Veksner: The Onion unfairly maligns us
August 5 2013, 9:36 am | | 5 Comments
By Simon Veksner, Head of Ideas, Naked Communications
So The Onion wrote an entertaining story about last week’s Omnicom/Publicis deal, headlined ‘Merger Of Advertising Giants Brings Together Largest Collection Of People With No Discernible Skills.’
“These two ad behemoths will have the industry’s largest and most formidable talent pool of people called ‘creatives’ who have never created a single thing in their lives,” the piece went on.
And we were all amused, in a crying-on-the-inside kinda way.
But I think they got it wrong.
5 Comments
Actually my dear Scampy, the line in The Onion rant which particularly struck a chord with me was” utterly talentless men and women who are not marketable in any industry other than their own” because it pains me to admit that, certainly in my own case, it’s eerily accurate.
After I retired – some might say prematurely – 8 years ago, I realised I don’t have a single skill that is useful in the real world. Writing funny 30 second commercial playlets or smashing out a print ad/poster/radio commercial in record time is a very specific skill. Yes, after I grew tired of lying on the beach I wrote the obligatory ‘tell-all’ memoir but couldn’t be bothered publishing it.
So what else can I do? I’m good at keeping my cars gleaming, and do a very passable impersonation of a heavy metal guitarist, but there’s not much calling for those ‘skills’. Besides, they pay a pittance. I’d rather do nothing and be payed nothing.
But more to the point, after you’ve climbed the lofty heights of Agencydom, anything else seems incredibly menial and, frankly, beneath me. Would I work in a cafe making coffee? Stand behind the counter in a retail store? I’ve got the customer-service skills and people-empathy of Basil Fawlty. Could I do something to ‘put back’? Drive a community bus? Do volunteer work? Teach?
Fuck that.
There’s a whole generation of young creatives who never actually worked outside of an agency – most have never been to university. So, sounds fair enough.
Guys, I don’t think we deserve to be called talentless, just because our skills are not marketable in other industries. I mean, how many cartoonists could get a job doing something other than drawing cartoons? How many pianists? How many basketball players? Doesn’t mean they’re talentless.
It does seem unfair though that agency suits are able to get other jobs, in business or whatever, since business skills are more transferable. Whereas we creatives end up on the scrapheap. Or in your case, Old CD Guy, on the beach.
I think it’s getting better.
when all we made were print/tv ads, it was pretty non-transferable.
now, there’s so much convergence between various platforms, with a bit of a re-focus I’m sure advertising creatives will have more opportunities to make a living in other commercially creative fields.
but the best thing? learn how to run a business and start your own.
I think the rub isn’t that we are talentless.
It’s just in comparison to the inflated esteem we have of ourselves, especially within incest-like forums like these, the reality really bites.
Just because we call ourselves ‘creatives’, doesn’t mean we truly are.
And the slowly tarnishing trophies mean squat a year later.
Try using it to pay off your mortgage.
Let’s face it, our skills really aren’t transferable.
Unless you bother to adapt, learn additional skills, understand how businesses work, and be prepared to work hard.
I know of one creative bloke who rose to the top of the agency food chain, traded in his awards and jeans and now makes one third more as a client than he ever did in his best agency years.
Of course he’s an exception.
Lucky bastard!