COLLINS: WHY IT’S NO SURPRISE MICK AND IAN LEFT JWT SYDNEY

We are still awaiting a comment from JWT worldwide CD, Craig Davis on the reasons for the sudden departure of Mick Hunter from the CD gig at JWT Sydney last month, together with his art director partner Ian Morton. Hunter and Morton are choosing not to comment either, but here’s a quote from former JWT Sydney CD, Simon Collins (right), now based in the U.S., that is sure to cause a stir….

“Despite their unquestionable talent, and despite my talking up the

appointment for their benefit when it was made, Mick and Ian’s resignation

came as no real surprise to me. Craig Davis’s quixotic brief for the

creative director role – as it was relayed to me, at any rate – seemed

always likely to create instant friction between the appointee and the

account teams, not to mention their long-suffering clients. Conversely,

talented creative people who are unwilling to (or who have been briefed not

to) compromise their brilliant ideas to accomodate the less glamorous

marketing objectives of their clients are always going to find their style

cramped in the kind of environment that JWT Australia will always be as long

as it depends for a large proportion of its revenue on multinationals like

Kellogg, Nestle and Ford. Clients like that have been successful

practitioners of advertising for longer than most agencies, and far too long

to be distracted from the profit motive by the tangential indulgence of

individual agency creatives intent on prize-winning. What JWT really needs

in Australia – and possibly eberywhere else, too – is pragmatists whom

everyone – suits, clients and creatives alike – can respect in equal

measure. People who are able to identify and exploit real creative

opportunities as and when they occur (which is usually not every day or even

every week) but without otherwise rocking what is, when all is said and

done, a huge and very successful commercial boat. In Sydney they could do a

lot worse than looking at somebody like Jack Vaughn. Unfortunately, while

the international award community remains fixated on a non-existent

corrolary between youth and talent, and while JWT’s key international

decision-makers continue to worship at that false altar, I can’t see them

doing anything so sensible.”