OPINION/ CREATIVITY
Creativity for Growth is the course I wish I’d done
💬 Sir John Hegarty
I wish that I knew what I know now (when I was younger). This line sounds better in a song than it reads written down, but it’s what makes the track Ooh La La, by the Faces so catchy. It appears in the chorus, serves as a folksy refrain, and speaks to a truth felt by almost everyone who’s lived beyond one decade. The knowledge you gather from rough life experiences would have been far more useful if you’d been in possession of it before you’d had to absorb all those hard knocks.
Last week I hosted a webinar. It was an intro session to the launch of my masterclass, Creativity for Growth (tickets on sale now, and the next cohort launches 28th April). The idea of this preview was to give intrigued folk a chance to learn more about the course and ask a question or two. One individual piped up at the end. They run a growing creative agency, a team of nine people. The ambition is to take the creative output of their company up a level – do better work, and get the sort of recognition that yields awards. Can the course help with that?
The exact purpose of Creativity for Growth is to take creative output up a level
I’d have been an idiot to say ‘no’. Fortunately, I’d have been lying too. This is exactly the purpose of Creativity for Growth, and it’s proven to amplify the creative capacity of those who attend. But the question made me think. Specifically, it took me back to the early days of BBH, when we were a handful of people, a suitcase of papers – and not quite enough chairs for everyone to sit on. If I’d had the sum total of my knowledge to draw upon back then, our work would have been better, and the climb would have been easier.
I am occasionally guilty of this folly – wishing that I knew what I know now (when I was younger). But I understand the futility of the sentiment. However, by attending Creativity for Growth, at least you can know what I know now.
THE AGENDA
🗓️ Diarise this: your agenda for the coming week
1. BAFTA Television Craft Awards return this week to celebrate behind-the-scenes brilliance. From costume design to visual effects, the ceremony honours the creative minds that bring British television to life.
27th April
2. Today is Earth Day, with this year’s global campaign urging leaders to “Invest in Our Planet.” The annual event encourages governments, corporations and individuals to take bold climate action – from cutting emissions to protecting biodiversity – amid intensifying calls for environmental accountability.
22nd April
3. The shortlist for Britain’s most prestigious art award, the Turner Prize, will be revealed tomorrow. Consistently sparking conversation with its bold and boundary-pushing works, previous winners have included art world titans such as Damien Hirst and Anish Kapoor.
23rd April
4. Time magazine will host its annual 100 Gala in New York tomorrow, celebrating the world’s most influential figures across politics, culture, science and beyond. Among this year’s high-profile honourees are Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos and SNL creator Lorne Michaels.
24th April
5. Hot Docs International Documentary Festival kicks off in Toronto this week. With hundreds of screenings from around the world, the 11-day event brings filmmakers and audiences together to explore urgent issues including Haiti’s political collapse and the war in Ukraine.
24th April – 4th May
WASHINGTON DC / CULTURE
Cultural revolution: ‘Mao Zedong’s Meeting with the Red Guards’, November 1967
Source: The China Pictorial / Wikipedia
Trump’s cultural revolution
Washington’s cultural institutions are bracing for fresh political turbulence as DOGE – Trump’s cost-cutting task force – pays a visit to the National Gallery of Art. While the Gallery has so far flown under the radar, the administration has made no secret of its desire to reshape, and in some cases, repurpose federally funded arts bodies. The National Endowment for the Humanities has already seen deep cuts, with resources redirected toward Trump’s proposed sculpture project the National Garden of American Heroes. Meanwhile, the president has named himself chair of the Kennedy Center, consolidating influence over another key nonprofit. The visit to the National Gallery signals that even institutions once thought untouchable may be next. As pressure mounts, the future of public arts funding – and cultural independence – hangs in the balance.
ON CREATIVITY /
SAN FRANCISCO / TELEVISION
First one: ‘Me at the Zoo’, Jawed
Source: YouTube
Video killed the television star
As YouTube marks 20 years since its very first upload on 23 April 2005, it’s safe to say the platform has come a long way from grainy pet clips and shaky home videos. This February, YouTube CEO Neal Mohan boldly declared, “YouTube is the new television” – and the numbers back him up. More than a billion hours of YouTube content are now watched daily on smart TVs, a shift that has reshaped not just how we watch, but what we watch. Today’s YouTube is increasingly populated with high-budget, long-form, and big-screen-ready content. Just take the platform’s most famous creator, MrBeast, whose blockbuster-scale videos involve multi-million dollar budgets. Yet despite its evolution, YouTube remains more democratic than traditional streaming platforms – anyone with a camera and an idea can still hit upload and find an audience.
GLOBAL / FASHION
Promotional asset: Fashion Revolution Week 2025
Source: Fashion Revolution Week Resources
Style and sustainability
As Fashion Revolution Week kicks off, the campaign to “turn fashion into a force for good” feels more urgent than ever. Born from the 2013 Rana Plaza tragedy in Bangladesh, where 1,134 garment workers lost their lives, the movement has become a global call for greater transparency and ethics in the fashion industry. According to the UN, fast fashion is the second-largest consumer of water and generates more carbon emissions than international flights and shipping combined. This year, it coincides with fresh turmoil in the US over shifting China tariff policies, which now threaten to drive up prices on cheap clothing imports. While fast fashion retailers brace for impact, some see an unexpected upside: a renewed interest in sustainable, ethical alternatives. If price hikes force consumers to slow down, it might just speed up fashion’s long-overdue reckoning.
