Does the reality live up to the stereotype?

‘Pick a job and then become the person that does it.’

Mad Men’s Bobbie Barrett has unconsciously put into words the crippling, and very conscious problem of the graduate. I’ll even go as far as to say that she’s read my mind. Not that I necessarily agree with the comment, but the question of direction monopolises my thoughts almost hourly.

During my final year at University, having never worked longer than a month in my life, I observed fellow finalists combining relentless library hours with a steady stream of applications, for the most part aimed at the city. However, unwilling to surrender my soul to the Wharf (and severely stunted by my non-existent mathematical competence) I opted for the other stereotype: media. Desiring to combine my creative tendencies with a fast pace, and avoid numbers at all costs I decided to try my hand at advertising.

My placement began in July and walking into the office to discover a fully stocked bar, a foosball table and cardboard trees covered with street art certainly lived up to my expectations of working in the media industry. My first week saw me accepting freebies thanks to working on some well known make-up accounts, being taken to a client meeting and entrusted with research into social media activity (yep, hours spent legitimately on Facebook and Twitter). That along with long Friday lunches at the pub playing darts and things looked to be pretty jammy.

Commonly understood as communication with masses in the form of influential messages, advertising has existed in one form or other since 4000 BC; even the Egyptians created messages of persuasion out of papyrus. It wasn’t until 1836, however that the first examples of the most recognisable form of advertising emerged. As the economy ballooned, the 1950’s and 60′s saw the advertising industry follow suit; evolving in both its methods and its goals. Creativity became the key in answering briefs, and exciting, witty messages became vital in engaging the audience. Some of the most revolutionary campaigns such as Volkswagen’s ‘Lemon’ remain famous today, aided by its appearance in Mad Men. Campaigns like this captured the essence of thinking outside the box, and the return to the most effective type of communicating; simplicity.

Mad Men undoubtedly glamorises the industry, but it remains true that some of advertising’s visuals have been both extremely memorable and influential. For instance, the ‘Your Country Needs You’ poster featuring Lord Kitchener that was used to recruit soldiers for World War I is now an iconic image. Likewise, mention the words ‘gorilla’ and ‘drum-kit’ and you’ll be surprised how many people know what you’re talking about. Cadbury’s campaign highlighted a new style in communication; the random, and earned itself over 70 Facebook appreciation groups. By sidestepping any kind of brand messaging and focusing entirely on a memorable image, linked only by the Cadbury’s tagline ‘a glass and a half of joy’ Cadbury’s avoided all that is repellent about the practice of advertising. It also did something vitally important; it made people laugh.

Laughter and self deprecation have now become a powerful new genre in advertising as embodied by the Old Spice Guy. This campaign which not only allowed its agency Wieden+Kennedy to completely restyle a previously average brand image, also paved the way for the official union of social media to advertising. Now that social media has firmly dominated the digital sphere, viral campaigns are undoubtedly the way forward; a fact that the Old Spice Twitter feed harnessed by featuring YouTube clips of Isaiah Mustafah reading responses to followers’ tweets. More recent examples of this new technique have been produced for Dell (practicality and enhanced customer service clearly being the point) and Tipp-ex (like to the Cadbury’s Gorilla, it gives viewers a good old giggle).

Isaiah Mustafah: The Old Spice guy

The three key departments that make up an agency are extremely different. The creatives are the most famed individuals, who write the memorable copy and think up the clever and stimulating visuals. Traditionally they are moody and fragile (as one might be facing the prospect of daily criticism from clients), but in my experience these lip-ringed, hair-dyed artsy folk are extremely nice with it.

The account handlers (the client-facing aspect of the agency) are the ‘people people’, making sure that the client is happy with the work being done and that the team are happy with doing it. If something goes wrong, it’s your neck, legs, arms and guts on the line. On an average day you’re juggling tens of tasks and constantly checking in with production and the creatives to assess progress. You then present the work done back to the client and endure their whining critiques, irrespective of how much time your team have put into the deliverables. It goes without saying that stamina is a must.

The production side, whilst less heavily publicised, is by no means less vital. These are the people who run time within the agency. They book resources with the tech or creative teams and keep the project running smoothly on time and under budget. As such the agency environment is made up of a great deal of different personalities and attitudes, firmly stamping out the rumour of the ‘advertising type’.

Several weeks further down the line, I’ve learnt that life in an agency isn’t as glam as Mr Draper would have us believe. Yes the people are great, the dress code is high street unless a client is anywhere in sight, (it’s common practice to ask colleagues what on earth they are doing looking so smart) but there is, as ever, still a great deal of admin to chug through. Every communication with the client must be documented so as to have something to refer back to should they change their minds (which they invariable do, frequently), budgets must be examined, creative work must be analysed and tactfully criticised. However, saying this I think combining the excitement of the night before a pitch, the cocktail of extrovert and introvert personalities and the chilled day to day atmosphere means I’ll be staying put for now. I’d certainly hesitate to agree that the ad world is all drinking, thinking and catch phrases; it’s a lot more genuine than you might think.

The fabulously distracting Tipp-ex advertising campaign