John Hunt
Worldwide Creative Director
TBWA\ Worldwide

Seminars: The Art Of The Idea

John Hunt is the Creative Founder Partner of TBWA\Hunt\Lascaris, widely recognised as one of the leading advertising agencies in the world. The agency started in 1983 with the mantra “Life's too short to be mediocre”. It has since won countless accolades, including International Agency of The Year. Earlier this year its work for The Zimbabwean Newspaper won the Outdoor Grand Prix at Cannes Lions and became the most awarded campaign at the Festival.

In 1993 John was intimately involved in Nelson Mandela's first ANC election campaign. Although rather harrowing at the time, this unique moment in history ushered a battered South Africa into the warm light of democracy.

In April 2003 John moved to TBWA’s New York headquarters to assume the role of Worldwide Creative Director. John’s task was to redirect the agency’s reputation by fundamentally becoming a creative compass for the network. Under his watch, he has helped reshape the network to think less about ads and more about ideas, and make TBWA the vanguard of setting the standard of innovations in the industry.

The results have been fairly impressive; in the last few years, TBWA has been voted Creative Network of the Year, both at Cannes Lions and in numerous publications including the Gunn Report. This year, TBWA was once again voted Network of the Year by Adweek and AdAge. Recently, John returned to South Africa to continue his worldwide role from Johannesburg.

In 2005 John was appointed President of the Cannes Lions Film, Press and Outdoor Jury. He has also found time to write a number of television and theatre plays. Among other awards, he was named South African Playwright of the Year for Vid Alex, a play that condemned censorship during the apartheid years. John is also a keen African Art collector.

Most recently, John has written a book called The Art Of The Idea, to be published in October. The book celebrates the power of ideas and demonstrates that there is no hierarchy to original thinking.