The art of advertising

The one thing I’ve gotten good at by working in advertising is being able to take criticism. I’ll never forget the time I went on a presentation for a client in New Jersey. We presented our work to the Marketing Manager, he took it to his boss, and two minutes later the President of the company walked into the room, threw our work across the table and said, “What the hell is this crap?” OUCH! Talk about feeling like a little worm on a big frickin’ hook.

Now, not all of my presentations go this way. If they did, I probably wouldn’t have a job. But, advertising is subjective. It’s opinionated. And sometimes people don’t agree with your ideas. But when you do get a client to agree with you, to appreciate your idea, things can go pretty well.

One movie I think shows how well things can go when the client agrees with the agency is the documentary Art & Copy. In this film, Director Doug Pray interviews some of the best minds in the business, all the way back to the hay day of Madison Ave to today. It’s pretty sweet, too, because you get to listen to these geniuses—who created legendary campaigns like Just Do It, Got Milk, and Where’s the Beef—talk about what it was like to create these great ideas.

So, if you get board over this holiday weekend, and want to watch an interesting documentary about advertising, I’d say give this one a try. Trust me, you won’t be disappointed.