Like many (admittedly not all) older creatives, Rob Morrison carries a briefcase of wisdom and experience with him. He also has a wonderful way with words. Morrison has agreed to share some of all of that on The Stable. This is his second story:

Dear creative lecturers and tutors,

Please stop misleading young creative minds. It’s hurting us all.

Let me explain. If you’ve been locked into delivering work for your clients, you may have missed a worrying trend among the newest generation of creatives.

Young creatives, desperate to sit beside you in a creative department, have been told they don’t need to specialise. They don’t need to choose to be an art director or a copywriter. Instead they can do both. Equally.

And it’s actually getting worse. Graduates are being asked to do a bit of strategy. And their own SEO research. Even recommend some media options.

‘Hybrid’ is not an entirely new phenomenon. At the Caxton’s, years ago, we were introduced to the emergence of the Cruit – a cross between a creative and a suit. More recently I worked in Brisbane with a preditor – a video producer who doubled as an editor.

Now, there’s no such thing as wasted learning. Every creative should have a working knowledge of every part of the advertising process. It’s how you can have a sensible conversation with the cast of characters on every brief. You’ll never hear me argue against learning.

But unicorns are mythical creatures for a reason.

Don’t believe me? Imagine there are two agencies on a pitch. Both get the brief on the same day and hold a meeting in their respective boardrooms.

AGENCY A has seven specialists round the table. An account director running the show. A planner finding insights backed by data. A media director concocting the right mix of eyeballs and ears. A crack team of copywriter and art director. A designer to make the work look amazing. And a project manager to keep them all in line.

Across town, AGENCY B also has seven people assigned to the brief – but they all do a bit of everything. Can you imagine the chaos? The copywriter suggests skywriting. The media director brings in manga reference. The planner writes a 75-second script for a 60-second spot.

I know who I’d be backing to win the pitch.

Importantly, this is not a local issue. It’s happening everywhere. Small agencies see generalists as a way to put more skills against briefs. Large agencies are drifting dangerously in that direction as well. But, as the global head of one of my previous agencies lamented; “We’ve ended up with soup”.

And it all starts with those running training programs who need a gentle reminder. If you squint hard enough, it looks like a unicorn.

But it’s really a donkey wearing a dunce hat.

Rob Morrison is a rarity, a working advertising creative over 50. Like 90% of working creatives over 50, he is a freelance creative director. He has been for the last two and a half years. For the seven years prior to that, he was a creative director at Ogilvy Australia. He has also been a creative director at BWM (now BWM Dentsu), George Patterson Y&R (now VMLY&R), The Campaign Palace and Wunderman.