Just Kidding

Some people think of advertising as a joke, but I've found it to be quite the opposite. I often find myself wanting to make a funny tagline, print ad, or tv storyboard. It's too easy to play the comedian as an advertiser, but often it's uncalled for and doesn't fit the bill. There's artistry to a well done ad, the copy is like poetry and the images are like paintings; extravagantly simple. There is also some science to advertising. These scientific aspects include being efficient, conducting experiments, and employing theories in order to increase sales. It's a very serious affair determining whether to employ humor, art, or science on behalf of a campaign. Often times it is not one or the other, but rather a perfect blend. With the pressures of how much money is invested in your ideas and the potential room for monetary gains from the success of your ideas, there's really nothing funny about it at all. I don't get stressed out easily, but if I did I would never choose advertising for a career, especially not the creative side. It is for this reason (and to harbor creativity) that I feel ad agencies often practice work place etiquette, management, and structure so differently. What the agency produces stays limitless and free because the environment doesn't add to the stress, in fact it seems to brush it all under the rug. So when people see or hear stories about ad agencies with workers suffering a concussion from a spontaneous Sock'em boppers sparring match they might get the wrong impression. I guess what I'm saying is advertising is not a joke, but sometime our methods are (you have to relieve stress somehow).