They gave us* an inch, we* took a mile, they got pissed off, they’re making us* pay.
I’ve had a fair few whinges on here about the marginalisation of creativity, but I’m not sure I’ve ever said that we (creatives) kind of deserve it.
I came into the business with my ears full of stories, apocryphal or otherwise, of the previous generations of creatives and their leisurely, indulged lifestyles: the guys on six-figures in the eighties who hit the pubs as soon as they opened and spent the day gambling their massive salaries away; the plant pots thrown through windows; the sports cars that made up for the giant tax rate in the sixties; the somewhat dismissive attitudes towards women; the snarly, off-hand manner with which non-creatives were treated etc.
Well, when the quality of the work was all-important, that was all fine. The rest of the agency had to just suck it up and envy us. We went on the foreign jollies, we hung out with directors and photographers, we got to see our stuff on TVs and billboards and we picked up the awards. But then we were the geese laying the golden eggs, and it made perfect sense to keep that genius ticking along, no matter what it took.
But we were also building up a seething volcano of resentment.
The other departments, particularly account management and planning, didn’t enjoy having to kow-tow to the boys in trainers who drifted in at eleven and went to the pub at twelve after dashing off for a quick chat with Ridley or Alan.
It fucked them off big time.
But for ages there was nothing they could do about it. The geese. The golden egg… It was sacrosanct.
Then the worm started to turn. It took a while, but the people with the word ‘account’ in their job title were generally the people in charge, and little by little they chipped away at our status. Lower wages, a sharper eye on the working hours, quantity becoming just as important as quality. And over a decade or two the effect was complete. The decisions were being made by people who couldn’t tell a good ad from a hole in the ground, so they didn’t really care if were were indulged superstars laying golden eggs or worker drones laying turds. The money was the same colour either way and in the latter instance they could pay less of it to us. As far as they could tell there was no real drop in standards, and with everyone producing shit, it looked like no one was producing shit.
Something still won a gold arrow at the BTAAs.
Something still filled the pages of D&AD.
Something still won an ever-increasing number of Lions at Cannes.
How could anyone prove things were getting worse?
No one could, so as far as people with no taste are concerned, everything is hunky blooming dory.
So that’s it, I’m afraid: they’ve won.
Yes, there are exceptions to prove rules, and the above is a bit of a generalisation, but take a look around and you’ll see that advertising in this country ain’t what it used to be. CDs are hired to be dictated to by MDs and CEOs. They can’t say boo to a goose anymore, let alone throw one out of a window to prove a point about kerning. If you want a bit more proof, take another look and see if anything your agency produces could be defined as ‘scam’. It’s what we’ve all been reduced to now: utterly pointless willy-waving that devalues what we do still further.
And what I’m saying should be no surprise to you. A huge chunk of the best creatives in the business have left town. There were always the ones who wanted to direct, but now the ones who would have stayed in the game are all off abroad, or working in some other industry that might just value their talent.
Which means things will only get worse.
Yes, the job is still relatively enjoyable. Yes, great work is still occasionally possible.
But the party’s over. The house lights are up, the floor is smeared with cake and the tables are littered with beer bottles and the dregs that sit at the bottom of them.
And it’s all our fault.
*All references to ‘we’, ‘us’, ‘our’ etc. are to denote creatives. Of course most of us didn’t take that mile. The ones who did were the goddamn babyboomers, who sucked up all the good stuff while were were still in nappies. Has there even been a jammier generation in the history of the planet? The ones in this country had no wars, grew up with The Beatles, got older to Zep and Floyd, had the best generation of movies there has ever been to enjoy in the cinema and then got the rub of the green in the housing market. Sheesh. Way to fuck it up for the rest of us.
Baby fuckin boomers. What a bunch of cunts. They’ve fucked us all right over. What say we go round all their fuck off mansions now and do them right in. Oooh I just realised I went all Clockwork Orange there. Must have been all the bleedin white middle class feckers and their offspring (and I’m one of them) at Kew Gardens today that did for me and then your insightful posting just sent me over the edge. (Deep breath).
..and now we have to deal with all the second rate talent from digital. As for the new creative Gods…Planning.
Cunts
but doesn’t this exactly coincide with the rise of the holding company?
and the resulting commodification of advertising creativity.
same net effect.
but you are correct.
It has trickled down onto the shop floor.
the game itself has become boring. and not particularly rewarding.
and so exit the really creative and ambitious people.
And they’re the last generation that will retire in relative wealth. The rest of us are buggered.
it’s the same for account guys, directors, photographers….
do you think they get the salaries and reverence they once had?
no one does. because all those tales of glory came from the blaggers, not the grafters.
this is still a great industry to be part of.
be the change you want to see. as some clever foreign johnny once wrote.
You’re all a bunch of pussies.
That generation of creatives were tough and fought for their work.
They didn’t put up with crap from suits and that’s why the work was good.
Something to do with the Darwinian theory.
