Popping the Integrity Pill is Hard, But It’ll Make You Feel Better.

Integrity, one word most people in the ad industry can’t lay claim to. We sell things people don’t need; we make business decisions in the face of creativity. So often we fall on our knees hoping the client won’t fire us for whatever reason has struck their fancy that week. We aren’t do-gooders, we’re not particularly green, heck, most of us aren’t even that friendly to outsiders.

It pains me to admit all this. I always wanted to save the world. Instead, I’ve sold my soul and gone into the industry that does the exact opposite. Honestly though, I don’t regret it.

I got lucky. I started my career at CP+B in Boulder, interning at an agency that, unlike most agencies, has integrity. They try to do the right thing, because that’s how Alex Bogusky has brought up their corporate culture. They try to line up their beliefs with their creative (Bramo’s B-cycle, Plum Card’s initiative to help small businesses, Domino’s transparency). The agency stands up for their creative, for their people and for the good of society (as much as the industry allows them).

I remember one Town Hall last summer when I interned at CP+B, the partners announced that they wanted everyone to spend the day coming up with a solution to stop the BP oil spill. The result of that brainstorm wasn’t much, but Just the fact that tried, made us feel better about our job for that one day. There's integrity in that intension.

Today, from where I stand, CP+B is showing another sign of the principles Alex left behind. According to him, the agency is probably parting with BK because ‘they have too much creative integrity to do the work the new BK team is asking for.’ Where most agencies would bend over backwards to keep such a big client, CP+B shows us yet again that selling your soul is really not worth it after all.

It’s not okay to just be sell-outs. It’s not okay to go against your beliefs and let the creative suffer: it’s not okay to be agencies that have no backbone. It’s certainly not okay to sell things you don’t want to sell. There is a way to be a part of a better advertising industry. We have to make those decisions ourselves.

So here’s to integrity. May we all retain ours.
Cheers.

PS check out Alex Bogusky's blog on the topic. http://alexbogusky.posterous.com/the-king-is-dead

Embrace the learning curve

Fear of making mistakes is fruitless. Instilling fear of making mistakes is just silly. The ad industry is filled with people who preach perfection. They expect new-comers to walk on water from day one – be perfect little creative robots who spew brilliant ideas, write flawless copy and spit out layouts every ten seconds.

In reality, behind the bravado, there’s a junior copywriter who is still discovering the difference between an en dash and an em dash. There’s an art director who is discovering that everyone hates Arial as a font. This stuff doesn’t just come to people in their sleep. It comes from making mistakes, from being a part of the working environment and learning from people who’ve made the same mistakes.

It’s not about hanging onto your failures but about stumbling into discovery. It’s how people grow. The really progressive agencies leave room for that growth and don’t judge you for being a little green in the beginning.

So if you’re going to prove yourself, prove that you don’t make the same mistakes twice. You just make different ones every day. The day you stop making mistakes, you stop learning something new. That’s the day you realize that you need to move onto to something more exciting.

Here's to making discoveries every day.

Cheers

Typos G@l0re

According to creative directors everywhere, typos are the biggest mistakes that student have in their portfolios these days. The worst part is that copywriters, who are supposed to be dictionaries personified, have big honking typos all over their books. What gives?

Anthony Kalamut, who is my professor and head of the Creative Advertising department at Seneca College, feels that students rely on spell check heavily. One cannot help but agree. It’s the same as having all your phone numbers on speed dial and not bothering to memorize your girlfriend’s number (BIG MISTAKE). The problem is that even though people realize that spell check doesn’t take care of everything, technological dependence has made instant gratification too accessible. People have lost the patience to go through their own work with a fine toothcomb. Everything is done with a click of a button and a quick skim.

Another problem is that people are trained into typing fast because of the recent fast paced cyber-culture. Chatting on MSN and Facebook has put people in the habit of abbreviating, which is hard to shake when typing for official reasons.

Unfortunately, typo-ing doesn’t work in advertising. Since I am guilty of the same crime, I’ve been desperately trying to rid myself of the habit. I asked Alex Bogusky about how I can get rid of this ‘sickness of mine’. He gave me an interesting analogy. He said that we see things like the lens of a camera, some people look at the details by zooming in, and some people look at the big picture by zooming out. The people who can do both, are the ones who are successful. My problem is that I am stuck on a panoramic view, and find zooming-in on the details difficult, which results into typos to power of 10. So I decided to go on an epic journey to find tips that can help cure my typo-itis.

