The portfolio from hell

Jon Hamm
Jon Hamm
Aug 9, 2017 · 2 min read

During a recent trip to China I found myself standing on a beach with a bunch of senior creative people, from some of the world’s leading agencies. Sounds fun right?

However the undeniable “wonder” of this moment was shattered by something that I can’t seem to shake.

As far as we could see, from the shore line to the edge of the beach was garbage…more specifically, millions of pieces of plastic…bottles, containers, packets and dispensers.

What made this already deeply shocking scene more depressing was that this was the detritus of our clients.

Wherever we looked, “shining” back at us from the sand, were the logos and brand marks that we had so lovingly created and grown throughout our careers.

At that moment the consequence of our careers was laid out in front of us in stark reality.

It was pretty sobering.

To add to this sense of unease was the fact that we then spent the next few days judging creative work from around the world, a lot of which featured work for charities or pro bono cases.

Whilst the “conscience” that the agency world exercises in this type of work is to be applauded, it felt like these issues were distant to us.

The issue that lay out on the beach, that swamps our oceans and is destroying our ecosystem was down to us. We had helped create it. Directly. It was not distant at all but here at our door. Why were we ignoring it? We clearly had a conscience and the desire to help the world be a better place.

So what are we going to do about it?

Having returned home to the UK with this thought still worming away in my brain, the first thing that struck me was how little space brands are made to give to recycling information and communications on packaging.

Imagine a world where packaging had significant minimum space requirements for recycling information, in the way that cigarettes have health warnings.

Imagine if they had the same impactful statements about the consequences of not recycling or reusing the packaging.

Imagine if all brands felt a much greater consumer pressure to invest in biodegradable packaging and more recycling.

It might feel like a drastic step but surely the survival of our planet is more important than scaring people to stop smoking, so why could it not work?

I also realized that there is a lot I can personally do. I work for WPP the largest advertising group in the world and have conversations with clients about packaging all the time. I’m willing to take that on.

Think of this.

What if next year we took the opportunity to unite all the holding companies behind this issue?

What if then we united our clients behind it? What if we changed how our clients saw this issue and embraced it as an opportunity to show purpose in action?

What if next year at Cannes the theme of packaging and plastic and the impact it was having on our world dominated the festival bringing technology, creativity, consultancy and clients together?

Let me know your thoughts.

Jon Hamm

Written by

Jon Hamm

Creative, filmmaker, digital entrepreneur, father