My worst work got the best reaction

01Lived

Ever since I was a child I’ve been fascinated by the power of words. In mid-school I was good at science and mathematics, but that was down to the teacher and the environment. Then I was forced into a different school, away from all my friends. It was a bit of a nightmare school, and the one solace was an English teacher. So yes, the power of the word matters to me. At 15 or 16, too young really, I was deeply interested in the world of advertising. I kept trying to get meetings with agencies, and I created a lot of beautiful advertising copy in the Ogilvy style, the storytelling kind. One piece was a destination Portugal thing. At the same time I was managing sales and marketing for the first thing you would recognise as a modern-day health club, as opposed to a gym. Not my own, I should add. I designed its flyers, and one of the first bus advertisements, done as a deal with the MD of the bus company. When I got a meeting with an agency, one of the fitness flyers somehow got stuck in with the portfolio. They didn’t hate the prose. But the thing that stuck out to them was this bloody fitness flyer: “Look good, feel great.” I was really pissed off. All that beautiful writing, and the crude flyer won.