The Truth, The Whole Truth and Nothing But The Truth

So I guess it’s my (Anton’s) turn to write something, not that I mind writing or that I consider myself ‘too busy’ to do so, just an insecurity that I’ll bore you really.

So I won't fuck around or try and bullshit about advertising being great, spew lies about lunches, intellectualise what a planner’s role is or hide from you the fact that the first year or two is quite demoralising. Sorry, that’s all bit rank really isn’t it, but it’s honest. So what is there to celebrate about thinking of a career in advertising? Well for me what is really key are the people. Sounds quite twee actually, but harps back to my original declaration, it’s honest. The people I’ve crossed paths with in advertising are (Sandstorm by Cast has just come on and I can’t help but recognise that it’s a class tune, anyway) funny, dull, clever, shit, fantastic, egocentric, generous, inspirational, de-motivating, helpful, harmful, indulgent, bullies, grateful…I could go on, my point being is that no where else in a work environment have I come across such a colourful group of people.

So yeah, you have friends who provide all these things but what you want is a rock solid career I guess. Well, the thing is, in my humble opinion, unless you have an intrinsic interest in people you’re going to be pretty shit in advertising. Further to that if you have an issue with being honest you’re going to (despite popular belief) have an even greater issue with a career in advertising. The only way I can think of communicating an analogy for this right now, due to a fuzzy head (another good thing: in no other work place are you celebrated for rocking in looking like you had a nastier evening than the other guy/girl) is when you were a kid and lying to your parents would come out all incoherent, disjointed and generally transparent as opposed to being a teenager when you believed in your angst driven convictions and could argue and argue and argue…because essentially you believed you were right. My long winded point being that by being honest and presenting the truth as you see it is a pre-requisite; the day of the bull shitter is long gone. Having said that I’ve managed to escape Account Management and now work in utopia that is strategic planning which essentially is based on understanding humans and being honest so my view is most certainly skewed, however, it makes me look better if you share it obviously.

I need some water, a sandwich and 2 ibuprofen so I’m going to cut this short. Umm, yeah I love it really, I love the people I work with, I love how I respect/aspire to be my bosses and don’t think they’re dumb c*nts, I love learning about people and how they behave and how they click with products and I love the fact I’m paid to do so. I’ll write more intelligibly next time I promise.....and it’s okay by the way to romanticise working in advertising (if you're passionate about the above) along as you aren’t out to network, I hate networking and the future of this industry depends on you to hate it in its traditional form also.