You are free
Here are a couple of comments from last week’s blog:
What if your creative director tells you not to do it and you do it and you DONT win a D&AD Gold and sales DONT go up in fact…you just get bollocked for going against your CD’s superioriority. Guess what? You get fired and you get fucked with no job to go to. You’re not the Gold Pencil Winning maverick, you’re just the little prick that thinks he knows best and wont take proper direction. Sadly, this is not the 80s and we are not all Paul Arden or Graham Fink. This is a business. There are rules and hierachies. Its not making art. Like it or not you kind of have to follow them to a point.
You either stand in for what you believe (and get sacked with no job to go to) or just follow orders and produce shit like this.
I found them a bit sad.
On one side I can see where they are coming from, but on the other I worry that people approach the only life they are ever going to have in a way that leaves them so restricted in the possibilities they see for themselves.
Yes, advertising is nowhere near as fun as it seemed to be back in the 60s/70s/80s/90s, but that doesn’t mean you should go about your day producing mediocre work for fear of getting fired. That way lies a life of timidity, of squeezing yourself into corners in the hope that you will remain unseen. You don’t have to run around your department naked or throw plant pots out of windows to live a life of great light and heat. You don’t have to be Hendrix, Michelangelo or Shakespeare. You don’t even have to win a Cannes Gold.
You just have to see what your life could be and aim somewhere in that direction instead of hoping no one notices you for the next seventy years before you head off to feed worms.
I know, I know… You’re still sitting there mouthing ‘It’s all right for you, I’ve got a mortgage and a kid and a DVD habit that needs constant feeding’. I get that, but there are so many risk-free ways of realising your possibilities: instead of watching Downton Abbey, write it (writing is pretty much free – you can even get free pens in the bookies and write on stolen toilet paper). Instead of reading a novel, write one. Go and try an open mic night (being a stand-up is also free). Take photos with your phone and become a photographer. Start a blog. Draw, paint, master the lute.
None of that need get in the way of you writing crappy ads, but it could all lead to a life you’ll look back on with immense satisfaction and no regrets.
Quick – while there’s still time.
If you are afraid of something, you should do it anyway.
If you are afraid of getting fired – get fired. See what happens. It will get rid of the fear. And as a result, you’ll be a more experienced person.
I’m not just saying that – couple of years ago I was given a chance to stay in a CD job and behave – or stand my ground and get fired. I decided to get fired. Not cos I’m a hero, or because I’m dangerous, but because I didn’t like fear making the decision for me
It was the best thing I ever did.
All the time I had to keep telling myself, ‘Nobody I know has starved to death.’ And not only did I not starve to death, life turned out to be just as generous to me as it always has been.
I learned a lesson that I didn’t know at the time. And that is that there really is nothing to fear at all.
That’s the mad bit – we’re afraid of fuck all. It’s all made up in our minds.
Plus, everything’s going to all be taken away from us at some point whether we like it or not.
We are, as the title says FREE. And feeling that way is the most liberating and amazing thing in the world.
Sorry for the lengthy comment, but this is a great post, Ben, and I hope people who are afraid of what might happen read it and take note.
Never mind all that, Ben. What about this First Direct ad.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXReklw3NLM
I quite like the First Direct ad.
Maybe I’ll stick it up properly next week.
It’s a shame that we must now find fulfilment in things outside advertising. For example I now only do advertising to enable me to do the things I enjoy. It has become work. It never used to be.
By the way. That pub in the First Direct ad is actually called The Palm Tree and is in Mile End park off the Burdett Road. It’s ace.
Drinking in pubs is one of the things I do advertising to enjoy. There was a time when one could do both.
Yeah, it’s like quite a good ad from the late 90s.
I love my job AND the shit I do outside it.
You’re the lucky sausage.
I love my shit AND the job I do outside it.
Good post Ben.
It’s a message that we were all told as kids. And then something (life? responsibility?) comes along and seems to get in the way.
For what ever reason there seems to be a great deal of personal tragedy in the business at the moment.
And if that doesn’t act as a wake-up call then I don’t what else can.
I’ll leave the lute to you Ben. But there’s a bundle of other stuff I want to learn (or get better at) while – as you say – there’s still time.
Great post. Great comment Anonymouse.
