Icad contest puts creatives’ focus on the useless

Would-be high-flying creatives have just two weeks to get their entries in for the Institute of Creative Advertising and Design’s Upstarts programme.

Devised by Icad to identify upcoming talent, the programme – which is now in its 10th year – offers participants an intensive six-week in-agency mentoring programme with an exhibition of their work at the end as part of Design Week 2015.

During their mentorship the 24 chosen participants work on six campaigns. The programme is open to just about anyone – the creative side of advertising is one industry that tends to care more about talent than paper qualifications – but, typically, the 168 people who have been through the programme have been students, recent graduates or even juniors in agencies trying to raise their profile and get experience.

Pet Rock

The application process is in the form of a client brief and this year it’s trickier than ever. Applicants must advertise or rebrand a Pet Rock or a similarly useless item of their choosing.

Given that most applicants are likely to be have been born long after 1975, they may never even have heard of a Pet Rock – a marketing phenomenon created in that year by US advertising executive Gary Dahl who made millions of dollars from his wheeze. A Pet Rock is (they are still around) exactly as described, small rocks sold as “pets”.

Their key selling point back in 1975 was their low maintenance requirements, though they did come with a care manual. Dahl got the idea while listening to friends complaining about the upkeep of their live pets.

The closing date for applications for the Icad Upstarts programme is July 14th. See icad.ie