is this industry dead? tell the truth.

As a junior, I think I messed up picking a sinking ship of an industry

I “left” (was laid off) after 10 years at a well respected shop, good clients, many awards. Now I’m in-house at a big technology company. Less fun. More targeted. But I can tell you, from inside the machine, AI is here. It’s no longer slop and churn, it is writing briefs, generating original social, writing scripts, animating 4K video - so my advice for Juniors is to learn how to use every AI tool at your disposal. Hustle for any entry level job at Google or in Marcom at Apple. Any client-side creative role! Or find your nice as a platform creator. Big agencies don’t invest in young talent the way they did 10 (or even 5!) years ago. So go out and make your mark wherever else you can.

Honestly, thank god I married rich.

The moment holding companies devalued agency brands the likes of JWT, Y&R, Grey, client began to disrespect and devalue all agencies even further, taking downward spiral to more levels.

The question is: can I eek out another decade of work before I say goodbye?

Yes, it is.

Take a look around your agency and see how many senior leaders you truly admire and respect. There’ll be one or two, but no more than that.

Take a look at your parent company or holding company and do the same. There’ll be even fewer.

Never has there been an industry with more of a senior leadership ‘FAIL FORWARD’ problem, and it’s been going on for years.

And it’s left the industry at a moment of great threat without smart enough, relevant enough people in charge to navigate through it.

I’m not naming names, but look at the senior departures from the likes of DDB, Dentsu, VMLY&R over the past five or six years. All people who’d achieved nothing but f**k their agencies up, only to land bigger jobs elsewhere, to go and f**k those agencies or holding companies up too.

How is this allowed to happen? Who is making these insane, inane decisions? Who is getting blinded by bullshit in these people’s interviews FFS?

All it’s achieved is to leave the industry rudderless and ill-equipped to deal with what will be a challenging future. It’s very sad.

BUT, a lot of people on here talk about the huge potential in, and for independent agencies. I think they’re absolutely right and clients do too, so there’s some genuine hope there.

Not least because they have none of the holding company ‘lifers’ at the helm, who so, so clearly simply haven’t got a f***ing clue what to do next…

We’ve become an asset churning factory with demands for efficient, leaner teams.

Everyone’s burnt out with no real desire or resources to build and invest in young talent.

Going to be interesting to see how this plays out in a couple years when there’s no one to pass the baton to once the vets leave.

AI creative agencies next up? lol

Advertising may have died but it’s so woke !

Someone told me recently that truly creative agencies will still be around, only they’ll be a niche industry. Since the end of last year, I’m starting to believe it.

Definitely on the way out.

Anyone who says otherwise is in denial

Just be happy you don’t own a production company! That’s an even steeper decline.

Meta just announced a new product that literally (not effectively) is designed to replace creatives and agencies. It’s a proprietary app where you input your image, enter your promotion or offer as a prompt, and Meta creates the ad for you.

This eliminates a good solid 90% of what we do on a daily basis. The work that needs no thought but costs $millions in billable hours a year.

Suddenly building banners for 10 hours a day doesn’t seem so tedious.

It's been a slow down hill roll for years now. The advent of social really hit agencies hard. They needed to keep up with their clients needs for social media, yet it wasn't written into many of their contracts. As a result, content was being generated spontaneously and given away for free just to retain clients. Then Venture (vampire) Capital came in and seeing NO value in the creative process, eliminated positions (CMO's) and other senior creatives thus reducing departments to something analogous to 'creative services'...plug n play. And now of course, AI is here to deliver the final death blow. There may be ways to evolve, but it seems to be a moving and ever-shrinking target.

this was super validating. i’m currently midlevel and i feel like i’m clawing to stay alive in this industry. i’m hungry and interested, but i feel like junior talent are asked to carry heavy expectations with new born legs. and when an opportunity for growth presents itself — it’s often pinned down by an insane timeline and seniors and directors just take over without using it as a teachable moment. so you feel more like a burden than a contributor.

and since ai has crashed the party…it feels like there’s no room for creatives at this level.

so i appreciate what everyone is saying, because i bring this up to my manager, i bring this up to leadership, and it seems like no one knows the answer. so i’m left to conclude that it’s not sustainable, and i while i love what i do, but it feels like it doesn’t love me back….so i just gotta pack my bags and go.

but figuring out where to go from here is defeating.

Droga’s departure was probably a good indication - his timing has always been impeccable.

I'm working client side at a financial institution in comms/marketing and making so much more than I made as a copywriter at an ad agency. Miss the agency environment but they just don't pay well. And once you get to a decent salary, you have to worry about a big target on your back for layoffs.

When people think an "idea" is paying an "influencer", then yes, it is dead.