don’t frighten the horses…

don’t frighten the horses…

January 28th, 2010 // 1:27 pm @ // 5 Comments

Hello there you, I’m back. Hope you didn’t miss me too much yesterday but I was working you see. Just couldn’t be helped.

I should probably start today by explaining the heading and accompanying photo of the lovely Frau Blucher. It’ll help if you’ve seen the Mel Brooks classic “Young Frankenstein“, If you haven’t seen it, see it. It’s brilliant and you’ll love it. The point is that whenever the name “Blucher” is mentioned, you’ll hear horses panic. Yes, she’s that scary.

“What?”, I hear you ask, “has that got to do with anything andy?” Well I’ll tell you if you give me a minute. Jeeeeeez, just have some patience.

What it has to do with, is the location of the company I was at yesterday and the consequently slightly odd meeting that ensued. The business is based in a beautiful barn conversion out in the English countryside and, right next door to our meeting, separated by a seemingly inordinately thin wall, was a massive stable block containing, unsurprisingly, lots of horses. So, now and again, our discussion was punctuated by the whinny or snort of a disgruntled horse. ( I say “disgruntled” but I’m not really sure. I’m not a qualified horse whisperer yet but I’ll be working on that ) Obviously that provided a little light relief but did lead to an altogether more serious question.

Why don’t we involve animals more in the creative process? Imagine the scenario. We hold the first presentation in a large barn. Creatives, account execs and client sit around a table in the middle while animals, selected for their own experience and knowledge, surround said table offering their input as the session progresses. Hyenas would be great. Their natural ebullience hides a hard bitten cynicism and acute awareness of the importance of brand values, while the much more reserved and considered opinion of the Hereford cow could teach us all a lot about market penetration. Goats are known to keep a keen eye on youth trends and no-one can deny the flair of the mighty Walrus when it comes to media placement. Not only that but they make really cool noises too.

Give it some thought. I am.

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5 Comments → “don’t frighten the horses…”


  1. Phil Turner

    14 years ago

    Now there’s a thought, I do remember a certain Managing director of an agency we both worked at would resemble a Blowfish with a moustache – if things werent going his way, and then there was red faced ron – the lobster…..or was I just living in a sea shanty pretending to be an advertising agency, come to think of it there was a lot of facial hair, aye captain


  2. andy

    14 years ago

    As you were bosun…


  3. madmac

    14 years ago

    come back animal farm eh?..watch out for the pigs though!


  4. Phil Turner

    14 years ago

    I can just see you astride a trusty mount,
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3bdTfzh0lA&feature=related


  5. LK

    14 years ago

    I would love to work near horses (as long as there was a wall between us). They are intelligent creatures with tons of personality (as J. Swift has reminded us)–and for lunch break, maybe we could go for a ride.


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