| The Pros and Cons of Working in Advertising What’s Great It's a variety show. No matter what your job is at an advertising agency, you’ll have quite a bit of variety in your work. Your accounts may range from computer software to sporting goods companies. One account management insider says, “It’s never dull. You’re always working on a bunch of different things. If you thrive on variety, you’ll probably like advertising.” A creative agrees: “Your job is constantly changing. It’s a dynamic job description.” Many people enjoy the interaction between creatives and management. “You get to use one side of your brain for the business details, while using the other side for helping develop the creative work,” says an account management insider. Hey, good-lookin’. Advertising is notorious for drawing attractive, well-dressed young people who go to the hippest restaurants and bars. One insider says, “As much as we joke about it, there is a glamorous element to the industry. You get to stay at good hotels and go to cool restaurants and work with cool directors. The parties are just full of great-looking people.” Of course, young people create a young environment.A creative insider agrees: “For a corporate environment, it’s about the most relaxed you can get. The dress is casual, you can joke around with people, and there may be a pool table or a Ping-Pong table….” Changing the world. Joe Isuzu. “Just Do It." Joe Camel. In advertising, you’re involved in a world of high visibility and great cultural power. “At its best, you can do something that contributes to popular culture,” says an insider. “You can do a spot that enters the zeitgeist.” And even if the result is not quite so culturally pervasive, people in advertising consider it a compelling industry. “You get to see what you’ve created on national TV, and advertising is a topic that everyone has an opinion about." What’s to Hate Changing the world? Not! No matter how much some people would like to believe good advertising is the same thing as art, it's not. “It’s probably as base a consumer-oriented thing as you can do,” says one insider. Many feel that advertising offers no great benefit to society. One insider says, “Sometimes, I think of all the smart, talented people I work with, who work really hard solving problems together all day, and I have to think there are better ways their energy could be directed, instead of selling a bunch of crap to people who don’t need it.” Ego a go-go. Working with the “in” crowd can, for some, become unreal and superficial. Maybe that’s why advertising is an industry full of many people with quirky, intrusive habits and bloated egos. There’s the copywriter who won’t go into creative presentations without his parrot perched on his shoulder, or the commercial director who calls his ads “films.” “My bosses are the most arrogant people I’ve ever met,” says an insider. “I’ve never worked with so many rich idiots before,” says another. Yet another adds, “There are a lot of difficult people in the industry. As an account person, you have to kiss butts, and that can get frustrating.” Kissing butt. Almost everyone in the industry has been frustrated at some point by their dealings with clients. One insider says, “We had a bagel client who insisted that we not have any punctuation in the ad copy. It was the most absurd client demand I’d ever heard.” Another says, “You can spend six months working on a project that just suddenly dies [because the client changes its mind].” An account management insider adds, “I hate having to baby-sit the client.” However, another insider notes: “You need the client, so you have to compromise your integrity sometimes.” Capsizing careers. The industry is notoriously unstable. An agency might lose a big account, and suddenly 20 percent of its staff is laid off. A creative might find herself assigned to a partner or a creative director she can’t work with and—boom!—she’s fired. Or a junior account person might rub a big, important client the wrong way, and suddenly he’s reassigned to the direct response unit of the agency. |
