Dave Trott Quotes

She said, ‘Standard El Al procedure. If you check the passengers’ luggage, you have to fly on the plane.’ How about that? The person who inspects the passengers’ luggage for bombs has to bet their life on how well they do their job.

And that’s a great lesson for all of us. We think everyone’s head is where our head is. If we think everyone’s head is where our head is, we’re just talking to ourselves.

As the economist J.M. Keynes said: “The difficulty lies not so much in developing new ideas, as in escaping from the old ones.

As the philosopher Bertrand Russell said, ‘The problem with the world is that the ignorant are arrogant and cocksure, while the intelligent are full of doubt.’ Because thinking is more difficult once we realise there is no right or wrong. Just the same thing viewed from different perspectives.

The more varied the input, the more unexpected the combinations, the more creative the ideas.

One of the best advertising people ever was Carl Ally. He said the true creative person wants to be a know-it-all. They want to know about all kinds of things: ancient history, nineteenth-century mathematics, modern manufacturing techniques, flower arranging, and lean hog futures. Because they never know when these ideas might come together to form a new idea. It may happen six minutes later or six years down the road, but they know it will happen.

Michael Caine said, ‘It’s like my old dad said, the really rich have got something going that makes them money while they’re asleep.

What gets action is what gets attention. What gets attention is what gets seen. So being visible, being impactful, is the most important part of any communication designed to change behaviour.

Brand is another word for reputation or image. And you don’t get a reputation just by claiming something.

People love to believe wine is esoteric, so the more inscrutable he could make it, the better.

As the author Anaïs Nin said, ‘We see things not as they are, but as we are.

No TV, no radio, no press ads, no posters. We found one thing that the banks are full of, that could be changed into media. Paper money. We got small printing kits from Ryman and printed: ‘STOP BANKS KILLING CHILDREN. CANCEL THE THIRD WORLD DEBT’ on every bank note we could get hold of.

Less important points don’t add to the communication. They detract from the most important point. That’s what the single-minded proposition is all about.

Every week they would have one hour scheduled, sitting quietly at their desk. Learning to be alone with their thoughts. Learning to be comfortable with themselves. Learning it was OK to be silent. How great is that?

According to the laws of aerodynamics the bumblebee can’t fly. But the bumblebee doesn’t know that, so it just carries on flying around.