'It's been a wonderful rollercoaster ride': Advertising luminary John Hunt stepping back after 40-year career

His contribution to Nelson Mandela's 1993 election campaign and to the original Nando's ads are just some of the memorable moments marking the career of John Hunt, co-founder in the 80s of award-winning agency Hunt Lascaris.

After more than four decades in the advertising business, Hunt is retiring as Worldwide Creative Chair of international group TBWA.

As TBWA Hunt Lascaris proclaims, when it comes to this advertising luminary it's a case of 'Legends don't retire. They rewire'.

Sketching his journey to the upper echelons of a notoriously competitive industry, Hunt says it's embarrassing to recall he was once in fact an insurance claims clerk, who did some freelance writing.

When someone commented that he was funny and asked whether he'd ever considered advertising, he'd never even heard of a thing like copywriting, says Hunt.

"So there was no deep strategy, but before 1983 I'd worked at one or two agencies and I'd travelled quite a lot, but I was essentially a new boy to advertising."

1983 was when he founded Hunt Lascaris with Reg Lascaris, in an era when advertising was ' bit old school tie and it was about who you knew'.

While it might sound obvious today, their approach of being all about the work they produced, was quite a revelation back in the 80s, Hunt says.

"We would say to the clients that we'd pitch for nothing and our work would end up being better, therefore serving their purposes more whether it was about brand image or sales... It's the advantage of being so naive that you don't know the rules yet, so of course sometimes you run into a brick wall at 100 mph, but then other times you create a new space."

Hunt says the fledgling agency was lucky early on to get some clients who were kindred spirits and appreciated their high-risk approach during the conservative, highly censored apartheid years.

"You have no idea what the SABC censorship laws were then - we did one Beechies commercial where we made the mistake of having two dancers touch each other and the one was a darker colour, so we had to edit that out. Apartheid ruled the SABC, which ruled the airwaves."

Hunt Lascaris quickly became known as the country's 'cheeky' advertising agency, the one that broke the rules.

Hunt says he was regularly hauled up before what was then the Advertising Standards Authority of South Africa (ASA), particularly with their early work for Nando's. The fast casual restaurant chain has since become a food giant known for its often risqué social commentary which gets people talking. Back then, though, Nando's consisted of just three outlets.

"We went to them with a simple premise: you're tiny... your chicken is spicy, how about your market and advertising matches that? We called it the first irreverent brand in SA. When you're very small you almost have nothing to lose, and what was wonderful with that story is it worked immediately... But, it's a difficult sell to a client who's more conservative minded because there's a higher risk."

When Hunt broke into the big time with a top position at TBWA in New York which entailed a lot of travelling, he says the diversity South Africans are used to proved to be valuable preparation. "South Africans, to this day, travel very well because we don't wear our nationality on our sleeve... We get on with everyone, we work hard and we have this innate ability - which sounds strange from a country that birthed apartheid, to integrate well and work well with people."

This experience also showed how, now matter where you are in the world, the basic tenets of marketing and advertising remain the same - "how do you come up with an original idea, how do you make it relevant, how do you make it unexpectedly relevant; because if it's just relevant it's probably boring and if it's just unexpected it might be meaningless."

He also emphasizes the need for a team to think openly and honestly about ideas, and to leave egos at the door. 'We're all equal before the idea', he says, pointing out that it can be the junior in the room or even the client that comes up with something promising.

"Sometimes you need to let the idea breathe because it can start off sounding a bit silly, but if it's truly original you won't have a reference point, so most clients or agencies get into the habit of making incremental changes. The really great ones come up with something really original and high risk, but with potentially much higher reward."

While he will miss advertising, Hunt is looking forward to his next chapter, particularly in his otherestablished role as writer and author.

"It's been such a wonderful roller coaster ride and I've met so many wonderful people and travelled the world, but I'm also very happy now to stay on as chairperson and join the 2.0 journey."

Scroll up to the audio player to listen to this in-depth interview with John Hunt