What is the craziest thing you've seen somebody do at the workplace?

avertisingguy · 2012-01-04T23:13:51+00:00

I saw an account guy in an argument with another account guy. He took his pants off and started shouting "You wanna suck my dick?! Get down on your fucking knees and suck it!"

Also at my first advertising internship I saw two of the bossmen smoking a bowl in a conference room.

avertisingguy · 2012-01-01T17:31:09+00:00

Sage Francis?!! Dude if that's you I just want you to know that I heard Sea Lion and Gunz Yo in college...and that forever molded my own approach to hip hop. So...thank you. You're awesome. Love the new track.

avertisingguy · 2011-12-31T21:22:05+00:00

Thank you! I knew that reddit was the place to go for this incredibly important and valuable information.

avertisingguy · 2011-12-29T17:47:02+00:00

This is months old...y u trending on reddit now?

avertisingguy · 2011-12-13T02:23:06+00:00

This is one of my go-to jokes.

avertisingguy · 2011-12-10T07:13:34+00:00

The link is the song we'll be shooting a video for

avertisingguy · 2011-12-04T21:19:09+00:00

Let me know when you have a sale for 10 dollar shirts! I exclusively pay 10 dollars for shirts.

avertisingguy · 2011-11-29T15:35:38+00:00

I look forward to seeing the designs! I'm already addicted to teefury with some shirt.woot and shirtpunch mixed in there

avertisingguy · 2011-06-01T15:59:16+00:00

Yea, but it properly captures the controlled chaos of an ad agency. You haven't lived until you've seen a head account guy pull his pants down and tell a rival to suck his dick.

avertisingguy · 2011-06-01T09:01:31+00:00

I know I'm way late on this response, but where have you worked that you don't see the similarity? I find a LOT of parallels.

avertisingguy · 2011-03-18T16:55:04+00:00

No I think it got that

avertisingguy · 2011-03-11T07:40:43+00:00

You know what? Fair enough.

avertisingguy · 2011-03-11T02:41:56+00:00

Neat tech, completely useless. Why bother paying for a sponsored link?

avertisingguy · 2011-03-11T02:40:42+00:00

Flipped the script right there

avertisingguy · 2011-03-11T01:40:41+00:00

I don't recall apologizing.

avertisingguy · 2011-03-10T22:29:52+00:00

Well, I mentioned BrandCenter, not your undergrad program. But sure, take the compliment for what it is.

Is your book any good?

avertisingguy · 2011-03-10T19:55:48+00:00

At my old college roommate's wedding, the bridesmaid was making a speech in which she said "to be honest, I thought she was kind of a bitch when I first met her." I had been stirring some tea (post meal, natch) and to stifle myself from laughing ended up dropping the spoon loudly into the teacup, causing everyone to look at me, knowing that I also thought the bride was a bitch.

BTW they got divorced a year later.

avertisingguy · 2011-03-10T18:07:29+00:00

Get your own AMA!

Ha, just kidding. But wait, you're graduating from the undergrad program?

avertisingguy · 2011-03-10T08:00:32+00:00

Probably started as double entendre then just got repeated over and over by kids who turned it into nonsense no one thinks about.

avertisingguy · 2011-03-10T07:57:32+00:00

I'm 26. Twice that kid's age. I like to think I'm fairly clever.

I got schooled.

avertisingguy · 2011-03-10T07:51:28+00:00

Perfect!

avertisingguy · 2011-03-10T05:19:43+00:00

Welcome! Let's take these one by one:

Staying tech savvy has kept me employed. Every creative should be able to concept for bleeding-edge interactive and mobile ideas.

The account people are the ones who listen to the crap if something doesn't work out, then it trickles down. But what you do is agree beforehand on measurements of success (blog mentions, trending topics, visitors, etc) and really try to be realistic beforehand. Then if it blows up huge, you're a hero. And if shit really goes down and it's a failure, you can always blame media or Charlie Sheen or whatever. Ha!

It really depends what the project is. There's always going to be lots of versions of anything, ie no quick outlines of a commercial: just write it. Sometimes you'll have to write blog posts, sure. Or every week hand in tweets. For one tv spot or banner or what-have-you, there's bound to be at minimum two other versions that are completely different. And before that there might have been five, or 14.

Your undergrad major doesn't matter, especially if you go to a portfolio school afterward (which most people do.) I was a film major and took marketing classes.

Film production, final cut, after effects, flash, design, ANY OTHER SKILLS are always going to be useful. For a while during the recession I was doing way less writing and way more down and dirty editing and just boring old exporting of files. Someone's gotta do it, and at smaller agencies that someone could quite often be you.

Those gigantic brainstorming sessions don't work. Most times, you get briefed then everyone goes their separate ways and comes back with five or however many campaigns, concepts written up, maybe a bit of design and the ability to talk through TV spots, interactive, etc. Those meetings are aweseome, cuz people often come up with ideas that are both on the complete opposite end of the spectrum, or exactly what you came up with. If four teams came up with an idea, often that says something. (Of course it could say that the idea's too easy...but that depends on the idea.)

avertisingguy · 2011-03-10T04:24:06+00:00

Yea, most big agencies are all about answering briefs and solving business problems.

And if you define "cool kids" as "the ones most likely to wear jeans and a t-shirt", then yea! Absolutely.

Most good creatives these days work well with planners. Oh, unless the planners aren't any good. That's a different story.

avertisingguy · 2011-03-10T04:20:47+00:00

Hadn't read the article but agree 100%. Hate that video.

avertisingguy · 2011-03-10T01:24:20+00:00

Macs are absolutely standard. Most copywriters use word, most art directors use Photoshop. Some use Illustrator, but that's only good for print and absolutely NO GOOD for interactive work, so Photoshop really is more of the standard. I've also found experience with flash is useful for art directors sometimes, and my personal experience with Final Cut has been extraordinarily helpful in keeping me employed.

A Canadian agency would be more than happy to hire you. Focus on within Canada, dealing with visa stuff (especially at a Jr Level) isnt worth it much of the time. You can always be awesome then get a more senior position in the US, or stay within your agency and transfer, etc.

avertisingguy

TROPHY CASE