So I recently found out that Jamal Edwards had passed away. He created SBTV, a youth media channel and put a lot of people in the UK rap scene (and Ed Sheeran) on his platform kinda catapulting them to a faster success. I was always a fan of his work and respected the drive it took to achieve so much. I remember working in a New Era Cap store like ten years ago, and we had a party for a new opening, with all these cool swanky people in the industry. Jamal was also there and I remember him being on his phone for a quite a lot of the night, sat next to the Photo Booth just engrossed and I got chatting to him and he was lovely and funny but more importantly I remember him saying as I teased him about being obsessed with work “Work never stops if you wanna accomplish the madness I do” and I believed him. 

So when he passed, the first thing I did was google an ad I saw about him a couple of years ago. It was really emotional to watch because it encapsulates the internet as I knew before my prefrontal cortex formed.. It involved the climb to success being an arduous one. It signals following your gut and winning. It’s a good ad. It’s a simple thought ‘The web is what you make of it’ and I remember seeing it years ago and watching it a few times, and I watched it at least twice after hearing about his unfortunate death. . I watched it climb in views on YouTube and realized I wasn’t the only one touched by something it contained. It was the way the creatives (BBH) who made it had fused together nostalgia with aspiration that I most enjoyed. 

I started thinking about how it was the kind of ad I wanted to make, one that would stand the test of time. One where once the brief was gone and results had been measured, meant something to someone. 

Here is the ad: