The Work That Made Me: Humberto Polar
Humberto Polar is a Peruvian who has managed to stay relevant for the creative industry in Latin America for more than three decades. In the last three years, he helped to establish The Juju as a respected new agency in Mexico. But before that, in 1996, he founded SSP3, now MullenLowe SSP3 (the P stands for him), one of the greatest agencies in the region. He had a very successful stint at FCB Latam.
Polar is an adman, of course, but his creative achievements go way beyond adworld. He has released 17 records as an experimental electronic musician and has published three poetry books. In his vision, creativity is a way of living, not just a way of working. Now he serves as president at Creative Circle in Mexico, where he lives.
LBB> The ad/music video from my childhood that stays with me…
Humberto> I wasn’t aware at all that ads could be inspiring until I joined the business. I really ignored them. But I loved music videos, and above all the Pet Shop Boys’ “West End Girls” one. To me it was as futuristic as “Blade Runner”.
LBB> The ad/music video/game/web platform that made me want to get into the industry…
Humberto> When I saw the “Hitler” ad that W/Brasil did for Folha de Sao Paulo in 1987, I decided to stay in the creative ad business. It blew my mind, still does. Sadly, the world still faces the problem this ad attacks, and I’m afraid our industry has lost the concise power this “little” ad achieved.
LBB> The creative work (film/album/game/ad/album/book/poem etc) that I keep revisiting…
Humberto> I had the privilege to improve my craft within the Lowe network, and the “Letany” ad Lowe London did for The Independent is the one I always considered a masterclass of no-bullshit storytelling. So perfect, so timeless.
LBB> My first professional project…
Humberto> I find the medium-long term projects much more interesting than the fast and furious kind of stuff our industry is so used to handling. So I would say that being the creative director for Coca-Cola at McCann Colombia for four years, when I was very young, taught me the basics on how to take care of a brand through thick and thin. It’s hard to remember the 50+ ads I did in that period, but I remember vividly the sense of responsibility I developed.
LBB> The piece of work (ad/music video/ platform…) that made me so angry that I vowed to never make anything like *that*…
Humberto> Wow… I’ve been angry so many times, but not about a specific ad on the platform. I really get angry when a brand and the agency don’t want to accept that they are pushing for disposable, forgettable work that likely will be a waste of money and soul. Sometimes I could do nothing but accept it, sometimes I could raise my voice and didn’t do it, for politics or fear. Now I can speak out, so I do it.
LBB> The piece of work (ad/music video/ platform…) that still makes me jealous…
Humberto> I’ve been mentioning classic campaigns, but this one broke a couple of months ago. Many agencies are trying to look clever in their diverse work for the awesome NotCo products, but this one really nails it. It’s an instant classic. Super jealous about what Gut Mexico did here. Gold on strategy, idea and execution.
LBB> The creative project that changed my career…
Humberto> Well, mine is a long career. I started working in 1986, I was very young and I had some turning points along the way. I started winning Cannes Lions in 1995 and every now and then I won a few. But this piece of work for Utec, a university of technology, changed the story of the brand and made me kind of famous on how to combine growth with purpose. It opened my eyes about how real things can make a real difference.
LBB> The work that I’m proudest of…
Humberto> I wrote this film for MetLife when at Lowe Mexico, 2006. The brief was for a cancer insurance and I felt like a tiny story about the future was the right thing to do. It has a little literature on it, a little Borges and fantastic tales. I’m still very proud of it, it was directed with wisdom by my old pal Arturo Pereyra.
LBB> I was involved in this and it makes me cringe…
Humberto> Everything I’ve done was a job, so I believe there’s nothing to be ashamed of about a job. I could’ve done better in many, many of them, of course. But I got millions of lessons in my bag.
LBB> The recent project I was involved in that excited me the most…
Humberto> My team and I have been working on a campaign for Amnesty International. Most people in the world have heard about human rights, but they don’t know how many rights are in the Universal Declaration. It’s 30. So we are producing 30 songs with indie musicians and releasing them on TikTok, each one about a single right. I’m proud to bring awareness about something a lot of powerful people want to remain unknown. Soon we will release the case study.
