SCABs

“It’s Just Eggs and Sugar” – By @chlo_gray

By Chloe Gray

 

“It’s Just Eggs and Sugar”

 

When Marc told us our first brief was to infiltrate the guestlist-only Cream 2019, a global showcase of the best young creative talent emerging from ad schools and bedrooms alike, our minds went into overdrive thinking up elaborate plots to get us through the door of Mother in Shoreditch.

Some Ocean’s Eleven level tactics included:

  • Finding the floor plans of the building and identifying fire exits that might be open.
  • Carrying a camera and pretending to be the event’s photographer.
  • Dressing in black and white, posing as catering staff and hoping to not have to work a shift.
  • Printing some forged business cards that say your name and that you work for Mother.
  • Accessing the roof of the building and working your way down to the ground floor.
  • Two people carrying a stretcher and rushing in as paramedics.
  • Creating fake press passes.
  • Somehow adding a sheet of paper with our names on it to the guestlist.

My approach was to scour Twitter for any mention of the event the previous night and note the name of any woman that said she would be attending. Upon joining the queue and seeing a bouncer thrice as wide as me, I did start to second guess my approach. But I got to the door, said I was Lynsey Atkin with confidence and was ushered through.

Imagine my surprise when the real Lynsey Atkin stood up to give a speech an hour later. A creative director at Havas, soon to be ECD at 4Creative, and I could see why. She held the room from her first word and I knew I wanted to be her when I grew up. Poking fun at the typeface which hadn’t translated smoothly from PDF to PowerPoint, she seemed completely at ease.

The theme of the talk was ‘Recipe for Success’. She focused on the recipe part first, addressing the pretty language often used in baking. “Fold, sprinkle, dust, swirl.” She contrasted this with the reality of baking – laborious, stressful and messy. Lynsey likened this to our careers, and how quick we are to gloss over the spills and burnt bits, focussing only on the success, which, in reality, is the result of years of practice.

Stu Outhwaite-Noel wrapped up the speeches in a comedic style that would have been at home on stage at the Apollo. He compared coming up with ideas (our livelihood) to making meringues. It’s easy to be intimidated by all the different kinds of meringues, he explained. French ones, Italian ones, fancy ones with colours and patterns. So many different styles and so many approaches to making them. We might suffer from ‘Meringue Making Imposter Syndrome’, he suggested. But encouraged us to remember that, at the end of the day, it’s just eggs and sugar. So have fun.

Reflecting on their words on the train home, I realised two things: one – creatives really love a metaphor. And two, when I’m stressing over deadlines next term, I should remember how silly this profession really is, and enjoy my time in the kitchen.

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