I had a go and stand-up the other day. You can see a bit of it for free here. The rest you have to give some cash to Barnardo’s to watch. Don’t be afraid. Do it.
http://www.givetoview.com/videoviewer/givetoview/?gid=8bbef5e4-f2d1-4718-83dc-84740ae620ae
You just can’t take this shit serious is my mantra now.
Seeing people try so hard on things that are so pony gives me the giggles every day.
Then I go to the pub.
anonymouse, that’s an inspiring comment.
one thing on making the fear up in our minds.
this is true, but advertising is largely to blame for seeding the fear in the first place.
so if we all agree to not do advertising that plays on insecurities, then we should all be fine.
and why are you anonymous? isn’t that fear?
Thinking up really good ads used to be the most difficult thing in this job. These days the most tricky thing is appearing to give a shit.
That and stifling gales of helpless laughter when someone reads out a manifesto or shows the mood film or puts Carpe Diem in a brief or writes “Life’s better when…. (insert involvement with product) as the proposition.
This is such a brilliant post, Ben.
Creative Departments are full of people who are terrified of failing/annoying CDs/making mistakes.
That’s why the majority of ads are a conservative 5/10 and most teams amble along, not winning awards and then find themselves jaded, bitter and often redundant at 40.
If you are confident enough (and talented enough, obviously) and have the conviction to do what you think is right you’ll ultimately be happier and more successful. And if you’re not, at least you’ll be able to look yourself in the mirror and not feel like a fucking pusssssssaaaaay.
I had an epiphany a year or so ago and realised that I was miserable at work and that my partner and I were abdicating control of everything we did for fear of annoying our bosses (who we’ve steadily grown to respect less and less) and writing things with juries in mind rather than just doing a good solution to the problem.
By standing up for ourselves and only presenting work that we genuinely wanted to make/believe in, we’ve had the most successful year of our career.
Our bosses fucking hate us, mind, but we’ve got a job at a very good agency on the back of it, so it’s played out well for us.
This post and Dave Trott’s vid form the other day should be required reading/viewing for young teams.
Don’t be a complacent, moaning wanker, take control of your life and fucking go for it. If it goes tits up, who gives a shit.
Well said Ben, Anonymouse. You can’t live in fear in this business. I have a similar experience, mine ended up in starting my own company with a couple of mates so that we could make working in advertising be the way we believe it should be. It was, and is, an equally frightening, exciting and energising thing to do. I would recommend it to anyone.
One thing, I think you can only blame the current state of the ad business for half of the problem. The other half is down to the individuals in it. I wonder if advertising has in recent years, because it has changed, attracted different kinds of people, maybe less risk takers and maverick types. People sat in their agency wondering why no one is throwing pot plants out of windows and running around naked, maybe that’s because it should be you doing it.
I saw an apt phrase this morning in a book I’m reading; There are no such thing as hopeless situations, only hopeless people in situations.
I’m a fan of that First Direct ad too.
Thanks for the positive comments.
I’d just like to add to the list of things you can do:
Volunteer for a charity, or start your own.
Visit a lonely old person once a week.
Stand for your local council, or Parliament.
Life’s full of brilliant things to do in your spare time.
Great post, thanks. Inspiring comment anonymous.
Well said 15 & 16. Good to hear people put it so well.
Apologies for my self-promotional post which now seems a bit out of place. Was a bit pissed when I posted.
Interesting comment Sell Sell. Although perhaps having your own shop maybe allows you the luxury of the ‘half and half’ perspective. Truth is that there’s a lot of battle-weary souls in many of the bigger companies. I know – I go out and see them often enough.
I know that some are just keeping their heads down, hoping it’ll pass.
Others are more defeated than that – literally clinging on.
But there *are* those who are taking delight in developing peripheral stuff – particularly stuff that new technologies allow.
Like organising a charity event with full blown (and home made) social media support.
Or developing a micro-distillery (easier than you might think).
Lots of things are possible.
And Ben’s right – it’s about making time. If the man behind one of the industry’s most successful supply companies can also find the time to the the joint-chairman of a newly promoted Premiership team….
Am I condemning people who have children? Absolutely not! Plenty of my friends and relatives have called having children a rewarding life experience. However, plenty of other people I know often complain about their children and how they wish they could work, go back to school, and do other things to better themselves. While I love children, they simply hold no interest for me and I don’t see why I should be expected to have them. Instead of feeling pressured to have children for any reason, women should feel free to pursue their dreams, whether that means being a full-time housewife or being a CEO.