Creativity just published their annual ‘top 50′ list of the people who made a mark on the cultural consciousness in the preceding year. Dan’s made the list once again.

Here’s what they say:
It’s no doubt difficult to be burdened with a creative legacy stocked with the likes of “Just Do It,” ESPN and the more recent revitalization of the Coca-Cola brand, but Wieden Kennedy continued to live up to its reputation with a creatively stellar 2008. Last year, the agency turned out more standout work, from the David Fincher-directed “Fate” for Nike and Coke’s charming “It’s mine” balloon fight, to Old Spice’s “Swagger” and the voyeuristic “Somebody Else’s Phone” web effort for Nokia. The shop continued to develop its extracurricular side, launching W K Radio online and producing more musical releases out of the W K Tokyo Lab record label/workshop run by ECD John Jay. Co-founder Wieden says he also plans to expand into South America in the near future, yet no matter how big the agency grows, he has no intentions of changing its intimate and fluid creative environment. “It’s a homegrown network,” he says. “We hire in-country and we move folks around quite a bit from office to office, so all our fights are family fights. It really enriches our culture and creates the ability to communicate a lot easier because we’re coming from the same bias.”

Wieden, on his outlook for 2009: “We are full-steam ahead on digital and we’re thinking of some ancillary surprises. If you can’t redefine what an advertising agency is in the next couple of years, I think you’ve got some big problems. It’s turned upside down, but for us, it’s the most exciting of times.”

[via W+K London blog]

A lot of exciting things are happening. Two of them would be Bill Davenport (President, W+K Entertainment & Partner, W+K) and Kirk Iverson (expert on all things Hollywood). They were with us for just 36 hours. But it was enough to get all of us, including Campaign India, excited about WK Radio.

To read the whole article, click here

This week on WK Radio, we have DJ lovebirds Anjali and The Incredible Kid sharing their music and stories from their music-amassing sabbatical in India; interview with Mercer Street recording artist, ASA; Tokyo Lab; Caldera; a mix of eclectic DJs and much more.

Tune in to WK Radio

Abhineet ‘Mozzo’ Singh

Born 9th October.

Do you want to do a serious interview or a retarded interview?
Retarded, man

It’s going to be tough though I’m going to come at you from all angles you sure you’re up for it?
Yeah yeah man go for it

You were born 9th October. That’s a Libra, isn’t it?
That’s all a buncha bullshit dude

Probably. But you asked for the retarded version remember?
Yeah I guess so. I don’t know man. I use it with chicks sometimes. They dig this astrology stuff.

Would you ever date a girl with a wooden leg?
…(pause).. yeah sure…and then if she got on my nerves I could club her with it. Ha Ha.

Would you lacquer it for her?
Yeah man… make her look good …yeah

Childhood ambition
Road-roller driver

Enduring memory
I once got beat up by these two chicks. I was at a rock concert at Milwaukee… like I was super drunk man and …uhm… I remember getting one of those really huge bottles of Coke…and…I catch this snatch of conversation where this chick goes: “Fine, so call me a slut”. So I turn around and call her “Slut!” and…uhm… next thing I know I was getting beat up by these chicks…it was cool…and then some guy I don’t know who…came and picked me up by my belt and like, threw me over the turnstile…

…and then there was this time when I woke up in full scuba gear. See, I don’t know if this happens to you. Autopilot. Whenever I drink tequila I go into autopilot mode. The plane flies but I don’t know who’s flyin it, knowwhatImean? Yeah…so… I had a lot of tequila this one time and I guess I thought it’d be cool to play with foam, so as I learnt the next day, me and my buds we went and grabbed all these fire extinguishers and sprayed them all over the lawn… I don’t remember how I got into the scuba suit…I don’t know man…

What’s your retreat? Your happy place? The place you go to when things get fucked up.
I take a dump man. I find that’s the only place where I’m totally alone with myself.

Do you remember your dreams?
No, man…(thinks for a bit)…although sometimes I get this dream where I’m just falling…

Everybody has those
…yeah I guess so…

Proudest moment
Yet to come

First job
Pizza Hut at University

Did you ever have to clean up vomit?
No, luckily. I’ve cleaned up my own though, lotsa times.

