Once upon a time, talented creatives were clamouring to get into advertising. The industry could pick and choose all the young talent it wanted. It was very picky. Now? Well now, says Rob Morrison, there’s a problem.
…It’s time to talk about assholes
I heard a story recently which made me worry for adland.
A young, aspiring creative had excitedly enrolled in an industry training program – I’m sure you can guess which one. Over the course of several weeks, they responded to a series of hypothetical briefs. At the end of the course, they took their ideas to a couple of creative directors seeking their advice.
The first gave some helpful, gentle advice on making some adjustments to the work. The second tore the work to shreds. Said it was nowhere near good enough. Told them they’d be lucky to be employed. Ever.
The young creative? Ended up in tears. Despondent. Ready to give up on the industry.
In short, the second creative director was an asshole.
For some reason adland has traditionally over-indexed on assholes. You’ve probably met a few in your own career. There’s the foul-mouthed tantrum-thrower. There’s the arrogant last-minute re-writer. There’s award-junkie who insist their name is on everything. There’s Sir Lunch-a-lot. There’s the Creative Rejector. The creative director whose forgotten what it’s like to put a piece of yourself on the page.
Yep, assholes.
I know the counter arguments. “It teaches resilience.” “They need to get used to hearing ‘No’” and “I learned more from mean creative directors than I did from those who were nice to me.”
That may have worked in the ‘90s (notice I said ‘may’) but in 2021 we have a problem.
See, as an industry we’re not as sexy as we used to be. Salaries are shrinking. Timelines are shrinking. Mentoring has all but disappeared. Creative departments are even being re-badged as creative studios.
Bluntly, we need all the good talent we can get.
So next time a junior comes to you for advice, don’t think about how past creative director treated you. Think about what it would be like if that young creative walked away from the industry.
It just might help us all.
Rob Morrison has guided a lot of young creatives. He was creative director at Ogilvy Australia for seven years and before that milestone, creative director at BWM (now BWM Dentsu), George Patterson Y&R (now VMLY&R), The Campaign Palace and Wunderman.
Read Morrison’s other stories on The Stable:
