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Did anyone else 'fishbowl' cars in high school?
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28 years in and it's the worst I've ever seen. It's not an optimal outlook for anyone starting out. And it's even more bleak for everyone once they hit 40. Pay doesn't increase with cost of living upticks. We're overworked and see our colleagues get the axe daily while the C-suite get rewarded with bigger bonuses in their ivory towers. I know a lot of marriages that crumbled because of this job. I know someone who joked about having two "ad widows" while complaining that he'll never find someone that can put up with our work/life imbalance. It's depressing to see the same people fail up while great quality employees get the chop because they're more expensive than two fresh graduates. I wish I had never gotten into this industry or at least left it 15 years ago.
So glad I left
Finishing up a website for my small agency. No idea if we can continue to generate cash flow but I had to freshen up the site. We have to educate ourselves about AI whether we want to or not. My web guy is all about it. There’s no way the work won’t be “less than” if we lean too hard on it. It’s so weird to consider letting quality and creativity take a backseat. Advertising has been my life for so long. All I’ve ever done is try to create the absolute best product possible with whatever budget they hand me. It’s all upside down now.
I know it’s all doom and gloom. But for me things that have improved: being able to wfh. I have an arrangement where I only going into the office 2x a week. I get to spend those extra 6 hours a week with kids instead of commuting. Also, I LOVE ai. I don’t know how I ever worked without it. At the moment the people I’m working for don’t know it’s full capabilities for my specific job role, so I get tons more done way faster - and then again, get more time with my kids.
But thank you - I do appreciate you trying to help and not troll
From a performance/paid media lens — both better and worse. Better: the targeting capabilities and data we have today are extraordinary. Google Ads Smart Bidding, AI-powered campaigns, and attribution tools have made media buying far more efficient. Worse: the race to the bottom on CPCs, cookie deprecation headaches, and platforms constantly changing the rules mid-flight makes it exhausting. The craft of writing a compelling ad headline still matters, but now it competes with a machine-generated RSA. Net-net: more powerful tools, but less room for human strategy to shine.
Pro
I'd be amazed if anyone in this bowl said better.