Do you have an indulgence?
Expensive watches

That’s a Surdie stereotype isn’t it?
Yeah (laughs) I guess…

Sardars (people from the Sikh community) are one of our favourite people at W+K. What’s the one stereotype about Surds that you think is totally true.
That they’re not veggie… (continues)… but you know… about surd jokes…how this whole baara baj gaye thing started?

Dunno. How?
Well…it’s to do with guerilla fighting dude. These guys are like, fearsome warriors, and they always attacked camps at 12 midnight, so that’s how it started ‘Sardarjee ke baara baj gaye’

There’s this radio show called Desert Island Discs in the UK. The format is simple: each week a guest is invited to choose the 5 records they would take with them to a deserted island. They also choose a favourite book  and a luxury which must be inanimate and have no practical use. Let’s do a Desert Island thing here, what do you say?
Sure.

So what’d your one book be?
The Encyclopaedia Of Surgery. It’s a medical book. Like really fat. And it teaches you how to perform surgery. I always wanted to read it. And …uhm…I could also use it as a pillow. And if I broke my knee I could refer to it and fix it.

But wouldn’t you need to understand all that medical mumbo-jumbo? Surely, they wouldn’t refer to kneecap as just ‘kneecap’…probably like metacarpotarsasal joint or some stuff like that. How would you figure it out?
Well… I dunno…maybe a more layman’s book then.

The one luxury item
Movie theater popcorn machine

The five records
Laundromat Blues- Albert King
Viva La Vida- Coldplay
Changes- 2Pac
Wouldn’t it be nice- Beach Boys
Punjabiyan di Shaan- Bally Sagoo

Last purchase
Moongphulli (roasted peanuts) from the street

Favourite movie
300/ The Usual Suspects

Favourite comic book character
Batman? I don’t know man…I used to read a lot of Phantom. I think they should revive the Phantom.

What’s the next big thing?
EQ in video games…

How does it work?
See, it’s like now there’s this clear line between the virtual world and the real world. In the virtual world, we all have these different avatars we put on, like so many different personalities… they’re all aspirational… who we want to be. I think with EQ in video games that line will disappear…you with me?

Vaguely
There’s this TED video you’ve got to see…it explains it better… I’ll send you the link

If someone made you king for a day, what would you do?
(Completely thrown by the question, confused…)
…King…wow…I don’t know dude… maybe get my own harem

That’s it?
…urm..yeah… or maybe I’d just watch Scarface (with a little more conviction)…yeah I’d watch Scarface

You have all the power in the world, unimaginable wealth, you can change policies, have people bumped off, commission banned medical research, travel into space, wage war and you would sit and watch Scarface?
(even more confused) Lemme think for a bit. (Thinks for a bit). I know what I’d do. I’d bring back gladiators, like in Rome. It’d be like the biggest party and in the centre of it all there’d be dudes fighting lions and two-headed jackals and shit…

Wow. That’s something. Two-headed jackals. You realize, of course, that you’ll have to push the boundaries of medical science to develop a two-headed jackal? Maybe a wait of some 10-15 years in development.
Yeah, but it’d be cool though.

Abhineet Singh is a Strategic Planner at W+K Delhi

A. Conaway and P. Colman in their distinctive black uniforms.

Unconfirmed reports suggest that two super-troopers from the UK were in New Delhi last week to participate in a WK training exercise. After a week of intense activity and the occasional bout of dysentry, these sharp-suiters quietly slipped out of the city in typical ‘black-ops’ style.

Here’s the ad they’re talking about:

There was a bit of commotion on board an IndiGo flight last night. A couple of drunken idiots on the Goa-Delhi flight got a bit rowdy and threatened to hijack the plane. The captain, following procedure, made an emergency landing and the National Security Guard and the whole circus descended upon the aircraft. Turned out to be a false alarm but it was all over the news. To IndiGo’s credit the whole affair was handled with customary efficiency with the least discomfort caused to its passengers. Still didn’t prevent the press from having a field day.

Cycle World is the world’s largest circulating motorcycle magazine and it recently did an 8-page story on Royal Enfield. The article is attached.

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