What I love about advertising isn’t the timesheets. It isn’t the cold pizza, goopy Chinese food or Cisco coffee at 2 o’clock in the morning. Day after day. Night after night. It isn’t the weekends that aren’t really weekends or annual postponed vacations. It’s not the egos or the politics or the drama that unfolds when they’re combined. It certainly isn’t the missed dinners, missed games, missed milestones.
What I love about advertising is the ads. Print ads. TV ads. Social ads. Digital ads. Ads that aren’t really ads, but really are ads. Whatever — it doesn’t matter. I love looking at them. I love listening to them. I love experiencing them. The only thing better, to me, is making them.
Which is why I’m done with advertising.
Specifically, I’m done with the business of advertising. I’ll leave worrying about margins, employee churn rates and new business wins and/or losses to the agency Chief Operating Masochist.
Me? I’m going to have fun. I’m going to focus on the work. Thinking and creating and writing and coloring and playing. Because there’s nothing better than coming up with something from nothing. Solving a brand or a business problem. Producing smart, conceptual, well-crafted advertising — in whatever form it takes.
Going freelance wasn’t an easy decision. I’ve been a full-time agency employee my entire career. But going through a pandemic hasn’t been easy, either, and so far I’ve made it and I’ve learned a lot about myself — about what’s most important to me both personally and professionally.
No doubt I’ll miss the free booze and foosball tables. The epic holiday parties and gossip that follows. I’ll miss being on a team that’s all in the same boat, all rowing in the same direction. Most of all, I’ll miss hanging out with other ad nerds and talking shop on a daily basis. But I’ve learned I can successfully create great work from home without sacrificing a large chunk of my life, or sanity. Should I miss agency life too much, as a freelancer, I can always set up shop in an agency conference room for an afternoon.
If you’re an agency recruiter or creative director in need of a freelance creative director/copywriter/art director, a marketing professional or business owner who needs support, or someone who just wants a fresh set of creative eyes on something, I’m available.