Three months into the fray.
I haven’t been able to update this blog for a while – pretty much ignoring the main rule of blogging: update your blog daily, weekly, whatever, just so long as you give ‘em a reason to come back. Well, let me just say that I have not been true to the blogging community in this respect. Turns out, the job title ‘writer’ indicates that I, well, I write all day. Which means when I get home, I’m not all that into writing for the hell of it.
I know I should.
But that doesn’t always equate to actually doing. So, in the true spirit of the blogger, I am trying this thing once more. But instead of focusing on my journey into the world of advertising, I am going to (hopefully) deeply discuss the heightened joys and miserable depths that a writer at an ad agency experiences.
And, as a great many Rap and R&B albums so magically refrain:
It goes a little something like this.
Turns out that the ad agency I like to call home isn’t really an ad agency. Instead, it’s a “Marketing Agency,” which basically means that instead of focusing solely on the one or two of the four Ps of Marketing, we take care of all of them – even the often forgotten fifth P: Public Relations.
And while this is a great selling point for the company (“Not only can we brand your Pooper Scooper, we can create letterhead, radio spots, and press releases, we can also design the Pooper Scooper website!”), it doesn’t always relate to the most interesting stuff. Not that I am complaining. I’m not. It’s just that, given the choice between writing website intro copy or concepting an ad, I’m going to lean towards the ad – it’s just more interesting (read: creative) than the typical web stuff.
That said, here’s a rough schedule of my day:
7:45a. Get to work, not because I’m kissing ass by getting here early, but because my wife has to get to work by 8am and I refuse to start my day out on the bus. Immediately fill up my coffee jug and either get a head start on projects or if, on the rare occasion I am actually caught up on my stuff, I catch up on some reading.
8:30 – 10:30a. The day begins. Officially. People are usually somewhat bleary eyed around this time, especially on dreary Monday mornings; in Portland, the weather has a direct effect on people’s personalities. Trust me, you have never seen moods worse than Portlanders waking up in August to find showers. Sure, some of them are in a good mood and are welcoming the rain, but they also probably prefer whips and flogging to good old-fashioned water-torture.
Anyhow, during this time, I am usually in meetings or pounding on my keyboard hoping to string together witty and coherent sentences that will (inevitably) be changed by the client. Oh, and I have my snack of almonds at 10.
Noon (or so). Lunch. Best part of the day. Unless, of course, I am stuck with a decidedly mundane lunch when compared to the gourmet restaurants littered around NW Portland, in which case I may convince my conscience and my enlarged gut to “have lunch, it won’t hurt. It’s just one time! C’mon!”
But still, even a ho-hum sandwich is better than having to work through lunch. So there’s that.
Noon to 5:30p. I am pretty much working on projects – writing, concepting, thinking, whatever. Have my second snack (an energy/protein bar) and fill up my now-depleted coffee mug with Apple-Cinnamon or green tea.
More to come later. Hopefully. Well, maybe not; I can’t promise anything.
I know I should.
But that doesn’t always equate to actually doing. So, in the true spirit of the blogger, I am trying this thing once more. But instead of focusing on my journey into the world of advertising, I am going to (hopefully) deeply discuss the heightened joys and miserable depths that a writer at an ad agency experiences.
And, as a great many Rap and R&B albums so magically refrain:
It goes a little something like this.
Turns out that the ad agency I like to call home isn’t really an ad agency. Instead, it’s a “Marketing Agency,” which basically means that instead of focusing solely on the one or two of the four Ps of Marketing, we take care of all of them – even the often forgotten fifth P: Public Relations.
And while this is a great selling point for the company (“Not only can we brand your Pooper Scooper, we can create letterhead, radio spots, and press releases, we can also design the Pooper Scooper website!”), it doesn’t always relate to the most interesting stuff. Not that I am complaining. I’m not. It’s just that, given the choice between writing website intro copy or concepting an ad, I’m going to lean towards the ad – it’s just more interesting (read: creative) than the typical web stuff.
That said, here’s a rough schedule of my day:
7:45a. Get to work, not because I’m kissing ass by getting here early, but because my wife has to get to work by 8am and I refuse to start my day out on the bus. Immediately fill up my coffee jug and either get a head start on projects or if, on the rare occasion I am actually caught up on my stuff, I catch up on some reading.
8:30 – 10:30a. The day begins. Officially. People are usually somewhat bleary eyed around this time, especially on dreary Monday mornings; in Portland, the weather has a direct effect on people’s personalities. Trust me, you have never seen moods worse than Portlanders waking up in August to find showers. Sure, some of them are in a good mood and are welcoming the rain, but they also probably prefer whips and flogging to good old-fashioned water-torture.
Anyhow, during this time, I am usually in meetings or pounding on my keyboard hoping to string together witty and coherent sentences that will (inevitably) be changed by the client. Oh, and I have my snack of almonds at 10.
Noon (or so). Lunch. Best part of the day. Unless, of course, I am stuck with a decidedly mundane lunch when compared to the gourmet restaurants littered around NW Portland, in which case I may convince my conscience and my enlarged gut to “have lunch, it won’t hurt. It’s just one time! C’mon!”
But still, even a ho-hum sandwich is better than having to work through lunch. So there’s that.
Noon to 5:30p. I am pretty much working on projects – writing, concepting, thinking, whatever. Have my second snack (an energy/protein bar) and fill up my now-depleted coffee mug with Apple-Cinnamon or green tea.
More to come later. Hopefully. Well, maybe not; I can’t promise anything.
posted by The Haiku Review at 1:59 PM
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