Here are a few helpful tips that I have discovered.

1) Edit in medium doses.

Rather than losing your train of thought by editing each sentence as you go, or editing a mountain of writing in the end, edit in paragraphs. If it’s shot copy, go through each element after writing it, rather than at the end. This way you don’t get lazy or over-confident at the end and hand in sloppy work.

2) Read Backwards

Reading each word out of its context helps in picking up spelling errors because your brain doesn’t automatically fill in the words of the sentence for you. However, don’t forget to go through everything in the proper order as well, because this does not help in catching grammatical errors.

3) Read out loud.

Reading out loud helps when you are trying to make sure everything sounds like it makes sense. Most often people don’t realize that things don’t read well until they are spoken out loud.

4) Play word search games

It’s easy to find word search books, apps and online games. Use them to train your mind into picking up words in a mass of letters and finding proper spellings. Finding typos is all about training your mind to focus on the details, and this is a really good way of doing it. The more you play, the better you get.

5) Check Behead-lines.

I have found that most typos are found in headlines rather than body copy. People don’t expect themselves to make mistakes in short sentences, but that is most often where it happens. Don’t be cocky and double check the glaring headline that is supposed to make or break your ad. If you are a typoholic like me, mistakes can crop up anywhere you type. Especially check things that are in CAPS.

6) Use gigantic fonts.

It’s easier to spot mistakes when you can see them better. Just don’t forget to switch them back to their original font size when you are done editing.

7) Borrow eyes.

Get someone else to edit your work so that they can give you a fresher perspective. This is one of the most common advices people give about editing. However, I find that people need to first do their best to curb their mistakes and then hand over their work to others. This way, when time is short and you can’t find anyone to edit, you can rely on your own ability to edit. Also, having others edit is great, but don’t leave it all to their ability, because you will probably end up making the same mistakes again if you don’t check for yourself.

8) Word is the word.

I find that funky fonts and colourful backgrounds in ads can distract you from finding typos, especially when using programs such as Photoshop and Illustrator. That’s why when you’re using other programs, use Word to write your copy first and then copy and paste. Using fonts like Times New Roman on a black and white background helps you read better, which makes it easier to spot typos. Also, spell check doesn’t hurt, but you have to be careful about not leaning too heavily on it.

9) Write in bulk.

It goes without saying that the more you write, the better you get at it. Only, this isn’t just about content, but typing. And the more you type, and use your editing skills, the better you will get at it.

10) Don’t trust yourself.

The biggest mistake I always make is trusting myself to not make mistakes. Do not fall for that. Remind yourself constantly that you are not perfect and that you need to double check things before submitting them or suffer the consequences.

I hope this helps. Just getting this out there has helped me edit myself better. God, I really hope the irony of the day isn’t that this blog is littered with typos. However, I have already warned you that I OWN typos. So hide that smirk away.

So here's to learning from your typos.

Cheers.

A strange and wonderful thing happened to me today. Today is the day I started to truly believe that dreams do come true.

I'm not sure what it is, but I have been lucky in life. I've always achieved what I've been striving for. Unfortunately, in the past couple of years, the pressure of getting into advertising, and the mere concept of working and doing something amazing with my life had worn down my faith in my own abilities. I began to doubt my skills as a writer and as a creative. I was surrounded by people who were talented, and began to think of myself as less talented than them. I'm not sure if its true, but its the way I felt about it. One thing I did have going for me was this: I have and have always had an amazing passion for this industry. So much so, that I was willing to change everything in my life so that I could do better work. My whole lifestyle encompassed only advertising and nothing else for the past two years. Make no mistake though, I loved every minute of it. The craze, the drama, the ideas, the inspiration and even the stress were all exciting to me. In the end though, even after working as hard as I did, I wasn't sure that I would make it or that anyone would think of me as a brilliant creative.

Then, out of the blue, I decided that I wanted to learn differently. I wanted to learn from someone who I admired more than anyone else in the industry. The best thing my professor Anthony Kalamut taught me is, ask, the worst anyone can say is no. So I went ahead and asked Alex Bogusky if he would be kind enough to be my mentor. He graciously agreed. In the past few weeks, I've realized one thing. When good people achieve great things, everyone benifits. If Alex wasn't the gracious and compassionate person he is, I would never get to see the humanity in advertising like I have today. He gave me hope and encouragement in ways I never thought I would feel again. My work and my portfolio have become something I am proud to display, and that confidence has come because he believed in me.

