Arati’s Blog: The mystery behind “Jack” solved

Yesterday’s blog ended with the mysterious conclusion of the “What It Takes To Be A Brilliant Suit” Master Class, where it was decided the “Suit” would now be called “Jack” (mysterious only because I missed it).

I am pleased to report in this, my last blog from Cannes, that the mystery has been solved, thanks to David Mayo who pointed out the guy who came up with the name to me.

His name’s Oli Goulden, he’s an account director with Ogilvy China, and here’s what he replied when I asked, “Why Jack?”

“I had a number of beers the night before and had to crawl out of bed to get people to come for the Master Class, and I was told five minutes beforehand that we had to come up with a  solution to this predicament of ‘The Suit’ and all the bad connotations that come with it. I forced my weary brain to address it: rather than thinking of a rational business explanation of what Suits do, like a ‘Business Accelerator’ or ‘Innovator’ (you’re never going to say, ‘Where’s the Innovator?’), I thought you have to have something that’s equally strange and has that emotional connection. I suddenly started thinking of my dog back in England, who’s a Jack Russell Terrier, and the thing about them is that they’re very small, but they’re never afraid to take on the big dogs and that’s something that people in account management have to do in all the different areas. The Jack Russell is also the one you send down the hole to go and fetch the rabbits or the prize. Obviously, from there, I thought, ‘Why not call the Suit ‘Jack’? as in Jack Russell?’ And it was pointed out to me (retro-fittedly (sic)) that it can also be viewed  as ‘Jack Of All Trades’, ‘Jack In The Box’...and for our sisters out there, who we don’t want to leave out, we thought the phrase ‘Jack and Jackies’ was pretty good. Hopefully it’ll be something that’ll be used for years to come, we don’t know, we’re going to try and make it happen though.”

If it does, remember, you read it here first. Or also here, among other places.

Crispin Porter + Bogusky had a session called ‘Five On Five’ on Day Five, with their holding company MDC. The highlights of that for me were:

1. Be in advertising because you love advertising
2. Why doesn’t our work show more funny women?
3. The spirit of invention will be critical to the very survival of brands 
4. Encourage delusional positivity

Some of the work the creatives from the agency (Chuck Porter, Andrew Keller, Tiffany Rolfe, Jeff Benjamin and Rob Reilly) showed were:

India-spotting: Quite a few people from the India contingent were there at The Times of India Party.

Cannes experience: Chinese food after what seems like years, very near to the main Cannes station and the Palais. Many thanks to Euro RSCG’s Satbir Singh for the suggestion!