HOW TO GET YOUR FIRST JOB IN ADVERTISING
HOW TO GET YOUR FIRST JOB IN ADVERTISING Ninety-nine per cent of people trying to get jobs in advertising believe they are whizz-kids. ... Unless you realise that you do not, at present, know any more about advertising than your mother, you are no use to a good agency. ... THE MOST COMMON MISCONCEPTION IS THAT GOOD ADVERTISING IS CLEVER PUNS. EVERYONE TRYING TO GET A JOB IN ADVERTISING HAS A PORTFOLIO FULL OF PUNS ABOUT PRODUCTS. ... Your scintillating personality will not get you a job either because many creative directors will not see you, just ask you to leave your portfolio, which will then be one of up to 100 pun collections they will be looking through to see who gets the job. ... As you are still reading you obviously appreciate that the portfolio you have at present is not good enough to get you a job. ... This is every applicants first big lesson: start putting a new portfolio together. You will be asking professionals for a job, so the obvious thing to do is to ask them what sort of folio they will be looking for. ... THE SECOND BIG LESSON IS: IF YOU WANT TO BE PATTED ON THE BACK ALL THE TIME AND TOLD HOW CLEVER YOU ARE THEN ADVERTISING IS THE WRONG BUSINESS FOR YOU. ... Advertising is all about communication and if one person does not understand what you are saying then you have failed. ... The first thing is to find out the price of your product compared to the competition. ... As with all rules there are times to break them, but not until you have learnt to use them properly first. ... And this is why the man who makes the shirt is paying you to do his advertising. ... If you are advertising the expensive shirt put the two side-by-side with the price tag still on and use the headline: "If you cant tell the difference, buy the cheap shirt". ... As well as a portfolio of puns, the other thing everyone else who applies for a job is going to have is lots and lots of unrelated ads. ... YOUR FIRST JOB IS TO FIND THIS. ... Our benefit is our price, all our advertising is directed towards telling people how much sense it makes to buy a cheaper shirt. ... Forget TV at this point, it is completely different discipline, and you should not need it to get your first job. ... However, you must remember to write the way people talk, not the way you think advertising people write - it is greasy, slick and old-fashioned BEFORE YOU EVEN THINK ABOUT WRITING ADS . ... When you have learned all this it is as much as anyone can teach you and if you have done it all properly you should have a good job in a good agency. ... The only way to learn how to do good advertising is to continually expose yourself to it - read annuals and go to the awards. ... Finally, if you do not want to go to the effort of putting a new portfolio together now, then you may still be able to get a job in a big, bad agency on your present portfolio.