rage

Since arriving back in Hamburg I’ve been quite busy. Contacting agencies, going to interviews and getting a feel for the advertising landscape in Germany.

It’s one of those essential things one does I suppose. Trying to find the best agencies in town, figuring out where the best people and clients are… essentially finding the place you’d want to work at.

The web is a great place to start but I also bought a copy of Page Magazine. It’s the equivalent to Campaign in the U.K. or AdAge in the States.
The cover stated ‘Big Ideas. Develop and execute strong ideas.’
So far so good.
Too be honest… I hadn’t read Page in over three years. I’ve only ever bought one issue.
Back then it was similar to Campaign. Biased, boring and irrelevant.
Throwing away my preconceptions I kept an open mind and gave Page another shot.
After all… after three years in absence something might have changed.
Not really.
The main article ‘Big Ideas’ is a compilation of things so obvious that I wondered who Page was targeting. Surely not a person in a creative position? Maybe students?
A fine example is this (translated from German):
‘The simpler the problem is formulated, the easier it’ll be to find an answer.’
All good and true but for a magazine, that hails itself as the most important publication for advertising and design, it’s a rather daft and obvious thing to say.
What gets me is the subtitle to this forward-thinking piece of gibberish.
‘What makes an idea big and how does one defend it against critics. Page shows you strategies that help you creatively and projects where big ideas have been executed successfully.’
They have set themselves three goals, achieving only the last… examples.
After 2 pages I was bored. Flicking through the rest of the magazine didn’t help either.
If you happen to be in Germany… do the same people do in the U.K.
Never buy Campaign, flick through it in a foyer of an agency of your choice.
Then at least it’s free.

Page Magazine

Leave a Reply