“Give me the freedom of a tightly defined strategy,” wrote legendary British creative adman, Norman Berry.
How few seem to grasp this powerful paradox. In fact many creatives seem to resent it.
Truth is, many of them then flounder.
Norman Berry (1931-2010) was a copywriter at Lintas initially (where his father had worked as an art director before him), then at Young & Rubicam, becoming creative director. In 1964 he founded Davidson Pearce Berry and Spottiswoode, an agency that created the famous and long-running “Chimps” campaign for PG Tips. The agency was acquired by Ogilvy & Mather, where he became creative director in New York.
His aim always was to create a climate where creativity would flourish.
He died two years ago and his daughter, the poet Lucy Berry, has written about how “wonderfully bloody-minded, funny, and difficult my father was – and how loving he could be.”
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