The Work That Made Me: Toby Hussey
Toby Hussey has spent 20 years working at some of the best creative agencies in the world. He worked for over a decade at Wieden+Kennedy - across the London, Portland and New York offices - before relocating to Sydney. He is currently MD of rising independent agency Bear Meets Eagle On Fire.
LBB> The ad/music video from my childhood that stays with me…
Toby> Oooh, there are loads… Growing up in the UK, chocolate biscuit ads seemed to be where it was at - Trio, Penguin, and Club all come to mind - but if I had to pick one piece of work, it would be Trebor Softmints 'Mr Soft'.
Mr Soft lives in a soft world. The song is about him being soft. The product he’s advertising is called Softmints. Then he hits a not-so-soft lamppost. That’s it. It’s unapologetically direct - no dancing around the proposition here - but delivered in a bonkers and memorable way. The music of course is a big part of it - I annoyed the shit out my parents singing this one ad nauseam. Oh, and, “Crispy on the outside. Chewy on the inside”? That’s a killer line.
LBB> The ad/music video/game/web platform that made me want to get into the industry…
Toby> All the obvious ad choices that made a dent when I was growing up. The chocolate bar ads that I mentioned before. The Rowan Atkinson Barclaycard ads. Later on, Tango 'Orangeman'.
But really, what got me interested in “making” was the music videos doing the rounds when I was growing up. I was in my mid teens when some of the great Jonathan Glazer videos came out. The video to Radiohead’s 'Street Spirit (Fade Out)' really is an amazing piece of filmmaking, and doesn’t feel old even now.
LBB> The creative work that I keep revisiting…
Toby> I often look back at the Secret Escapes' 'I shouldn’t be here' work from Droga5 London / Tim Godsall. It’s a really simple idea that provides a great hook for a sucker-punch of a gag, and the writing, casting, and performances are all brilliant.
I particularly love the 'Incarcerated' spot. You know the joke is coming, but it doesn’t matter; in fact, the longer it’s held back, the greater the pay off, and the slow creep of the camera into the actor’s face perfectly heightens this effect. In a world of mixed media maximalism, it’s a great reminder that less can definitely be more.
LBB> My first professional project…
Toby> As a grad trainee at M&C Saatchi, I worked on a retail banking account (NatWest). Every morning, I was tasked with coming in early, going through the daily newspapers, cutting out competitors’ retail ads, then mounting them on foam core boards so the execs could see the mortgage and loan rates in market. It’s a miracle I lasted more than six months. I can still smell the spray mount! Fortunately, I pushed on through.
LBB> The piece of work that made me so angry that I vowed to never make anything like *that*…
Toby> Oooh, that’s tough… I can’t single out a particular piece of work. But speaking more broadly, I can’t stand work that shouts, patronises the audience, and expects people to take notice. Work that forgets that you have to earn the right to connect. Pretty much 95% of advertising produced, sadly.
LBB> The piece of work that still makes me jealous…
Toby> Guinness Surfer stands the test of time, Cadbury Gorilla, Honda Cog, Grrr, Impossible Dream… Obvious I know, but it’s hard to look past any of those.
LBB> The creative project that changed my career…
Toby> Hmm, I’m not sure I’d go as far as “changed my career”, but I worked on a pair of stop-motion shorts for Nokia with Aardman ('Dot' and 'Gulp') that really lit a fire in me.
There were bigger, shinier projects going on in the agency at the time, so no one really paid much attention to them (which always helps), but a shared ambition in the core team really drove the projects and brought everyone together. How far could we push the main product benefit of the phone, its camera? Could we do something never done before? Could we push stop motion animation to its limits?
Everyone was so excited by the challenge that the team leaned in in a way that I’d never before experienced. As a west-county boy, working with Aardman was a career highlight.
Plus I got to spend the rainy days cooped up in a caravan with Kim Papworth. That’s a money-can’t-buy education, right there.
LBB> The work that I’m proudest of…
Toby> I was fortunate to land on the Southern Comfort business when the 'Whatever’s Comfortable' campaign had just launched with the iconic 'Beach' commercial. I still love the work we created in the second year of the campaign: 'Shampoo', 'Karate', and 'Dance'. Working with such a singular brand idea and voice was a real joy, freeing everyone up to properly sweat every single executional choice - from music, to casting, locations to film stock. I still think they’re great spots.
LBB> I was involved in this and it makes me cringe…
Toby> Lame I know, but I honestly can’t think of anything. Sure, there’s work that still nags at me - choices I wish we’d made to push something further - but nothing properly cringe-worthy I can think of… I’m sure others might disagree though!
LBB> The recent project I was involved in that excited me the most…
Toby> We just created a new brand platform for Telstra: 'Wherever We Go'. I can’t claim to have had a significant role in that at all, but I’m hugely proud of Bear and everyone involved for crafting every single element of the campaign - painstakingly sweating each and every OOH board in one of Australia’s biggest OOH buys ever - to earn the right for people to give a shit. Sounds pretentious I know, but I really do think that you can feel the human hand in the work.
