“Keep On Keeping On”: David Lubars on Creative Swagger and the Endurance of the Big Idea

As he bows out with a Lion of St. Mark to his name, David Lubars believes the industry is now worse at valuing creativity than when he started.

“I think that it’s gotten worse,” he says, speaking with LBB. “And I don’t think it’s because people aren’t talented. I think people aren’t taking credit for what they’re great at.

“It’s kind of a humble thing now. It’s not bragging like it used to be. Long before me, you had these big personalities. But I think people just need a little more swag about it.”

The former worldwide chief creative officer at BBDO, a role he held for 20 years, was at Cannes Lions to receive its equivalent of a lifetime achievement award. Under David’s creative stewardship, BBDO was named the festival’s Network of the Year a record-setting seven times and, in 2020, Network of the Decade.

Despite the value the industry places on creativity, the level of creative quality remains largely the as it always was, says David. “I think it’s the same. Two per cent of stuff is good, and the rest isn’t,” citing a stat he believes applies to most forms of creativity, such as restaurants, movies and television.

A defining moment in David’s career – and advertising history – came with BMW Films. One of David’s most important and awarded pieces, it was a series of short films created during his time at Fallon across 2001 and 2002. It forged the path for advertising on digital platforms. Initially planned as an hour-long film, it was broken down into chapters due to the limitations of digital video hosting.

What first might have seemed a shortfall actually made it better. Each chapter was helmed by a different director, such as Ang Lee, Guy Ritchie, Wong Kar-wai, Alejandro González Iñárritu, and John Frankenheimer, and featured stars like Clive Owen, Gary Oldman, Madonna, James Brown and Don Cheadle.

The idea was so out of the box at the time that the 2001 Cannes Lions jury rejected it because they weren’t even sure it was advertising. It’s an irony that isn’t lost on David: a show that’s supposed to reward out-of-the-box thinking couldn’t handle just how far out of the box this was. The incident actually led Dan Wieden to create the Titanium Lions to award ideas so forward-thinking that they didn’t fit into any existing category. To this day, the Titanium Lions remain one of the most sought-after accolades at Cannes, reserved for ideas that push the very definition of advertising.

Instead of pondering if something is advertising, people should be asking what even is advertising, believes David. “You need a big, reductionist nugget idea that anybody can get and love, that doesn’t need to be explained. That’s timeless,” he says.

Despite the timelessness of ideas, it’s the executions that are timely. He recalls winning a Grand Prix for a campaign that lived on Vine, a platform that doesn’t even exist 10 years later. “But it had a big idea,” says David. “And you know what? Those Volkswagen ads that Bill Bernbach did in 1959 are still relevant and great. You would just do them differently now. They’re not in Time Magazine anymore, so they’d show up somewhere else. But the ideas are still there.

“And with a big idea, there’s no formula or template. Every time out, it’s something new, which is exciting.”

Despite the industry’s challenges and the uncertainty around the impact of technologies such as artificial intelligence, David reckons he would still be excited to become a creative today if he was just starting out. “When you come up with a big idea, and that’s what you’re aiming for, it’s really exciting,” he says.

And while present day might seem daunting for some, he thinks this is somewhat cyclical and that it’s much easier to look back at previous periods – which were often fraught with transformation and the uncertainties that come with that – with rose-tinted glasses. “History always seems easier because there’s a bow on it – it already happened, and it worked out. But at the time, it was terrifying and scary,” says David.

For example, in the early 2000s, when the rise of digital was prompting existential questions for traditional agencies. “It was like, ‘Oh, so we’re out of business?’ No. No. Fuck that. We’re better than them.

“And that’s the confidence, the swag, I think people should embrace today. There have always been frustrations, some uglier dynamics. But the love for making this kind of work trumps all that.”

David’s career is known for consistently breaking the mould of what’s possible with commercial creativity, a legacy reflected in the coverage of his 2024 retirement. He often gets asked to pick favourites, but refuses to do so because “you can’t just do one great thing”. To David, that’s like having one hit record in 1981.

“What matters is a few of the wins over decades of excellence – a body of work,” he says. “The people I admire, like [Wieden+Kennedy CCO] Susan Hoffman, did it every year. That’s what I try to do. Every year [at Cannes], I tried to have stuff. And if you have stuff every year, maybe one year you can win this thing [the Lion of St Mark].

“I mean, it's so humbling,” he adds. “I never would have imagined in my career that it would come to this. It's hard for me to articulate – a career pinnacle. And at the end of the career, it's a nice way to end.”

Asked for a piece of advice he would offer his 20-year-old self, David instantly quotes a line featured in many a song from the likes of Smokey Robinson, Curtis Mayfield, Lennon and Bob Dylan.

“Don’t get too hyped when something good happens. Don’t get too down when something bad happens. Just stay even.

“Keep on keeping on.”


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