Home Alone is a series of Creative Social interviews that reveal the obsessions behind some of the great & progressive industry mavericks of today. Here we go backstage with big chief Lars Bastholm, the recently appointed Chief Digital Creative Officer of Ogilvy & Mather, North America.
Lars, you’re a big guy with a big personality but we’ve heard you love film and have an even bigger screen at home. Show us and tell us what you are watching?
I can’t believe I’m about to reveal just how big a geek I am. But I guess it’s time to come clean. Americans insist it’s healthy to talk about it, so here goes.
Ever since I was a kid, I’ve been a huge movie buff. When the other kids were out playing sports, I was sitting way to close to the TV watching movies (hence my ruined eyes and enormously strong glasses). My biggest dream back then was to one day have a movie theatre in my own home. I have that now. And it makes me just as happy as I thought it would.
I got my first DVD player in 1999 and one of the first ever plasma TVs in 2002. Since then I’ve continuously upgraded. Now I watch Blu-Ray discs on a 50 inch Pioneer Elite TV. I have about 600 DVDs and I’m one of those guys that the movie companies love, as I’m re-buying my favorites every time a new format comes out.
In terms of gadgets, you couldn’t name one that I don’t have. Of course I have wireless surround and Apple TV and a PS3 and all that. But my favorite new thing is the ROKU box (www.roku.com) that let’s me stream movies wirelessly from my Netflix queue.
I’ve always been fascinated by the future (it’s so bright and shiny, you know!) and I think the best sci-fi movies impact our communal dreams and influence both thinking and product design. What is the iPhone if not the tricorder from Star Trek? Didn’t we all fall in love with the idea of touch screens while watching Minority Report? The clothing in Logan’s Run, scratch that last one.
I could tell you also about my favorite sci-fi authors and graphic novels, but that would take the geekery to new extremes and I’d probably never go on a date again. But if you’re a fellow geek and want to talk about it, feel free to ping me on twitter. I’m @bastholm.