Advertising cannot be a lifetime commitment. Impossible. Along the way you lose too many stuff. I see fortysomething dudes who are still doing the same thing. I call it the ad circle of life. Get a brief. Develop strategy. Develop Campaign. Present Campaign. Get changes. Do changes. Repeat. Print campaign. Then... another brief comes in. You do the same exact shit.
Do we really want to do this for a long time. I can bet my ass that most of you don't. I think advertising is a stepping stone for a much better life. You do this in order to gather up some money to do what you really want to do. Sometimes people forget and end up working at this hell hole of a career for too long. Then, they blink and figure it out. Time ran out.Then why do people join this absurd religion we call the advertising industry? Well, I think it's the glamour of it all. You start out believing in prizes, big budgets and creative pieces that make you the talk of the town. They see big cars, designer clothes and think... I can do that! Also, people think it's easy. Years go by and you really see the truth. Long hours. Crappy clients. No budgets. And the saddest thing of all... All of your most creative ads, dead. They are just a figment of your portolio's imagination.
Think about it. How much creative stuff can you put in your portfolio that actually saw the light of day? Not much. Crappy ads surround us, and it's always either the CD or the damn client who kills them. More years go by and you start accepting your fate. This is the key moment in your life. You can either quit and move on to another thing - and if you don't think you can, you must be blind - or stay there and keep making the logo bigger.
You decide.
4 comments:
What happens is we're so busy being creative at work (and live up to our title of "creatives") that we forget or are too tired of being creative in real life - the place where it's actually worth it.
by "real life" i ment our own life in all the other aspects (not that working in an advertising agency is not real enough:). There you go - two comments! :)
Stop bitchin about your lives and what you are all missing and quit the job if you do not like it. Get your self a new one.
Early on in my career, I used to laugh at my best friend who went to dental school. "Why would I want to stick my hands in another person's mouth all day?"
Why?
Let's see. Working for yourself. No asshole/moron/scumbag clients. This strange concept called job security. Never working a weekend, or past 5:00. Taking every friday off to golf. And making a twice as much money.
I loved advertising, once. But the reality is, it's really a shallow, hollow, meaningless job. I've won all the awards. I've done all the pro-bono work there is to be done. I've been an AD, CD, President and Managing Partner. I make decent money. I'm wearing shorts in my office as I'm typing this.
Still, is it too late to change my major?
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