How did you get into this mess?

So, you’re in the ad business, and somehow, life in the agency isn’t as peachy as movies like “Crazy People,” “What Women Want,” “Picture Perfect,” and countless others made it out to be. What happened? Where is your corner office and three-hour lunches? Where’s your Manhattan penthouse? Why are you not shooting commercials in Fiji?

At some point not too long ago something made you consider that advertising was a cool and fascinating career. A little voice inside your head told you that you were destined to be a painfully hip ad man/woman. Where did that spark come from? What was the attraction? What made you get into advertising in the first place?

For me, it was a little commercial about a little black man with a big mouth. Mars Blackmon (aka Spike Lee) gushing about the craziness that is Michael Jordan… for Nike. It was the late 1980s, I was in high school, and out of nowhere comes this motor-mouthed cool cat. The presence of Our Holy Michael Jordan (I grew up in Chicago, so surely you’ll understand) was a plus. For the first time in a long time an ad was ENTERTAINING. Plus, it was shot in “daring” black and white, considered innovative and avant-garde back in the day. Also, the idea of a spot coming off as a short movie was extremely appealing, given the ADD-riddled context of my generation.

This campaign was the bug that bit me. It definitely made me consider advertising as a career.

DISCLAIMER: Despite everything I’ve just said, I never formally studied advertising or anything close to that. And shortly after college I fell into advertising by accident, though I sort of coordinated for that accident to happen. Do I regret it? Let’s leave that for another post.

So, what made you want to get into the business?