-to-one-to-many. But it didn’t stop there.

we’ve built an application that scans the Internet looking for mentions and allows us to look at the influence of those people and also what they’ve said

➡ The Team Who Made Old Spice Smell Good Again Reveals What’s Behind Mustafa’s Towel

He also talked directly to the rest of us. The ones who had a fun sense of creativity. The crazy ones who were willing to propose our girlfriend.

It’s not just responding to tweets, it’s looking at the environment right now.

➡ ibidem

He talked via requests taken on Twitter, Facebook, Reddit and 4Chan. Yeah, on 4Chan, daring the ones who decided to send Justin Bieber to North Korea.

And he talked Geekery³.

Geekery? W+K understood demographics & behaviors. Understood that social media channels are still influenced by early adopters. People who love technology so much that they’ll jump into the indescribable 140-character message board that Twitter is. People who will understand the answer Kevin Rose received.

People who, like me, will laugh hard at the answer 4Chan got.

People who will be crazy enough to remix the videos.

People who will share the love.

People who will put the story on top of social sharing sites Reddit and Digg. People who will trigger the huge surge the Old Spice Twitter account got -from 3,500 to 55,000 followers in one day⁴. Triggering more spill over to Facebook -600,000 fans of the brand, I’d say 20,000 more since the campaign started. A spill over talked about in larger circles thanks to news outlets like the Telegraph or the New York Times.

People who will get the videos to top 6 million views on YouTube in 24 hours -a record.

➡ Old Spice’s Online Video Coup

People who reacted to the Old Spice Guy’s persona.

W+K understood what a Tummler -to use the old Yiddish word⁵- really is.

It understood the true concept of engagement. And the work it required.

It understood that pulling the comments real-time, quickly spotting the right opportunities required the right skills. That processing this back to the writers for a rapid video shoot required the right team. That working that fast required the complete backing -bravura?- of the client⁶.

It understood the demographics for the product it was promoting. The behavior and psychology of the target. The referrals that could follow.

W+K had a plan. An intention for its client. And massive amounts of coffee.

The wall is between success and failure. If brand awareness was the goal, social media really is part of earned media.

Thanks for the diamonds.

I’m going to exercise now.

1. subscription required [↩]
2. don’t get me started on the artificial distinction which implies that earned media should be reserved to initiatives, not advertising. We live in a world of blurred definitions. [↩]
3. to use Ken‘s right word in his W+K announcement [↩]
4. 66,000+ at the time of this writing [↩]
5. Tummler: [ˈtʌmlə] One, such as a social director or entertainer, who encourages guest or audience participation. [↩]
6. as a bonus, P&G got a funny cross-promo for Gillette

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