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Advertising How To... Part 1
Behold! On yonder keyboard doth type thy fingers of Sensitive Writer, thy newest blessing fallen upon thoust Denver Egotist, brimming with thy most tender feelings and joyful observations of thine advertising profession. Cup thy mouth and open thine ears for thy frickin’ truth.
How to know if advertising’s the right job for you.
Recently, my 14-year-old nephew took a personality test at school to determine what careers would suit him well. And as fate would have it, he comes out with recommendations to become a) a comedian, b) an artist or, you guessed it, c) work in advertising. Which kind of got me thinking. If “You’re suited to a job in advertising!” is the answer, what the hell is the question? I mean, are they really asking 14-year-olds questions like:
1. Is your footwear of choice flip-flops?
2. Are you often wildly inappropriate?
3. Would you prefer to sleep ‘til noon?
4. Is your motto “Well, it’s 5:30 somewhere!”
5. Do you have no other marketable skills?
Clearly, we’ve completely lost sight of what we do.
It’s always amazed me that they now teach advertising at colleges, because it seems to me it’s one of the few businesses you can only prepare for by actually doing it. Sure, someone can teach you what a concept is, what you should look for in a great headline and read you pithy quotes from dead Madison Avenue industry greats but the core of this business boils down one simple thing I’m not certain they can teach: Problem solving.
My firmly held belief has always been that either you’s a problem solver or ya ain’t. And no college, art school, ad school or online course is going to make you into one if you didn’t develop that skill early on. Sure, you need to know basic grammar or InDesign if you want to keep your job, but 90% of your daily tasks will revolve around solving problems.
Case in point:
* The client has a shitty product but wants to do cool ads.
* You sold a $500,000 TV idea but account service has only given you $64,000 to produce it.
* You’ve been assigned a long copy piece about jejunums.
* Your Creative Director wants everyone to wear monkey suits to the new business pitch at 2 PM.
This business is all about solving problems. Some are solved with ideas. Some are solved with cleverness. Some are solved with Google. Some are solved with words. Some are solved with money. Many are solved with sheer, dumb luck. But nearly everything that comes across your desk is in need of a solution. And it’s up to you to find it.
All too often we get caught up in hiring young kids with great books from well-know ad centers and forget to ask them that one essential question.
Forget “Do you like talking in front of a crowd?” “Do people say you’re good with words?” and “Are you a visual learner?” The one question we need to ask potential creatives (and they need to ask themselves if they’re thinking of getting into advertising) is “How well can you solve a problem?”
Or, better yet, can you solve it while telling an off-color joke, wearing flip-flops and holding a beer in one hand after rolling into the office at 11:30?
In which case, hoooooo baby, do we have a career for you.
621 days ago / / Link
hmmmmm….flip flops….I like it
— Sjt · Oct 26, 08:30 AM · #
you forgot to mention “an extraordinary ability to put up with many different personalities & egos”. that’s key.
— spunkybrewster · Oct 26, 12:01 PM · #