Truth Bomb: Maybe AI deserves your job.

I came up in a business where my bosses pushed people. Hard. Relentlessly.

Advertising demanded more.

People had healthy debates and disagreements about the work. Concepting was challenging and highly competitive.

There were winners. Losers. The best ideas won enough of the time to be worth the pain and suffering. 

That was the price of greatness. 

My superiors didn’t accept weak thinking because you were having a tough day. You paid for your own snacks, and you'd count yourself lucky if the kitchen had a vending machine. 

Quality was the bar my bosses reached for instead of free energy drinks.

They weren’t your security blanket. 

They were your boss.

NOBODY WANTS TO BE RIDDEN HARD ANY MORE.

These days, pushing people is considered toxic. 

A fireable offense.

We settle for bland and the lowest common denominator under the guise of playing nice and appeasing best practices.

Suddenly we're why people no longer give a fuck and AI can do our jobs.

We're swinging the doors wide open for AI.

Conforming to metrics and best practices is the weakest thing you can do because AI can do that shit better than you.

You have only one choice if you expect to survive.

Do what AI can't do.

Make people uncomfortable. Be deeply and profoundly human in a way AI can't.

THE ASSHOLES AREN'T ALWAYS THE REAL ASSHOLES, FRIENDS.

Let's say you're a creative director, or that at least your LinkedIn signature and your business card say you are.

You're not being paid to be a cruise director. 

You're a creative director. Be willing to get canned for what you believe in, even if it's that being tough on people is what you get paid to do. Because at least you will walk away with your dignity and pride. 

You'll also be a lot more employable if your portfolio isn't packed with milequtoast bullshit.

It's not a popularity contest. It's a fuckin' job.

I'm not saying be an asshole. But before you run to HR to lodge a formal complaint, here's something to think about if your boss is being tough on you. 

Is your boss trying to save you from yourself? From derivative or lazy thinking? From forgetting the value of doing something great?

Is it your best work, or your ego not being your amigo?

What I'm saying is have a fucking spine, and be willing to accept it if your ideas get t-boned. Don't cower and cave to nervous account people or complain if your boss dials up the heat.

Advertising needs to grow a sack or let the machines take over.

Choose one.

And if you have to course-correct towards a safer occupation, by all means, please do so. Make room for people willing to put in the sweat and effort to rise above. 

HAVE THE SACK TO DO THE JOB WELL AND PREVENT OTHERS FROM PECKING THE WORK TO DEATH.

Even if they're the client.

You have to remain vigilant. Especially if they're the client.

Newsflash. If you can't win over the client and gain their trust, you're screwed. Easier said than done? Yup.

If you’re a creative, start by giving a fuck about their business and their definition of success and don't let the account handlers get in-between you and your clients.

Earn face time. 

Ask for face time. 

Know their business. 

Know your business is helping theirs, and don't be afraid to remind them you both want the same thing.

Set aside your delusions of winning a Lion in a competition where the categories outnumber the quality work. 

Measure your success through theirs.

DO WORK THAT GETS TALKED ABOUT OR DIE TRYING.

Be the pain in everyone’s ass. Refuse to dumb the work down. Don't cave when the client starts to crumble. Just say no and never be afraid to take the patient off the table if there's no life left in your idea.

You're not cooking a compromise casserole. Mediocrity and fragile egos be damned. 

Advertising is rife with marginal talents who won't think twice about shanking your ass given a clear shot and no blood trail leading back to their car in the corporate parking garage. Don't make their life easier. 

Don't let the work become shit. Who wins if you do that? Hint: It sure as hell won't be you.

It's better to die on your feet rather than live on your knees. 

Let this one sink in.

Please.

Pride. Craft. Integrity.

Everything else is wallpaper, deflection, and kumbayah, candy-ass, cultural gaslighting. 

Anyone in the way of doing smart, attention-grabbing work needs to get out of the way. And if that means protecting the work your account people won't, so be it.

The right people will notice and if they don't, you're in the wrong damn place.

DON'T TELL ME GOOD WORK CAN'T BE DONE.

Get your clients comfortable with being uncomfortable for the sake of their own careers. 

Nobody succeeds when mediocrity wins.

Talk about the client's objectives and how your work will meet and exceed them. Talk in terms they understand. 

ROI. Share of mind. Standing out from their competitors. Getting noticed.

If you're on strategy, fight the good fight. If the client has an objection, ask them about the parts they don't object to. 

The idea may be salvageable with minor adjustments. Thank you, Ben Levy, author of Stop Reading Slides, for that gem. (Read it.)

Be willing to rationally debate with your clients without being a baby or having a cow. That's not arguing, and beware of account people who see it as such.

Be courageous, even if it gets you in hot water. Hot water is an excellent cleansing mechanism. Sometimes it can flush out the real problem.

Your Teflon-coated account person.

MAYBE AI ACTUALLY CAN DO YOUR JOB.

A note to agency owners and upper management. 

You owe your people the right to come up with more than the weak tea that passes for credible work and makes your clients comfortable.

Maybe your culture of capitulation and your constantly shifting values are the real issue. 

I'm looking at you, agency founders and higher-ups.

Maybe you need to slam a shot of the truth.

You're the weak link. You’re failing your people. In fact, you’re the only one succeeding. Sound like anyone you know?

Selling out to metrics and best practices and appeasing weak clients is the easiest path to mediocrity.

MAKING EXCUSES WON'T FOOL EVERYONE.

Stop blaming the metrics, the economy, the clients, the process, and the pain it takes to be good.

Being good is the only way to be great. Stop canceling people who make the process tough. Cherish them. Invest in them. Celebrate them. 

Because they have what it takes. They know what it takes.

They put the work first.

You should try it sometime.

DON'T DENY YOUR PEOPLE THE PRIVILEGE OF BEING PUSHED.

Silver is not cause for a ticker-tape parade.

The Chiefs got a silver in this year's Super Bowl. 

But the truth is they got trounced by a better team, a better strategy, they got beaten by a mile and a half.

Don’t shoot for silver.

Great work is great work, and the big prize, and some people never get to it because they buy into participation trophies. Foosball tables. Team-building exercises and forced fun.

But guess what?

In the end, standing for something more than that stuff will define who you really are.

Fuck the titles. Fuck the trophies. Fuck the hurt feelings. Do fucking good work and greatness won’t elude you.

That’s the only way to be great.

#theadvertisingsurvivalguide

Maybe you need to read a book. Cameron Day has written three. The Advertising Survival Guide trilogy. Link to buy in his LinkedIn signature. Spoiler Alert: it's a throat punch and packed with truth bombs.