Between The Briefs

"This, and Malden’s other tales hark back to a more freewheeling era in ‘adland’ when mobile phones were the size of breezeblocks, fax machines were as high-tech as it got and Sir Martin Sorrell’s WPP was still making supermarket trolleys.

"These are tales from the Seventies and early Eighties when British advertising still had some growing up to do. Of course, that rite of passage was a necessary one in which proper financial discipline had to be learned and credible management structures installed. Whether the business lost a lot of its sense of fun along the way will be the subject of perpetual debate. Malden’s memories are the legacy of a time when the industry’s old-class barriers were breaking down, heralding the arrival of a new breed of creatives united by their eagerness to explore new ideas rather than their social backgrounds.

"This new generation not only fizzed with exciting concepts but was also anti-establishment to the point of being downright subversive. Its members were overwhelmingly determined to enjoy themselves. The brightest and most rebellious of them were saved from the sack solely by their creative genius. Their bosses indulged them for what they could bring to the agency’s profile, while clients were happy to stand back and let them work their magic.

"Hardly surprising that this generation was such a fertile breeding ground for the kind of tales that appear in this book. And, talking of fertility, it’s no surprise either that a lot of them involve sex.

"In these more sober times, Malden and his contemporaries might be regarded by outsiders as little more than schoolboy pranksters – so say the tales of paper planes powered by fireworks and a toy tractor transformed into a dragster by a bunch of laid-back agency creatives with an oversupply of time on their hands! Sometimes the pranks themselves could be pretty creative and even sinister enough to leave their victims crushed.

"What I think is probably the best such story — if that’s the right description — fits neatly with those that form this book. It concerns the big-name creative director who appraised the portfolio of a young wannabe with his hand inside a Sooty glove puppet. “Well, I like it,” the creative director remarked. “But Sooty thinks it’s shit.” Whether or not this story is funny or just plain evil will depend on how much your heart goes out to the young creative on the wrong end of such a brutal put-down.

"Yet it’s also worth remembering that out of the agency creative departments of the kind in which Malden worked — and where schadenfraude flourished — came some of the most iconic and memorable advertising ever seen in Britain.

"I love Malden’s stories, not just because they make me laugh a lot, but also because they are precious and worth preserving. I can’t imagine that, 30 years from today, those working in today’s buttoned-down ad business, will have many similar anecdotes to tell."

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