Ageless Cool by Helayne Spivak

Helayne Spivak is one of the coolest people I know. She writes today about staying cool in an industry that requires it. She should know. Hope this finds you well -- Jim.

Take it away Ms. Spivak:

I had lunch the other day with a 28 year old art director who works at TBWA/Chiat Day. He was talking about how cool their head creative guy is. The cool guy he was talking about is Lee Clow.

Lee Clow, for those of you who are not ad geeks, is the creative genius behind the Apple launch and all current Apple work, the original Nike work, and hundreds of other outstanding and landmark advertising campaigns.

Lee is a laid back, long haired, bearded ex-surfer dude who happens to be about 65 years old. Not exactly the “cool” sweet spot. So how has he kept his cool when so many others his age have let theirs go tepid? The same way we all should.

Instead of rejecting new ideas, he embraced them. He never became a dinosaur because he wasn’t slow to catch on to the changing environment. He saw every new media channel as an exciting opportunity instead of bemoaning “Advertising as we knew it is dead…” He may not party every night with 20 somethings, but I guarantee he knows their mindset, what they’re reading, who they’re listening to, where they’re watching it and where to find them.

Because he needs to. Because he sells to them. And because he’s still interested. The point is what keeps anyone cool, no matter what their age, is staying current, which is to say relevant.

Way back when cable TV first began to give the networks a run for their money and people were trying to understand how it would pan out, advertising legend David Oglivy said, …"I’m too old to learn about cable, so the hell with it”. Retired to his chateau in France he could afford to take that attitude.

We can’t.

- Helayne Spivak, Chief Creative Officer at Saatchi & Saatchi Wellness