David Droga: Advertising Isn’t Going Away, Just Really Sh*tty Advertising Is Going Away

David Droga: Advertising Isn’t Going Away, Just Really Sh*tty Advertising Is Going Away
Rosie Oakshott
By Rosie Oakshott



David Droga, arguably Australia’s most successful creative having won more Cannes Lions than anyone else in history, opened the 2018 Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity on a apt topic: the power of creativity.

Droga reflected on his career to date and then shared just one piece of recent work.

“I’m going to show you one piece of work. It’s going to break all the conventions that you’ll probably see over the next few days. Because it’s long. It’s about people. It’s not 6 six seconds. It’s not “mulit-layered”. For me, I am obsessed with the emotion of what makes people tick. I am obsessed with how people feel. That is what we (Droga5) are all about. The best advertising is visceral.

“As I was driving in today from my hotel, I realise why people hate advertising. It’s that huge ugly massive sign hanging over the Carlton Hotel. It’s covering someone’s room. It’s defacing the beautiful facade of the building. It serves no purpose. It’s selfish. It’s rusting. That’s where bad advertising is.

“Great advertising is some of the talks you go to, some of the events you go to, that make you feel something. When there’s something mutually beneficial on offer. That’s the advertising that we should all be part of.

“Advertising isn’t going away. Just really shitty advertising is going away.

“I love the unlikely opportunities that happen. We were approached by Christie’s Auction House/They asked us to do a campaign for an auction that was coming up. I’m not in the business of selling paintings but this was for a Da Vinci that was going up for sale and I was mid-way through his book which is phenomenal.

“Talk about a creative person, the key to Da Vinci’s creativity was his curiosity. Has there ever been a more curious person?

“So I thought to myself, ‘I definitely want to do something around this. Why don’t we do something that is relevant and that breaks the trends of advertising that it has to be instant gratification?’

“Let’s talk about the power of creativity. We put a hidden camera underneath the painting and captured real people’s reactions as they looked at the painting.”

The Last da Vinci / Christie’s / Droga5 / 1 of 7 from Chelsea Pictures on Vimeo.

“The client thought the painting would sell for $70 million. The painting sold for $450 million.

“If we create something and it doesn’t have a reaction from people, I don’t see the point of it. Our job is to move people and do extraordinary things. There’s no rulebook.”




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