On My Radar: Hamish Rothwell

What the most creative advertising idea you’ve seen recently?

Most creative? Not sure what that means anymore. Most fun to watch? Ikea Silence the Critics nails it. Old school, simple proposition with a sharp tagline – killer use of music. Best use of snail salt and pepper shakers. Best jib up behind a lucky cat… Our industry has award sections for all those, right?

What website(s) do you use most regularly? 

I try not to visit any website more than once because I’m curious to see how the algorithm copes. But, if I truly want to procrastinate, I just slowly lose my mind at Zoomquilt.org.

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

My boots. They have predictive lace locking technology and make my feet hover a centimetre off the ground. It’s old tech, but it works.

What product could you not live without? 

Tasmanian beard wax. Stops me descending into a spiral of hopelessness and self-doubt when I accidentally catch my reflection in a window.

What’s the best film you’ve seen over the last year?

I would say it’s a catfight between Jojo Rabbit and The Lighthouse, for me. But neither of them can beat the Jean-Jacque Arnaud 1983 classic, Quest for Fire.

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

The sadly ignored Jean-Jacque Arnaud 1983 classic, Quest for Fire.

What’s your preferred social media platform? 

A party. There are always reasonably nice randoms and there are no limits to gesticulation options. People are much more rational and pleasant face-to-face.  Yes, I’m happily a social media luddite.

What’s your favourite TV show?

Top Boy. It’s just really, really good. We Antipodians missed this the first-time round; thank you Netflix for resurrecting it.  

What’s your favourite podcast? 

I swing between a lot of different ones, but Adam Buxton is always great. Halfway through Whisperer in the Darkness. Loved Uncle Berties Botanarium – I really miss the way BBC used to make radio comedy series. Need more of those in the podcast landscape.

What show/exhibition has most inspired you recently? 

Can I count Anima? Tom Yorke and Paul Thomas Anderson made it feel like a really relevant performance/art piece. Tongue in cheek and meaningful.

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

First, I thought it was moving from film to digital. But the biggest thing has been the absolutely immense amount of visual moving imagery that exists. 

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

Filmmaking by committee. It should be a collaborative effort… but there’s a point where it becomes a little dysfunctional and confused.

Who or what has most influenced your career?

Humour. I don’t think we can live life without it… and its always surprising how many people don’t have a good sense of it.

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

When I was 31, I managed to constantly sprint for four kilometres at three in the morning through the Cannes Film Festival after an ageing action star put me in a headlock and invited me to his yacht party. I declined. The reason I sprinted for so long was I thought he was chasing me – but it was my own footsteps and shadow bouncing off the walls.