Park Seo-won on Advertising — Look Longer Before You Make Anything

“Don’t judge a book by its cover” is sound advice until a cover makes it almost impossible to keep walking. Park Seo-won’s book did that to me.

A man with a shaved head and clothes that looked like a monk’s was staring out from the cover. I wanted to know what kind of book put him there.

Park Seo-won and Big Ant

Park is the eldest son of Park Yong-man, the former Doosan chairman. His account of how he got to advertising runs through years of doing other things, a decision to study art and an entry into a field where his path looked unusual.

The book follows Big Ant, the agency he started with four fellow students, and the ideas about advertising they put to work there. The agency drew attention at international competitions including Cannes Lions, the New York Festivals, the Clios, D&AD and The One Show.

Look Harder

Park’s first answer to the question of creativity is observation. Look at the thing in front of you until you begin to notice what you missed on the first pass.

Change the angle and the height you see it from. Imagine, for a moment, seeing from the position of the object itself. The work is in returning to it until something about the original view starts to look contingent.

Park says in effect that ideas come out of the time you spend in the chair. I recognised that. A good idea may arrive suddenly, but the work that made it possible has usually been there for a while.

Begin with Why

The question Park wants to ask first is why. Ask it again after the first answer and you may get closer to what the work actually needs to communicate.

An ad has only a short time in which to leave an impression. Park says he returns to two questions in particular:

• Why did you do it this way?
• Would you buy it yourself?

Simple, Strong, Smart

I came away from Park Woong-hyun’s book on advertising and the humanities with a similar feeling about the importance of a clear idea.

An ad can tell you a great many things about a product, or put one quality where you will remember it. Big Ant’s process aims at the second kind of result:

1. Ask why until the problem and the client’s needs are clear.
2. Draw on close observation and curiosity about ordinary things.
3. Refine the idea against three criteria: simple, strong and smart.

When the Product Needs Attention

Park also asks whether there is a good product for an ad to sell.

One case starts with a product design the agency found unsatisfactory. The agency worked on the design before it made the advertisement.

I was struck by the confidence it took to tell a client that the thing the client wanted to advertise might have to change first.

From Thinking to Doing

The later pages tell more of Park’s own story. He describes years spent mainly amusing himself, how he decided to study art and what changed once he had something he wanted to make.

He can sound stubborn about finishing the work to a standard he believes in. That stubbornness is easier to understand when you see how much he seems to enjoy the work.

I would put his message this way:

• Start something before you have worked everything out.
• If you take it up, follow it all the way down.
• Give the idea your full attention for a while.
• Begin by making something of yourself.

The Applicant Who Brought a Folding Bed

One applicant brought a folding bed to an internship interview. Park says he hired the person on the spot. A choice like that can tell you something about the applicant before they have to say it.

The book made me think about how a good product becomes visible to the people it is for. Advertisements are worth looking at closely because they show what the maker has decided a stranger should notice first.

Some of the campaigns discussed in the book include:

• Vogue — shopping bags people could customise
• Kleenex — a tissue concept built around the appearance of wool peeling away
• Maeil Caffè Latte — packaging that emphasised taste
• Haitai IVY S gum — a redesign aimed at women in their twenties
• Grand Plastic Surgery — a before-and-after campaign built around confidence
• Gas Hwalmyungsu — a poster with a single belch
• Bookshelf — a billboard that turned the side of a building into shelves
• Anti-smoking campaign — a transparent ashtray in the shape of a person
• A plastic-surgery lift ad using Michelangelo’s Creation of Adam
• Vogue’s Paparazzi Van — a flash went off when someone walked by
• Stylish — a small “parasite” ad placed alongside a much larger one
• Barista Coffee
• Think Coffee
• Fucidin — campaigns for its gel, liquid and dressing formats
• Absolute and Absolute Sensitive infant formula
• …

Book Information

The Madman Who Thinks (Korean title, translated)

Author

Park Seo-won

Publication date

10 December 2011

ISBN13

9788996746409

View the book on YES24

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