Five things on Friday on Saturday #253

Things of note for the week ending Saturday, March 17th, 2018.

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TO THE THINGS.

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1. DOES HAPPINESS REQUIRE STRUGGLE

This is an interesting one. Came across it via David Sawyer’s ZudePR newsletter

Note: he specifically called it out on it look!

Which was nice.

So yes, first thing first, read the article: ‘Does happiness require struggle?

Quote:

“As the British philosopher John Stuart Mill (1806–1873) remarked in his book Utilitarianism: “It’s better to be Socrates unsatisfied than to be pig satisfied.”

People who are content for mundane reasons merely are ‘happy’ because their ignorance allows them to be. Happiness that is not achieved by completing severe challenges is qualitatively inferior to happiness that was reached thusly (if it is ‘happiness’ at all).

Personal growth requires overcoming.”

While I don’t disagree that personal growth requires overcoming, does personal growth / overcoming something meaningful push you to a higher plain of happiness? If you’re a regular reader, you’ve probably detected a sense of this in me over the past few months or so. The struggle, the pain, has helped me reach a new level of acceptance – of who I am, of I am going to be, of how life is going to be. And, once that acceptance was realised, it unlocked a kind of peace inside that pushed me towards a new level of happiness. But happiness and being ‘at peace’ are separate things (aren’t they?).

I like the provocation of preferring to be ‘Socrates unsatisfied’ vs ‘pig satisfied’ but, to me at least, that breaks a general rule of never measuring yourself with someone else’s yardstick. In short: your measure (and therefore your definition) of happiness may be completely different to someone else’s. And that’s OK.

Happiness is not so binary. Nor is it an ever-lasting feeling that should be attained for every waking moment – this too shall pass, after all. It is a part of life, just as sadness and pain is too. A friend of mine told me once you can’t believe in God if you don’t believe in the devil. And it stayed with me. You need to understand the other side of things. Pain, sadness, struggle – they co-exist alongside happiness and joy. And there is value to be found in each of them. That’s something I’ve come to understand in recent times.

I watched the stunning CALL ME BY YOUR NAME on the plane over to San Francisco. There’s a film that captures happiness, joy, pain, and heartbreak. It gets it SO right. In so many ways. And that last 15mins? Just wow.

Does it get easier? I don’t know.

The question is ‘Does happiness require struggle?’ – I don’t believe it does. I believe as we get older, and life throws its many struggles at us, we act, we respond, and ultimately we make choices. Those choices are based on how we define ourselves and will shape how you define yourself in the future. Happiness, fluid as it may be, flows around those choices. Life can be a struggle. The release of the struggle can be the cause of happiness. But so can many, many other things.

As we age, we benefit from self-awareness and understanding. We know what it means to be sad. A life without struggle is worth no more or less than a life that is struggle-free, and neither is no more or less deserving of happiness.

Your choices define you. They will bring happiness to your life and if you’re not careful, they will bring struggles too.

But to my mind at least, one does not beget the other.

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2. HOW DO WE FEEL ABOUT THIS? 

Specifically, this ad for ‘Jerusalem and Tel Aviv – 2 Sunny Cities, One Break‘.

Touch/click the image to watch.

I was in the kitchen when this ad was alerted to me. Said alert was: ‘

OH MY GOD. LOOK AT THIS. THEY’VE MADE AN INSTAGRAM STORY INTO AN AD! IT’S SO CHEESY!’ 

I ran to look, and it was true. Here is a holiday ad that uses the format of Stories (specifically Instagram – it has a view count and a couple of Boomerangs too) to tell the story of a multi-destination-led experience.

The jury is well and truly out on this. Actually, no. I still think it’s cheesy af. It feels like someone went ‘Hey, anyone else follow Sian Welby on Instagram? Why don’t we just do that but with our ad?’ 

Is that a good thing?

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Sidenote: this section last week was dedicated to the GODAWFUL UK variant of the ‘Because I Can’ Diet Coke ad. For what it’s worth: more people have seen it since and IT IS STILL AWFUL. That is all. 

3. INCLUSIVITY TIPS

Terence Eden has a [great] blog. I’ve featured it before, I’ll feature it again.

