After I posted that last piece, it occurred to me that something I found tricky to write must be tricky to learn. I sometimes share easier stuff, but mostly I’ve tried to give hard how-tos instead of easy anecdotes. I must admit, however, some of my posts leave one big something woefully missing. How much fun this is.
If it’s not fun, why would anyone want to learn it? A job is nice. Even better, being paid for a talent you’ve always enjoyed. People perceive those who write advertising as infinitely more entertaining than those who underwrite insurance. Good reasons, they don’t hit the heart of why knowing how to think, as difficult as it may seem, will get you more mitzvahs (look it up or ask a Rabbi), in more award books and potentially enjoying the best sex substitute you can have in a crowded office.
I got into ad copy because I was funny, a genetic writer, a fearlessly out of the box thinker, “creative” dresser and disastrous in any practical field whatsoever. Fun, but until Y&R sent me to Strategy School, I had no understanding of what I was supposed to be doing.
Make it fun, get it noticed. Who cared how – or even if – it solved client problems, spoke to the Prospect, could backup the work with smart thinking. Subjectivity determined value. That, and how good you were at selling ice to Eskimos.
It was hard being so meaningless. While I’d always managed glib, I was clever – not smart – for a living. Then came Y&R Strategy School - all of a sudden it made sense. The process worked. My stuff was still creative, but it was also smart. Got the Prospect involved, did what it was supposed to do. When I ran lines, I knew what I wanted them to say. Best of all, if it was On Strategy, it took quite a bit of subjective clout to kill my best work.
Practical, but far from a great sex substitute. Or was it?
Any creative act releases the same endorphins that make us crave chocolate, death defying thrills and (more) sex. I might not be able to get laid in my office during normal business hours, parachute off the top of an office tower or eat a total chocolate diet, but I sure can feel like I did. And get paid to boot.
Money and massive endorphin release. Not bad. But that’s all under the radar stuff. Perks.
What Creative Strategy really gave me was the ability to let my mind – my creativity and rational+irrational brainpowers – run naked down Mad Ave. I knew where I was going, had the tools to get there. Instead of listing puns, playing with meaning and defining clever, I was solving problems, taking products/clients from status quo to something no one had seen before. I had a verifiable blueprint for success.
(One of) the most general definitions of Zen’s Satori is “the state of sudden, indescribable intuitive enlightenment.” The big Ah/O moment. Because we’re talking endorphins fed by catharsis in the course of 9-5/M-F j-o-b, there’s also a huge element of “the joy is in the doing” to it.
Doing ad creative – strategy, concept, copy, producing broadcast, wading in electronica, yadda yadda – puts me closer to Satori than most people ever get in life. Let alone at work. And that’s the best reason I can give to learn how.
Where I work people don’t just tolerate – they value and enjoy the quirks of the Creative Personality* other fields might consider firing offenses (although you can still get fired, and probably will*). I work with people who understand the brilliant organization of an impossibly messy desk. Who look and act more like me than the banker across the conference table. My creative partners and I can pump endorphins all afternoon and never get called for cheating. I can tack things on my wall, take field trips, tell people I’m reading Skateboard magazine (MAD, comic books, Rolling Stone, Car and Driver, kiddie books, Playboy, The New York Times Magazine, whatever) for my job – and mean it.
Doing great work feels great. Collaborating with other creatives – writers, art directors, photographers, directors, studio engineers, the occasional AE, clients, whoever – only ups the endorphin count. While all that’s making me happy, I’m pushing, stretching, reinventing myself, my world and all that gray matter so I can go farther creatively, personally and professionally.
I’d like to say that’s why I do it. Why you need to learn it. Why I want to help. But ultimately, there’s still one final, selfish reason to take these lessons to heart – and the bank. As strange as my Love/Hate relationship with Advertising is, it’s also the easiest thing I can do. Not that the work is easy. It’s that the work – and the industry – understands Doreen as Doreen. I can get high on just being me.
As an engineer I know would say, “It’s the tits.”
*Want more info on The Creative Process, Creative Personality, Kamikaze Creative Occupational Safety, etc., email me @kamikazecreative@gmail.com. I’ll send you handouts.
MORE REASONS I LOVE WHAT I DO/FUN THINGS THAT KEEP ME WRITING COPY:
Hot roughnecks. Early morning outdoor photo shoots. Watching the Exxon tiger almost get somebody. One agency’s house chef. Helping Ed McMahon cinch his girdle. Rock Concert Radio. Watching the other World Trade Center tower sway in the breeze while presenting to fifty Japanese guys. Stretch limos. Flying First Class. Hanging in gyms with female professional boxers. Disneyland. Free media dept. tickets to baseball games (field level, front and center). Taking the executive helicopter from downtown to the airport. Concepting at the zoo. Making twenty suits stomp their feet and scream at the top of their lungs. Being the expert because I’m the only one standing up. Company jets. Watching Jesse Caesar present. New Business. The Drake. Life size rodeo beer babe cutouts. My own hard hat. Kraft Services. Late night music production. No one noticing how late I come in. Sunsets from the Chicago Merchandise Mart. George, Raymond, Naomi, Robert, Bob, Jannie, Carol, Betty, Julie, Andy, Mitch, Scotts I, II, III, Allen, Gerry, Jerry, Jim, MC, Mary, Kim, Alison, Dave, Greg, Tom, Tony, Janet, Heddy, Ryan, Joyce, Dan, Lucy, Bob, Carmille, Minsoo, Keith, Beth, Andrew, John, Michael, Michael, Tondra, Cam, Larry, Jesse, Amerphil, Berkley, Stan, Lee, LaDonna/Madonna, Kinney, Ron…the list just keeps going and going.
Great post! I was just thinking today how writing really gives me this incredible, unmatched high.
ReplyDelete