On My Radar: Dan Mallerman

What’s the best ad campaign you’ve seen recently?

Red Cross, Hope; I could only watch it the once. Compelling as it is, it stopped me in my tracks, I couldn’t watch it again. There is not a single element of the film which isn’t heart-breaking.

What website(s) do you use most regularly and why?

Professional: shots, David Reviews and Campaign. These give me the broadest range of industry activity, and LinkedIn – good for showcasing our work to a wide audience….even if there is a shed load of weapons-grade dickheads on there.

For personal websites, The Guardian, Little White Lies, Huck, Football 365, The Onion and Empire; a spread between the highbrow and the less than highbrow…

What’s the most recent piece of tech that you’ve bought and why?

I wish I could dazzle you with something that made you think I was advanced in such things but I suspect it was either a nose tweezer or my mobile phone. Oh, headphones but I lost them.

What’s your favoured social media platform?

Instagram as it’s less flannel and more to the point. I really like the visual nature of it which is unusual as words are far more my currency. Not to say there isn’t tons of utter dross on it.

What’s your favourite app on your phone?

Pleo – my receipts app – a game changer. When I remember to do them.

What’s your favourite TV show and why?

Drama: The Sopranos. Better Call Saul. I could go on, and on…
Comedy: Frasier, Only Fools and Horses, The Office and People Just Do Nothing.
Doco: All the BBC nature programmes. The Vietnam War [below] on Netflix is 16 hours of unbelievable footage, interviews and revelations. I watched from beginning to end whilst on holiday for 10 days.

What film do you think everyone should have seen and why?

Really? Where do I begin? I could try and be film school wanker about this but my all-time
favourite films do tend to be the likes of Cool Hand Luke, The Hustler and the like, but for all time I have to say Fight Club [below].

I love Chuck Palahniuk’s books, and this film blew my mind. It’s such a clever but brutal commentary on our consumer culture and what it means to be a man/masculinity. As it was released when I was in my late teens (which is mind-boggling) it had a lasting impact on me. Ask me tomorrow and it’ll be a different film.

Where were you when inspiration last struck?

The bus. It’s often the bus. Sometimes the inspiration is to never take the bus again!

What’s the most significant change you’ve witnessed in the industry since you started working in it?

I’m not causing a stir here by saying budgets and time scales to expectations.

If there was one thing you could change about the advertising industry, what would it be?

For everyone to appreciate everyone else’s roles in the process a little more. I’d really like there to be a job swap day where agency folk can spend a day in the production companies, post houses and music companies. This way they can understand in greater depth what is required when a project is passed along the chain.

What or who has most influenced your career and why?

My single biggest influence is my employment history. I have worked in so many different industries, from market stalls, to night club security. From tele-sales to teaching assistant. I know what it is like to sleep on a mate’s sofa, absolutely skint, only to go to a shit job in the morning that you despise. That feeling is one I don’t ever want to experience again.

Tell us one thing about yourself that most people won’t know.

I am a qualified teacher for 16+ in English and Media Studies, and a published writer.