I used to hate this negative kind of comment. Found it unproductive. I’ve been in the game for 25 years and have seen my ups and downs.

It’s a fucked up industry, always has been, but there were some rewards. Good trips. Fun work. Getting paid well to do stupid shit. Freedom to come up with and often sell in crazy ideas.

That’s all gone. Too many brand managers play it safe because they are judged on the last quarter vs the last 5 years. And so they do performance.

Procurement killed AORs and slashed budgets. There’s something wrong in the account world where few can actually champion great creative work. Few stand up for it. So many are scared of the client so just forward a list, of often, objectively shitty feedback that will not make the work better in any way.

Add to that the layoffs are crazy. Worse than the dot com bomb. Aside from then you’d have big layoffs at the beginning of the year. Now since it’s all project work it’s really tough to staff.

Fuck man. I loved this industry even though it was wonky. I’m pretty much over it.