Hasta La Creative!

Joseph Lelyveld, a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, and former executive editor of The New York Times from 1994 to 2001, speaking to India’s Sunday Express:

I’ve always mistrusted that phrase “the reader wants”, because how do we know exactly what the reader wants? I think you should give the reader a fresh and original paper that’s very well-written and covers all sorts of things —social trends, fashion, the works but I think you are at your best when you give the reader something the reader wants that the reader didn’t know he or she wanted it till you gave it to her.

Which leads me to ask why this concept is so hard for people in advertising to understand. In our case, the “reader” is our client and, more importantly, our clients’ millions of customers.

I believe we are obligated to over-deliver. We have to “give ’em what they ask for” and we need to “give ’em what we believe will work.” But many of us–account execs and creatives–refuse to go the extra mile. It’s more work and it’s not on the long list of client demands, so it’s not that important.

It’s only important if doing the best work of your career is important.