When the world zigs, zag...

Monday night and a works outing to the bright lights of London and the ICA in The Mall for an audience with veteran ad man John, sorry Sir John, Hegarty and Peter York, the spiky, witty social commentator and broadcaster and a former colleague of Hegarty's.
And what an inspiring night. So often these events can become self-indulgent, self-congratulatory affairs which totally exclude anyone who's not worked in, or been in the inner-sanctum of the advertising world for the past four decades. Not so Monday night. The chemistry between the two was excellent, Peter York was funny and engaging, but of course as billed Sir John was the craggy hero.
Of course he had a book to sell, why does anyone do these things if they haven't? But it didn't matter. Sir J was his usual engaging self and talked with humour, wit and a touch of irreverance about his decades at the peak of an industry he is clearly still totally passionate about - that despite his claim that 95% of advertising today is crap!
He talked about being honest with people's work - is it good? Is it great? How can we make it great? He talked about how he tries to see new talent - tells them to send in five bits of work they think are great and if he agrees he sees them. He talked about always first looking for the good things in an idea, what you like, what works, seeing the positives rather than jumping in with both feet to kill the idea dead or focussing, as so many clients do, on what the ad 'doesn't' do.
For anyone starting out in the industry I'd say he was inspiring, for someone who's been around the block a few times I wish a few of those laps had been working with him.
Oh, and yes of course I bought the book http://amzn.to/odLm14. I bought it as a gift for my 17 year old who's about to apply to study advertising at uni - if it inspires him to become as successful as Hegarty then maybe I'll have a comfortable old age after all.