The Glue Society hits 25

(AdNews, 5 December, 1997)

This week 25 years ago, Dave Johnson, Gary Freedman and Jonathan Kneebone unveiled a new entity to the Australian advertising scene.

Fresh from the News Limited project, Knowledge Keeps Like Fish – a campaign designed at Y&R in conjunction with Lachlan Murdoch to ignite originality within the local creative community – the team decided to see if they could create a new set up to break through the barriers of conventional agency structures and get their hands a bit dirtier in the process.

The creative collective they started, called The Glue Society, has defied definition across the 25 years they have operated, seen them originate, develop and direct an extraordinary array of award-winning and effective work, and inspired many others to start their own companies and agencies.

Across the years, over 60 creative individuals have played their role in the collective’s success – many of whom are now running their own agencies, businesses, production companies, or themselves continuing their careers as pioneering creative individuals.

The group now features Pete Baker, Alice Cogin, Henry Curchod, Luke Crethar, Millicent Malcolm, Paul Bruty, Luke Nuto, Scott Stirling, Helen Psychogios and Jonathan Kneebone. And this week sees the start of a year of celebration for the collective.

The Glue Society promise a series of suitably surprising and unexpected events – not least a knock-out poll to find their ‘Best Banger’, a curated exhibition ‘Where Art Meets Commerce’ and a new edition of their communication arts magazine, GLUES©IETY, featuring their latest work.

Across its 25 years, The Glue Society has been recognised with 8 Cannes Grands Prix/Titanium awards with well over 25 distinct projects achieving Gold Lions or D&AD Yellow Pencils across concept and craft.

Projects they have either originated and/or directed include: Suncorp ‘One House To Save Many’, Sheba ‘Hope Reef’, Virgin Mobile ‘Jason Donovan’, Foxtel/HBO ‘Grave of Thrones’, Uber Eats ‘Aus Open’, NAB ‘Break Up’, ANZ ‘Gaytm’s’ and Canal+ ‘March of the Emperors’.

Says Kneebone: “We are as surprised as anyone that this experiment has lasted 25 years. And it struck me recently when helping with D&AD Shift, that there are now a serious number of creative people in the business who are very much younger than us. So we need to keep reinventing.

“It’s always the opportunity to break new ground that makes us feel alive. And the opportunity for communication art to impact and improve the world is what inspires us. Despite having achieved more than we might have ever dreamed of at the beginning, I suspect our best is yet to come. Including what we hope will be a half-decent party next year.”

For more information, contact Jonathan Kneebone via jk@gluesociety.com.