Long, long
ago in a year that had a nine and a seven in it, I was working at a small
television station in Idaho. I was a master control switcher, directed
newscasts and interview shows, put together local commercials, dubbed
videotapes, and performed various other production tasks. One day a coworker,
who worked downstairs and wrote local commercials, left for a job in radio.
“You have a
degree in journalism,” the boss said. “You must know how to write. Do you want
to write commercials?”
I said yes.
But I knew nothing about advertising—how and why it worked, who did it, where,
how, or any of that stuff. Learning that stuff seemed like a good idea, so I
visited the library and started home-schooling myself.
One of the
books I read was From Those Wonderful
Folks Who Gave You Pearl Harbor, by an irreverent and accomplished New York
City advertising agency copywriter (and later agency owner) named Jerry Della
Femina.
He made the advertising
agency business sound fun—and frustrating, challenging, annoying, and
exasperating.
But mostly
fun.
The book led
me to pursue work as an advertising agency copywriter. I’ve been at it nearly
forty years since; now part-time. While not as glamorous as Madison Avenue,
working at agencies in Idaho, Nevada, and Utah has been much as Della Femina
described it in that influential book I count among my favorites.
Besides all
the fun, the job hasn’t involved much heavy lifting and seldom requires
breaking a sweat. And, somehow, it led me to wonder—after writing advertising
for some twenty years—if maybe I could write a poem.
Now look.
Rod,
ReplyDeleteLike you, I transitioned into advertising (out of education) as a matter of early exhaustion in being a full-time teacher, part-time coach, part-time recruiter, part-time administrator, part-time dad. Given a job, in a little ad agency, set to work as the assignments came by. Reached a low-point in one particularly "creative" ad I'd written where I failed to identify what it was that the client actually did. Never read a book about advertising until my second agency, where yours unruly was named creative director, did I encounter Ogilvy's book which I read and immediately discounted. I was a creative director after all.
Now, after 4700 hundred some advertising and marketing jobs completed in my freelance career, I still don't think much about the principles of advertising or marketing but I do try to practice what you write about so fluently -- the principles of written communication.
Sell on, Madison River scribe.
Slinging the bull for money isn't a bad way to make a living, John. Looks like we both made a go of it. Thanks.
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