On My Radar: Anna Carpen

18 Feet & Rising's Anna Carpen opens up about her creative upbringing and nurturing her imagination but also realises the importance of incorporating technology into her work.

What’s the best ad campaign you’ve seen recently?

GEICO Unskippable (one from the series, below). Aside from being hilarious and wonderfully directed, it brings to life the sad truth that we all want to skip though ads.

What website(s) do you use most regularly and why?

Reddit. Its gives you a quick feel for what is going on in the world from real people, whether it's breaking news in a major city or a cat gif from a small town in the middle of nowhere. I find the content on there to be fantastically unfiltered and raw – whereas a news site will try and force their opinion on you.

What’s the most recent piece of tech that you’ve bought and why?

Apple TV – I didn’t want to be watching films and TV series off my laptop.

Facebook, Instagram or Twitter?

Instagram (@AGAME). Although I am guilty of posting avocado on toast every so often. I got rid of Facebook about five years ago, after nicknaming it the boastbook and I've since noticed my productivity go up.

What’s your favourite app on your phone and why?

Flipboard. I like how easy it is to browse through articles.

What’s your favourite TV show and why?

Right now it’s Mr. Robot - I love an underdog story. But if I'm thinking of my favourite all time TV show, it’s a fight out between Breaking Bad and Sesame Street.

What film do you think everyone should have seen?

Inside Out by Pixar.

Where were you when inspiration last struck?

Inspiration strikes me all day every day. In fact, sometimes inspiration won’t shut up. The hard thing is sifting the good from the bad to the downright outrageous.

What’s the most significant change you’ve witnessed in the industry since you started working in it?

There hasn’t really been any significant change in the industry that I have noticed or thought “Oh that’s a big change.” Rather, I’ve noticed significant changes around it.

Advertising just hasn’t adapted quickly enough. I think the market has tripled in size and become over-supplied. Our competitors are everyone from tech companies to content companies.

If there was one thing you could change about the advertising industry, what would it be?

People don’t trust creative intuition anymore. Even creatives don’t trust their own intuition. And this is the very thing we need to make great advertising. I miss the days when I used to go to the cinema early so I could watch the ads. I would love to build a time machine and go back to the 70’s/80’s and see how ad agencies and clients worked back then.

What or who has most influenced your career and why?

My family. As a kid I used to throw powder paint on the walls and toast marshmallows on the radiators. My parents never told me off for doing these things as they saw it as an expression of creativity.

Ever since then, they have been nothing but supportive which makes me feel very lucky. I once met a banker on a screenwriting course who had to hide his writing passion from his family as they thought it wasn’t a real career.