Unfortunately this is not a joke or a super scatological verbal filth fest, quite typical of me. This is about friends of mine going through such travails that it leads me to worry about the advertising scene in various places.
Economically speaking, the times are tough and everyone is cutting back on their budgets. From factories stationed stateside returning to Japan, to halved advertising costs, to companies developing in-house advertising to better control their ads and save a pretty big buck by shafting unsuspecting people; the tactics are endless and the repercussions obvious. Things are going to the crapper in various places and I can’t help but wonder how far will it go.
Ignoring the ever alarming rate of violence and psychopaths going on shooting sprees, if such a thing is even possible, I see friend after friend calling me up desperate because they are out of a job and no one seems to be hiring. Good people, talented individuals looking to be part of a team, have gotten strategically eliminated to balance the budget. And still we see people eating lobster thermidor, driving Bentleys while the workforce is watching the world go round after being hacked by the guillotine.
To make matters even better, seems there’s a new crew of small agencies willing to milk young professionals until they quit. By milk I mean extort any value from them while rewarding them with wages and salaries comparable to your local fast food joint… before getting shafted by taxes.
The future really frightens me because things will possibly get to the point where it spreads all around, infecting the collective. Crossing oceans and industries and pushing us to a pseudo feudal system where neo-capitalist serfs will be the job descriptions of future generations. People murdering Amish people? Teens killing teens? Paris Hilton making a CD? Sounds to me like it’s all going down the drain and who knows when any of us will be next. For my part, I’m luckily employed in a place I don’t despise working at. It’s no Eden but hell, what bullshit office job is? Yeah you might get hooked on working, but that doesn’t mean it’s heavenly.
To any and all ex-coworkers and friends who have gotten financially eliminated from their companies, my best to you. I know the times are tough and I wish you the best.
Peace, love and… well we had to strategically eliminate the maki rolls… what bullshit.
9 comments:
Geez. Stocks are at an all time high, and unemployment is near record lows.
So companies are bringing creatives in house. That's not a bad thing. It just means that the creatives getting laid off by ad agencies need to expand their job search beyond ad agencies.
Why are companies bringing creative work in house? Because ad agencies are fat, dumb and happy? Because too many of them take their 15% and milk shareholders for billable hours while providing questionable benefits selling them snake oil like "impression opportunities?"
Sounds to me like the market will reward creatives willing to make the jump to the very same companies bringing creatives in house because companies large enough to do that can often afford better benefits packages than the tiny advertising and marketing agencies.
Sounds like an opportunity to me...especially while companies still feel flush. It's an opportunity for creatives willing to make a jump, and for freelancers who know how to market themselves.
No one's gonna write you a check to bitch about the injustice of it all.
The problem is that the tendency of in house companies (at least of where I'm talking about) is to look for the cheapest bang for their buck. I agree no one will write a check for whining and say "Oh why did I get fired" but not all places have the high stocks and low unemployment rates you talk about. Maybe I can tell my friends to visit your town, because guess what? They've even interviewed outside any type of advertising work and still no luck.
I do agree that some agencies are way to gluttunous with their money grubbing ways and that some fees are just out there, but guess what, you get what you negotiate. But that's not to say there aren't some dumb shit agencies negotiating 1.5% for accounts instead of your recognized 15%.
And I also agree that in house agencies aren't necessarily a bad thing. Not necessarilly because of the benefits only, but because their is a hell of a lot more stability and less turnover than most ad agencies, and you're able to regain some type of normalcy in your existence. Again the problem I've seen with two specific cases, one cosmetics company and one dept. store company, is that they are giving shit wages to young people while promising them professional opportunities. By shity wages, I mean 6-7 bucks an hour and the benefits package for one of those isn't that hot either. Sounds to me like not all companies will reward creatives as handsomly as you project.
So by all means, next time you think everything's going fine and peachy and the tooth fairy exists while we're at the brink of world peace, make a few calls and talk to people from different places. Trust me, everything is not fine everywhere and I'm talking about people I know and a job situation that is very real.
True, no one's gonna write you a check for bitching about anything, but no one's going to write you a check for being ignorant either.
Let me go outside and check if my country suddenly moved and joined with a wealthier one...
Um.
Nope. I live in a place where - GASP - the economy is different than other people! WHOA! Is that possible? Where those kinds of cuts can actually mean that fathers and mothers are left to let their bills in a shoe box because, well, tough shit, the client wants to save more money.
People, not all of us live in fucking Dubai or the Amazing and Incredible United States of America (the good states, at least).
Oh, I'm not saying that everything's fine and peachy. I'm just saying that it's up to you to make things better for yourself - and part of that is recognizing that change is constant, and recognizing the opportunity in change.
So there's more work in other cities. BFD. So do like migrant laborers and immigrants have been doing for centuries and go to where the work is!
Either that or create the work yourself.
For example: There's no reason an aggressive and resourceful freelance creative in Grumblebum, MO, paying 600 a month in rent can't kick the bejeezus out of some creative in Midtown Manhattan at a huge ad firm who has to make 50k per year just to stay in bagels and live in that fashionable flat on Staten Island or Greenwich Village.
