23 YEARS ON THE CANALS
“DO YOU WANNA WORK ABROAD? HOW ABOUT AMSTERDAM? CAN YOU GO TOMORROW?” — COLIN
February 1999, Colin Wainwright, the ‘guvnor’ of Abacus Studios asked me on the Monday and I landed on Thursday morning with my Syquest Drive, couple of cans of SprayMount and Ronsonal and a few Swann-Morton handles and 10A blades, (all carried on the flight in hand-luggage!). The agency was already finalising the TV for TAKE WHAT YOU WANT and I was free to start artworking the print.
We were also pitching Performance Product for 2000, which went on to become adidas MAKES YOU BETTER with Jonah Lomu. And we were presenting the concepts for the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Horses and Boats, voiced over by the great Daley Thompson, and the ‘Road to Sydney’ with Lee Evans’, content before it was a thing.
Ali vs Ali. 180 had sold out a percentage to TBWA and Omnicom and we’d won the adidas Global Business together, run out of Amsterdam and San Francisco, and local work executed by the relevant TBWA office, and then it was a battle! Each agency wanted their work to win the brief, and we both stepped up our games as much as we could. Various 180 and adidas folks take credit for the campaign, but the line as coined by Boyd Coyner, but the mantra was written by Aimee Lehto Schewe. 180’s work won the TV campaign, and TBWA got the print.
I got to visit TBWA NY for the final presentation to ensure 180 work was presented as best as possible, where I tought them how to pronounce “ah-dee-das” and met Lee Clow.
The first time Jonah met 180, we gave him a dead fish to carry. But that campaign and spot went on to most everything next year and when Jonah visited Amsterdam to meet his sponsors at adidas, he took time out to come and meet us.
Jonah came back again after shooting the second IMPOSSIBLE IS NOTHING campaign where he talked about his surgery.
October 2019, Open agency party celebrating AdNight. Our 20 Year Film
