I’ve been thinking about the creative comrades we left behind still slogging it out at the big agencies. Working our hours as well as theirs—knowing that a whole lot of folks would jump through fire for the chance to work tirelessly without any hope of a raise. I tip my hat to thee. As do I to your oppressors. No one in our business has fought to retain staffs and treat employees with honesty and respect like they have in the Newspaper business but look where that got them. We have no union to protect (let alone obtain us) pensions like the auto industry but look at where that got them. Our business is more akin to the investment banking business; ruthless, hardcore, brutal, but look at where that got them; Goldman just posted the richest quarterly profit in its 140-year history and, to the envy of its rivals, announced that it had earmarked $11.4 billion so far this year to compensate its workers. I don’t really want to hang out with the people running our business, but God bless them. Instead of reviling big agencies we could be eulogizing them like the Boston Globe. I remember a few years ago when everyone from Creative Artist Agency to everyday consumers were supposed to take over creating advertising content and Google was going redefine media buying with online auctions. Neither materialized. Not even close. Maybe they were just bad ideas, but I like to think its because we out hustled them. Big agencies bought every small boutique and media business that even smelled like competition and let a controlled Darwinian process sort them out later. We are all tired, beat up and scarred, but let’s face it, the Internet has been truly transformative in a rather painful way to a lot of people, and our industry is still in the position to be a master instead of a victim. And if there is anyone who can find a way to actually make money on the most disruptive force in our lifetime, it’s the same bastards that are making you work long hours and freezing raises. When they do figure it out, there will be enough left over for us and it’ll be back to the good old days. Oh, I’m sorry, you were probably looking for a little sympathy. Awwwww.
An Effie award winning campaign I did for BusinessWeek a few years ago. The entire magazine operation is now for sale for $1. No kidding.
