A fascinating glimpse into the life of advertising leader John Hunt, which concludes with the tale of how Hunt’s agency helped independent newspaper The Zimbabwean attract new audiences earlier this year:
WHEN TBWA Hunt Lascaris relocated to Sandown last February, the movers broke down co-chairman John Hunt’s desk and an electronic bug fell out.
It was a legacy of an era when he worked on the African National Congress’s (ANC’s) campaign for the 1994 elections, when bomb threats and “third force” ops sabotaged the path of change for even the most maverick agency in the advertising industry.
“The bug was rusted and long out of service, and it disappeared with the rest of the junk that’s discarded when you move on,” says Hunt. “I should have kept it and had it framed as a memento of those crazy days. Then again, times right now are just as interesting. Change means new ideas, and if they’re any good they always make people nervous.”
At 54, the kid who dropped out of Wits university by lunchtime on his first day still lives by his instincts when it comes to making decisions. Picasso could draw a complete picture — a bull, a horse — with a single line, and Hunt’s book, The Art of the Idea (Zebra Press), takes an equally direct approach to finding simple ideas upon which megabuck advertising campaigns are created.
Book details
Photo courtesy Business Day
John Hunt, author of The Art of the Idea, has enjoyed wall-to-wall coverage in the SA broadcast media since his book appeared on shelves earlier this month.
We’re giving plenty of advance notice, then, for the launch of his book: make plans now for the 20th of November, it’s going to be an event to remember!
Event Details
- Date: Friday, 20 November 2009
- Time: 5:30 PM for 6:00 PM
- Venue: The Book Lounge, 71 Roeland St
cnr Buitenkant
Cape Town | Map - RSVP: booklounge@gmail.com, 021 462 2425
Book Details
Barack Hussein Obama, the 44th President of the United States, was awarded the Noble Prize for Peace today, “for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples”.
The Swedish Academy’s Norwegian Nobel Committee said:
The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided that the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009 is to be awarded to President Barack Obama for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples. The Committee has attached special importance to Obama’s vision of and work for a world without nuclear weapons.
Obama has as President created a new climate in international politics. Multilateral diplomacy has regained a central position, with emphasis on the role that the United Nations and other international institutions can play. Dialogue and negotiations are preferred as instruments for resolving even the most difficult international conflicts. The vision of a world free from nuclear arms has powerfully stimulated disarmament and arms control negotiations. Thanks to Obama’s initiative, the USA is now playing a more constructive role in meeting the great climatic challenges the world is confronting. Democracy and human rights are to be strengthened.
Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world’s attention and given its people hope for a better future. His diplomacy is founded in the concept that those who are to lead the world must do so on the basis of values and attitudes that are shared by the majority of the world’s population.
For 108 years, the Norwegian Nobel Committee has sought to stimulate precisely that international policy and those attitudes for which Obama is now the world’s leading spokesman. The Committee endorses Obama’s appeal that “Now is the time for all of us to take our share of responsibility for a global response to global challenges.”
Get to know the US President’s extraordinary gift for words with Henry Russell’s The Politics of Hope: The Words of Barack Obama, published by Zebra Press last year.
From childhood memories right up to his impassioned inaugural speech, this book puts the words that have captured the imagination of the American people and helped to make history in your hands.
Book details
Photo courtesy Nobel.org