Finally, this has all lead to the pinnacle of all great moments. I found out that I've been selected for an internship at CP+B. The Agency my dreams were made of. It's like everything I ever wanted my career to be, is starting to come true. I don't know if it's luck, if it's the fact that I have great teachers or the fact that I have an amazing mentor. I hope it has a little to do with me too, but the bottom line is that I've been given the chance to life my passion and persue my dreams. Something I still can't believe. I walk into this new chapter in life with a renewed sense of hope and excitement. I know that with hard work and a little bit of talent, this is going to be the start of something wonderful.

So to those of you who have wanted something badly enough, have some faith in yourself and go out and get it. If you can't find it in yourself at first, then look around you. The world will push to where you need to be and you will find your way. Also, if you find someone who believes in you, take strength from their conviction and inspire yourself. Amazing things happen when inspiration burns bright.

So here's to dreams coming true.

Cheers!

A New Perspective.

Something interesting happened to me in the past two weeks. Something I have been waiting for since the past seven years. I found my confidence.

As a writer, confidence is both omnipresent and elusive all at once. On one hand most writers feel that we can't do anything other than write, because that's what we love and it's what we're good at. On the other hand, we can't stop criticizing our own work, constantly thinking that it's not good enough, or that we're not creative enough to be able to showcase our work.

I've been going through this constant struggle to find myself, and some proof that I'm good enough to enter the advertising industry and last. Finally, it came to me, my proof.

One day I was dejectedly staring at my portfolio, finding errors and being overly critical. Then suddenly, inspiration struck from nowhere. I decided to start from scratch. I took out everything I had done before, and decided that it wasn't good enough. Then I came up with 13 different products, and began to do some hard core research. A couple of days later, when I felt like there were enough insights for me to begin writing, I decided to put pen to paper. The more I wrote, the better I felt. Some ideas got rejected, and some I fell immediately in love with. There was such a serge of creativity that I felt elated. It was a total rush.

When I finally hashed out all the good ideas, I was convinced that I had something good. I continued to work on my ads for the next few days, lapping up critism from whomever would give it to me. Then, after tweaking and turning and obsessing, I finally finished my second version of my portfolio. The real moment of truth came, when I compared it to my old portfolio and realized the long way I had come since then.

The real lesson I learnt wasn't that I'm a genius writer, but that with practice, and constant revision, I can be the writer I want to be. It's hard work, but totally worth it.

Here's to working hard and achieving our dreams.

Cheers.

It's mid-summer, and any student who has a shred of honestly will admit that they've gotten dumber over the past three months because of a lack of stimulation. I'm unfortunately suffering from the very same syndrome, so in order to sharpen my brain, I've decided to start my advertising blog. I can't claim to be any expert, I'm just another student, trying to catch up, just like everyone else. But I figured, this is a good way to keep track of my own observations, and it's a good learning tool because it makes everything more tangible.

I want to start by talking about the changes that traditional advertising is going through. It seems to me, that every CD, every copywriter and every brand maneger I've met over the past year, has been saying the same thing. "Advertising is going interactive, anyone looking to do traditional advertising is doomed for failure."

The scary thing is, that as students, dispite the fact that we are the most online savvy generation, the first attraction towards the ad business, as a writer or art director, comes from traditional media. Everyone wants to make shiny print ads and glamourous TV spots. Moreover, standing on the outside, as a student who hasn't finished their degree, the scary thing to realize is that people may not even want to hire copywriters anymore, especially in a time of recession like this. I mean, I went to a portfolio revew night recently, and the CD practically yelled "no one needs copywriters, go home!" I almost died of disappointment.

So on that sad note, one wonders, where do we go from here? How do we adapt to the changing times?

The big solution, in my opinion, is that we need to learn to write more integrated campaigns, because a purely interactive campaign doesn't appeal to all markets. Baby boomers are still not as technologically savvy as Gen Y, and stubbornly cling to familiar things like radio, TV and newspapers.

Also, an interesting article I found, talks about how one can break through clutter to make sure that traditional campaigns bring in ROI, just as much as interactive.


http://www.entrepreneur.com/marketing/advertising/adcolumnist/article170166.html

In the mean time, we need to learn how to write amazing interactive ads. For example the fedEx informercail cpoofs online.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIODEoEx1HU

So the hope is, people still need creatives, and creatives will learn to adapt to the new advertising trends. Also, if the recession ends soon, maybe someone can hire us too.