Christoph Mecke
Born in 1970 in the town of Gummersbach near Cologne, Christoph Mecke spent a long time doing everything within his power to avoid building up a CV worth reading. So it was no surprise that he chose to study Philosophy. He succeeded in graduating, at a time when his specialist subject was at the centre of a debate connecting neurobiology and the theory of cognition. The dispute remained unresolved, and it was his subsidiary subject, Media Studies, that offered Christoph a lifeline − at least career-wise.
After working as a concept designer at Kabel New Media in Hamburg and as creative director in Cologne as of 1999, Christoph returned to Interone Hamburg in 2005. Since 2007, Christoph Mecke has been responsible for innovation in his capacity as a member of the board of management.
mailto: christoph.mecke@interone.de
Achim Szymanski puts seven questions to Christoph Mecke
Why is it important to know who you are?
Via "six degrees of separation", everybody knows me anyway.
Could you explain to your parents what it is that you do? In just one sentence?
I make adverts. You know what adverts are. During the commercial break on TV, you always turn the sound down. That's why we're developing new channels in order to draw attention to major brands and to strengthen their standing. (Okay, that was more than one sentence.)
Apart from you, who else could do your job?
My successor.
What does your wife call you?
Christoph. Although I'm not married.
Which one of your fellow managing directors do you like the least?
She who degenerates us, the modern-day sister of Hydra and Sphinx.
If you could live anywhere on earth, what would be your second choice?
Where I live now − in Hamburg. Nobody ever asks where I'd like to live most of all.
What, who and where will you be when you're 60?
I'll be living where I'd most like to live. And it's only then that I'll probably start thinking about pension plans; seeing as population figures have developed in the way that they have, it looks like I've got a few decades of working life ahead of me. When I'm 60, I'll then be systematically getting on the nerves of the handful of young people who are still around, but that's just how things are. After all, advertisers are the avant-garde of the working world.
