GREAT IS THE ENEMY OF GREAT.
Every project starts somewhere. There are lots of a-little-bit-betters that go into making an ad amazing. Forward progress is the most important goal. Steady improvement. You’ll have many rounds before an idea will be final and if you aim to push it a bit every time it comes back to you, you will end up with a great end result. If instead you try and start with “perfect” you will waste time, miss deadlines, and be so bitter when an idea changes that you will have trouble finding the want to get up and start again. Plus, in the end, your perfect and precious ad will not be as polished as the one that has been improved consistently.
If you’re capable, you hold yourself to a high standard naturally. Others around you will as well. If on top of that you stress to the point of exhaustion, you won’t be improving the work, you’ll be burnt-out in a year and you won’t see or enjoy the real opportunities. I learned this lesson late and hard. I hope you don’t.
YOU’RE A TOTAL HACK SOMETIMES.
The best advice I’ve gotten about having an off day came from a pair of CDs I respected a great deal, but just couldn’t impress. A week into a project under these guys, my art director and I couldn’t think of a single idea worth presenting. We were freaking out. We apologized. This is what they said:
“It’s just part of being in advertising. It happens. Don’t worry about it. Or actually, do worry about it. Worry about it a lot, because that’s part of it too. Just know that you will get over it at some point and you’ll get back to doing good stuff. Just hang in there and keep going.”
THE WORLD IS ENDING AND IT’S YOUR AD’S FAULT.
Unless a super villain has requested that you create an ad that will convince him to put down the detonator, you’re just making an ad. No matter how great or how bad, it won’t make or break the world, your life, or even your career. Relax. Have fun. Even if it is a big deal you’ll do better work if you take it lightly. If you wanted a serious job you’d go be a doctor.
ADVERTISING IS NOT LIFE. ADVERTISING IS YOUR LIFE.
For better or worse, advertising is more than a job. It consumes you. It wears you out and it makes you happy. Occasionally even in love. Tell me you’ve never gotten that sparkly euphoric feeling when you’ve cracked a problem. Tell me that and I’ll tell you you’re in the wrong field.
We’re messed up as creatives, because it does matter to us. And because of that it is important.
Ads or not, we’re leaving a tangible legacy. People quote commercials in hallways and hum jingles when they’re in shopping aisles. Everyone remembers ads from when they were growing up. We’re creating something that lives on. Why not make it worth keeping around?
EVEN SUPERHEROES GET TRAPPED IN SUPER-STICKY GOO SOMETIMES.
If you are a human then you can be overworked, overstressed, and overstretched. Most of you will learn this unpleasantly. I used to think I could never get tired. Never get burnt-out. Never get anxiety over my job. Never drop the ball. That was false. You can. You will. It’s not the end of the world, just take a day off, sit in a café, read a book, and lick your wounds. Go easy on yourself. It’s OK. You’re human.
YOU WORK FOR CORPORATE AMERICA. DEAL WITH IT OR QUIT.
At the end of the day you are not going to be serving communities for the joy of philanthropy. You will be selling products to people. People who like to buy name brands. Name brands that you’re trying to create. Deal with it. You will make yourself miserable if you think you’re above everyone else in your ranks. You are no less evil than your clients in the grand scheme.
THERE IS NOTHING IN ADVERTISING WORTH FIGHTING FOR, BUT THAT’S NO REASON NOT TO.
Lie to yourself. Build it up. Make it more important than it is. Inspire yourself any way that you can to do better work. “Guys, this is it,” is a phrase you’ll hear a lot. Go with it. Let yourself get caught up in the moment a bit. It makes it easier to stay until 3 a.m. if you think it matters. Just leave your high horse at the office when you go home.
Actually, they do more for humanity since they leave work on time to coach their kid’s Little League. Nope, you are a monster. You work for the man. You are the man. Know that and maybe you can do work for not just your client, but society.
LEARN TO TAKE A PUNCH.
I know in this business we talk a lot about being thick-skinned and tough, but it’s not only this type of “tough” that is a challenge. You really have to be physically tough and have strong willpower to succeed in this business. Some nights you really put your body through a torture test. Pulling an all-nighter, or finishing up at 3 a.m. and coming in for the 8 a.m. (I call it “the pinch” where the CD responds late at night and the account team plans the meeting early). And even the thick-skinned part of it is more about being calm after the client doesn’t like what you spent all that time doing—when you just think, “Man, I could’ve been sleeping.” It’s keeping Zen while getting beaten, and smiling, and thanking, and asking for one more shot.
In a contact sport like advertising, you can’t finch, because if you do, that next punch is about to land. Show you’re a tough fighter. Sniff up the blood and look them dead in the eye. Fight even harder for a good idea. It’ll scare the hell out of them.
GET THAT THICK SKIN THICKER.
On my first real project as an intern, I was asked to write copy for a beer brand. It was still an open brief and they simply wanted to see some long copy to get a sense of where we could take it. From my background I assumed the best place to start would be to do some research about beer. For most this would involve going to the local bar and downing a few, but to me it meant reading about beer. Several hours later I realized I would’ve been better off going to the bar.
