Oh, you Brazilian. Teach me your magic!

In 5 years working in different Prague advertising agencies, I very often come across this same comment and I must say as I hear this over and over, it feels almost mystical. Like if Brazilians are those creative mythical creatures that can be summoned and grant you 3 brilliant ideas every time you rub a brief. Well, we are not, in fact, no one is. What you call "magic" I guess we simply call it work.
I've recently started taking tennis classes again and it's in my opinion one of the most frustrating sports to learn, every single detail counts in order to hit that little yellow ball with the right momentum, it's so much thinking happening in a matter of seconds that even when you're not thinking you're still thinking about not thinking. And then, there's this toddler always on the court next to mine, hitting the balls like she's the reincarnation of Billie Jean King. I hate that kid so much. But as I switch my focus on hating the kid I end up missing the balls on my own court. Is the kid magic? No, the kid is just doing her work while me, well I'm definitely not doing mine. And my point saying all that is, I feel that the Czech advertising industry is a lot about hating the kid on the next court more than focusing on your own balls.

For the first time after many years, I decided to submit myself to reading the "reviews" of the so feared "Katovna" and I wish I didn't. As an outsider, I thought It could help me understand more about the local creative scene but some of the comments there were so hateful that even Google Translator was having a hard time to make it sound nicer. This episode kind of triggered my curiosity, much because from where I come from (the mystical land of Brazilian advertising) no agency or Creative Director would allow people to behave like that publicly, we use creativity to enhance and not diminish a brand, product or person just because of our personal opinions. I'm not saying by any means that there's no criticism in Brazilian industry, it's just done differently, with respect and through work. I've had the chance to work with many great creatives here just as much as in Brazil and no wonder none of them behave like that, because again, they focus on their work rather than being provocative just for the sake of it, or posting unwanted opinions about a campaign they didn't even know the brief on Linkedin or even worse, leaving diminishing comments about a campaign at the clients social media pages. Justice must be made, if Cannes Lions had a category of "Creative hate" Czech Industry would definitely be a benchmark.
I guess that's our "magic", we are obsessed by everything we love, and we love advertising. We love campaigns that are better than ours, because it fuels us to work harder and come up with something better, we love the clients who challenge us to be different and finally, we love advertising so much that just the thought of public shaming someone else's work sounds like shaming of ourselves. As professional creatives, we are always pursuing originality. While in Brazil this is highly celebrated and it is what makes an art director or copywriter a disputed asset amongst agencies, in here this is often a burden that weighs us down and is the source of other's public shaming. As far as I know from 13 years working in advertising, most of them spent in some of the most acclaimed agencies, there's only one magical way to achieve great creative work, and it's by working despite the fear of what others might say.