Tony Malcolm and Guy Moore have been rubbing shoulders with the
stars recently, both inside and outside the world of advertising.
Like a couple of excited fans, they tell you how they thrashed Billy
Connolly at darts on location in Los Angeles filming the latest Goldfish
campaign and talked camera angles with Eric Cantona during Nike’s
’parklife’ shoot.
Nor have they stinted on big names behind the camera, as a glance at
their agency’s Who’s Who of a showreel reveals. Daniel Barber was
drafted in to mastermind Goldfish, Jonathan Glazer to direct Nike and
Chris Palmer to shoot the most recent Sony Playstation epic, in his
directorial debut for his former agency. And even as you read this,
Graham Fink is probably hanging out of a helicopter filming a spot for
the British Heart Foundation.
In fact, life for the duo has been hectic since they decided to return
to the then Simons Palmer Clemmow Johnson last September as joint
creative directors, just two years after leaving to take the creative
reins at CDP. But the fast pace of life has had its downs as well as
ups.
On the plus side, there have been the celebrities, a string of notable
ads and a return to the agency that Malcolm says ’we wanted to come back
to, the day we walked out’. But harder to handle must have been the
upheavals that faced the pair just after they returned.
First came the news of the merger with TBWA, followed by speculation
about power struggles in the creative department. Then came the
departure of the creative heads, Andy McKay and Paul Hodgkinson, and
other teams.
To some less robust types, such chopping and changing might have
disturbed the creative muse. But Malcolm and Moore seem to have become
immune to tricky working environments. Both survived at CDP, despite the
unceremonious departure of their predecessors, Nick Welch and Billy
Mawhinney, and the high-octane regime of managing director, Ben
Langdon.
Perhaps, having had such experiences, the pair seem unconcerned about
the whispering surrounding TBWA Simons Palmer. ’Yes, it has been
unsettled here and we’ve lost quite a few people,’ Malcolm admits. ’But
things are settling down and will continue to do so once both agencies
have moved into the one building.’
And they have genuine respect for the agency with which they are about
to co-habit. ’If you look at the stuff that TBWA is good at, it’s not so
far from us,’ Moore says.
The pair first teamed up at Leagas Delaney in 1983, shortly after Moore
had parted company with J. Walter Thompson and Malcolm had left Saatchi
& Saatchi. Originally placed together on a hunch by Tim Delaney, the two
have been together ever since without a break. When not working, Malcolm
plays amateur football and supports Fulham, while Moore scours car boot
sales for old Blue Peter annuals. Occasionally, they skive off and play
golf for the day.
Ask what has kept them together for 14 years, besides the odd turn
around a golf course, and each cites the differences in their
personalities.
’Guy’s a bit more radical and frenetic than me. I’m more laid back and
tend to think things through,’ Malcolm says. ’We don’t always agree;
we’re different characters, but somehow we complement each other,’ Moore
adds.
And if proof were needed of the fit, it comes in a brief glance down
their list of recent work, which proves their ability to come up with
the goods even during the hardest periods of agency disturbance. In
their first eight months at CDP alone, their Hamlet work scooped two
Cannes golds and two silvers at the Campaign Poster Awards, while their
Newcastle Brown Ale work also took a Campaign silver. And amid the
Simons Palmer merger furore, they created ’parklife’, co-penned Goldfish
and oversaw the Playstation spot.
This ability to keep an eye on the ball is undoubtedly helped by their
passion for making ads themselves rather than simply directing the
traffic.
’Looking at a blank pad is the most frightening thing in the world, and
doing it reminds you how frightening it is for everyone else,’ Moore
explains.
As you might expect from a couple who claim to have had just one big
bust-up in their entire working lives, both are now united in their
determination to make the nuts and bolts of the merged agency work. Both
seem quite happy at the prospect of sharing responsibility with TBWA’s
creative directors, John Kelley and Steve Chetham - described by the
pair as an ’unsung hero’ - although the division of accounts between
them all has still to be decided.
However, to aid the transition, teams from each of the agencies are
already working at their sister shops and all four creative directors
consult each other on the most significant pieces of work leaving under
the TBWA Simons Palmer brand.
Malcolm concludes: ’We came back to find this agency handling bigger
pieces of business than it was when we left, with clients like Goldfish
and Sony, and that’s why the merger had to happen. We didn’t want to
leave in the first place and we’re glad to be back.’
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