I run into my parents bedroom, bursting with excitement and asking if I could open my presents.

Because my parents loved me [read: I was an only child] they only needed minimal cajoling before traipsing down the stairs half asleep and joining me by the tree so that we could start our annual habit of handing out each other’s presents.

As usual, I would be subjected to the torturous pleasure my parents got from handing me some pointless present from god knows before finally I’d get to the ‘good stuff’…

Over the years I’d had all sorts of great [even if they broke within minutes] presents …

Blip

Merlin [possibly the first, and worst – multigame handheld system]

An Ingersol digital watch [that told the ACTUAL DAY as well as the date!]

G7000 videogame system

My beloved Raleigh Grifter [where I passed out when I saw it]

… however in the early hours of December 25th, 1984, I received a present that was probably the best value-for-money gift my parents ever bought, because it started a love affair that has lasted – so far – at least 25 years … because on that cold, dark morning, I was given a Les Paul copy electric guitar.

To be honest, I knew I was getting it because my parents had taken me to Carlsboro Music in Nottingham to check it out – mainly because they thought I had shown talent on a 2 string acoustic guitar that was lying around the house [where do these guitars come from? Seemingly every house has one – they’re worse than rabbits for breeding] and liked the idea of me learning a musical instrument – however even though I had previously had my heart set on a synthesizer and thought the Les Paul was a bit girly [till I picked it up and it weighed more than a small car] I was excited. Very, very excited.

Of course part of the ‘deal’ was that I had to have lessons and so in Jan 1985, I started a weekly half hour ritual at ‘Dave Mann’s Music’ where I would learn the basics with the brilliant Jim – who after a year, pissed off to earn a damn site more than the 2 pounds 95 pence my parents were paying him to be Ozzy Osbourne and Bryan Adam’s guitarist.

Over the years I fell more and more in love with the guitar … playing up to 8 hours a day every-single-day, starting a band, recording, touring, buying ever more ludicrously expensive equipment … basically just having a ball.

And here’s the thing … there were days when I would wake up, pull out the twanger [that’s slang for a guitar, not a euphemism for pubescent activities] and think I was quite simply the greatest guitarist in the World. EVER!

My fingers would do as they were told, the sounds from the guitar would be exactly what was in my head, the tone would be huge and perfect … in short, I was the new Jimi/Clapton/Beck/Angus/May/Bettencourt all rolled into one and was quite simply, invincible.

However just 24 hours later – having experienced no dramatic change to my environment or mental health – I would pick up the guitar and suddenly find my hands were crippled with arthritis, my guitar would be in a strop and refuse to play anything my brain instructed, the tone would be tinny or waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay to bassy … in short, I was a fucking retard who had never picked up a guitar in his life.

It as if it there was an inbuilt anti-overinflated-ego component in my brain – ensuring I could feel good about myself but pulling me back when I was beginning to feel too good about myself – and that’s the thing about the guitar, it keeps you fighting to succeed, there’s never a point you can think you ‘know it all’ and that keeps it all exciting and challenging … so while I don’t play nearly as much as I once did – and almost never plug in my copious amounts of amps and technology – I still can feel exceedingly energised or freakinglyfuckingfrustrated when my fingers pull, or stop pulling, weird shapes along a piece of wood to make a glorious/catastrophic noises.

The reason I have written this long – and boring – history lesson is that I think what I have explained will resonate with anyone who has ever played a musical instrument [or pretty much any other activity that is driven by passion] and yet in adland, we seem to have this belief that we can always do stuff … that we will always perform brilliantly … that we ‘know it all’ and not only is that plainly bollocks, but it reflects an industry that doesn’t really care about maintaining high standards, because if it did it wouldn’t protect it’s ever-decreasing niche, it would welcome with open arms, different opinions, thoughts and ideas as opposed to the usual strat of ‘ad churn’ simply because its the only way they can get their cash these days.

Yep, adland is in the volume business.

Of course not all people or agencies behave/think like this – but there is a worrying trend of feeling invincible – and while confidence is a good thing, over-confidence has the ability to destroy everything in the blink of an eye and when you look at the state of what our industry produces on a daily basis, over-confidence is the last thing we should be feeling.

I find that amazing because I still think the 90’s were only a couple of years ago … so even though it makes me sound like an old fart, I have to ask where the hell does time go!?

My wife has a theory about this which is basically …

If you are 6 years old, then 1 year is equal to 1/6 of your life, just like if you are 60 years of age, then that represents 1/60th of your life … therefore over time, a year becomes a smaller & smaller proportion of your overall life and therefore feels shorter.

To be honest, I’m still trying to get my head around that concept but what I do know is that when I read a magazine and it features someone who says they were born in 1990, my first reaction is that they look old for their age before remembering that it’s 2009, not 1999 so they’re almost bloody twenty which means I’m a bloody old fart who is nearly 40.

FORTY!

Jesus, the next significant age after that is 50.

FIFTY.

And then I’m only 10 short years till retirement and waiting for the grim reaper to come and get me.

HOLY FUCK I’M GOING TO DIE SOON.

Christ, where did that all come from? Sorry about that – kinda lost it there for a minute – and given my Mum still goes to rock concerts at nearly 80 [even if it was because she thought the Electric Light Orchestra [ELO] were a symphony group rather than 70’s Rock Gods] I guess I am not destined to be one of those people sitting at home in my slippers watching Coronation Street and complaining how the streets were safe ‘back in my day’.

That’s kind of disappointing because it sounds quite nice.

Remember, loose lips sink careers.

