Visuals: https://getbehindthebillboard.com/episode-80-mary-wear

Episode #80 features copywriter extraordinaire Mary Wear.

Mary wrote possibly the most important endline in the history of advertising: ‘Make Poverty History’ for Comic Relief in 2004 … a line and movement that involved Richard Curtis, World Leaders and saving lives. The line was everywhere - posters, bus sides, advans, on underpants, on Bono’s arm, on the side of St Paul’s Cathedral and the coup de grâce, on a lectern in front of Nelson Mandela, who was chanting the words ‘Make Poverty History’ to thousands gathered in Trafalgar Square.

That is more than most people’s entire careers and would easily have been enough to fill the episode. The way Mary tells the story of how the line came about is wonderfully humble, involving a planner and a rather talented chap called Peter Souter.

But Mary is no one-trick pony. Her locker is full of great work.

Starving a parking meter for TfL was a lesson in never giving up, even when the model maker had ruined the idea. What could have been a catastrophe turned into a seminal award-winning piece of work.

Then there was seemingly endless more award winning work for The Economist, the Famous Grouse (a double, a small one, a quick one, a large one - they all went down well) plus an Anti-Smoking like never before. Her partnership with Damon Collins at GGT, Saatchi’s and AMV was brilliant and prolific.

We even had time for some Russian Vodka and flapjacks ;-)

Thank you Mary for coming on and sharing some of the industry’s greatest OOH work. It was a real privilege.

Visuals: https://getbehindthebillboard.com/episode-79-dan-watts

Episode #79 features the charming and super-talented Dan Watts, ECD at Pablo, London.

Hugh & Dan spent a fascinating hour hearing about Dan’s eclectic career that has seen him work at some of the industry’s finest agencies - Fallon / 4Creative / Crispin Porter / Pablo - on some amazing projects.

We discussed how to fit an entire book onto a poster. How to write great ooh … in Ghana. How to ‘Skip the cow’ for Flora in one of the best new product launches of the past few years. How to launch a record label for a chocolate brand. And the toughest of the lot, how to re-launch a Great British institution - GBBO - on ‘edgy’ C4 instead of ‘cozy’ BBC.

Thanks so much Dan for coming in and sharing your stories. And good luck with everything at Pablo.

Visuals: https://getbehindthebillboard.com/episode-78-andy-jex

After what seems like a lifetime away, we’re back. And who better than Andy Jex, the TBWA\London CCO to usher us into Autumn. ‘Jexy’ as he’s affectionately known, is the epitome of positivity and creativity, which is exactly what the world needs right now. Hugh & Dan enjoyed an hour in his company where many things were discussed:

• Fallon
• Nando’s
• Nando’s billboards
• Why you shouldn’t eat eggs
• Letters of complaint from the Egg Association about telling people not to eat eggs
• Rich & Andy
• 1Extra TV and posters
• The greatest leaving car(d) of all time
• Mother
• The dried noodle king
• A Scalextric world record
• Saatchi’s
• Stanners
• Silburn
• Marie Curie (where Jexy turned interviewer and asked Hugh about ‘The Extra Hour’ DOOH)
• Stealing staff
• North London footy rivalry
• Jaffa Cake v Flapjack
• And most importantly of all, we talked about our Mums.

Jexy, thanks so much for coming on and sharing stories, we loved it.

Hear all about it on the podcast now!