It’s the end of August and about three weeks until the start of term, and I’m also on holiday in Bulgaria. There’s seven of us, family and friends, sharing a big house and between thrice-daily cooking, clearing and making sure the kids don’t drown in the pool, I’ve not had much chance to sit and write a blog post.

As it happens, over the past few months, I’ve been writing down thoughts and observations on things I’ve read, listened to or seen, in a separate document, thinking they might come into use later. As it happens, they have! So, it might seem a bit random, but here goes…

• Advertising is not a branch of the fine arts – it’s not about what’s trending or what will win awards, it’s about what will sell the product for your client (a sentiment from a Chris Wilkins podcast)

• Ben Priest on the setting up of Adam & Eve; ‘we want to do big stuff about the products that your mum buys in the shops… Let’s try and be right in the centre stage from the word go’ – I am that mum!

• Reading Rory Sutherland’s Book ‘Alchemy’, it strikes me how so much of what he says is patently obvious, once you think about it. The trick is thinking about it – making the subconscious, conscious.

• If you can’t be better, be different

• Politicians need to be better at selling, rather than cutting each other down – they should take a note from advertising.

Listening to the radio and members of the public were being asked if they can remember what the five policies are that the current PM wants to get through – most people said they couldn’t recall any, one man said he could recall two, and he did, and I thought, why those two? He said the first one was because it affects his everyday life, and the second one because it’s not possible. The policies? To half inflation and to stop the boats.

It made me think, why do certain people remember certain things? Obviously because they hit a note, in some way. If you want people to notice you, you have to make them feel something.

And Now I’m reading about making ideas stick, which feeds into it all.

There’s still a little way to go with my prep, but for now, back to the pool.

Alex Harbour

@ajharbour