why i hate advertising

because i need to. it's my job. if i liked it, i'd be doing the same crap that's out there; the stuff you walk past and pay no attention to. the banners you don't click. the tv spots your recorders edit out. the emails you file as junk. the twitter accounts you block. the blogs you don't read. the yes man that does exactly what the clients ask him to do, because it's what they think they want. i've gotten this far in my career not because i win gold lions every year (i don't), but because i know how to sell. i know how to convince my clients that if they aren't careful, they'll be ignored, edited, blocked, and that's not what they want. so instead of doing what they think they want, i give them what they really want. many a times i've been in arguments with my clients, but i've got many blue chips mentioning my name for successful campaigns and new product launches that set a new record each time. 

people confuse the word creativity especially in our business. many have forgotten that the word also incorporates the art of selling. it's a good 80% of what we do. i always tell my people a junior asks how they came up with the idea, whereas a senior asks how they sold it.

i'll be the first to admit that i've taken a crack at trying to hurry a career through scam ads. the only people who seemed to giggle at them are other scamsters, and good ceos know never to hire a creative whose reputation isn't built on real work for real clients. besides, the most prestigious awards i've won throughout my career were real work for real clients, made possible by the joint effort of strategic planners, account service and most importantly the client. if the agency job is to come up with solutions by providing ideas, it's arrogant to think that you can achieve that within the walls of your own department.

so to those who find this post somewhat offensive because it feels like it's being directed at you: keep doing what you're doing. keep scamming. keep inventing new words. keep setting up those specialty boutiques. keep writing those books that are nothing but glossy new titles for old formulas. keep fooling yourselves that you're invaluable to clients when in fact it's the other way around and that you're nothing but a commodity invited to a pitch along with 10 other agencies very much like yours. 

keep up the good work at sucking.

if it weren't for you, i might come to love this business.

Patrick Plutschow

Tokyo, September 28th, 2010