People, we have email and wifi now, along with inexpensive air travel, and unprecedented mobility. You can compete for creative work anywhere in the country.
Just be advised that there are people in India who are perfectly willing to do that to you.
This also is opportunity. But a danger to spoiled US creatives. That just helps US creatives keep from getting too spoiled.
Seems like some creatives can create anything except opportunity. Sorry. My sympathy for that attitude is limited, these days.
As for these two buds of yours earning 6 and 7 dollars an hour, I'd love to see a portfolio. If they're good, I'm sure they can do better. I know I can scarcely keep up with what I've got right now and I talked to another business owner today who remarked that it's very difficult to find people who actually want to work.
By the way...you can blast me as ignorant. But someone happens to be writing me a check these days. :-)
Actually, several people are, and I've just turned down two creative/media full-time jobs this week.
Am I God's gift to the creative world? Hell, no. Not by a long shot.
But I do recognize that what limited skills I do have have to be sold. And when I felt I was in a town with limited opportunities for someone like me, I didn't stay there long.
Now, someone might have more roots in a town than others, and choose to stay there because they have kids in school, family, etc.
That's great, but that's also not anybody else's fault or responsibility, so bitching about it is pretty unseemly.
//There's no reason an aggressive and resourceful freelance creative in Grumblebum, MO, paying 600 a month in rent can't kick the bejeezus out of some creative in Midtown Manhattan at a huge ad firm who has to make 50k per year just to stay in bagels and live in that fashionable flat on Staten Island or Greenwich Village.//
Uh, you're kidding, right? A studio in Manhattan averages over $2,000 a month. That's just rent, nothing else. If you're not making six figures in Manhattan (or Boston, or San Francisco, or Los Angeles, or Chicago, or Atlanta, or Minneapolis, etc., etc.), you're barely able to survive. I suppose all unemployed creatives could move to Des Moines or Beaufort, SC for all the thousands of advertising opportunities there.
**I suppose all unemployed creatives could move to Des Moines or Beaufort, SC for all the thousands of advertising opportunities there.***
Live whereever you want. Create the opportunities!
I don't live in NYC. But I regularly sell to magazines in NYC, blowing some loser out of a cushy overpaid full-time gig there, and doing stockholders the favor of preventing spoiled Manhattanites from screwing them on an expense report.
I also sell to Denver, and I buy ads from a magazine headquartered in some little town in Montana, who does pretty well for himself.
I've made thousands thanks to editors I've never met.
The unemployment rate is 4.6%. That's pretty much full employment for anyone who's willing to bust ass and who has any kind of skill whatsoever and who shows up.
Sorry I don't have time to join you in your commisseration. But I have a deadline to meet.
Why do I have a deadline to meet? Because a year ago, I picked up the phone and called a freelance editor in Tennessee who works for a press in Colorado, who referred me to her brother on the West Coast who's also involved in a new custom publishing outfit and got a good contract and he's overwhelmed and put a team together with editors from all over the country, in big towns and little.
I also busted my ass taking courses in subjects other than writing, so I have something to bring to the table.
Gotta go do some editing.
Have fun feeling sorry for yourself. Let me know how it works out for you.
Ok, so I actually tried to post something wholesome while looking for the positives in your dumbshit comments but my comments weren't posted. And yes, you did read correctly, your comments were dumbshit, ignorant, stupid etc.
You want to know why? Real simple. The US is not the only place that reads W.A.S. It's not that we're a fucking international sensation so don't think our ego has gone to our brains either. But we get visitors from India, US, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Argentina, The good ol UK, Spain, France, Australia and a number of other places that could be doing better than the US or as far as the people I spoke of are concerned, are totally fucked.
Check the headlines to see how Venezuela and Argentina are doing these days, cruise over to see how India is doing, Google Puerto Rico and see how chipper their economy is doing. And hell I actually called people up from Chicago and NYC to see if I was making this shit up about things not being so good all around, and true, some megalopolis might be doing "well", but some of the countries I stated above are at the brink of recession.
Have you been to Cleveland lately? I went there a couple of months back and I found out recently that yet another car factory is shutting down operations. You know why I bring this up? Because I wasn't referring to just advertising.
But no worries, Mr. Big Shot it's the people's fault for not getting out of there in time jackoff swears everything is peachy. Yeah, things are great and the tsunami was also surfable.
I see tensions rising, people going apeshit and the news is ever more depressing with shootings in the US booming and no, there is no fucking pun intended. The people I spoke of, those who you wrote off as whiners, or lazy bums whose portfolios would probably be pathetic, are facing situations Me hinted at in a recent post.
The economy from that place is in the shitter and it's getting worse. People are doing what they can just to keep a job and they bust their asses at making ends meet. Because they do have a mortgage, and because they do have kids, and because they do have family and actually give a damn, even if as some of you stated, even if it isn't someone else's responsibility.