And they worked hard – they had to if they wanted to spend the afternoon at lunch.
I wonder if that the death of politics and in particular old school anti-establishment movements has an effect on the lack of creativity today, in the UK and probably the West.
The cultural references you note for the baby boomers are often aligned to anti-establishment ideologies. With maxims like – I hope I die before I get old.
What do we have, we, means gen x, or the beaten generation. With maxims like – I hope I am old before I die.
Somewhere the revolution got postponed. The battle was lost.
The left have been beaten into the middle of the road.
Economics became more important that politics, i.e. money v freedom. Efficiency took over from effectiveness and now TINA (there is no alternative) rules.
I maybe wrong on this and it could just be suits being revengeful.
I don’t think for one second all is lost though…..
Vinny, I think a whole bunch of bad things have ganged up on the industry, particularly its creative output.
Holding companies are indeed a massive illness.
The love of money would certainly appear to be the root of all evil.
Advertising is proper pony. Some of the account people in our place are just mongs. don’t know where they get them from.
Sophie Frost, as a second rate talent from digital I’d really like to know why you find dealing with us to be such a chore?
This is a really good article btw
I don’t think they are making us pay like you say. I don’t think they give a fuck. I don’t think they are ‘winning’ as such. Shit has just changed.
If I was them, I wouldn’t give a fuck either. I’d just want what’s mine.
Btw. On the subject of the love of money…
We can be as creative as we like if we decided to be unpaid artists.
At Cogent Elliott in the early seventies – the agency’s most creative period – the account men went to the pub with the creatives.
At CDP in its most glorious years, Frank Lowe, an account man, ruled the roost.
Do caged birds sing as well as those that are unfettered?
Anonymouse: you can accept the existence of money without making it the primary motive behind everything in your working day.
The holding companies, and companies in general exist primarily to make money.
I can’t think of anything sadder.
Don’t change the subject John W.
Damo, I cannot speak directly about your talent as we have never worked together. I’m just saying that when working on briefs alongside ‘some’ digital teams, they never seem to offer greater insight into the medium than us ‘atl’ chumps couldn’t have thought up ourselves.
I’m with you Ms. Frost. More than that they usually offer less insight into consumer behaviour and seem to comfortably disregard what’s right for the brand. In fact, I wager that in 20 years time, some bod is going to be writing a blog about how digital creatives at the turn of the century blew it for everyone with their ill-conceived ways.
Great post. Some of it even true. I’m truly sorry it’s all turned to shit.
“The ones who did were the goddamn babyboomers, who sucked up all the good stuff while were were still in nappies.”
Yes, but at least we could afford to buy beautiful nappies for you. And a lot more besides.
Great article – made me think so I’m back to comment. I’m with Gout-legs and Moustache. It can’t all be lost or people wouldn’t still mourn it – if we didn’t care it wouldn’t be an issue – and while we still care it’s our fault if we don’t stand up for what we believe. Every time we accept shit and let our names be associated with shit we can tell ourselves it’s our fault. All nice and good blaming other people but that changes nothing. And I’m new to the industry and not a creative but I certainly didn’t get involved for money as it’s much better elsewhere but I still care & my chats with others suggest they do too, we just don’t say it loudly enough.
HI Verity.
I wrote a post earlier this year pointing out that I point this stuff out because I used to love advertising and am not happy with what it’s turning into.
I just want to be clear that the points I make are to show where/why/how things are going wrong, to make people like yourself think about how they could go right again.
Please change the industry for the better.
Change is possible if you choose it.
I think you are overlooking the role of the bill payer in all this – the client. Increase of procurement’s influence, difficulty in assigning success in a multi-channel world, dealing with multiple agencies, tighter margins, more accountability due to shareholder influence eroding the traditionally cosy client/agency relationship, separation of true decision makers (accountants) and marketers. People with “account” in their title have been able to chip away because external circumstances have enabled it.
And, is it just me, or have clients (even in the last 10 years) declined in quality quite dramatically? Has the City stopped stealing just the finest minds and started to steal the upper mediocre level as well?
Can highly recommend moving abroad.
The job’s the same but your life gets a whole lot more interesting.
@Sophie Frost
Cause the sun shines out of every ATLers arse. There’s shit on both sides. I went across to digital cause I live on the internet and play lots of computer games. Much more fun for me there than having to come up with another naff TVC featuring perfect mum’s for an FMCG brand. But that doesn’t mean I think everyone needs to do a nifty twitter mash up or an annoying as all fuck OTP.
There’s dickheads on both sides and the ones who get on their high horse and use sweeping generalisations about the talent on the other side tend to be right cunts.
I’m a lowly account exec. I get shit on from all angles, at least if inspiring work was being produced it’d all be worth it. All my account manager gives a shit about is if my admin is in order. She couldn’t care less if my clients love me. These are the cunts that killed advertising. Admin worshippers and their fucking mission for compliance.