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Or both 😂
Rising Star
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For me, it’s the relentless use and abuse to create work that, quite frankly, sucks. Working 80 hour weeks, including weekends, producing work that’s forgettable wallpaper. It’s what most clients want, even if we pitch fun, creative, engaging, interesting ideas. Budgets are smaller, timelines are tighter, there’s more deliverables than ever… for what? Summer parties aren’t fun anymore, holiday party budgets have been slashed, wrap dinners/parties don’t happen like they used to and you can’t drink at work anymore. The perks that made this job so fun have left the building. Not to mention there are layoffs every 10 seconds, you can’t stay at the same agency for longer than like 5 years or people start side-eyeing you, which is fine because you can’t get promoted or a significant pay raise unless you jump to another shop anyways… so ya. I hate this industry now. It used to be fun.
I’ve been in this business long enough to see many eras of advertising. And totally not defending, I dislike where it’s gone too. Just interested why others hate it so much.
Rising Star
From what I’ve observed there are a few answers.
One is that our industry attracts a lot of “failed” artists - folks that settled for the paycheck but want creative satisfaction from the job to feel like the thing they put on the back burner. When it doesn’t there’s frustration with that and it’s pointed at the job.
Another is some form of liberal guilt where folks parrot how shit advertising is culturally, and that what they do has very little meaning. This one is rampant, and I have zero sympathy for it. If you don’t believe in, or outright object to a job you will be sacrificing so much for, leave. You’re just being dumb.
Lastly, our job also seems to attract a lot of narcissistic folks that want to be saviors, or the person with the answer. That can create a lot of toxic culture and dissonance when the only real path to success is as a team. That frustrates everyone involved.
The venn diagram of those three types overlap to form one of the cattiest groups of workers ever. You’re right - in the grand scheme we have it pretty good. Of course there are real issues, but by the way they’d tell it, we’re both saving the world and destroying it. and everybody is shit at it but “me”.
Rising Star
🙏🏽
Chief
You get to make stuff? Cool! I just make decks.
Chief
Oh we get through it all, and we get feedback on everything. And we tweak, and tweak and tweak until they don’t make anything.
It’s not about the work anymore. It’s about the appearance of work. Endless conversations that go nowhere, the amount of decks that we shove at clients that say nothing, then rush to try to do work.. or the appearance of work.. to continue making decks. I haven’t seen a cohesive, actionable plan, realistic plan in years..
if you have more decks than campaigns or campaign deliverables there’s a huge problem
I find that decks are more often just a talker / BS’r s crutch.
It's the abuse and misuse of us from our holding cos and clients. They treat us poorly sometimes.
job? you guys are working?
It’s The egotistical, narcissistic empty of a shell power hungry and attention seeking people, the constant pivots that are accompanied by harsh demoralizing feedback & ingratitude. And meaningless stupid work that doesn’t add anything of substance beyond a few seconds of robbing your attention
Timesheets.
I hate that the industry is run by male Creative Directors and no one sees a problem with it. ( for those who wonder women still do most of the spending, keeping the economy strong-ish)
It’s the fact that it’s impossible to be a good parent while working in this industry. Late nights, weekends. The pressure for us to do great thoughtful work when every half hour is a meeting about a different project. The weekend emergencies.
And now, PTO policies that say we can’t take more than 10 days when almost every weekend is given to the agency. So where is my policy that they can’t have more than my 9-5 M-F.
The conditions for good work don’t exist anymore. The only people who have time to think are people who have performed poorly and aren’t getting put onto every project. We are all just trying to keep our jobs before the next round of layoffs, manage internal politics, and then also manage clients requests and politics.
I will say, I thought this industry was difficult before kids, but I was very good at my job. Now that I have two kids under two of my own, it’s impossible to be the employee I was before. For one, I simply don’t have the time. But on a much deeper level, having kids made me realize that everything I do at work is fake, worthless, and meaningless.
A lot of us have our self-worth tied up in what we do for a living. Most jobs have a set performance bar. Just get it done on time and good enough. Our bar gets raised constantly. When you're told you need to work harder and be better almost every day, it takes a toll. Especially when the compensation and benefits seem to be dropping. Then again, the grass is always greener and such.
This is the big one for me. Keep thinking bigger, trying harder, going above and beyond - but we're gonna systematically decrease your benefits while still "encouraging" you to do your best work (under constant threat of layoffs). Inspiring! /s
IMHO, it entirely depends on the shop and who you are.
Holdco shops are terrible now. It’s not just that they’re making subpar work, or the culture sucks, or the rules are restrictive, it’s that the people who made good money making meh work are afraid they can’t survive if they get fired. So it’s making everyone more fearful, political and performative. There’s no middle class.
Small shops haven’t changed much. If you’re talented, kind and reasonably hard working, it can still be fun. It’s a small club though.
Hot take, but in my experience, the most miserable people are also the least talented or the ones who wanted to coast. Big shops used to give people who were better at politics than the work more room to hide, now they don’t.
I used to think production was a place for at least some modicum of creativity and craft. Now I see it for what it is: a series of pointless triple bids where everyone knows who they want ahead of time, and 2 to 4 other bidders are made to spin their wheels and spend money on pointless bids.
But now, especially in recent months, with the added bonus of the holding company swooping in like a vulture of mediocrity, driving the job to an internally-connected and underwhelming bidder.
Rising Star
I never get to go on shoots and I rarely get to make stuff.
Rising Star
Now THAT is unacceptable and worthy of being unhappy about.
Holdcos: Death by committee.
Indies: Death by chaos.
Because jobs don't care higher-ups do not care about what you want they only care about their bottom line they don't care if we live or die
The job itself is often really fun. The community looks great on paper, which I think draws in new people. But when faced with the prima donnas, the savage financial swings, the near constant employment uncertainty or the sometimes wild time commitments, I can see how it might put people off. It can sometimes feel like your work and effort is easily dismissed or devalued, most often by people who don't even understand what you do. You spend more time in meetings and doing paperwork than actually doing the tasks you enjoy. I personally still love the work, I just understand how it might not be as shiny on the inside as it looks from the outside. Advertising isn't romantic. It's hard work.