Lowe vs Levy

I've just been flicking through this week's Campaign, and found these quotes from two of adland's most respected players:

On page 20, "brave advertising knight" Sir Frank Lowe offers this up:

"We are not in a rich period, creatively speaking. Fear has permeated our industry. Agencies have two aims these days; to hit their profit margins and to give clients whatever they think they want. I'm not sure that these attitudes go hand in hand with creativity."

A few pages earlier, Maurice Levy (chairman and chief exec of Publicis Groupe) had this to say:

"This is a glorious time to think and act creatively. In art history terms, we're at the dawn of the Renaissance after the Dark Ages."

Ok, Maurice is talking about web advertising, but I find it hard to accept that the internet alone is going to herald in a new golden age of creativity in the face of an increasing focus on ROI and consequent risk-aversion.

If we really want it to become a "glorious time to think and act creatively", we all need to take responsibility for it. Fight for better work within your agency. Work closer with your clients. Earn their trust. Help them to be brave. Campaign give the last word to the AAR's Martin Jones, and I'll do likewise:

"Agencies need corporate courage. If a campaign goes wrong, they might lose 15 per cent of their income. Clients need personal courage. If it goes wrong, they can destroy the business and lose their jobs."