The Way I See It... Amir Kassaei

Amir Kassaei is chief creative officer of DDB Worldwide, based in New York, and was chairman of the 2012 Integrated jury at Cannes. He talks to Diana Goodman about learning to survive in Austria after fleeing revolutionary Iran, his vision for DDB and finding the relevant brand truths that work across all cultures

I’m 44, married for the second time, to a film producer. I live in Brooklyn, New York, and have homes in Spain and Germany. I have four kids. One is living with me in New York and my other children live in Europe.

I would describe myself as passionate, truthful and crazy.

My childhood in Iran was a great time until the revolution started. I grew up in a great environment and was raised in a very liberal, European way.

My first memory is waking up on my own, setting up everything to go to kindergarten and waking up my parents.

My father was a computer engineer and my mum was a nurse. I got on well with them; it was more a friendship than a parent-child relationship.

I was recruited to become a child soldier in the Iran-Iraq War because it was a law to compensate [for] the weakness of the military in Iran. The memories associated with war are not something you can talk about. It’s too existential an experience.

In 1983, I escaped over the Turkish border, going via Istanbul to Vienna. People were organised by others to bring me out of the country. I had no parents, no money, no language. It was ten years before I saw my family again.

When I got to Austria I had to survive: learn the language, go to school, repeat two grades and do every job you can imagine. Being an asylum seeker was tough because everybody gave you the feeling that you were different and not part of the system. I made the rational decision that the only way to survive was to know the language by heart and adapt to the new culture.

It was a hard time but, looking back, it was the best education you can get. Why? Because you need to be true to yourself, be willing to take risks and be passionate about what you are doing. Then there is nothing in life that you cannot achieve.

I got into advertising by accident. It seemed to be an interesting industry with a lot of different topics. I started as a product manager with Bates, Barci and TBWA, and then changed the sides to become a controller. After I became an Austrian citizen I had to do my civil service. During that time, I received an offer from Springer & Jacoby in Germany – back then, one of the best creative agencies in the world. I stayed there for five years.

When I moved to DDB, the agency in Germany had been a disaster for almost 30 years, due to the wrong management decisions as well as a lot of other reasons. But DDB, as a company and around the world, was a celebrated and strong brand, so the challenge for me was to turn it around by raising the bar towards creative excellence for all the clients, but especially for Volkswagen.

Working in Germany is different from the US because Germans are very systematic and very structured. The US is more flexible, and is the country where marketing and advertising was invented, of course.

Moving to New York has been good. As a lifelong refugee, I can adapt myself very quickly to new places and cultures. I don’t think about it consciously; it’s my personality and attitude to adapt to different situations and strange environments very fast.

I enthuse my staff by reminding them how magical DDB as a company is, by having a vision and a plan and giving them clear guidance, and also by letting them focus on the most important things in our business – and getting rid of all the bullshit.

Clients expect you to be a trustful and substantial consultant to their business. So the job is about understanding their business and needs, and coming up with the most intelligent and fresh solutions.

One of my worst experiences in advertising is maybe the lack of trust from the clients and the disappointment that results from that.

I believe that our job is to find or create a relevant truth about products, services and brands that will work in every country and region despite the cultural differences. Almost all successful innovative brands in the world are delivering a relevant truth, starting with Volkswagen, Apple and so on.

I think the advertising industry is partly to blame for the current economic crisis. In the past few decades, we were telling people they had to define themselves by what they were consuming, and it was one of the reasons for the big crisis in 2008.

Advertising does have to change. I believe that we are one of the most backward-thinking industries on the planet. The last real innovation in this industry happened more than 60 years ago with the invention of the Creative Revolution by Bill Bernbach.

At DDB, we are handling the changes by having a very clear insight about where the world is heading and how we are positioning ourselves as a company. We are a connected world while people’s values and the economic system are changing.

As a consumer, I hate most advertising. Ninety-nine per cent of the advertising that you see is meaningless and does not add value to people’s lives.

I travel to multiple DDB offices around the world. If you want to produce a positive change, you have to lead by vision and by walking the talk.

You cannot be good at firing people, because otherwise you would neglect your humanity. But, from time to time, you have to do that because it is one of your jobs to develop people and a business.

I believe that winning awards only proves one thing: that you are good at winning awards. Our goal should be finding the most innovative solutions for our clients’ challenges. If you do that, you will get recognition in the marketplace by the real people, and the ad experts will award it. In that order.

As a judge, I’m looking for a genius idea based on a relevant truth. I am looking for a fresh, unseen and intelligent way of execution, and the impact and influence it produces.

I’ve tried to get fake campaigns banned because our job is to develop and produce relevance. Fake campaigns are not only hurting the image of our industry, they are also meaningless in terms of achievement. I believe that 90 per cent of the award-winning work at award shows are ideas not based on real challenges, and were neither approved by real clients nor visible to the real world.

Are there any products I would never work on? Weapons, because I cannot identify myself with them and I do not believe in the concept.

The best advertisement I’ve ever seen is the Beetle campaign for Volkswagen by DDB from the 50s. It’s still the only supernova in our industry. Everything else is influenced by the thought and approach of that agency and that campaign.

Money is not important to me. My goal in life was never money or title or building a funky career. My goal was – and is – to be at a place where I can use my talent, passion and expertise to change things for the better.

My greatest strength is my will.

My greatest weakness is being impatient – and still too romantic and too naïve.

My greatest achievement has been trying to make the best of this one life I was given.

I do not care what others think of me because it does not matter. I always tried to live and act on my own principles and my goal was never to be loved by others.

The people I most admire are Muhammad Ali, Steve Jobs and Bill Bernbach. They all are great examples of individuals who believed that if you have a dream and you have the passion, you can make it happen and change the world for the better. And all of them were truthful people who lived with the consequences of their decisions.

My principal interests outside work are chess, books – especially poetry – architecture and design, cinema, music, my family and good Austrian white wines.

My biggest disappointment is realising that you cannot be great in every field of life, such as being a better father and a good friend – or being a better chess player or being able to cook well.

Politically, I stand to the left, I think.

The US presidential election shows that Barack Obama is what people wish America could be. Let’s hope that he can deliver on all the promises that he made. He could make a big difference.

The nationality I hold is Austrian, and I vote in Austria. [But] I am a global citizen, so it does not matter which passport you have.

The greatest human invention is education.

What makes me really angry is stupidity.

The worst thing that ever happened to me was being on my own and having to survive every day without money, parents or someone to protect me.

My view of marriage is that I believe in it. You have to fight for it and you have to build a relationship which is based on a very respectful partnership.

What children need most is love and the right values. Becoming a father is the most interesting and life-changing experience you can have.

I am not afraid of dying. As Steve Jobs said, I believe death is the best invention in life.

If I could change the world, I would… stop using the word ‘would’ and do it.

If I could relive my life, I would live it the same way again.

In the end, what really matters is using your life to do something special, and contributing your part in changing the world for the better.