The Drum has brought Dave Birss on board as its new contributing editor. His first brief? To find out if alcohol makes you more creative...
I know I’m not the first to wonder if alcohol makes you more creative.
For me it goes back to the point where I made the switch from art director to copywriter. I had to write my first piece of copy. Long copy, at that. And after a week of trying and getting nowhere I went out for a lunchtime pint with my colleagues. One Guinness led to two, which led to three and, to be honest, there may have been a fourth but I was a bit too drunk to remember. I returned to the office some time in the late afternoon, sat down at my primitive 1994 PC and the copy poured forth in a oner. Then the copy for the next ad in the campaign tumbled onto the screen just as smoothly. And then the third.
I was done.
I saved the file onto a floppy disc (that shows how long ago this was) and meandered home on my bicycle.
The following Monday I read through the copy, made a couple of spelling corrections and submitted it. It ran without any major amends and went on to pick up a best copy award.