Ad Icon: Tony Kaye

Having won every award there is to win in filmmaking with his ferocious energy and unique vision, you would be right to be wary when first meeting the notorious Tony Kaye. Below is an excerpt from the new issue of shots, issue 131, in which our intrepid reporter, Simon Wakelin, tentatively steps into the fray

When you’re meeting the infamous Tony Kaye at his Los Angeles home for an interview, you’re never quite sure what to expect. After all, Kaye is renowned for his outrageous stunts in advertising and fearless crusades in filmmaking. Take the McCann-Erickson/Bacardi debacle back in the 90s where the ending of Kaye’s ad was re-shot by the agency. His response was to set up a 10-piece rap band on a flat-bed truck outside McCann’s HQ chanting anti-Bacardi sentiments in an effort to “embarrass the enemy into capitulation”.

However, when Kaye traded London for the bright lights of Hollywood he committed his most public faux pas on the Nazi skinhead drama American History X. Production ran smoothly, but when New Line seized control of the film he was unable to cut his version of the story. Kaye responded with a personal – and public – war of attrition against one of the most powerful studios in Hollywood. Kaye’s antics included the placement of more than 40 oblique ads in the trades to express his disgust with New Line, questioning why he wasn’t allowed creative control of the film. He went as far as to hire a priest, a rabbi and a Buddhist monk to sit in on a meeting between himself and studio exec Michael De Luca. He even read books on military strategy.

Arriving at Kaye’s house I was greeted by hundreds of pieces of conceptual art and I recalled the time he hired a homeless man and ‘installed’ him as a work of art at the Tate Gallery in London. I entered his home and spotted Kaye making espresso. He ushered me in with a warm, self-effacing attitude. I was immediately struck by his introspective nature and, as our conversation flowed, it seemed I had Kaye on a good day.

So began a thought-provoking interview with arguably one of the greatest directors ever to grace the advertising and film world. Kaye spoke about his love for advertising, his new book deal with Phaidon, filmmaking in Hollywood and how ego will destroy us all – unless we keep it in check.

What do you consider the greatest ad agency in the world right now?

I think that Banksy is by far the greatest advertiser/agency/client wrapped into one soul on the planet. No question. No question at all. A billion miles ahead of anyone. That’s the agency of the year for 2011, last year. And maybe next year.

I mean come on. Look at Banksy’s satirical images on Israel’s West Bank barrier. A girl being carried away by a bunch of balloons, a boy painting a rope ladder, and corners of the wall peeled away showing imagined lush landscapes behind. His work says think from outside the box, collapse the box and take a fucking knife to it.

What are your thoughts on advertising reaching the audience today with so many new media platforms vying for attention?

I don’t think it’s just new media. TV is still beamed into millions of people’s homes all over the world. Hard copy magazines and newspapers will always be there. People will always want to hold, look and feel something in their hands and that won’t change, for all experts suggest. Then there are walls, benches and streets that we exist within before you even consider new media.

Global advertising companies like Procter & Gamble are successful, brilliant and damn clever, but they need to hire people to make business decisions. They need to find what face its brands will wear in the world, what voice they will adopt and it’s extremely difficult for them to choose.

That’s when you come on to a project as a director and get caught up in all this banal, unintelligent dialogue and you think, Jesus, just beam me away from all of this bullshit because I don’t want to be polluted by it!

Advertising has to be created without fear because a glorious failure can lead to a wonderful victory. All these realms of research to find the answers effectively kills the poetry of advertising.

What ad campaigns have you been impressed with of late? What poetry makes the cut?

You know I noticed Droga 5's Decode Jay-Z with Bing won the Outdoor Grand Prix this year. That made me laugh. It’s Jay-Z’s words. His autobiography. It should win! It’s already brilliant because it’s the verse and text of a genius. It’s got nothing to do with advertising per se, but it is very readable and entertaining, so all of a sudden the work is winning awards at Cannes. Advertising has been reduced to this.

Many would say Decode Jay-Z with Bing is great advertising…

Okay. Look, it’s clever, it’s entertaining – but why are we, who make a living by advertising, not producing work as good as Jay-Z? How about Banksy, Hirst, Kanye?

Advertising has a responsibility. If we advertise anything – a spot on TV, on the radio, even a poster on the wall – we have a responsibility to do it with intelligence. My point is it’s got to be as good as a verse from Jay-Z, not just Jay-Z’s verse.

It has to be like a piece of graffiti by Banksy, like a sculpture by Damien Hirst, like a Bob Dylan song, like a performance by Arcade Fire. It has to exist in that space. To me the best agencies and the best clients are wrapped up in souls like Banksy, like Jay-Z, who communicate in a proactive way.

You are known as a director but you are also a cinematographer. What’s the difference between directing and being a cameraman?

I believe I made a mistake. I should have been an actor. Brando told me I should have been in front of the camera. But being a cinematographer allows me to be an actor on set. The camera becomes a character. You don’t see it, you don’t hear it – but you feel its presence and everyone does. It’s there in the movie. It’s there on a dolly, it’s there on a track, or resting on my shoulder. The camera is observing everything. It’s one of the characters in the mise-en-scène.

When you look back on the debacle of American History X and New Line what are your thoughts?

Look, that was an idiotic and stupid Tony Kaye back then. I had fear. I was a fucking coward. For the record, I’d love to work with Edward Norton again. As painful as it was at the time I learned a lot from the whole experience. Looking back now I know that I needed him to do what he did.

What drives and inspires you after so much time in advertising and film? What gives you passion?

Being connected with God – and I don’t mean an old guy in the sky with a big white beard, but in the sense of God being the global energy. When you create a poem, shape a chair, make a painting, shoot a commercial, write content for the internet, sing a song – all of these you create with all of mankind, and all this collective energy, that global energy has a power.

Subscribers to shots can read the full interview in the new issue of shots magazine and subscribers to shots.net can also read it here.