Unlike me, agency kids don’t enjoy getting drunk any more says media trading boss
How the Sun-Herald portrayed Swifte drinking with younger colleague and agency social committee member Matt Soulsby
The communications industry’s hard-drinking culture is dying out among younger staff, a senior executive from one of Australia’s biggest media agencies has claimed.
Describing himself as a “drinker of some renown”, Dentsu Mitchell’s 45-year-old national investment and trading director Nick Swifte told The Sunday Age and Sun-Herald that staff under 30 no longer stay for end-of-work drinks in the way they used to. He told the Fairfax newspapers:
“I like getting drunk. I’m a big fan of it. Working as a media buyer there is booze everywhere… it’s all free.”
Dentsu Mitchell’s clients include wine brand Brown Brothers as well as the Australian Government, Victorian Government. Australia Post, Ansell and Renault.
Swifte, who has been with Mitchells for nearly two decades, told the Sunday Age and sister Sydney title the Sun-Herald: “When we were starting out in our 20s, if the office turned on the booze you would literally sit around and drink until there was nothing left.”
In the article – highlighting a growth in Australian binge drinkers over the age of 40 and corresponding rise in the number of young people choosing to abstain – Swifte said that when drinks are given to staff now, those under 30 have all left by 5.30. He said: “If the beer and chips come out at 4.30, by 5.30 all the kids under 30 are gone.
“Now the younger staff might have one beer or not drink at all.”
Further comments from Swifte which appear online, but not in the print version of the Sun-Herald article, saw him reveal that he gave up drinking “for nearly a month” after signing up for the Hello Sunday Morning moderate drinking initiative in January.
Swifte said: “When I went to a few lunches and didn’t drink people were like, ‘Jesus, have you got cancer or something? Are you raising money?’ It’s just so much accepted that this is what we do.
“But I think if we’ve got no health complaints, we’re relatively fit and as long as you have one or two days a week alcohol free you’re OK.”
The Harold Mitchell Foundation is supporting the national expansion of the Hello Sunday Morning project. Harold Mitchell sold his agency Mitchell & Partners to Aegis, which was later acquired by Dentsu and rebadged as Dentsu Mitchell. Harold Mitchell famously gave up drinking in his 20s.
Noon August 24 update: Dentsu has issued the following statement on behalf of Chris Raine, CEO of Hello Sunday Morning:
“Nick Swifte, in addition to his team at Dentsu Mitchell, has been one of Hello Sunday Morning’s most active partners across corporate Australia in improving and reconstructing Australia’s drinking culture.
“Nick agreed to be involved in the [Fairfax] article as a supporter of Hello Sunday Morning and understood the purpose was to highlight the research report that pointed to a decline of binge drinking in the Under 30s. Unfortunately, the article focused on a few anecdotal observations he made around the topic of drinking during his years in the industry.
“There are few people who have contributed more to Hello Sunday Morning than Nick Swifte. Over the past two years, he has led the charge, securing an enormous amount of ad space for HSM to put towards our national campaigns. This has contributed to more than 55,000 individuals committing to our program, each of whom is bringing positive social change in transforming our drinking culture.
“This year alone, his support, and the support of Dentsu Mitchell, has enabled tens of thousands of people’s lives to change.”
Why is this an article!? ‘Young people don’t drink anymore and I like to get boozed to the gills’. Good for you champ. Meanwhile, some people may just like to keep control of their faculties. Heaven forbid.
There will always be someone there to yell out “chug, chug, chug” for you but it won’t be me, and I’m >30
The under 30 crowd is still binge drinking, just not at Friday afternoon drinks with their work colleagues.
Perhaps the article should instead be entitled “Unlike me, agency kids only view jobs as temporary, so they have no interest whatsoever in building personal and social relationships with those they currently share an office with, says media trading boss”?
I’m a ‘stay for one and then leave’ employee. I’d rather drink with my friends at a new rooftop bar than stay late with a bunch of drunk married men & talk about work more.
Extraordinarily sad on every level. Booze is free so we all get drunk. And that’s the boss talking. Holy moley.
Depends, some youngsters get on the sauce pretty hard rather than fire up the spandex to ride home via elite $5k bicycles.
Media and advertising booze culture is a relic of the past. We need to evolve beyond it.
Re the article, who can blame those under 30 having one then leaving? Can’t imagine they want to spend their Friday night with a bunch of old boozers telling them their media war stories.
Unfortunately the last thing I want to do on a Friday after working back late every night is stay on a Friday and compensate with the free alcohol. I’d rather go have a life with other people and pay for my own.
Wow. I guess this is why some media agencies are still stuck in the dark ages.
how this is news is beyond me?
Pretty embarrassing really.
Calm down everyone it’s only a few drinks on a Friday night. Socializing with work colleagues helps with morale and camaraderie. More and more agencies are now feeling and acting like Accountancy offices….all the fun and creativity is being sapped dry. Lighten up a bit and the spirit of the old days will return. Wonder why there is such a high staff turnover these days? It’s all too serious!!
Hey Luce – funny about that…. bet you’re not the person running the balance sheets by the global boards… . Your comment on high turnover of staff based on agencies being like an accountancy office – Ha -What did you think it would be like that you’d be swinging on the ‘trapeze’ all day.It wasn’t the circus you thought it would be huh!!
Think you need to review your attitude to the ‘business’ – and btw – no one cares about a ‘few drinks’ on a friday night – lord knows we’ve earned – this article clearly talks about getting ‘drunk’ – and does no good to how people view agencies.
