The Curious Case about the ad person who forgot his/her kid's birthday.
This came via email today and I found it to deeply amazing that I just needed to share it. To protect the innocent bystanders I will do my best to tell the truth while not revealing too much about where it came from - although I have no idea where in the world the agency is, anways...
So here's the thing. When you have been at this business way too long, you get to see certain things. You see the best of people, you see the worst. You see people acting in weird ways. You see teams give backstabs like there is no tomorrow.
In fact, you just look at the mirror and maybe you will find a jaded, tired, exhausted creative. Maybe a very angry and bitter Account Executive. A Creative Director that knows, deep inside him or her, that the time has passed and now the key to survival is to hang on to that job... or else. My point is that we've all been that dirty road, we know how bad agency life can be, we know the painful reality that students starting out have absolutely no idea of.
Ok wait a minute. Are you a student? Are you still at college looking to crack the "ad world"?
Stop reading. This post is kind of sad.
Come back tomorrow. I promise to post some stupid and cute dog video so you can laugh. Promise. Go to bed. Night, night.
Ok so where were we? Yeah. Bad stuff. So this letter came in. Short. To the point. Like I like my copy. But at the end I yelled "Holy Shit"!
I've heard and read stories in my time, but I've never read this one before. Here it goes:
Ad person from unknown agency quits because too much work caused X person to forget kid's birthday. BY DAYS. Kid ended up telling parent about having forgotten such important date. Person quit because that would not be tolerated.
Again. Say it with me. Holy Shit.
Listen, I don't like posting your stories (oh, when they do come in about TWO times in a year!), but this has to give the rest of us some sort of perspective. What, pray tell can it be? That we've been writing about this, for years now. Advertising can make you miss out on life. But it's YOUR choice to let it do that to you.
Recently I started remembering about the movie Lemonade and about how important it is to sometimes have something so disturbing happen to you - like losing your job - in order to realize that sometimes this job takes toll on us, takes more that we should give it. It tears at our family, our friends, our personal time... and then it does the worst, it kills the dream of doing something more.
I cannot fathom why this person forgot the kid's birthday but I can understand how sometimes making a stupid full page ad can make your time and your mind disappear. I hate myself every time my mother calls me and I cannot talk to her for five seconds because I have to figure out a radio spot that doesn't click and I need it to be done in less than 20 minutes. I've missed important things from my family and from my friends, because either I was at work or dead tired after working that I could not imagine going. That kills me.
But the dangerous thing is that it happened to that person. Hey, it can happen to you. Not sure? Ha. I'll make this bet with you. I can bet money that at some point during your adult life, you have had almost no time to go Christmas shopping because you had way too much campaigns to deliver before the holidays. If you can look me in the eyes and tell me that you've had to scramble to celebrate your anniversary or your loved one's birthday with a stupid little gift or a last minute dinner reservation because you forgot... Yep, advertising does that to you.
The thing that bugs me is that it's mainly our fault. We don't learn to control our clients and rather cater to every wish and need they want, no matter the hour. We don't learn to manage our time and think that we can do 15 jobs a day. We don't tell our Creative Directors that we feel that we worked enough, sorry but we are not productive anymore, maybe tomorrow we'll get that witty line that you're looking for.
What does it take to finally figure out that our LIFE is more important than a print campaign? That our kids are worth our time, much more than that 6:00 pm conference call that cannot be moved? When will be stand up for our quality of life? When will you realize that it's just a job, nothing more, nothing else?
When?
So here's the thing. When you have been at this business way too long, you get to see certain things. You see the best of people, you see the worst. You see people acting in weird ways. You see teams give backstabs like there is no tomorrow.
In fact, you just look at the mirror and maybe you will find a jaded, tired, exhausted creative. Maybe a very angry and bitter Account Executive. A Creative Director that knows, deep inside him or her, that the time has passed and now the key to survival is to hang on to that job... or else. My point is that we've all been that dirty road, we know how bad agency life can be, we know the painful reality that students starting out have absolutely no idea of.
Ok wait a minute. Are you a student? Are you still at college looking to crack the "ad world"?
Stop reading. This post is kind of sad.
Come back tomorrow. I promise to post some stupid and cute dog video so you can laugh. Promise. Go to bed. Night, night.
Ok so where were we? Yeah. Bad stuff. So this letter came in. Short. To the point. Like I like my copy. But at the end I yelled "Holy Shit"!
I've heard and read stories in my time, but I've never read this one before. Here it goes:
Ad person from unknown agency quits because too much work caused X person to forget kid's birthday. BY DAYS. Kid ended up telling parent about having forgotten such important date. Person quit because that would not be tolerated.
Again. Say it with me. Holy Shit.
Listen, I don't like posting your stories (oh, when they do come in about TWO times in a year!), but this has to give the rest of us some sort of perspective. What, pray tell can it be? That we've been writing about this, for years now. Advertising can make you miss out on life. But it's YOUR choice to let it do that to you.
Recently I started remembering about the movie Lemonade and about how important it is to sometimes have something so disturbing happen to you - like losing your job - in order to realize that sometimes this job takes toll on us, takes more that we should give it. It tears at our family, our friends, our personal time... and then it does the worst, it kills the dream of doing something more.
I cannot fathom why this person forgot the kid's birthday but I can understand how sometimes making a stupid full page ad can make your time and your mind disappear. I hate myself every time my mother calls me and I cannot talk to her for five seconds because I have to figure out a radio spot that doesn't click and I need it to be done in less than 20 minutes. I've missed important things from my family and from my friends, because either I was at work or dead tired after working that I could not imagine going. That kills me.
But the dangerous thing is that it happened to that person. Hey, it can happen to you. Not sure? Ha. I'll make this bet with you. I can bet money that at some point during your adult life, you have had almost no time to go Christmas shopping because you had way too much campaigns to deliver before the holidays. If you can look me in the eyes and tell me that you've had to scramble to celebrate your anniversary or your loved one's birthday with a stupid little gift or a last minute dinner reservation because you forgot... Yep, advertising does that to you.
The thing that bugs me is that it's mainly our fault. We don't learn to control our clients and rather cater to every wish and need they want, no matter the hour. We don't learn to manage our time and think that we can do 15 jobs a day. We don't tell our Creative Directors that we feel that we worked enough, sorry but we are not productive anymore, maybe tomorrow we'll get that witty line that you're looking for.
What does it take to finally figure out that our LIFE is more important than a print campaign? That our kids are worth our time, much more than that 6:00 pm conference call that cannot be moved? When will be stand up for our quality of life? When will you realize that it's just a job, nothing more, nothing else?
When?