So pardon me, but that cowboy bullshit attitude your pulling doesn't necesarrilly work out for everyone. I really wish it did and though I think you pretty much suck at the moment for some of your opinions, I happen to agree with you on some things you said and am happy you're making such a sweet buck.
In regards to the points I agree on, Yes I do think some agencies stateside have it way too easy and they abuse their power, but guess what pebbles, you get what you negotiate for. I like it when creatives from other places shaft an agency by doing work better than a massive company. I feel proud that they can give em the finger and oneup them constantly. I like the underdog fucking over the system and I can even agree with you that I think there's pretty much too much whining around.
But guess what else, some people aren't whining and this isn't a pity party. I wrote what I did to people who are being put in a really tight spot and they're running out of resources. Because they don't have your contacts, because they haven't gotten call backs even from way out of advertising. Because they need to pay for the house and for food. Because they can't just get in a plane or car and leave.
And for the record, not everyone in Manhattan is a lazy bum cranked off Starbucks and Jamba Juice. I know people who bust their asses every day and don't even like coffee.
But I stand by my point that I don't see things getting better. I hinted at a big picture worry where it won't matter if you have a job or not. Where money will finally stop being the root of our problems and it'll be replaced with survival.
Am I exagerrating? Who knows maybe I am. Maybe I'm being a huge drama queen and I couldn't find anything else to write about so I decided to bitch for a while. Or maybe I'm recognizing that some people are fucked and I can't help but be concerned. Not pity them or feel sorry for them as you think I'm doing. But feel concerned over them and their situation. Then again, you seem like the type that would have written off the geeky eighth grader getting a wedgy while I would have tried to do something to help.
And your solutions of migrating are brilliant. Do you think everyone has a healthy success rate? Do you think everyone makes it? No. That's the point. Might these people be afraid of taking the leap? Scratch the might because that's exactly what's going on and I'm sure if they're ever in the dire straits of the migrating workers you so nonchallantly tossed in the mix, they'd do the same. But they aren't there just yet. Not sure if you know any people of Chinese descent or maybe a Cuban or two. you know, people who got on freights or rafts and tossed the dice with lady luck, but I do. And guess what, some of them didn't make it, leaving their families in even more dire straits.
So here's to you my friend. I'm happy you're getting a paycheck and have work and are even turning down work, because lord knows that without those things, you'd be quite empty.
But for the record, if you still think it's these people's fault they're getting fucked, that they don't have a job and that they're in a tight economic spot, kindly blow all of us.
Sorry to have to put a damper on your hysterics, but it's really strange to see you harping on "booming" shootings when in point of fact the per capita murder rate nationwide is 32 percent lower than it was in 1995.
I mean, if you're going to accuse someone else of being ignorant, you'd better tighten up your own argument.
The remainder of your post, fervent admirable in its loose reasoning, is similarly unencumbered with factual data to support your complaining.
You're relying entirely on anecdotes. Not a single verifiable, checkable fact in the whole screed.
Want to be worth more in an unforgiving marketplace? Start by tightening up your thinking.
Yeah, times can be hard. Sometimes people get a run of bad luck. Yes, we're lucky to live in the U.S. - truly the land of opportunity.
Honestly, I don't care about all the reasons why it's hard. If it were easy, we'd all be rich. Meaning, we'd all be poor.
What I care about is just two things: When are you gonna stop bitching, and what are you gonna DO about it?
Yada yada yada. Verifiable facts. Im glad you're up to date with google news and trust wholeheartedly on stats and reports. For my part, I did my best to get these people in touch with someone that might get them a job and if I had the leeway, I'd give them the shot to at least work freelance here. Unfortunately that's not my call. But if you mind the bitching so much, feel free to stop reading, because for all the bitching we do, you still feel the need to drop by and leave a comment.
And by shootings I meant the school shootings, which have been in headlines and which I don't feel the need to post a link.
Oh and by the way, said hysterics aren't substantiated by "facts" because I really don't trust the news much anymore. I still read and watch but I take everything said in a report with a grain of salt. I know too many people in the armed forces to ever really trust a stat again. But I'm glad you're highlighting your newspapers and truth be told, much of what you say can probably hold water.
If you want to feel like things are fine thanks to percentages etc, that's fine but guess what? Said stats never include unreported cases, dissapearances, etc. My case for saying you might have a hint of ignorance sprinkled all around still rests on the fact that you can't seem to accept that some other places are screwed over, some people have it tough, and any said stat you might quote means nothing in their situation.
Good to see you're well informed. For my part, glad to see my bitchy self is also getting various pay checks. So ignorance vs bitchiness is an economic tie. I might have just resented the tone in which you dismissed the people I wrote about and took it personal because I not only know them as people, I know them as professionals and I still insist you came off as an asshole.
Regardless, we can take this to the moon and back, or we can agree to disagree. For my part, now I have deadlines to meet and jobs to hand in, so hope you have a great chart reading cash making day. I'll be dropping in to bitch once in a while for your entertainment.
Post a Comment