Uprising: Paddy Dunne on the Subjective Game of Advertising

Paddy Dunne’s fascination with dialogue and script writing goes way back. He would secretly watch ‘Inglorious Basterds’ in his bedroom when he was 10 years old, and although he couldn’t quite understand the subject matter, he was “utterly captivated” by the opening scene - one he admits he’ll forever be striving to match in creative genius.

Besides being obsessed with the complex magic behind good conversations and what makes them good conversations, Paddy loved American football, but a mix between his skill level and obtained injuries closed off that career path early on. “I think I’ve made peace with the fact that I’ll never make it as an NFL linebacker, but maybe one day I’ll get a shot at a Super Bowl script,” he jokes. 

Speaking of the Super Bowl, watching the halftime commercial compilation on YouTube was Paddy’s first real introduction to “great advertising,”... though it wasn’t enough to convince Paddy to step into the creative industries just yet. Rather, his other passion was cooking, and he had always dreamt of becoming a chef. In fact, he nearly attended school for culinary arts. “I loved the idea of being able to express myself on a plate, and still do,” he says. “But there was something about advertising that just kept pulling me in,” so Paddy listened to the inkling, switched gears and chose advertising and marketing communications at TU Dublin. 

“In my last semester there, I aced a copywriting module and everything just clicked. I enrolled for an MSc in advertising in TU Dublin to further my skills,” he explains. “Big credit goes to Trish Medcalf for this, she always had my back, and everyone else’s, during my undergrad and opened the door for me to do the masters. I guess you could say I set down the knives, and picked up the pencil.”

Before this, Paddy didn’t even know what copywriting was. However,  he figured it out around the time when he turned 20, during his degree. “This seems to be a common theme in advertising agencies. What I do know now is that I love it, and I’m here to stay.”

While finishing his masters, The Public House offered Paddy a paid internship which later turned into his current first ‘real’ job in the industry. And just recently, he shed his ‘junior’ title too: “I guess things are going from strength to strength here!”

Now Paddy is concentrating on honing his craft - “Watch this space,” he says. “The Irish ad industry has some top class writers, and I learn from them every day. My writing style is constantly evolving and I’m still looking for ‘my voice’, but I do know that I’m also improving in other ways. I’ve gotten much better at presenting to clients, and I have the confidence to run studio sessions with sound engineers and voiceovers, by myself. You come into work thinking you’re just a writer, but actually we wear many more hats than that.”

Beyond improving his writing on the daily, Paddy is picking up some life-long lessons, one of which being, “this game is subjective.” (The game being advertising, of course.) His skin has also gotten thicker now, and he’s on the steep path of realising that sometimes one needs to concede that their idea isn’t the best one on the table. 

Similarly, he is starting to catch onto when to back himself and stand his ground on something he knows is good. And in these cases, what helps him with discerning between the two is The Public House’s strategy of the ‘elevator pitch’: “If I can’t sum up my idea in a sentence, I probably need to rethink the insight, idea and articulation.”

But once he gets past these initial hurdles, Paddy’s passion blossoms and to him, nothing compares to the moment of seeing his own work live out in the world, after months of agonising over every detail. “This is, by far, my biggest motivator, being able to look at a 48-sheet or watch a TVC and thinking ‘We did that’. It feels strange, yet lovely. I hope to never stop experiencing it.”

The first time Paddy got a hit of that feeling was in his first ever big brief at the agency, which came in on his very first day. Specifically, it was an OOH campaign for Paddy Power Comedy Festival, for which every copywriter in the agency was throwing headlines into the deck. “I honestly did not think even one of mine would get picked, but a few weeks later I walked past five of them on billboards around the city. That was wild,” he says.

A couple of weeks later, the team looped Paddy in on a project for EPIC The Irish Emigration Museum for ‘This Is Not Us’, born out of the insight that when you ask Google what the Irish are known for, predictive search data suggests “some pretty damaging things.” 

“They said the Irish are fighters, drinkers, potato munchers and grudge holders. I immediately loved the idea and cheekily asked if I could have a go at writing the film script.” And while he doesn’t take credit for the original idea, by-and-large his script made it through “relatively unscathed.” Ever since, Paddy has been a writer on more or less every EPIC project. 

Another milestone was his work on a campaign for Irish Independent’s sport supplement last summer. “My art director partner, Paul Kinsella, and I came up with the thought, ‘GAA is in our DNA’. It was the first campaign I worked on from end to end, concept to delivery, and I can claim full creative ownership.”

To this end, the team did all the motion graphics in-house, so Paddy was able to constantly check in how the visuals were coming together. As he’s no stranger to obsessing over details, the trajectory was similar on this project too - from script, to voice over casting, to sound design. “The sound design nearly blew me away when I saw it aired in the cinema,” he says. “I’ll never forget turning to my girlfriend and saying ‘We did that!’.”

More recently, The Public House ran a Christmas campaign for Barnardos Ireland, focusing on giving children in vulnerable Irish families a Christmas to remember. “Paul and I came up with a concept that went onto be illustrated by a highly commended Polish children’s book artist, Martyna Nejman.” In radio, Paddy also wrote a script about a teen who didn’t believe in Santa, asking him for a favour, “because their younger sibling really needed some hope this year.” 

For the commercial Paddy says that the team cast a teenager with little commercial experience, to bring authenticity and emotion to the read. “It was a tricky one to get right, but my associate creative director, Mikey Curran, helped me nail the language and direction.”

So what does all this amount to? Paddy believes in the power of advertising to positively impact the world, and knows the value of his own work. This is why he says he loves doing pro-bono charity campaigns - “the long hours we put into nurturing a campaign can have tangible and real-life changing results for those in need.”

“A Cannes Young Lion would be nice, of course, but that’s not what drives me,” he continues. “My main motivation is to stay true to myself, keep making the best work I possibly can, and let the rest follow.” And, Paddy knows he’s not the only one who feels this way either: “There’s a current crop of young creatives in Ireland that I feel are making some seriously impressive work. I watch all their work closely, looking for inspiration and motivation, and will continue to. It’s a very exciting time to be a young creative, with so many others around to push me to my very best.”

When things inevitably slow down, though, as they often do in this industry, Paddy has learned to power through the lows. “It’s just the nature of the industry. Sometimes it gets a little quiet which is frustrating, but learning how to deal with the quieter days is something we all have to do.”

And when it comes to what the industry could be doing better, Paddy says he’d love to see agencies casting the net wider when it comes to recruiting juniors. “In Ireland, a lot of creatives have come from one specific advertising course, but it’s not cheap or widely accessible,” he explains. “I’d love to see Ireland adopt programmes like Brixton Finishing School, where people from non-typical backgrounds get a chance to bring an entirely fresh perspective to this community.”

On a weekend, you’re likely to find Paddy sitting outside a cafe, having a coffee with his girlfriend and enjoying some fresh air. If it’s payday, swap the cafe for a nice restaurant for dinner. Paddy’s love for food is still everpresent, so he is likely to be constantly discovering hidden culinary gems in Dublin or trying out new recipes himself. “It’s inspiring to see how people in other professions can be creative.”