I, like many of you probably did, read last week about David Droga’s departure from Publicis, where the 37-year old ad whiz held the Worldwide Creative Director post. The story didn’t interest me all that much, until today when I happened to read Dean Gemmel’s take on it.
This is a guy with the kind of job most creatives once dreamed about — power, independence, gobs of cash, perhaps an assistant hired largely to deflect underlings and apply suntan lotion while sitting poolside at Cannes — and he’s decided that it’s, er, not so great.
More telling is the fact that he’s leaving to start a “non-advertising business.” As in thoroughly unrelated to the current advertising agency business model. You know things are amiss when a guy who can pretty much write his own ticket takes a walk.
Droga said, “I’m having a great career, but I’ve spent it working under other people’s models.”
In other words, “I’m smart enough to see there’s not an especially exciting future as the global creative director of a company restricted by a business model that has reached the point of diminishing returns. In fact, I’m too smart to waste my time hanging out here and trying to make it work.”
