“Wideeyedgirl,” an award-winning creative in Australia–commenting on the Neil French story that won’t go away– believes we need higher standards in advertising creative departments. In fact, she’s so discouraged she may opt to become a suit, in order to be viewed as a professional with something valuable to say.
I believe there is a strong link between mysogynistic beliefs and an incredibly poor education. I am looking forward to the day when Creative Directors stop celebrating that anyone off the street can get a job in the creative department of advertising. One highly paid CD brags about coming from sign writing, another working as a waiter and the list goes on. And we wonder why suits are taking over the running of agencies? We wonder why we don’t (or can’t) be client facing? Because on the whole this breed of Creative is ill-educated and unprofessional. Yes they may be able to write some good copy but how relevant can their copy and creative comprehension be to a society that has moved ten years ahead in attitude, responsibility and indeed, intelligence. I hope this is the start of an educated and therefore non-ignorant, business savvy creative department that is a true counterpart to Account service in moving the industry forward.