Anyway, over the next few weeks, I am sure we’re going to be inundated with blog posts detailing the authors year … and I bet I am not going to be an exception … so instead of boring everyone stupid, why don’t we have a bit of fun and reinstate that character assassinating questionnaire NP and Mr M subjected me to a few years ago and develop a set of probing questions – all linked to our individual activities of the last 12 months – which we all have to answer on a designated day prior to buggering off for whatever festive break we’re getting?

Think of the opportunities …

HOW MUCH MONEY DID YOU EARN?

WHAT WAS THE SINGLE MOST DEVIOUS THING YOU DID AND TO WHOM?

Get the idea?

OK, to allow people a little modesty, my thought is we come up with 15 questions of which the recipient can choose to answer any 10 from. Sound alright?

[Though Ms Piggy probably channels him the most accurately]

Given Queen have just released a new album [basically their 67,456th version of 'Greatest Hits'] this could be one of the great marketing ploys to reach new audiences since Def Leppard’s “Guitar Hero” strategy – but regardless of that, it’s just bloody brilliant and given Queen would have had to approve the use of this song, then hat’s off to them for letting it happen because it’s 4 minutes 47 seconds of smiling pleasure.

It’s sensitive, beautiful, gentle and insightful and I’m a better person for reading it.

That NP is a good man in every way. Bastard.

This is where I could go on a massive rant about how badly men are being reflected in mainstream communication and media, but that’s something for another day, especially as I need to think how I write it so it doesn’t come across as some ‘anti-women / pro man’ sexist rubbish.

So go and read NP’s magic and if in 9 months there’s a glut of babies being born, we know who to blame

Over the years I’ve had a whole bunch of them … Philips G7000, Intellivision, Atari 2600, SNES, Megadrive, 3DO, Saturn, Playstation [1,2 & 3], Xbox [1 & 2], Wii … you name it, I’ve probably had it or played on it.

Now even though I am not very good, especially compared to a 15 year old kid in South Dakota who kicks my arse on FIFA every bloody night … it’s an activity I love, if only for the fact it gives the whole range of my emotions a bloody good workout.

One of the greatest ads that captured this spirit was this one by TBWA …

Brilliant … in just 59 seconds, they have not only captured the range of emotions people experience when playing a video game, but they have also captured how for many people, ‘life’ is a series of events that highlight their slow descent into conformity, self-censorship and frustration.

Bleak?

Yep … but you can’t be that surprised given we live in a society that says what we do/say/think/wear has more influence in how our lives will turn out than what we achieve, believe and follow.

Anyway this isn’t about that … this is about the ads of Playstation.

In short, the work was brilliant.

Built on real and powerful insights and married to a brand personality bursting with barely contained youthful arrogance – it was the voice of a generation, the closest thing to punk they’d probably experienced.

Now we have to remember this all came from SONY – a brand that has its heart in ultra-conservative [especially in terms of business] Japan.

So how did it happen?

Well, while the guys at TBWA can take some credit – if anyone has read EDGE magazines fantastic article about the background of Playstation’s launch – then you’ll know the real driving force was that SONY’s hierarchy thought the brand was going to fail and didn’t want a thing to do with it, hense they actively encouraged the people involved to not associate it too strongly or closely with the SONY brand.

And now onto the real point of my post …

As we all know, Playstation went on to be a huge success – at its peak, contributing approx 90% of Sony’s entire profit – which is where things started to change because rather than try and deny it’s existence, SONY’s senior management started to take a much closer and more influential interest in how things developed [probably to associate themselves with success given that prior to Playstation, the company was in a bad way] which, in my opinion, ultimately led to the downfall of Playstation’s powerful, pragmatic and insight-driven creative.

I bring this up because I recently saw an ad for SONY’s new portable PSP.

OK, so PSP’s ads were never very good in the first place – and the World is in a different place to when the original Playstation launched – but when I read copy like the stuff being churned out below, I realise SONY don’t care about resonating with gamers, they just want everything to fit in with their adult-orientated, industry-generic, brand voice.

Let’s look at some of the highlights shall we?

“Bored? You must be. You should get a PSPgo. You could be watching ‘Transformer: Revenge Of The Fallen’ instead of reading some ad in a magazine. Brilliant.”

How terrible is that …

No passion, no hunger, no emotion, no nothing.

It’s cold, clinical, contrived, humourless, immature wallpaper advertising at its worst and it becomes even more painful when you compare it to the ‘Double Life’ ad above – an ad for the same company, for pretty much the same product.

[Acknowledging the original PS was purely a games system whereas the more modern incarnations are much more multimedia, even if they are still predominantly used for gaming]

Sure one is a television commercial whereas the other is a print ad, but that doesn’t mean it should be bereft of all attitude, hunger or gaming mindset – afterall, some of the early Playstation print was fantastic as you can be reminded of here and here.

I think the thing that bothers me the most about this awful ad is that the person who either wrote it or approved it, didn’t take any time to really understand what gaming means to people.

It doesn’t matter how old you are, what gender you are or what you do for a living … you don’t play games as an antidote to boredom, you play them as an antidote to life …

So the moral of the story is if you want to do work that will truly infiltrate society, then you have 3 options available to you …

1/ Choose brands that have a heritage of great creative.
2/ Choose brands that are the enfant terrible within the organisation.
3/ Get a planner involved.

Maybe this insightless approach has come about because SONY’s marketing people think the brands new joke of a positioning line Make.Believe empowers them to do whatever they want, regardless of relevance or resonance – and if that’s the case, then God help us all – however there is one bit of light and that is a dear friend of mine has recently been appointed head honcho for Playstation out of Japan and if his first bit of work is anything to go by [with WK] then in the coming months gamers, creatives and planners might be able to breathe a sigh of relief.

I believe.