The irresistible truth of Jesse Armstrong
Jesse Armstrong’s writing credits include Peep Show, The Thick Of It, Black Mirror, Veep, and Succession. This post is about his irresistible truth as a...
Cleaning the toilet
This is less a newsletter and more an old-school blog post, riffing on the thinking of another blogger. It started on Bluesky, where old-school things are...
Stitching it together
A post about where creative consistency comes from in advertising. What’s the point of creative consistency? I’m of an age where I’m happy to ask apparently...
Pubs, postage, and propaganda
A post about the limited power of advertising and the immense power of wanting something really badly. The propaganda school of advertising I’ve only worked...
Boxing clever
A post about putting people and brands in boxes. The perils of being a hapless boxee.Subtext and subjectivity.Malicious boxing and cardboard ceilings.Marking...
Irreverence. Justified.
A post about the irresistible truths of Nike and the Sex Pistols. Perfection? This isn’t my favourite ad. I’m not sure it’s even a great ad. But it’s a near-...
Heal thyself
I had a conversation with my coach. It went something like this. PHIL: You know, after four and half years, I think I’ve worked out who I am as a consultant....
Strategy as a foreign language
A winning pitch makes sense. It makes sense to, and it makes sense of. A winning pitch makes sense to its audience. They get it. More importantly, a winning...
Jobs’ worth
What I gained, apart from money, from various student jobs.
How the work really gets done
Stuck in reverse I’ve been stuck in reverse for much of my career. That’s because creative work, and I include strategy work in that, involves a lot of...
Mixtaping my metaphors
Mixtaping my metaphors I’ve made you a mixtape. It’s a mixtape of metaphors and thoughts about metaphors (mine and other people’s). Of course, calling a...
Is this what success looks like?
My career peaked early The graph below tells a true story of my career. It peaked early and it was all downhill after that. It’s a graph of how many hours I...
Words have feelings
It helps if you know what you’re talking about. Shame is a great teacher. If you want a stomach-churning aversion to making the same mistake twice, give...
Practising ambivalence
Ambivalence as a superpower My approach to selling was turned on its head by my coach. He coaches ethical selling, which has little in common with selling in...
There's got to be a better way
Workshops, huh! What are they good for? There are Two Tribes when it comes to workshops. Those who swear by them, and those who swear at them. Judging by how...
Boffins and battle scars
Archetypes are the ogre of brand strategy. Archetype is a trigger word. Be ready for the mob and the pitchforks if you mention archetypes on a professional...
Clutter is character
You can’t have your treacle tart and eat it Walk out with me onto the thin ice that surrounds my comfort zone. Hold my hand. We’re going to talk about...
Advising in blizzard conditions
Unknown knowns I am the anti-Rumsfeld. When he was United States Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld talked of his preoccupation with unknown unknowns;...
Making it easy for people to refer you
Coachee, counselee, referee I’m being coached. It’s another novel and profound experience in my fifties. I seem to be collecting them. There’s always...
Lines in the sand
I make documentaries in my spare time. In a production team meeting last week, Clément said this: It's the idea of borders, crossings. What fascinates me,...
Magicians and conspirators
Magicians and conspirators This started as a one-act newsletter but it grew some arms and legs. Burning man.Ideas to conjure with.Atmospheres and apertures.A...
Blessings
Blessings Today, March 1st, is Day 1 of Year 5 for me as an independent consultant. I've learned a lot but this isn't a things I've learned article. It's me...
Accumulate to speculate
People like people who say what they mean and mean what they say. So, if you want to be someone that people like, it helps to be an etymology geek. It helps...
Overstatement is dead
Irony isn't. Overstatement isn't dead at all. Overstatement is very much alive. Its health is ruder than we realise. Rumours of overstatement's demise are...
Don't get cute
Watching the detectives. Don’t get cute. (Elvis Costello) Advising the advisers. I’ve inadvertently carved out a niche doing this. Several of my clients - a...
Swear words
When an Aussie says, “fuckin oath,” it means that they strongly agree with you. It’s a “vehement assertion of truth,” according to Boaster McBoat in an Ask...
Horror vacui
“Battle not with monsters, lest ye become a monster, and if you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.” (Friedrich Nietzsche) The abyss is...
No fat, no flavour
For a while at least, I was lucky to work in advertising in the days when a long lunch at Simpson’s in The Strand was neither unusual nor frowned upon....
Uncommon denominator
Fractional Limited is registered in London. It provides bookkeeping services. It has only one director listed at Companies House. So this person wears...