Review: John Webster - The Human Adman
The UK advertising industry has a new must-see film which discusses the work of influential creative John Webster, the man behind some of the UK's most admired adverts and brand mascots, including Sugar Puffs' Honey Monster, the Cresta bear and Cadbury's Smash martians.
'John Webster - the Human Ad Man' was created mainly by four students (Martins Miller, Nick Werber, David Carr and Tom Baker) of the School of Communication Arts after Google's Patrick Collister, a former creative partner of Webster, visited the school and discussed footage of an interview he had with Webster that he hoped could be made viewable.
Collister had sought funding to help make the interview footage into a piece that could be used for future generations to learn from the man, who died in 2006, but had failed to generate much interest before turning to the school to work on it as a project.
As a result, the industry now has a film that celebrates the work of Webster, speaking to many who knew and worked alongside him about his creative ideas, the claims that he 'magpied' some of them and his views on creativity.
As someone who is (just) in his 30s, it's great to see a film that provokes so many fond memories and it will surprise anyone who isn't aware of Webster that so many seminal adverts from the 70s and 80s involved the one man.
The film mainly covers the John Smith's work by Webster, revealing that the main character for most of the adverts was inspired by the cartoon character, Andy Cap.
Many familiar faces within the advertising scene who knew Webster are clearly happy to discuss their experiences, with some fantastic insight offered by Dave Trott, Sir John Hegarty, Rory Sutherland, Chris Powell, Steve Henry, Sarah Carter and Collister as well.
Sutherland says that Webster was "the man who provided half the sountrack to your childhood," while Sir John claims that he was most known for his use of "fluffy" creativity.
There are many great soundbites and clips that I won't relay here so not to spoil them; they will bring a smile to the faces of anyone who loves an advert that makes them laugh - there are plenty of moments within this 40 minute piece that will do that.
One lovely touch by the filmmakers is that they went to a school and showed the pupils some of Webster's adverts, before asking them for their thoughts and responses to the work. Kids are as honest as you can get, but clearly what worked three or four decades ago still has impact today, with Honey Monster still proving popular.
The film has been released on a dedicated website, so it's free to view and a fantastic way to spend three quarters of an hour to reminisce and celebrate a body of work in advertising that has inspired so many, so deeply.
The Drum will also celebrate the work of John Webster in its next issue (25 October), which includes a specially commissioned pullout image, shot by Julian Hanford.