Welcome to the second Book of Lists and to Campaign's final issue
of the year. If you have as much fun reading it as we did creating it,
no doubt you'll end up debating every entry well into the New Year.
This issue takes the place of a normal edition in the last working week
of what has turned out to be a momentous year.
The catastrophe in the US on 11 September has made vulnerable humans of
everyone and the slowdown in the worldwide economy has sent the
advertising boom of the past few years into reverse.
Nonetheless, compiling the lists has been fascinating. For one thing,
you're meant to disagree with the selection. I know there isn't a law
saying that Heineken's "policeman's feet" has to be first in every
conversation about great ads that nearly didn't get made because they
bombed in research (p37), but is it really better than B&H's "swimming
pool" as a piece of advertising?
Does anyone seriously believe that Gossard (p47) was the third most
promiscuous client in UK advertising in the year 2001? Was Excite a
bigger dotcom failure (p21) than the Industry Standard, the magazine
that came to symbolise the dotcom boom? Is Carlton's Martin Bowley a
bigger media sales phenomenon (p25) than Channel 4? Who really thinks
that knowing the maitre d' at The Ivy (second on the "top people to know
to get ahead" list, p49) will be better for your career than knowing Sir
Martin Sorrell (fourth on the same list)? Is Nick Bell a better creative
director than Peter Souter? Or Trevor Beattie (p41)?
Come to that, are there really six worse jobs in advertising (p49) than
that of lunching with AMV's Michael Baulk?
Of course, as soon as you even ask these questions you're doing
Campaign's work for us; for while we're offering these lists as
definitive, we're saying behind our hands: "Look, none of this matters
so long as it gets you talking." So, with thanks to all the staff here
who sweated blood to produce the lists and sell some ads around them,
here's wishing you Merry Christmas and an even merrier 2002.