Seems Mumbrella didn’t have a lot of news to talk about today…
There’s nothing uglier than the vitriol and judgement in these comments. Chill out everyone, live and let live. Nick great at his job and he has a sense of humour, hence his participation in the article. He’s not hurting anyone, he can do as he please, and I for one am always glad to see him at industry events. Which more than I could say for all you Judgey McJudges
We are receiving a large number of comments on this story, and we have been choosing not to publish some of them
While we welcome contributions to the debate about the issue of drinking culture within agencies, we’d ask commenters to refrain from commenting on individuals, and we won’t be publishing such comments.
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
Seeing the same people for 5 days is enough for me. 1 beer and I’m out.
What would worry me about promoting this type of culture in the office is a perception that to advance you need to join in. Especially if it is the boss talking
if under 30’s are starting to steer away from office-enabled binge drinking, this is one of the best news stories of the year!
I agree with you Rachel.
Times change, sure. …and whatever drinking (or not drinking) you do is up to the individual. We’re all adults here. Nick’s comments are pure observation, that focus in recent times has shifted (not altogether, there’s still plenty of party kids out there!). Not derogatory in any way. Re-read the article, and the statement from Chris Raine people. So to those who have chosen to comment in a nasty manner, calm down. Any job is tough enough without this kind of judgement being hurled.
If you work in media, you would most likely know about Ruben Guthrie and that is why this is a good news story. It’s put drinking in the Advertising industry in the spotlight, again. Good on Nick Swifte for putting himself out there as a bad example. He’s not exactly celebrating the culture of booze in this piece is he. What annoy’s me is the peer pressure he mentions of having to compete with his reputation. If he doesn’t want to drink at lunch, back off. We should be supporting it. I’ve seen more than a few people in this industry running from a culture of booze at a later date in their career. Sometimes with an aftermath of damage to themselves or their families. It’s real. And I’m impressed with the youth in our industry and some of the comments in here justify that.
I concur with Chucky.
I’m with Luce, you guys sound incredibly uptight. I too lament the lack of booze culture in modern offices, especially since it’s free. A lot of us don’t have a lot of money and alcohol is getting more expensive, so having several free drinks before going out on Friday is a great way to save cash.
Come on people, media is a social industry, its part of its charms and alcohol is a social accelerant, its been part of the industry since day one. This piece simply shows the opposite ends, old school vs nu, nothing wrong with either just a sign of the times. If a board can chastise the bean counter for allowing Friday drinks, then the business must be without a wooden device in a filthy waterway.
Maybe the kids are on the E or the Ice. Why would they bother drinking alcohol when modern day party drugs are so cool.
Really sad that this was the lead story today.
That guy is better off spending a few hours in the gym rather than taking advantage of the free work booze each night. Healthy lifestyle = sharp minds and productive people.
What a stitch up!
I read the article for both what the writer was trying to get across, and for what Nick would have meant by his comments. I totally agree that the younger media folk are far less likely to partake in after work drinks. I also agree with Nick that the culture will change as a result. Like this guy, i think if you spend so much of your life at work, you would want to like your colleagues enough to grab a beer on a Friday. So if you want to work from Monday to Friday, from 8:00am to 5:30pm and not socialise with your team…. then the vibrant industry that thrives on networking and strong relationships probably isn’t for you.
Note below press release in response to this idiot piece of ‘journalism’. He was stitched up by journos. Everyone in the industry that knows Swifty is p#$ed. Hang in there mate and for what it’s worth, Swifty does more in a day for clients and charities than anyone else I have come across.
Noon August 24 update: Dentsu has issued the following statement on behalf of Chris Raine, CEO of Hello Sunday Morning:
“Nick Swifte, in addition to his team at Dentsu Mitchell, has been one of Hello Sunday Morning’s most active partners across corporate Australia in improving and reconstructing Australia’s drinking culture.
“Nick agreed to be involved in the article as a supporter of Hello Sunday Morning and understood the purpose was to highlight the research report that pointed to a decline of binge drinking in the Under 30s. Unfortunately, the article focused on a few anecdotal observations he made around the topic of drinking during his years in the industry.
“There are few people who have contributed more to Hello Sunday Morning than Nick Swifte. Over the past two years, he has led the charge, securing an enormous amount of ad space for HSM to put towards our national campaigns. This has contributed to more than 55,000 individuals committing to our program, each of whom is bringing positive social change in transforming our drinking culture.
“This year alone, his support, and the support of Dentsu Mitchell, has enabled tens of thousands of people’s lives to change.”
^ Who works from 8:00-5 everyday in media agencies? Sounds like the dream
And they don’t snort marching powder either, like the creatives I used to work with in the nineties – and surely that’s a good thing…
Because we are literally worked to the bone. When you’re not leaving work before 9pm each night, and rolling back in again at 8am there isn’t much time for a life…
Mate they are all on the gear not the booze
@Whatsitallabout
Finally, after 32 posts Whatsitallabout exposes the truth here.
Young people are giving up the booze because everything else has got cheaper and effects lasts longer. You suckers above.
@Kirsty
The Ruben Guthrie movie was a joke. It was a film industry writer projecting onto the ad industry – of which he had no personal experience as far as i know. The fact is people don’t last in advertising if they’re pissheads. Grog lowers performance on every level and makes client meetings impossible.
The other thing I’ve recently discovered is that Australia’s film industry people – directors and producers especially, have to be dragged out of pubs to get them to do any work. They will allways book meetings before 11 am, because that’s the cut off for pub time.