What Agency Creatives Want for the Holidays

Chapin Clark, managing director of copywriting at R/GA
As in all things in my life — work, child-rearing, relationships — at holiday time I look to advertising to tell me what to do. So based on what this year’s holiday ads are telling me, here’s my wish list.

• An iPad, because nothing says, “You are special and loved” like an electronic appliance 2 billion other people own. A gift membership to Ancestry.com, because who knows? I honestly have no idea.
• A Lexus.
• A chance encounter with Santa Claus “disguised” as a regular guy inexplicably doing a regular-guy job.

Matt O’Rourke, executive creative director at Wieden+Kennedy Portland

• Supermechanical FINALLY started shipping their fully loaded version of twine, more than a year after killing it on kickstarter. Mine gets here this week, and I’m definitely keeping it for myself.
• This fully autonomous, Xpro drone is the answer to all of your private-sector arial spying problems. It’s ready to fly out of the box, completely GPS programmable with an accuracy to nine inches, and totally unregulated. @salvatorebondi and I have been talking about ways to find route data on climbs that have tough approaches. There’s no point in slogging eight miles through the snow just to get to a route that’s not climbable due to poor conditions. XproHeli is going to fix that for us this season.
• Last but not least, I’d like whomever wrote, “Welcome to the future of awesome” for Xfinity to take a moment to reflect on whether or not that’s really the kind of shit he or she wants to be putting out into the world. I’m the last guy to preach responsibility in advertising, but c’mon. At least try to pretend you want to move this industry forward a little.

Daryl Ohrt, executive creative director at Carrot Creative

• For the world to accept that GIF will be pronounced with a hard “g”.
• For agencies to universally agree to remove that slide with all of the client logos in the beginning of their pitch decks.
• Google Goggles. I’ve been training for these all of my life.  Once the world can see things as I do, I predict that I’ll be less misunderstood. Not to mention live-stream client meetings. The fun starts here.
•  To sing like that dude from Coldplay. I would use this for good, not evil, and start every pitch with a song.

David Weinstock, executive creative director at MRY

• Pebble, because my Fuel Band is sooooo mid-to-late 2012. And Leap because using a mouse is o-v-e-r.
• A MakerBot 3D printer for printing an over-the-shoulder megaphone. Only to be used while whispering.
• Chaps. Leather. Two pair. For both occasions.
• The back up singer from C+C music factory to punctuate every point you make in a meeting.