Adland is full of oxygen thieves and it’s time to change for the better

What a great attitude.
If only there were more like you Chiquita!

I have to say this makes me curious about working at DDB.

How utterly refreshing.

Brilliantly written CK. And you are the epitome of the person who lives this. Your positivity, support and enthusiasm should be a lesson to everyone. While you drive your team hard, you also feed them well. You’re easily one of the best people I’ve had the pleasure of working with.

Brilliantly said CK, oh how I miss your wisdom & leadership! x

Chiquita has failed to acknowledge that strong worded criticism is important, particularly when the industry she seeks to protect is victim of its own self-inflicted failures. Cynicism in trade press is bred because agencies, not unlike DDB, produce sub-par work and pretend otherwise with self-congratulatory press releases that rightly attract some strong criticism. I’ve lost count the number of times I’ve read of campaigns that are heralded with the latest jargon and positioned as some great reinvention. In reality they are little more than a piece of shitty advertising. And it’s not just the campaigns, it’s the staff appointments and agency launches and reinventions that are equally full of shit.

Should we call that out? Absolutely.

The next generation of minds isn’t going to work in an ad agency because the possibilities elsewhere are far greater than anything the ad industry has pretended to be so far.

To be frank, I think it sounds like you’re one of the increasing number of people in the ad industry that doesn’t like criticism.

And that’s the real problem.

Oh yeah great
Just be happy and positive and enthuse all those around you. Ok for you photogenic, smiley pants.
What about sparing just a l
thought for us ever so slightly emotionally unbalanced souls who like a bit of belittling , get our self worth from tearing people down a peg or two and being cynical. No thought for how this little happy rant might make us feel? We don’t have much in life but you want to take this away too? Let us be. I like being unhappy. You should try it before you knock it. And I like this business. I’m not leaving just because I’m not positive and happy like you. We make you look good. Without us you’d be just one giant population of happy positive community loving constructive , productive , smiling all day do gooders making society ever better exponentially . And what would that look like? You need us. We keep the
system in balance. Imagine how boring mumbrella would be without us. We have the right to be negative and cynical and we have purpose. And nothing you say can take that from us.
And another thing. Just because you got the DNA with good levels of serotonin and had a good upbringing is no reason to discriminate. I’m going home to torture my pretend children who pretend hate me.

CK embodies this attitude — I say this as someone who worked on the other side of the agency village once. Good words, and ones we (and by we I mean me) should listen to more often!

You are a breath of fresh air, and I am in awe of how you lead, inspire and motivate the people around you.
Your Quitaness is priceless.

Hi Chinquita,

Here’s an alternative pov.

I reckon genuine (commercialised) creativity often lies in troubled souls those sensitive enough to humans and the world around them that they can tap into what motivates and inspires in others. Often that sensitivity comes with personality challenges – resulting in anything by a happy, smiley, positive disposition.

Further, we’re searching for authenticity – and as the great philosopher Batman once said ‘The brighter the picture the darker the negative’. Society gets into trouble when it suppresses it’s dark side and tries to present a positive, glib, superficial image (e.g. looks whats happening in Hollywood).

In Russia (an extremely creative culture for eons) they have an expression that roughly translates to those who smile without reason are idiots. I’d hate us to go that far – but perhaps a genuine middle ground can be reached. That is an industry that accepts people for who they are – positive or negative, happy or sad, and finds a way for them to get the most out of themselves.

Great ideas will happen without having to be anything but authentic – positive or not.

Cheers,

Adam

Whoops above comment was from me. Mumbrella feel free to adjust and put my name to it.

Hold my beer…

Enjoyed the read CK, thanks.

One can be cynical and look for the positive.

One can be sceptical yet reach for greatness.

One can be a realist without dragging everyone down around them.

This industry could place more value on EQ, rather than using talent and IQ as an excuse for the poor behaviour of some.

Bravo!

The most talented people I’ve ever worked with were always the most positive. Creation is a leap of faith – not knowing but leaping anyway. But in an industry driven by ego and insecurity; you’ve got to learn to live with those troubled souls too. It’s ok when they’re young, but you should fully expect them to deal with it and grow up by the time it’s their turn to take the wheel.

The dictionary defines an oxygen thief as a “useless person” and I agree that no industry or business needs such people. However, when the axe falls on the person who has been identified, and labelled as an oxygen thief, it would be rather cruel if they had no prior warning of their plight. In short, it is of no benefit to anyone to continually be positive when a person’s ideas/thinking suck.

If that really was Adam commenting above, I’m impressed. And I stand corrected. I always imagined Ferrier to be a bit of a dilettante who loved the sound of his own voice, but it seems there’s more to the man than baloney about data and creativity. There are too many smiling idiots in this game–working in agencies that have successfully manufactured a smiling idiot culture–and it shows in the work.

Yeah, cynicism is your problem, you’re not getting carried away on the positive unicorn express. Just another carried away post – “if everyone is positive then everyone wins! yay!” and everyone slept well in a world devoid of sexism, racism, war and poverty. This is echo chamber bullshit.

I started in advertising in 1982! In my career there have always been those who would act as though their work and personas were better, smarter and totally superior. You were in the award crowd ( been there eventually hated that) or you were treated as someone with nothing to add. As David Ogilvy was clear — the business is full of ” zeros, phonies and bastards”. From your article it seems the status quo remains. I won awards in the big agencies, started my own shop solo, enjoyed 28 years running a shop with no politics while all around me thought they were better. I sold my shop twice! Made my millions and at 67 am still getting projects and being creative. My comment: “up your nose with a rubber hose.”