Within the day I had an insightful chunk of copy about the history of beer. Did you know that beer’s been around for thousands of years? There are mentions of it going back all the way back to ancient Egypt. Fascinating stuff I assure you.
This was the premise of my first block of copy for the superstar team. A treatise on the birth of the brewing process. I emailed it over to the senior writer on the project for feedback.
An hour later the senior writer came over. He went straight to the other writer intern, Jeff. They began talking specifics on the copy. He was giving the writer all sorts of tips and pointers. He was going through in detail, they were laughing, enjoying themselves. I couldn’t wait until it came time for my feedback, I’d waited months for this. My back was ready for patting. The senior writer finished talking to Jeff, it was my turn, but why was he walking away? I blurted out “Did you get a chance to look at my copy?” He did. “Try not to make it sound like a textbook.” he said. Then he walked away.
HAVE I BEEN LIED TO?
Most agencies out there pride themselves on being free of politics. This, of course, is bullshit. There are politics at every company, advertising or otherwise.
Navigating the office is necessary for getting work out the door. Great work can set you free, but your job will also be about managing relationships, expectations, and hallways.
THE DEADLINE IS THE GOAL. THE AD IS THE MANDATORY.
You will be put under unbelievable pressure to meet a deadline. People will threaten hell on Earth if you’re even one minute late. Project managers and account teams will call, email, text, and stop by in person. Emails will escalate up to the highest reaches of the account department who will express their sincere and irreversible disappointment in you. Yet, I can’t think of a single creative who’s ever been fired for asking to push a deadline.
If it’s not ready to present, don’t you dare present it. Just say, “I understand the deadline is (soon/tomorrow/now), but I can’t show work that’s not up to the agency’s standard. Let’s move the meeting.”
This might sound irresponsible, but it’s quite the opposite. Account teams rarely tell you this, but built into every schedule are multiple rounds of reviews with the client. The lowest number of client reviews I’ve seen is two, and that was an except
ional case.
Point being, if you take the time to do it right the first time you won’t have to redo it a second time. You’ll appear responsible and they’ll understand why it took longer. If you go into the meeting with unimpressive ideas they will not care that you got it done on time, and at the end of the year when your boss is looking at what you’ve accomplished, they won’t care what the schedule was like.
I’ll add a brief warning that your actions will seem poisonous to some. If a person’s job is getting work in front of clients on time, there’s a fear it will make them appear incapable of doing their jobs.
A second brief warning: let people know as soon as you think you might not make a deadline. Missing a meeting is still unprofessional.
CLIENTS PAY A LOT FOR THE PRIVILEGE OF KILLING YOUR WORK. LET THEM BE THE ONES TO DO IT.
If your CD approves it, it’s going in front of the client. Those who disagree can plead their case with your CDs if they wish, but that’s not your battle. Stand your ground, lean on the bosses. That’s what they’re there for.
People throughout the company have a vision of what’s right. They will be willing to fight for work they believe in and will try and make you change work they don’t believe in. They’re doing what they in their hearts think is best for either the brand or the client relationship (and a lot of times they’re right). But in the end, their opinion doesn’t count. Sorry. You already have a boss whose job that is.
I’ve presented work that was “not right” for the client many times that the client has then loved.
The more you can coexist with “the other side,” the happier both sides will be, but try not to let anyone bully you into ruining the work.
PLAY DUM.
You know the saying, “insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results?” Advertising is officially insane.
If you ask the same question 20 times, the answer will change. In one of my early weeks I was coming out of a client meeting with crystal-clear feedback. I couldn’t argue the points in the meeting, so I went ahead and made the changes. I brought them to my CD who was horrified at all the tweaks I’d made. He pretended the client comments were far smaller than what was said on the call. I thought he was an idiot. Didn’t he hear the same call I did?
The final approved ad had just one teensy change that was barely noticeable and the ad was better for it.
In a different meeting, our vendor told us we didn’t have time or money to do what we wanted. We talked to the CD about it and he asked for those and even more changes. What a moron!
In the end we had all of those changes and more and the ad was better for it.
Reasonable people don’t go very far in advertising. This is an industry for imbeciles.
AS A STARTING CREATIVE, YOUR JOB IS PROVING YOUR CREATIVE DIRECTOR RIGHT.
You will occasionally get feedback from your CD that you might not agree with. Find a way to make it work. Do the absolute best you can. You can try questioning it if you’re deeply opposed, but chances are it’s not your gut telling you it’s not the right idea, it’s your head telling you that you’d rather not do more work since you feel you’ve already solved it.
Try. See if it works. If you can’t crack it, at least you tried and you can go back and explain why it didn’t work.
What’s crazy about this is that most of the time they will be right. They’ve been doing it a lot longer than you and have an understanding that you will not have. Also, they are rarely hacks if they’ve made it to a high post at an award-winning place. You can’t climb far if you have fluke success.
There’s a lot of arrogance in the business and you can break through just by doing instead of bitching.
YOU ARE UNIQUELY QUALIFIED TO BE YOURSELF.