This week he gives us some good and important things to ask if you’re asked to speak at a conference at any point soon.

I must confess, I don’t think I have ever responded with any of these. I have asked about gender/diversity split before (normally after having looked at this/last year’s agenda and looking for an imbalance). I guess we can all try harder.

Thanks, Terence.

4. CROSSRAIL CURVATURE

At the end of next year, the new 70-mile train line known as Crossrail will open. Connecting Berkshire to Shenfield, via Heathrow, Paddington, Central London, and Canary Wharf, it has been a long road to completion (killing off one of my favourite pubs along the way, RIP The Couch). As the project enters its final leg, IanVisits has been looking at some of the date behind the build (dig?) that will create another addition to the modern marvel that is London’s travel infrastructure.

In short: so large is the scope of the project, the tunnels are affected by the curvature of the Earth.

Read how, via IanVisits.

5. OBVIOUS THING IS OBVIOUS

This last section is just another rallying cry for you all to use Facebook Creative Hub. I still (STILL!) have conversations with people who ask how to best mock up their work in Facebook.

‘What will this ad look like?’
‘What ad units are available?’
‘How will this look in-feed?’

USE FACEBOOK CREATIVE HUB.

IT IS FREE.

Sorry if you already do/have no idea what I’m talking about – it’s a great resource and if you do ANYTHING anywhere near Facebook then you need to know it exists.

Same time again next year, yeah? OK.
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THE ESSENTIALS: 

What a week it has been!

Last time around I highlighted Nathalie Gordon’s tweet on calling out ‘this BS’ but as it turns out, it was just the tip of the iceberg! The condemnation, denial, backtracking, and subsequent apology from the agency in question (you can read the ugly story in detail via this link to Campaign – if it’s paywalled for you, I’ve C&P’d the whole thing into a Google Doc for you) is a stark reminder of how f*cking gross some people in the industry are.

I find it utterly fascinating how the default response of ‘Oh! As soon as we saw it, our CEO condemned it and made the person in question apologise to everyone immediately!’ turned out to be utterly false and it was reportedly a Managing Partner who called it all off.

Sorry, this has made me so angry.

It turns out that this whole top five thing is a common occurrence! Allegedly happening at The & Partnership, AMV, MCann, Iris, Adam&Eve/DDB, Sapient, VCCP and W+K London. Last week I half-joked ‘this doesn’t happen at Ogilvy London, gang, come work for us!’ – turns out I was completely right. With one person who will remain nameless telling me earlier this week ‘When I joined Ogilvy I was STUNNED that I’d found somewhere where this top five thing DOESN’T happen’.

Jesus Christ guys.

DO BETTER. 

UGH.

REMINDER: If you see sexist BS call it dafuq out.

If you think that it’s normal and why is everyone getting so up in arms about it - TAKE ANOTHER LOOK AT IT.

If your CEO is caught lying about how they handle internal problems like this - call them out, or just leave.

Here endeth the rant.

Hats off to Sarah Keegan and Robyn Frost for this well put together response piece (right click/long press – open in incognito tab).

OK, here are your three ESSENTIALS for the week. 

THE BONUS SECTION CONTAINING BONUS LINKS FOR YOUR BONUS PERUSAL, IS ABOUT TO START. ARE YOU SITTING BONUSLY? 

I’m about to shake the bonus tree and I legit have no idea how many are going to fall out. Ready… Steady… Shake! 

  • Did you catch the #AvoCard thing from Virgin Trains earlier this week? The UK Government launched a ‘Millennial railcard’ but in limited numbers (only 10,000 went out) and so, in response, Virgin Rail launched an ‘Avocard’. Bring an Avocado on your trip and you’ll get 1/3 off your ticket. No kidding…

Yeah, sorry, this is hilarious. Anyway. I thought this was a GENIUS idea and the fact that people will turn up to a trip HOLDING AN AVOCADO is nothing short of brilliant. That, combined with the actual email Virgin Rail had to send around after the campaign went out, has pretty much made my millennial week.

Right, back to the bonuses… 

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Author: James Whatley

Chief Strategy Officer in adland. I got ❤️ for writing, gaming, and figuring stuff out. I'm @whatleydude pretty much everywhere that matters. Nice to meet you x