My Biggest Lesson: Luis Miguel Messianu
Luis Miguel Messianu has played a respectable and influential role in the most important developments in the U.S. multicultural market during an advertising career that spans three decades. Born to Romanian parents and raised in Mexico City, he has worked in both the Latin American and U.S. Hispanic markets.
His professional trajectory is defined by a conscious effort to help pioneer the melding of marketing niches into a nuanced and evolving market. His award-winning work for multinationals such as McDonald’s, State Farm Insurance, Clorox, MolsonCoors, Sprint, Pepsi, among others, is a testament to that effort. Luis Miguel Messianu is an innovator, a mentor, and an example followed by many distinguished professionals in the multicultural marketing community.
“EVERYTHING STARTS WITH A METAPHOR” – RAY BRADBURY
The year must have been 1997 or 1998, and I got invited to a DDB Global Creative Conference in San Francisco, California.
The awesome Bob Scarpelli (one of my heroes, role models and mentors) had the brilliant idea of inviting American author and screenwriter Ray Bradbury as the keynote speaker.
He was incredibly inspirational, while being really grounded and even humble.
He opened his session telling us that he had flown in the night before, registered for the event and then realised he hadn’t eaten the whole day, so he decided to go on his own to the hotel restaurant.
He went on to say that he was greeted by a young and quite attractive hostess, who happened to say “Welcome Mr. Bradbury.” He was not only touched but happily surprised that a young woman would recognise who he was. Only to realise as he was putting his jacket on the back of the seat, that he had his name tag displayed quite prominently.
After 'breaking the ice' he said that line: “EVERYTHING STARTS WITH A METAPHOR”, and talked about how each one of his globally recognised books started that way.
Since that day that simple but quite profound notion has helped me approach every single creative assignment – big and small – that I have been involved with!
I never had a chance to express my gratitude to Ray Bradbury, but I was compelled by his session to re-read some of his books and explore a few others.
Bradbury was a prolific American author known for his works in science fiction and fantasy. My favourite remains 'Fahrenheit 451', a dystopian novel about a future society where books are banned and "firemen" burn any that are found.
He often explored themes of technology, censorship, and the human condition. I also enjoyed 'The Illustrated Man', 'The Martian Chronicles' and it’s no wonder that Ray Bradbury is one of America’s most highly regarded and successful novelists, short story writers, essayists, playwrights and screenwriters.
And in fact he was also a poet. Bradbury was a multitalented individual who oddly enough never attended college! He published more than 30 books, close to 600 short stories, and numerous poems, essays and plays.
I think it struck such a cord because his brilliance was so practical and yet so actionable! It was a small but huge piece of advice that has truly helped me in my daily craft! It really didn’t change me as a creative person, but you could say it gave me a method.
The more I apply this approach the more it makes sense to me! In fact I just used the concept of a metaphor (or an analogy) to honour a good friend and ex-colleague of mine, and this tribute stood out from the rest. Again, thanks to the fact that I started with a metaphor!
Throughout the years I’ve used this gem of a nugget plenty of other times with many of my creative teams and also my students, and it always seems to work, especially to help unlock fresh ideas.