There’s a reason you got hired at the company. They wanted you. There’s some -thing that you do that’s necessary for their success. If you’re not delivering on it then you’re wasting their time, and more importantly, your own. If they fire you for doing what you like to do, oh well, you would never be happy there anyway.
Everyone has some past knowledge or history that they bring to the table. Past jobs or hobbies that define you. Put that into your work and it won’t feel like an ad and won’t look like anyone else’s.
FEW ARE WILLING TO TAKE RISKS. EVERYONE IS WILLING TO TAKE CREDIT.
When an ad ends up successful, people get amnesia over which side of it they were on. You’d be amazed how much people who hated your idea suddenly love it. In fact, they clearly remember how hard they worked on it.
If you’re crazy about an idea and nobody can convince you otherwise, go for it. Break hearts, go over people’s heads, sell it through. If it was a worthwhile idea and it sells, everyone will fall in line rather than look like they were out of touch.
It’s false to assume that your job will be any less painful by going with the flow. It’s a stressful job no matter what; at least be proud of what you do.
KEEPING FINGERPRINTS OFF YOUR STUFF.
My friend and I have a joke that if you go to the lowest title on award show credits then you see who actually did all of the work. You can tell you’re doing great when people start wanting to put their touch on your work. Try your best to keep your idea pure and clean, but be open to letting it get better.
If, however, you worked hundreds of hours, weekends, nights, and then in the last minute somebody wants to put their ink on it and take equal credit, try not to freak out. You can do it again, they can’t. They’ll be found out and if you work hard enough, so will you.
Feel free to speak up if it makes you feel better, but don’t worry, word spreads. It might not be immediate, but within a few years reputations catch up with reality. I’ve seen it. Huge people can fall if they didn’t earn their position.
ACCEPT A GOOD IDEA FROM ANYWHERE.
It shouldn’t matter where the idea came from if it’s a good idea. If you only allow ideas into the mix that come from your brain, your office, your department, whatever, you’re going to be limiting yourself and will come off as kind of a prick. What’s worse, in the long run people will lose trust in you as a person with the ability to discern good work from bad work.
PICK SOMEBODY WHO YOU WILL NEVER DISAPPOINT.
All the people I know in the business who’ve had break-out success have had one person who has become their inhouse spokesperson. In exchange, the young professional will kill themselves on every project for that person whether it’s a print ad or scanning photos. They never disappoint.
Find that person. Aim as high as you can, but the most important thing is that they love you and you love them.
It will happen to you, as it happens to everybody: you will be spread too thin. No matter how many hours you put in, something will have to give. Make sure it’s not on a project from the person championing you.
It’s like prison: Become somebody’s bitch, or get shanked.
ADVERTISING IS TINY.
There are only a few thousand people at all the great agencies combined. Within three years you will know at least one person at any place you’d want to work. More importantly, they’ll know you. If you’re a dick, kiss your career goodbye. In my first year at Goodby Silverstein & Partners, the recruiter asked if I knew so and so from Crispin Porter + Bogusky where I interned. He was a senior art director there when I was just out of school, but his fate was in my hands. Fortunately I liked him and thought he was talented. I said so. I saw him two weeks later around the office.
AVOID DATING COWORKERS.
You’re probably going to ignore this. You might end up getting married to one (which happens a lot). You also might not (which happens a lot more). Either way, compartmentalize the hell out of it. When you cross that door you’re a professional in a job, don’t let the free beer and casual vibes fool you into thinking it’s a single’s bar.
“Where should I work?”
As I write this part, I’m waiting at the office for my partner. I
t’s 1 a.m., and last night we were here until 2:30 a.m. I’m tired. I’m worn out. I’ve spent more hours at this place than my home. I don’t have some kind of false belief that what I’m doing is critically important to the world. Yet I feel alright. And I’m trying to figure out why. I think a lot of it has to do with the people I work with.
I don’t know if I’ll work in advertising forever, but I feel fortunate to be around the people I get to be around. They are fun, charming, funny, and stylish.
I can’t tell you what it’s like to work at a miserable company, because I’ve never had the patience to stay at one. One fact I can say is that I know people who’ve come from agencies with frightening reputations and they’ve been able to leap from there into some of the best agencies in the world. From everything I’ve heard and seen, I can confidently say the following: talent tends to rise to the top, top-notch people get squeezed out of bad places and just about anywhere you go you will find at least one person who is better than you whom you can learn from.
There is such a heavy focus on the hot shops; the place you work sets the direction for your career in general, but it doesn’t matter as much as you think it does. If you’re unhappy with a place, don’t stay for the name. Nobody else has to be in your job but you.
If you have a job, be happy to be employed; a lot of people aren’t. Take it as a sign of how awesome you are. At the same time, if you’re not happy, get out. If you want to move somewhere else, make sure you do so out of opportunity, not out of fear or anger.
In that same realm, don’t take a job at a place you aren’t crazy about for fear that nothing better will come along. I know when I was unemployed for nearly half a year, fresh out of school, it felt like the hardest move to turn down a job. But I wouldn’t ever be happy at a place if I settled there because I was afraid.
Junior Page 9