"If you do a campaign that works, you don't make enough money."

1. what would you work for free?
We don't work for free. I wouldn't trust an airline that flies for free either. Or restaurants that serve free buffets. Let alone a clinic with a surgery happy hour.

2. what would you most like to promote?
For customers who place their trust in us. The rest almost takes care of itself.

3. which print media do you privately subscribe to?
None. I like the romance of a newspaper and like the idea of hiding behind a double-page spread in a café and ignoring time. It would be avant-garde, almost rebellious. But in reality, I also use an iPad. Perhaps a good advertising campaign could change my mind, but unfortunately publishers no longer believe in their products. Even the NZZ has hung up its pinstripe suit and now goes around the block in torn jeans. It is regrettable how established brands are being sacrificed to fear of the future.

4. what advertising should be banned?
Why do you want to ban advertising? That's an abhorrent idea. Imagine that! As long as we still have a choice in something, we should be allowed to advertise it.

5. who was the most amusing lunch partner?
There were many. But at a lunch with three car mechanics in Imola, I once almost choked on a grissini from laughing.

6. the best book you've read recently?
I'm currently reading the rough version of "Der Club" by Takis Würger, which will be published by Kein & Aber in the spring. The story is so exciting right now that the answers for this interview will be a little shorter at best.

7. the best testimonial ever?
Testimonials are generally a sign of a brand's resignation and reflect the inferiority complex of those responsible for the brand. Apple's "Think different" was an exception back then. Fortunately, there is an exception for almost everything in life.

"Testimonials are a sign of a brand's resignation"

8. do you tell other people how much you earn?
No, I don't want to discourage young people from entering the advertising industry.

9. is the opinion that you can't grow old in agencies true, or is that a prejudice?
If you get old in an agency, you should change agencies. A good agency keeps you young into old age.

10. do you think you deserve the salary you receive?
If you run a campaign that works, you earn too little. And if you make advertising that doesn't work, you should be liable for damages.

11. do you fall for advertising?
People fall for bad advertising. Good advertising seduces in harmony with spiritual forces.

12. if you hadn't become an advertiser - what then?
Cook or secret agent. Probably a cook.

13. a buzz word that gets on your nerves?
Buzz. A word that appears in almost every Cannes Case film. "Our campaign created a massive buzz." I always ask myself "And now? Have you achieved anything?"

Pius Walker is the creative who founded the smallest advertising agency in the world founded. He has lived in Hamburg, Shanghai, London and Berlin, is soon to become a father of two and loves good ideas.

The "13 Questions" appear both online and in the print edition of Werbewoche. Note: The online publication is currently a little behind schedule, so it will take a few more issues before the print and online publications are back in sync plus/minus. Pius Walker was published in the print edition of Werbewoche 19/2016 on November 18. Next candidate: Claude Eberhard (Equipe).

Implementation: Thomas Häusermann