I shared some random marketing observations from my European trip the other day. A few more here:
Creative work there is just as mundane as work here.
I was expecting sophisticated advertising like you often see on Ads of the World or in Archive. But there’s just as much ads-as-bland-wallpaper everywhere you go.
The brands are different. And the snack flavors are different.
I made a point of walking through a Sainsbury’s (a major grocery store) in London, just to see all the different brands and foods they sell. Lots of tropical mango-type flavors, “prawn” flavors, and little-to-no High-Fructose Corn Syrup to be found. They had Smoky Bacon-flavored Pringles (they’re not potato chips, they’re “crisps”) there. Why they don’t sell them in the USA, I’ll never know. They’d be huge.
Vincent Vega was right: They do call it a Royale With Cheese in Paris.
I didn’t eat one, though.
Change is tough.
I mean counting up Euros and pence and pound coins when you’re paying with change at a drugstore and there’s a queue forming behind you.
The news doesn’t focus on the USA. Or even the home country so much..
News from other countries, from China to India to African nations, is quite prominent. The US election was getting a cursory mention, but not much else in America was newsworthy over there.
France exports cheese. And apparently, so does America:
I don’t know if I was expecting to return home more inspired as an advertising professional, but the inspiration I did get was because of the people I met and places I saw, not because of the advertising I was exposed to. Perhaps that’s the way it should be.
