10 Questions on Advertising… with FCB Brasil inventive director Ana Becker

But then, in Ana’s phrases, ‘social media happened’. Advertising stopped being a one-way side road, and the ones abilities that newshounds depend on turned into simply as related for businesses, too.

I feel it’s truthful to mention the profession shift proved a fruitful one. Ana’s had stints at good Brazilian stores akin to a Pereira & O’Dell and W3haus, and in 2021 joined FCB Brasil as an idea director, ahead of being named inventive director remaining 12 months.

She’s received D&AD pencils, Clios and Lions for manufacturers like HBO, TikTook and Kimberly Clark, created the commemorative logo for the ‘Queen of Brazil’ and was once a pass judgement on and speaker ultimately 12 months’s Cannes Lions.

A world inventive chief who doesn’t actually are compatible into the vintage ‘industry’ packing containers? Perfect for our 10 Questions sizzling seat…

1. If you want to return and relive in the future for your profession, which would it not be?

Advertising is so a lot more than awards, however I wouldn’t thoughts reliving the day I walked up the Palais des Festivals stairs to obtain my first Gold Lion, surrounded through a few of my favourite folks on the planet.

2. …Now let us know in regards to the day that also offers you nightmares.

Unfortunately, for ladies on this business within the Global South, it may nonetheless be a combat to have your voice heard and revered. I will recall the nightmarish days the place I’m bloodless, crying in the toilet asking myself, “What am I doing with my life?” But pushing thru those moments is what makes the triumphs much more significant.

3. Who gave you the piece of recommendation you continue to reside through – and what was once it?

Easy: my dad. When I left Brazil to reside in China at 19, I used to be utterly misplaced. I’m from a tiny, tiny the city, had by no means been in another country ahead of, and unexpectedly there I used to be: on my own in unbelievable, overwhelming Shanghai. Everything and everybody felt huge, other, bizarre. That’s when my dad hit me with a pronouncing: “Nothing and no one comes out of nowhere. Learn their history, and things will start to make sense.”

Not simplest did it paintings, however it additionally marked the beginning of an extended love tale with China: its tradition, historical past, language, folks – the whole lot I pass over with all my middle. Since then, on every occasion one thing feels off, I remind myself the issue could be only a hole in my very own working out. It helps to keep me grounded and it’s by no means let me down.

4. What piece of labor accomplished through any person else are you actually jealous of?

Oh, how I want I’d written The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas… But in promoting, I’ll by no means recover from the truth that I used to be now not the only to get a hold of Van Damme’s break up for Volvo.

5. What’s your elevator pitch to folks enthusiastic about coming into the promoting business for the primary time?

It’s a bit of like courting a chaotic genius: thrilling, unpredictable and infrequently makes you query your lifestyles alternatives. But you’ll be told so much and can by no means be bored.

6. You don’t describe your self as an inventive director, however as a ‘journalist who creates for brands’. How does that form the paintings you do?

Advertising can also be beautiful self-centered and self-referential, which has all the time felt roughly bizarre (and truthfully, a bit of counterproductive) to me, because the target audience isn’t made up of advert folks. Journalism, then again, is ready everybody however the journalist. Public hobby and cultural relevance are king and queen from day one. When you deal with that as an actual mindset and now not only a ‘nice to have,’ the whole lot will get more uncomplicated, and it sparks deeper conversations about how we’re the usage of the large social energy that promoting has.

Also, newshounds typically do a bit of of the whole lot in a tale (from digging up information and writing to taking footage, enhancing, laying out the web page, you title it). So the entire ‘separate departments’ factor in businesses has all the time felt a little bit fuzzy to me and I feel that’s a just right factor. Plus, as journalism doesn’t actually do versatile cut-off dates, I’ve gotten beautiful nice at turning in issues forward of time table, too.

7. You’ve chaired juries at Cannes Lions and Gerety. What’s the name of the game to conserving a gaggle of inventive leaders in test?

I’ve to confess I’ve been beautiful fortunate with jury rooms. I’ve met some extremely respectful and good pros. But to reply to your query, the ‘secret’ isn’t actually a secret in any respect: get folks with other backgrounds within the room, and ensure they in reality have a voice.

8. You received a D&AD Pencil and a gold Lion in your ‘Cashback for Your Jersey’s Back’ marketing campaign. A marketing campaign in regards to the Brazil soccer staff is principally the number 1 dream transient. What’s 2nd?

Any transient that is aware of precisely what it desires is a dream in my ebook. The tighter, the simpler. And if it occurs to be for a world Coca-Cola marketing campaign…

9. You could also be the one inventive director we’re interviewing who has additionally written quilt articles for a countrywide science mag. Take us thru your favourite tale…

This may sound somber, however undergo with me: the tale was once referred to as The Everest Cemetery. Hundreds of folks have died close to the summit, the place rescue is inconceivable, so their our bodies stay there, resting at the mountain endlessly. The mag sought after to map what number of and the place the ones our bodies are and likewise provide an explanation for the science at the back of what occurs to the human frame at excessive altitudes, and why rescue simply isn’t an choice up there.

To work out the primary phase, the one dependable resources had been individuals who had in reality reached the summit. And that’s the place issues were given unbelievably attention-grabbing.

The tales I heard! I spoke to dozens of climbers, gobbled books written through them, interviewed the pilot who pulled off the best possible mountain rescue ever (and discovered far more than I anticipated about helicopters and pressurized cabins), exposed an out of this world and world-record-filled love tale that each started and ended on Everest, and heard a few friendship so deep that one guy prepped for 10 years simply to return up and provides his pal a right kind (and really dangerous) burial. I even talked to a journalist in her 90s who’s been monitoring each and every ascent and each and every tragedy because the 1970s.

It’s my favourite tale on account of how a lot I discovered. Not on the subject of altitude illness or mountain logistics, however about grief, ambition, love, and the load desires may have.

10. Not content material with being an promoting chief, journalist or even a side road carnival musician, you’ve additionally labored as a chef in a Michelin-starred eating place. What are you making us for dinner?

We’ll kick issues off with Helena Rizzo’s unbelievable, Michelin-starred goat cheese bonbon with cupuaçu fruit because the starter. But for the principle route and dessert, we’re going complete Brazilian Saturday-family-lunch-core: feijoada with my signature banana and bacon buttery farofa, pudim to complete, and ice-cold beers at the facet.