The
Battle For Coca-Cola
Rages On.
Ain't
Nothing Like
The Real Thing, Maybe.
I
Don't Mean To Say
I Told You So, But...
Are
Consumers Smarter
Then We Are?.
The
Four Great Myths
Of Global Branding.
Mr
Bevis Butts Heads
At Mitsubishi
The
Best Laid Plans
Of Mice And Men.
Dare
to Be Great:
The Mad Genius of "The Matrix"
Mitsubishi's
New Marketing Boss
Out Of The Frying Pan.
Concept Is Stronger Than Fact.
Value
Perception In A World
Gone Mad With "Cool"
The
Future of Advertising
The Brand
The
Future of Advertising
The Targets
The
Future of Advertising
The Grid
The
Future of Advertising
The Swarm
Technology
Making The Message
Meaningful
The Only Business That Matters Is The One You're In.
What
Ever Happened To The
Big Idea?
The Post-Advertising Era Is Here
Confessions Of A" Liar For Hire"
Good, Bad and Ugly At the Moment of Truth
A Post-Advertising "Big Idea".
The Value Of A Paying Pustomer.
Emergence Of the "Empire of One".
All customers Are Created Equal
Playing God An Other Atrocities
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Happy Fucking Birthday To Me. There. I'm glad that's done with. Can I get back to work now? This business I'm in has taken over more birthdays, holidays, special occasions, then I care to recall. My wife even has a picture of me at work, at a desk in the delivery center as she was awaiting the arrival of our daughter Jasmine. What did I want most for this birthday? A day off. What did I get? My ass chewed because I didn't take the day off. I'm not winning this day no matter what I do from here on out. This column was late because it's the third one I've tried to write. They keep getting bounced by my editor who just accused the last one of being an "essay," not the column written by the so-called " Most Dangerous Man In Advertising." The advertising I'm a danger to today is the advertising I have yet to create if I quit. |
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This business has been kicking my ass since I was 12 years old. I did safety posters for one of the country's 10 most dangerous companies. The once-mighty Pennsylvania Railroad. They thought I was 18. I missed a lot of school to work in the world of adults. School. Girlfriends. Home Games. Proms. Learning about the power of words and images to get people to do what you want them to do was more important than algebra to me. I wanted railroad men to learn to think before they would act. I got them to do that. Not making school, girlfriend's birthdays, home games, or proms seemed a small price to pay. Today I'm not so sure. |
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"Everything you write about seem to be based upon this misbegotten theory that advertising is somehow "post." Wake up, Sparky. Advertising is alive and well. You are the one who is "Post." - ( Anon) NYC Thank you so much for noticing.-HW |
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By my 19th birthday I had become the first Art Director for Motown Records in Detroit. Everything I was doing was too important not to do. Much more important than my first child's moment of birth. "But you don't understand. It's the fucking Supremes AND the Temptations. It's the fucking Ed Sullivan Show." What a jerk I was. Today there are no Supremes. Today there are no Temptations, save for Otis Williams. Ed Sullivan is long dead. And as of today, I haven't heard from my daughter for more than two years. Was missing my son's graduation worth the cost of getting a spot on the air that only ran a week because my client's boss hated it? Absolutely not. Birthdays make you wonder about your relative state of sanity over the years. How crazy did I have to be to quit a $135,000 a year job as Director of Creative Services at Motown with my name on 22 Gold Records, to go work as an Assistant Art Director at Young & Rubicam on Madison Avenue for $8500 a year. How crazy did I have to be to move my wife and daughter from a beautiful townhouse in downtown Detroit to public housing in downtown Newark, New Jersey. And expect them to fend for themselves because "You don't understand. It's frigging Eastern Airlines." Or "friggin'" BandAid Brand, or Dr Pepper, or General Motors. Even the smallest detail or task warranted the biggest disappointments. Class plays. Birthday Parties. Entire Vacations. And for your 28th Birthday, the Courts would like to present you with this lovely civil divorce decree. "Sorree. I can't make the hearing date. I'm shooting Sears Swimwear in Vyscia Gardens off Miami Beach." Who can you blame for your distraction from your own life? At first, the question was easy. Advertising is paying me. School is not. Then I figured out how to do both. Then there were more life events to miss as my career began to takeoff as a direct result missing more life events. Now the stakes were higher. The cost of hurt feelings and painful disappointment now felt more than justified. Almost anticipated. I had become a successful failure. I even had a smug little phrase for it. "I'm a better art director then a human being." I would say it constantly. Proudly. But the things missed start increasing in value as the so-called career goals begin to tank with the quality and reputation of advertising as it stands today. Most advertising sucks creatively. As a person that creates ads, how does it feel to be one of the "spoilers" and certainly not one of the "elite." Especially upon seeing what fills the landscape today. The more I go forward, the more I have to keep looking straight ahead. Is scheduling a client meeting out of town on your birthday worth rescheduling once the wife reminds you that Wednesday was your Birthday? Well yes. In fact it was. So far. The day is young. It's only 1:56,
Stay tuned.
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