When I was younger I used to love to watch thirtysomething which, along with my crush on Dwayne Wayne on A Different World, really confounded my mother. But their lives looked so much better than my adolescent doings. Now of course I'm in my thirties and my life still doesn't resemble theirs, maybe because I'm not married with children living in Pennsylvania, and that's just fine.
Also, because of that show I thought that working in advertising would be the best thing ever. I wanted to sit around like Ken Olin and that other guy with the red beard, shooting Nerf basketball and dreaming up awesome tag lines we could high five about.
Eventually I learned an important lesson: reality is not like what is on television or in the movies. Occasionally, I admit, I must still remind myself of this dissonance, which always makes me wonder which part of myself is still so young to believe, even for a minute, that on my deathbed I should somehow be able to review my life in a montage that plays like Love, Actually.
Back to advertising. To put it kindly, I now know it's not for me. I think this post in Advertising Age, with this accompanying document, begins to explain why. While design research is a good thing, this is so self-important and weird. I mean, it's about Pepsi, A CARBONATED BEVERAGE, and it makes my brain feel purple. (Of course it's about so much more since it's a multinational corporation that deals in a tankers of money, but I'll not get into that now.)
Rupal Parekh, who wrote the post agrees with me, and he works in advertising, so maybe this is me making an example of the exception rather than the rule.
... Nah, in this case, I don't think so. Advertising firms seem to really believe that they can make a universe out of a brand. Who wants to live there?
Plus, as a people, we really need to drink less soda.
Karen, advertising isn't like thirtysomething, but it IS exactly like Mad Men. Duh.
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