Allen Thomas, one of J. Walter Thompson's two worldwide creative directors, visited Dublin last week to meet its local agency, DDFH&B. The agency invited its clients, which include Nestle and Unilever, to hear the creative guru talk about effective brand advertising.

In a question-and-answer session, the thorny subject of researching creative work came up.

Mr Thomas suggested creatives should read any amount of relevant research before they think up the idea. But once the idea has been conceived it should not be researched. To prove his point he cited two examples.

JWT created the family that changed all other ad families - the Oxo family - 16 years ago after research told it that people wanted to see more realistic families portrayed in advertising, with all the squabbling and chaos that go with it.

In contrast, the agency's ads for British Telecom, featuring actress Maureen Lipman, researched badly and the feedback suggested that the character seemed too pathetic and lonely with all that sitting around talking on the phone. The agency stuck firm and the campaign became one of most successful and memorable of the 1980s.