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Same thing for me. I think there’s a few reasons why this has happened.
1. Whenever I work on a project it turns into a dumpster fire of deadlines. Things suddenly become due the next day when they require a week. When this happens it turns into a week of things due every day when it given just one more day or two would make a far better output of work.
2. Projects/clients/account doesn’t want to be creative. They just want prescribed work or to shout a strategy to an audience who doesn’t give a shit about corporations bragging about themselves. Agencies aren’t designed to be creative anymore, at least most. There are 3 different strategists, 2 different producers and 3 different account people for a campaign with 2-3 creatives. The work sucks because of this because 99% of the time we are talking about creative but not being creative.
3. The impossibility of advancing to the standard of work that I hold myself to. The few agencies in the world that do great work require incredible books or some sort of personal rapport with someone from said agencies. When you can’t possibly create work to get a promotion or a better job, you lose motivation from a long term standpoint.
Basically don’t work at 360i.
but we have draft beer!
Same exact feeling OP. And for me it wasn’t just about the awards (assume it wasn’t for you either) but about making great creative work. I was so inspired and excited to do that. But the reality is, like 360i said, most clients don’t truly want great creative work. They might think they do, but they don’t realize what that actually entails, or have very different definitions of “great creative work” than we do (aka a banner ad). I’ve come to see my job as just a way to earn a living - and a way I feel fortunate to have because at the end of the day it’s still more interesting and fun to me than most other avenues. I’m working on going in-house and exploring other routes. However, I’m also okay with my job not being my passion anymore. I hope I find a job that excites and challenges me. But I also have many other interests and goals that I prioritize over advertising now and if my job primarily serves as a means to support those things (rather than being a passion in and of itself), that’s ok with me.
Strategist1 that's really uncalled for.
Pro
Yes man. I got out of ad school like a bull. Worked like crazy. Got into nice agencies, won the biggest awards someone could possibly win, and I’m just so sick of it.
Every brief I get I can’t seem to find any meaning to it, I can’t stop thinking how making the client grow their business will mean more plastic, more waste, more production streamlined to china or Bangladesh that would come back here in a huge pollution maker tanker.
The only thing that made me happy and kept me going was the opportunity to travel somewhere to shoot something but Covid ruined that one.
But, i do still have some personal pride that I can’t just go to a shitty agency and just settle for shitty work. I think that would just make things worse.
I can’t wait to find an opportunity to leave. I’m sure am trying.
this.
I was ready to change the world for the better when I started now I’m just ready for my paycheck to increase.
I realized no one cares. It’s a game of illusions and client butt kissing and office politics, and there is only so much you can take before you give up...
Did you only care about awards? I guess that's the difference. I actually love the insights and reaching the targets where they are and where they care about the message...and doing it in a totally unexpected way. It's fun for me. Did you not know what advertising is all about before you got into it? It's not about 9-5 (or 6). I think you should exit as soon as possible because it will get worse and worse for you. Find something that doesn't feel like work. Do that. Don't worry about money. It will come if you are really passionate about what you're doing. Best of luck to you.
Lol I don’t think anyone here is mad specifically at a lack of awards (or at least I’m not). If I can presume to speak for some of the others in this convo, I think we’re disappointed by the amount of solid creative work we’ve seen die without reason or be changed by the client until it’s unrecognizable. That’s the part that strips the passion and excitement from the job — when you are treated as a pair of hands to execute the clients’ vision (I’ve literally been handed scripts written by the client themselves and told this is what we’re making) rather than as a trusted creative partner. ECD, I’m glad you don’t seem to be in that position but many of us are or have been. And it’s not always due to the work not being sold as well as it could’ve been. Anyway, it sounds like a lot of us, including OP, have found ways to enjoy the job without the “passion” we once had for it, and we feel fulfilled channeling our energy into our pursuits outside of work.
Pro
Go to a digital agency.. I log off at 5-6pm. It’s wonderful (LA based). Did the NYC agency life for 7 years.. I’m so much happier now and have fun doing the work I do and people aren’t catty, pretentious, etc etc
I wish our industry did more to keep the fire burning in young creatives. Curious as to what OP feels would do this, since burnout is obviously a industry-wide issue.
I feel this on a personal level...except I've been in the industry for a less amount of time. I just want to have motivation to work out again and not be bogged down by the amount of work or hours I need to get done.
Same AD, same
I feel this as an account person too, although we don’t really get awards anyway so I guess I was just a glutton for punishment from the beginning.
I wish there was a world where I could have a decent quality of life, respectable salary, and inspiring creating to work on. I’m not willing to work 80+ hour weeks anymore, but I don’t want to sacrifice my pay or the quality of the work (I know, I know).
So if anyone has a good exit strategy I’m all ears.
I’m in year 13 total/year 2 of freelancing, and have never once been asked in an interview about awards. Only matter to leadership and a certain strain of status-chasers.
After spending the last 6 years building and managing a department—and all the politics and ego-twisting that comes with it—I have found it mentally refreshing and beneficial to now take a transactional, work-for-money approach to freelancing.
I hear you, OP. I worked my way into advertising later in life (pharma, but still!) and I found my expectations were very different from reality. Unexpectedly, I’ve come to enjoy the work and I LOVE the people, I just find the lifestyle to be really difficult. I don’t want to work until 11 pm every night, I don’t want to wake up in the middle of the night with my heart pounding, and when I have a kid, I don’t want to miss their childhood. Why can’t advertising try to figure out how to provide basic work life balance? (I know, the billable hour.) People would be tripping over themselves to be in this industry instead of stampeding to the exits.
Same. Btw, awards are and should be possible with this mindset. It’s fucking ads lol. Make good ones, sell them and get awarded by it. Okay maybe there’s more to it, but still.
Sounds like the issue is the notion of grind = awards, creativuty = awards.
Yet the biggest mistake all of us creatives make or don't seem to realize, creativity is subjective.
Many ideas and solutions answer a brief. What gets picked is always subjective. We just like to kid ourselves with rationales and clients, reasons for killing ideas.
So yes it's very very much about our own expectations from ourselves, from our colleagues, from the agency, and finally the folks paying.
And finally, awards are also very much about timing and stars aligning. I've worked with one-hit Grand Prix winners 🙄
Eh why do most of these comments in here sound like first years in advertising? This is really not news. This has been going on since more than 10 years ago. And creatives have been making gripes like this since I joined advertising and no doubt before I joined advertising and after. Anyone doing this long enough ought to know.
Is this a "change of guard" going on? New advertising creatives discovering the reality of advertising?
Has anyone here read that old blog rant about award baits capitalizing on the psychology of creatives?
SAD1 sorry I made you defensive. I originally wrote "anyone in their 40s and more will know" and consciously removed the ageism.
I thought by referring to experience, it'll help convey the notion that some of us who've been doing this longer aren't surprised by this and are more surprised by the surprise in these comments.
I wasn't referring to awards at all though I did end on asking if anyone read or remember that blog post about a creative's psychology.
AD2 is exactly right. This is my surprise over the comments here. Reality vs perception vs what they sold you. We THINK we're in the creative industry. We THINK creativity is king. We THINK creativity sells. Whipple taught us advertising is the rock and roll of business. Beside an ad book or school will NEVER teach a creative otherwise, that's antithesis to bring creative.
Now what do you think our clients really think?