If you get laid off because of an economic cutback, that's an entirely different story.
Being let go because your agency lost a client or a client gave up on a product is no reflection on your work and no reason to get down on yourself. Economic cutbacks, or bloodlettings as they're referred to in the business, happen every year in advertising. In fact, some are legendary.
There has been more than one Friday afternoon when fifty or more people from a single agency have poured out onto Madison Avenue without the jobs they had that morning. And things like that happen all over the country, not just in New York.
Anytime an agency loses a big piece of business, rumors of mass bloodlettings spread like wildfire among the troops. Some people who are really nervous about joining the ranks of the unemployed go out for lunch and never come back that day. That way, at least they won't know for sure if they've gotten their walking papers until the next day. They can still have a nice evening.
Does all this mean that the advertising business can get crazy at times? Yes. And it can be as hard to get back into that insanity the second time as it was to get into it the first time. In fact, no matter how much experience you have, chances are that getting a job in advertising will never be easy. But it sure is worth the struggle.
There are few businesses that are populated with people as interesting as those in advertising. They come from all socio-economic backgrounds. More than a few of the people in almost any advertising agency are misfits, to a degree. Not because they sleep with dead snakes and bark at the moon, but because they just don't fit comfortably into any traditionally accepted per-sonality molds. Some don't feel particularly at ease wearing a suit and tie, or a $350 dress. They're more at home in jeans or slacks. Instead of making a supreme effort to be cool, calm, and collected at all times, they scream and shout and generally show their emotions more than do the people in a typical insurance adjuster's office.
The people in advertising are what make advertising agencies and advertising departments of advertisers such interesting places to work. People are what make the business so great, so exciting, and so wonderfully unique.
If you really want to become a part of it, if you're willing to pay the price of becoming a part of it, then I sincerely hope you succeed. There is almost no other business in the world that will give you as many highs and lows, expose you to as many new things, open as many different doors, or let you earn so much money without having to get dressed up to go to work.
Beyond all that, there's one more thing about a career in advertising that's even better than all those others put together.
Advertising lets you live your whole life as a kid.
Personally, I'd rather starve than do anything else.
No matter how hard you work, you'll still have ups and downs. You'll have brilliant periods when everything you do is right on target, and then you'll have setbacks, times when you won't be able to hit a pig in the butt with a snow shovel. This is one of the reasons why the ad business can take its toll on your nerves.
There are people in this business who were superstars early in their careers. They were making fortunes. Advertisers and agencies were falling over themselves trying to pay those geniuses buckets of money if they would only bestow their great gifts on this account or that agency.
Then, suddenly, something changed. For some reason people stopped responding to the ads these geniuses created, and employers stopped begging for their favors.
No one is ever sure why this happens. Maybe being famous makes people forget about the hard work it took to get them there. Maybe they get bored, or depressed. Whatever the reason, they fight to get out of it. They spend the fortunes they amassed on analysts and retreats so they can get their "heads back together". Somehow, after a while, they relax and remember how to create ads again. But it's never quite the same.
They walk down the street and the kids just out of school no longer nudge each other and say, "Hey, there goes so-and-so. He did the XYZ campaign."
They're just another damned good advertising person who has their own unique way of looking at things, a special way that makes them different from 99% of the other people on that street.
They still remember the way it was, though. And they know deep down inside that they can get it back. That the best thing about this insane business is that, all the while it kisses and kicks, if you've got the talent and are willing to work hard enough you can score, no matter how old you are. You can come up with a commercial, or a marketing plan, or a media plan that will set your co-workers to talking, your client to crowing, and the rest of the world on its ear.
That's advertising at its best. And if you can find a bigger thrill anywhere - without the help of a friend - it's probably illegal.
