New book to guide advertising careers
Simon Veksner, senior copywriter at Bartle Bogle Hegarty in London, is set to release a new book titled ‘How To Make It As An Advertising Creative’.
This book is aimed at anyone who is considering becoming an advertising creative, studying to become one, or would like to become a better one.
Veksner explained to Campaign Brief: “There’s nothing in there about what makes a good ad, or how to write a good ad. Instead, it’s all about what you need to know to be a successful creative, above and beyond being good at writing ads. So it’s not about craft, it’s about guile. It’s about how to get the best out of directors, how to find the right partner, and how to sell more of your ideas to your CD.”
The book includes interviews with heavyweights like Trevor Beattie, Jeremy Craigen, Paul Silburn, Flo Heiss, Jeff Benjamin (interactive ECD at Crispin Porter), Amir Kassaei (chief creative officer of DDB Germany) as well as Australian, Siimon Reynolds. The book also includes a foreword by David Droga.
Veksner (pictured left) has produced campaigns for some of the BBH’s most iconic brands including Levi’s, Audi and Barnardo’s. Previously he spent seven years at DDB London, where his work included a Cannes Grand Prix-winning ad for Volkswagen. He has won over 50 industry awards in his 16 years as a Creative, and is a frequent D&AD juror. Prior to entering advertising he worked as a journalist, for publications including The Independent, The Guardian and The Sunday Times.
25 Comments
I got a couple of tips that will stand you in good stead.
1. Do as you’re told.
2. Shut up.
Haven’t seen the old ‘half kiss’ promo shot in a while.
Further to 4:47pm
3. spend a couple of years making yourself famous
4. then, if you want to be able to afford to get married, have kids, buy a house, send them to a good school, spoil your spouse every now and again and be able to afford to retire – spend the next 20 years doing everything you can to making your clients famous
5. advertising’s no place for people who only want to do 3
BAM!
I hope it’s as good as “69 Ways to Get a Job in Advertising”
Scamp! He used to write a great blog. Seems like a genuinely nice and encouraging guy. And clearly accomplished. Maybe 4:53 should buy the book.
Chapter 2 – Brown nosing the CD, part 1: Laughing really, really loud at their jokes.
A practical and tangible reference for coming up with ideas once you are an Advertising Creative….
Extreme nouns – ingredients for Advertising ideas
http://www.extremenouns.com/
1. Do your job.
2. Do the suit’s job.
3. Show the client’s marketing dept. how to do their job.
Maybe 4:53 should be a comedian cos he certainly made me laugh out loud. That was a doosey.
consume, be silent, die…
1. Shut up
2. Do what the client says
3. Do what the suit says
4. Shut up
1. Tell suit to get fucked
2. Tell CD to get fucked
3. Tell client to get fucked.
3. Tell everyone to calm down.
7. Learn how to teabag.
Blue steel!
8. Don’t fall alseep!
1. Learn to read a brief.
2. Learn to answer that brief.
3. Learn to wear tight briefs.
4. Learn to lapdance in those briefs.
10:58 – you’re spot on
10:58 is obviously a frustrated creative (probably sexually also) that hasn’t had a good idea since deciding to get into the industry.
1. Mouthwork
2. Smouldering, unconcerned gaze
3. Ability to fake candidness
4. Killer PR shot featuring all of the above.
8:47, you’re a dick.
9:19: That’s funny, you made my day.
9. Don’t try and call a suit after 5.30.
1. If you don’t become Executive Creative Director / Global CEO within 6 months of completing AWARD school, leave and start up your own agency.
2. If you can’t start your own agency, pack up your toys and try something else around the ‘creative services’ industries – like coke dealer, prostitute or agency busker.
3. Failing that, get the shits and join some completely unrelated industry like a legal union for cars owned by actors with large foreheads. Make sure, whatever it is, it makes you really bitter and angry at advertising for screwing you over in that initial 6 months. This will help feed the inspiration.
4. Keep your creative genius sharp by sniping people with über cool comments on the blog. This is the difference between a good failure and a great failure. Tell people they don’t know what the fuck they’re talking about, talk about the ‘good old days’ i.e. when you were a junior on placement. Never talk objectively about the work and don’t say anything nasty about a campaign until someone else has. Remember, you don’t want to look like an idiot that works for cars owned by actors with large foreskins. It’s a small blog.
4. After 2 years of doing this, you could probably call yourself a mid-weight blog commentator, in which case you can slag off ‘juniors’ who have only been blogging for 2 weeks. Key points to keep the competition down would be pulling them up on spelling and using ‘@’ symbols. ‘@’ symbols let people know you’re not just a serious blogger, you also use twitter. If that doesn’t work calling them dumb makes for an extremely intelligent argument.
5. As you progress along in your career, this may get a bit tedious. Other things to pull out are old gen-x / gen-y arguments and ‘posing’ – pretending to be someone far senior than you to get your argument across. Note that posing can take some serious practice and should be left for ‘poseurs’ – bloggers with roughly 2-4 years experience, who by now would be ‘upper-midweight / Senior bloggers’ if they’ve won a few awards for funny comments.
6. Make sure you regularly snipe your classmates and peers from that 12 weeks at AWARD school and the 6 months as an intern. Given that it’s about 4 years since you both completed AWARD school and you interned 6 months before you told everyone to get fucked, there’s still plenty of openings for people like yourself in the industry, should you decide to quit the legal services for cars owned by actors with large foreheads industry.
7. After a few more years when you realise in the long term your peers are earning stupid amounts of money, you may realise that maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to leave the industry. But don’t worry – you’re still a very big part of it. The industry needs guys like yourself to slag it off – and wouldn’t exist without you. But now, the sniping really has to step up. Start calling people out with rumours you read in the back of Alabama monthly. Stuff like ‘I hear he fucks goats’ is a good one. Also start commenting on their work, which, as a seasoned blogger with 6-7 years experience you’re now entitled to do so. Comments like ‘Shit’, ‘Balls’ and ‘Dogshit’ really tip people off their balance, putting them in a depressed mood so you can sweep in and take their job. Don’t worry about how much ‘actual’ experience these guys have, your seasoned years as a bitter negative fuck will make you appear far more intelligent than him when you stalk him on Facebook and show up to his job interview 30 minutes before he did. Make sure you have a hand drawn business card with ‘CREATIVE DIREKTOR’ written on it – the deliberate misspelling will make you look more ‘Gen-Y’ or ‘down with it’.
8. When the agency hires you, you may have to spend a little time in the mail department – don’t worry, within 6 months you’ll be Executive Creative Director / Global CEO and can laugh at all the idiots that believed in hard work, working late, fighting for their work, listening to everyone, working their way up slowly but surely and concentrating on their game instead of everyone elses. Who knows, you might even be able to buy them a beer next time you stalk them for agency drinks in Surry Hills or Pyrmont.