For our first The Creative Life feature, we thought David Lubars, one of our most entertaining and informative past interviewees might be the right starting point. Nobody seemed more appropriate for the invitation to be subjected to left-field questioning than the long-time CCO and Chair of BBDO Worldwide. Fortunately, he said yes …

L[A] What is the biggest change in your work in the few years since we last interviewed you in 2016?

DL That’s easy: how to create magic during a pandemic – the struggle of trying to capture it over a screen instead of in person. Happy accidents happen live, where an unplanned hallway exchange can change everything. At a creative house, the team is all important, we had to overcome not having those spontaneous sparks.

L[A] At BBDO, what haven’t you done yet that you are keen to do?

DL The thing our clients value most about us is that we’re reductionists. In other words, our ability to take a complex, multi-tiered problem and break it down to a simple truth. And reveal that truth with effervescence and magic. There are no shortcuts, you need to do the rigor. So, the thing BBDO is keen to do … is remain great at it. The hardest thing to do in any field is maintain greatness. It’s easy to have a good one-off here or there, but the people I respect – and the agencies I admire – deliver year after year, decade after decade.

L[A] What’s the most underrated, or perhaps misunderstood, thing about running a creative agency?

DL I don’t know that there’s an underrated or misunderstood thing – it’s more that people seem mystified by it. I’m often asked about our culture and what we do to make the place what it is. Simple: our people are extremely talented and extremely un-ass-holey. Attract a core group like that and the rest takes care of itself.

L[A] Some great agency and network names have disappeared in recent years. BBDO is still up there. What’s the secret?

DL There’s no secret. We believe deeply in creativity as an economic multiplier, and we kill ourselves to prove it to our clients every day.

L[A] What do you love to do at the weekend?

DL If I’m not working, then I like to let the work part of my brain [laughs] … heal.

L[A] As somebody who started out wanting to be a journalist, and is quoted as saying that ‘the truth is the only thing that works in advertising’, have you any advice on where or how to look for/find the truth?

DL Every great brand has a great truth. It’s waiting to be revealed or waiting to be revealed in the right light. How to discover it is what makes agencies unique from one another because there’s no one way. Data is important, gut and intuition are important; it’s a stew that needs to be stirred just right.

L[A] Please refer us to the recent BBDO project, or projects, that you think Lürzer’s readers might be most informed, entertained, or inspired by.

DL Off the top of my head: The Missing Matoaka project from Toronto; the Skinny outdoor/radio campaign from New Zealand; the An Nahar Newspaper program from Dubai; and the M&Ms spokescandy ’cancellation’ from New York. These were extraordinarily effective because they not only had powerful, unique messages but also achieved fame and became part of the cultural zeitgeist – that’s BBDO when all cylinders are firing.

L[A] If you are on a long flight (and you don’t need to catch up on sleep) what do you choose to do?

DL First, finish up whatever work is brewing. Then watch a movie. Then listen to music and read. Then feel sleepy as we’re about to land.

L[A] You’ve shared terrific creative influences/inspirations previously in interviews with us. What might you add to the list from fresh discoveries in the last year or two? (Can be from all kinds of media/disciplines.)

DL Lately, I’ve been playing guitar using different tunings. It not only makes you sound better than you are but requires you to sort of relearn how to play because the voicings are all different. It rewires your brain in a way and opens new pathways to creativity. Only guitar nerds will understand this: I’ve been messing around with open G, dropped D, EEEEBE, DADGAD, and dropped C with a second fret capo.

L[A] Finding and nurturing creative talent is a big part of being an effective creative leader. How has that changed in recent times? Is it easier or harder to get good talent into agencies, and has the nature of the talent that is needed evolved?

DL Recruiting and nurturing creative talent is the most important thing I do. I make a point of meeting as many of the creative people we’re thinking of hiring as I can. It goes back to your earlier question about the secret of BBDO being ‘still up there.’ Part of the answer is the injection of people into the agency’s bloodstream who can teach us new things. In some instances, I’ve passed on a more famous book, instead going for someone who was maybe doing something less well-known but more forward-thinking. Something that made me jealous because we weren’t doing it. In return, we demonstrated how to do it more famously, a quid pro quo.

L[A] I read that you practice transcendental meditation. Has that changed how you approach your work?

DL It hasn’t really changed how I work but it’s changed the way I sleep in a good way – which, I suppose, helps the work.

L[A] Finally … what question haven’t we asked that would be good to ask you?

DL Is it true you once almost ran over Joni Mitchell?

DL [laughs] I was leaving a parking garage that had a driveway lined with tall bushes on one side. This was in a part of Los Angeles where no one walks – yet, out of nowhere, Joni Mitchell burst through the bushes in front of the car. I was, like, ‘Hey, Joni Mitchell, not cool.’ Occurs to me only now I should’ve asked about her guitar tunings.

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David Lubars is Chair and Chief Creative Officer of BBDO Worldwide. For more on his experience and insight, read our three previous interviews with him online.