Ageism and Advertising?
Submitted by MouseyMouse on Tue, 02/13/2007 - 00:52.
It will be ok, as long as you have talent and can afford to work as a junior creative for a year or so. The pay and hours really suck. As you advance in your career, the money gets better, but the hours are still sucky.
You will also have to be fine with working for a supervisor who may be younger than you.
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If anyone has read "Pick Me" (great book, by the way) by the Ask Jancy columnists (from Ihaveanidea.org), there is a chapter at the end that talks abouit Ageism and the bias against older creatives. I am a 37 year old who has been craving an ad career and just started ad school. Should I worry about getting an agency to take me in? I know most creative directors look for talent and that is what matters, but Jancy says there is such a thing as bias in some agencies, but if you got what it takes, then not to worry, but....... Any one encounter that? Is it true there are hardly any people in their 50*s and up as AD or CW*s? I worry I might be wasting my time or end up competing with guys in their 20*s. I know that talent is what matters and producing great work, but there must be ad*s and cw*s in their late 40*s and 50*s still in the business, right? frown
OH PLEASE DO NOT BE COY. The outcome of younger reps are determined by the outcoe of intern associates by younger companies whom are looking for a savior. They rely on you for thier brilliance.
Take a look. Most of the older companies are genius and the idealists are successful.
There are ways to get your ideas accross, you just have to ask for help.
Hey Mousey
As a 23-year old my experience with the business is not that solid. But I*ve been working with people in their 40*s and 30*s a couple of places. In ad school my teachers were mid-30*s, still very active and definately not about to quit or get kicked out.
My advice would be to just go for it. But you might be right that you*ll end up with some younger colleagues. But we*re nice guys too you know wink
You*ll face the problem of not having any produced work and needing an actual paycheck. Most kids straight out of school compete with talent, no family life (thus staying late all the time) and the ability to still live off ramen noodles.
So clearly you can*t compete with them.
Those older in the industry are either 1) hotshots that made it or 2) those who didn*t win Cannes awards at 20 but are still good and work hard on the "humbler" low profile jobs (read, all the bread and butter that makes an agency money which is pretty much everything that doesn*t win in Cannes). These guys all have experience, but with some experience under your belt you can probably find a cozy spot among the 2) people there, working on everything from radio to double-page spreads.
There*s also the older adgrunts in group 3 - they left their jobs to do something else. Like direct, write plays, start skateboarding companies or whatnot. There is a lot of burnout in this business.
You*ll have something that none of the older adgrunts have - no advertising cynisism. This is good! Also, those who have worked for many years tend to demand high salaries. You can*t yet - so, that*s another plus for you.
Hi Dabitch and Uhl,
Thanks for your replies. It*s good to get insight from someone as experienced as you, Dabitch. smile What you wrote made alot of sense. Hopefully, my having some life experience on my side "as cliche as that sounds", lol....will make a difference as well. Though working with 20 year olds is not a bad thing as I am still young at heart and boyish (still get mistaken for a 20 something, hehe) and I love learning from the younger and older generations. Uhl, I wish you success in your career. It did occur to me from reading what you wrote to me, that ad teachers are usually in their 30*s and 40*s, LOL...... so that means that there are alot of people in my age range working the biz, LOL. But I guess I was mostly concerned about starting so late, but if they are in it now, I am sure they are not leaving for another 10, 15 years, give or take? So If I get into a good agency, I can stick around for 10 years until i get burned out and then proceed to opening up my own skateboard company, Dabitch. hehe thanks for your feedback.
you should be ok - just lie about your age (knock a few years off) - but like everyone says, if your work is hot it shouldn*t matter. Plus kids that are so young tend not to have much to say in terms of writing original ads. i.e. not much life experience, and can*t bring much quality to their work (not all of course). I*m referring to those ultra young kids that have made 2 feature films by the time they*re 24, but there films are turd.
Hopefully this helps, for your undersanding and your ego as well.
You chose a mentally demanding job as your profession, given the hours because alot of people are slow minded, therefore you must work later. Many people want to be something, but they are in the wrong field for work. Sure you know this as you read.
As for the under-aged boss, maybe you should have sought a bachelors degree, thats why he owns you and you take orders from someone with no ideas (wich ideas are the foundation) for the company.
Think about going back to college?
Sorry if this hurts, but I tell it like it is instead of sounding like a psycho major with not enough to do like most of the others on here.
Seriously, I can help. Just ask.
Hey MouseyMouse,
I am someone considering getting a masters in advertising to try and restart my career. How has it been going since you entered the work force as a newcomer? (I am assuming you have since graduated and are pursuing your "dream career").
Thanks
I haven't seen MouseyMouse logged in for ages, you might have to try sending them a a personal message via their userpage to get his attention.