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AS a fan of the Canadian commercial biz, Toronto-based Taxi creative director Zak Mroueh likes what he’s seeing.

‘I think right now Canada is doing some of its best work, but I think we can do even better,’ says Mroueh.

This is an attitude he uses as a sort of mantra. Despite his high profile in the industry, Mroueh has always tried to remain humble as first a copywriter and now as creative director and mentor for Taxi creative teams.

‘Nothing is good enough. Even when you’ve done something that everyone thinks is great, you can still get better,’ he says. ‘I’ve tried to always live by that. You’re only as good as your last ad, so I always push myself to keep trying to do better stuff.’

Mroueh says the attitude of the Canada ad industry bothers him: The atmosphere amidst creative departments can sometimes reek of jealousy and pettiness.

‘Instead of supporting each other, like we see from other markets, it seems like the ad industry in Canada really beats itself up and picks on the agencies that are successful rather than support each other,’ he says, adding there are occasions when team Canada can pull together. ‘At Cannes this year, there was a good vibe. Canada didn’t do as well as it should have, but people were supporting each other.’

Having attended Cannes, Mroueh is able to shed some light on Canada’s so-called ‘disappointing’ 2001 Lion haul. He feels the local industry should abandon the delusions of taking home gold with big-budget spots and concentrate more on solid creativity to give it a leg-up in a competitive setting.

‘I think where we can compete is [in] great ideas that are affordable,’ he says. ‘I look at things like the Cam spot, for the Breast Cancer Society of Canada. That could have come from anywhere – Britain, Brazil – but it’s a really great idea. It’s simple and powerful. That should have won gold at Cannes. I think we can compete if we keep doing work like that.’

Mroueh agrees with the notion that Canada has trouble competing in the face of the sheer volume of work that comes out of other countries, such as the U.S. and Britain, and feels when Canadians enter international competition the spots have to be of an exceptional high calibre.

‘The States always does well because it’s so big, and they enter a lot of mediocre work,’ he says. ‘We can increase our numbers or we can control the level of creativity. If we have a higher standard, we’ll do better.’

Mroueh dismisses the idea that an agency’s clients are to blame for lack-lustre creative work.

‘I think that is a lame excuse. A lot of times people try to sell the wrong ad to the wrong client,’ says Mroueh. ‘I don’t think ‘edgy’ work is right for every client. It seems like everyone just wants to do edgy for edgy’s sake. A lot of people have said to us that our work is edgy and it is to a certain degree, but I can also show you smart work that we’ve done that wasn’t edgy. It was just the right ad for the client.’

Overseeing the creative department at Taxi, an agency that employs roughly 70, working for clients like Pfizer, Telus, Telus Mike, University of Toronto, Corel, Rickard’s Red, Molson Responsible Use, and others, Mroueh says he is not looking to employ a team with a closet full of trophies.

‘I’m always looking for hunger; people who have passion and want to push the limits, but who aren’t afraid of being pushed,’ he says. ‘A lot of people say they want to be pushed but when the push comes to shove, they want their creative director to buy their first idea and go home. The cool thing about the people we have here is that they all want to be pushed and they push us. They can be sent back three or four times, even 10 times [with an idea], but they all strive to be great. There is a really good vibe in this place right now.’

He describes Taxi as a medium-sized agency, which he feels is neither a hindrance nor an asset when working in the creative world. He says, too, that there is a very supportive atmosphere at Taxi, despite the competitive nature of the business

‘I don’t really care whether it is a small, big or medium agency, as long as the work [it produces] is good,’ he says. ‘I’ve worked at big agencies that were good. We’re a pretty good size, but we’re having fun and that’s what is important. If you’re not having fun, you may as well quit the business.’

-www.taxi.ca