I’d love to punch my old me’s face

Ramsey Naja is chief creative officer at JWT MEA

“There’s a stupid, horribly nasty little sentence that you will often hear in advertising and marketing circles and which is the most venomous, virulent poison that the industry’s language could produce: “It’s not creative if it doesn’t sell”. You will encounter it in polyester suit circles and amongst armchair admen, usually to defend ads that look like they’ve been created by people who post lots of pictures of cute kittens on Facebook, and that feature apoplectic headlines. In fact, I believe I actually said it once in my formative advertising years and I would like someone to invent time travel only so I can return back then