“Never think you know anything,” says this legendary creative director
Thought I’d share this conversation I had with Helayne Spivak in Boulder last month. Helayne, like me, has been in this business for too long. But unlike a lot of people who just take up space or rest on past laurels, Helayne is in the midst of re-inventing herself and loving it.
Currently creative chief at Saatchi & Saatchi Consumer Health+Wellness, she showed up at BDW’s Making Digital Works with some of her staff as part of her personal quest to learn the new stuff and stay relevant. Of course when it comes to that very subject this wonderful writer whose skills have earned her leadership creative roles in places like the once enviable Ammirati and Puris along with JWT and Y&R, can express herself far better than I might speak on her behalf.
“I’ve never shot a bull rhino before but they say that if a one is chasing you and you shoot it in its head it will run a mile and a half before it knows it’s dead. And that’s what the agency (referring to a past employer) was like. A hole in its head, still running, not knowing it was dead.”
Helayne doesn’t really have that much left to prove in the advertising industry. She has cleaned up at virtually every award show, from One Show to Clio. She has judged Cannes, been featured in the now defunct Wall Street Journal leaders’ series, and even been named one of the top 50 women in business by Business Week.
But taking a chapter from David Ogilvy, Helayne believes that you either embrace what’s new or get out of the way. Given that she doesn’t have as nice a place as David has to get out of the way to, she came to Boulder instead.
During one of my presentations I noticed her nametag as she sat in the front row of the workshop. At first I was surprised. Wow, what’s Helayne Spivak doing at Making Digital Work? But perhaps I shouldn’t have been. After all this was the same woman who in 1993 advised an industry to “stay in touch with popular culture and to know what people are reading, seeing and thinking. It’s not enough to be obsessed with advertising, you have to be obsessed with life.”
There are a lot of egos in the advertising business that exhaust their energy holding on to the past or fighting to preserve their reputations. What a waste of time that is. The industry and the culture both change way too fast. Which brings me to one more of Helayne’s quotes. “You don’t get uncool by aging, you get uncool by not getting out there. Never think you know anything. That’s why I’m here.”
That’s why I’m here, too. Do you remember Helayne? If so, share a story.
Comments
Helayne was my creative director at two different agencies: Hal Riney & Partners, New York, and Ammirati & Puris. Sure, she's supremely talented, but what made her special was how she got down in the trenches with us lowly worker ants. She stayed as late and worked as hard and drank as much as the rest of us. And she was literally willing to take a few footballs to the head in the name of conceptual bonding. Not to mention that she may be the funniest person I've ever met. Her jokes about my wardrobe (my preferred fashion house is Goodwill) made me blow liquid through my nose onto my ugly shirts. But behind the humor is a heart of gold --- when I moved to NYC, she bought me a Brook's Brothers blazer. Helayne is one of the greats, professionally and personally.
BobShiffrar Bob, awesome comment. Thanks for that. Only met her once, but yes, funny and charming beyond belief.
Hi Edward: Thank you for sharing this, I found it very interesting and also tremendously inspiring.
You might be interested to know that all of these notions related to social media and digital ("embrace or get out of the way", "never think you know anything", etc.) is not only good advice for people of "your" generation.
I'm 39 years old and have been digitally savvy since my teens , yet after many years of working in "traditional" advertising (mainly TV) I've taken a no-hold-barred plunge into learning and living today's digitally enhanced communications environment. It's not only a must professionally, but it's vibrant, refreshing and fun as hell. If you set something up in Tribeca with Helayne, count me in!
I do differ the notion of "it isn't about look what I made, it's about look what I found". I really believe it's STILL about what you make. It's about your content, the contribution that comes from inside of your head/heart. Of course, gathering and finding is a key part of this process (and we have more and faster ways of doing this than ever before), but if your only output is as an aggregator, I think eventually it gets boring, and you miss out on the chance to create real value.
I love reading your blog, please keep up the great work.
Cheers, Martin
MartinMurphy72 Martin, I know what you are saying. I think that Helayne's comment was to make the point that it's mess about "me" and more about "us." More about contributing to than taking credit for. The found referring to what on person can bring to the larger cause. Digital is more teamwork and collaboration and open mindedness at work.
At the time of Ammirati & Puris, she was always spoken of in awe as an excellent writer. She's still awe-inspiring.
Wow, she's cool. I wish I had a story to share, but I do not. I'd actually never heard of Helayne Spivak until watching this, so thank you for posting it. I'm impressed.
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