Special Reports

The good old days: Memories of the advertising business - Allein G. Moore

Allein G. Moore is a former Creative Director of Batey Ads, Leo Burnett, Saatchi-Compton and Chiat/Day/Mojo. As publisher and editor of AdAsia, he is still very much on the advertising scene.

Stepping off the plane at the old Paya Lebar airport in Singapore that night in November 1979, I knew immediately I was in the ‘exotic east’. The warm humid air, which hit me as I passed through the aircraft doorway and descended the steps, contrasted dramatically with the cold windy weather I had left behind in England. The visitor who now is conveyed from the air-conditioned aircraft via passenger bridges to the Changi terminal misses this sense of arrival in a foreign land.

Here’s not the place to write at length about my early days in Asia but I will try briefly to give an idea to the younger readers of what it was like working in the ad industry in the early eighties and perhaps remind the older readers of these ‘good old days’.

Visiting many ad agencies as I do today, being welcomed as an editor of a trade magazine, I am aware of the contrast between working conditions now and then. Today, most agencies have pleasant environments, some even have bars, coffee lounges and billiards tables. Even an ice-cream refrigerator graced McCann-Erickson’s reception until recently and if I recall correctly, BBDO as well. Arriving from London in 1979 where I had a glass-walled office overlooking Hyde Park, I was shocked to discover the office provided at Batey Ads was a small grey windowless booth. In fact, nobody, not even the founder Ian Batey, had a window so one would go out to lunch not knowing if it was raining or sunny. My next agency was the locally-owned Fortune Ads, located in Raffles Square within a run-down shop house (before these became trendy places for the communications companies). The office was bigger but still windowless. I remember the cockroaches were partial to the white paint the art directors often used. Yes, folks, the art directors actually drew the visuals so they had to be reasonably skilled artists. Magic markers were used for most layouts but crayons were not unknown in the studio in those days. The idea of sticking down colour photographic prints for a layout was usually way beyond budgets although I must also slip in here that some clients still followed the 4As recommendations and paid for new business presentations! Body text was indicated by ruled lines or on more finished presentations, Letraset body text which was placed in position by hand. Headlines were drawn by hand or we used Letraset, a sticky sheet with individual letters on a wax base, which were rubbed down in position. Agencies had drawers full of Letraset sheets that were left with all the most used characters gone but ‘z’ and ‘x’ in plenty supply.

There were no colour photocopies (all photoprints prints were ordered from photographic specialists), few fax machines and, of course no computers. For the artwork, typesetting was sent out and one company (Kofords) more or less had a monopoly of advertising work in Singapore. Each panel of type and each photoprint had to be stuck in place with the ubiquitous Cow Gum. After London, home of great typography, I found the choice of typefaces unbelievably limited. Eventually, I started my own typesetting company with which I wanted to build an appreciation of typography. It was for a time quite successful but before I have finished paying off the huge bank loan for the equipment and fonts, another revolution took place.

The desktop computer (then costing around $12,000) changed forever the way agencies produced layouts and artwork. Suddenly, typesetting could be produced in-house and complete layouts and designs could be created on the art directors’ desk. Personally, I would hate to return to pre-computer days but I do remember several talented studio people dropping out of the business because they could not switch to computerized artwork production.Others have faded away but it is surprising how many people with whom I worked in those early days are still active in the business. Of course, Ian Batey is still very much in command of his agency. When I arrived there as CD, Linda Locke was already there as a junior art director. Bill Gartshore, who now heads up his own agency here, was a suit while Norman Kerr was in charge of film production. John Finn who is credited with designing the first Singapore girl ad, popped back from time to time as freelancer. At Fortune, we had a great team of locals (contrasting with the heavy expat element at Batey Ads), including Patrick Low (now ECD at DY&R), then an art director who partnered Eugene Cheong, now a highly regarded group head at O&M. He was then starting his career as a junior copywriter. The senior art director at Fortune in those days was John Tan who now runs a successful design company with his wife Gloria, also former Fortune account executive. John Archer was the prominent CD at O&M and he now continues in a senior creative role at Bates. Graham Cadwalleder and his wife Mei Ling, both ex-CD’s still spend time in Singapore.There were only two or three sound studios in those days. I can recall a couple that I worked with regularly – Sound Lab which was run by Larry Lai and Peter Bodewyn who went on to be a suit at O&M, Studio 3 run by Colin Chew, an ex-account man who employed Mo Alkaff as his young sound engineer. Colin is now a PR man and still very active.

Mike Ellery, an ex-announcer from Rediffusion, still runs a sound studio. His company, Cuevision expanded into video production while Barry Butler (famous for his parties in the early days) still runs Speakeasy.In those days, the sound tape had to be cut by hand and stuck together. If the track was too long, a small guillotine snipped out blank sections to shorten the recording. Today, it is so simple to compress the sound on the computer.
There were only about four stills photographers serving the ad industry in those days, Chua Soo Bin, Philip Little, Mun & Wong and Willie Tang. Soo Bin and Wong have retired but the others still continue to shoot.
The commercial film scene has changed dramatically. There were a few old expat directors knocking around and some established companies like Film Factory run by Woo Chin Woo, an ex-CD, Lynx run by Peter McKenzie and Film West run by Jon Noble.

Rough edits could be done locally but the final edit and all processing had to be done in Japan. Once you had made up your mind on the length of a dissolve or the position of a title that was really the final choice. Any change would have been expensive and time-consuming.

The first attempt to bring modern editing facilities to Singapore was a Hong Kong company under Gordon Morias. The Post Production Shop in Paya Lebar Road was the trendy place for editing in those days. I think they are more remembered for their regular parties than their contribution to the industry. It wasn’t until VHQ was started, with a thumping loan from the Government, by three people from video production house Yarra Films, that the film industry started to modernize. Chris Batson, one of the founders, is still active in the film industry in Singapore.

It is never easy to come up with a good idea. But it is a helluva sight easier today to execute the vision. Computers have made many things possible, which back in the early eighties could not have got off the drawing board.Writers and art directors working in Singapore now have access via the Internet to concepts and imagery unbeknown in those days except to those working in New York or London. We get film premieres simultaneously with LA. In the eighties, the only movies shown at the cinemas here were the big blockbusters; no art or quasi-art films were screened. There were few art galleries and hardly any theatre to stimulate the eye or imagination. Concerts by major stars were unknown. Today, we see not only Asian stars but major talents from the UK and USA. Under this onslaught of ideas, hopefully, our creative teams will not overlook the well of ideas that can be drawn all around us in everyday life.

We had a lot of fun in those days and the feedback from younger people in the industry seems to suggest that this isn’t in great supply these days. This is a pity. Why don’t you make it a new year resolution to lighten up in 2004 and become a little crazier?