Summary: Most of the big-time agencies have an office in New York City. Of course they do. It’s a given.
But why?
Yes, NYC is still the biggest city in the U.S.; it has the most access to the most people. It is a business hub; you can find a little bit of everything, somewhere, in NYC.
Summary: The advertising world can be brutal. In an industry such creativity and beauty can spawn from, the calm is usually only surface calm, though, as a turbulent underside is frequently present. But why is it that in so many creative environments there is always a call for drama?
There was a place I worked at a few years ago that was driven on negative emotions. It was then I started to ask myself, “Why?” It wasn’t a rhetorical question, but one I truly wanted to find a meaning for. I have worked for a wide variety of clients in my career, and it seems that many of the places I was at had this problem, but I never questioned it in depth until I reached that particular job.
Summary: One thing is for sure about advertising folks: We want to do things other than our jobs. We know creative directors who want to be movie directors. We know several art directors that also do screenprinting. And, of course, there are copywriters who are always working on their next novel.
Every AdMan wants to be an author.
Such is the case with John Kenney, a former copywriter in AdLand and who is now writing humor pieces for The New Yorker. He is currently promoting his book Truth in Advertising, which follows a man named Finbar Dolan through his career at an agency. His biggest client is the world’s largest diaper manufacturer. From one review, the book seems to deal with some of the familiar themes of agency life.
