We’re All Peons and Gunslingers

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	FROM THE FRONTLINES

	November 14, 2009

We’re All Peons and Gunslingers
By: Mike Ogden

It bothers me that the ad agency world has turned us into this. If you’re in your 20s and making peanuts and working ungodly hours, guess what? You’re a peon.

If you’re 40 or over and all you’re getting is freelance gigs, guess what? You’re a gunslinger. In your 30s? Enjoy your third decade, my friend.

Are you unemployed? Are you unhappy in your ad job? You are my reader. These are trying times for the advertising industry. And as I looked around for someone to blame, an interesting article in my local newspaper appeared.

It was commentary by one of the local ad agency heads about the direction that advertising is headed. It was the typical stuff I’ve heard ad execs spout to impress clients—new media landscape, frugal consumer, measurement, accountability, blah, blah, blah. The agency head closed by writing that this “is one of the most exciting times in history for advertisers and their agencies.”

Exciting? I’m not sure the thousands of unemployed ad professionals would label 2009 as exciting. That said, what really steamed me was not one word in the article was given to acknowledging what this major agency has done to its workforce, from parting with proven performers to whacking an entire dept. I’m sure it was a business imperative but where’s the transparency?

Wait, I found it. This video is personal testimony from Kansas City homebuilders. It’s brutally honest. Note how they talk about their employees and how tough it was parting with them.

Last time I checked, it’s people inside the ad agency that produce the work. It’s account people. It’s creative people. It’s media people. It’s Web people. It’s IT people. It’s operations people. It’s the receptionist. It’s the mail guy or gal. And when all these people feel stressed, they simply do not produce at a high level. Their heart isn’t in it.

Yes, I’ve read that productivity is up and it’s one reason why unemployment will remain high. Maybe that’s true with widget production, but advertising is a business of ideas and ideas suffer when people are dazed and confused or overworked, uninspired or lacking in experience or talent.

Get this. This fall, I’ve been interviewing best places to work, from an HVAC contractor with over 100 employees to a top 10 CPA firm. Both companies are hanging tough in this economy and one reason is how they treat their people. One general manager put it this simply, “Happy employees. Happy customers.”

That’s simply not the case in the ad business. It’s more like Mad Men and the case of Salvatore Romano. You think you’re loved, years pass and then one day you learn your true value when the client wants you fired.

That’s the lesson for peons. I hope you’re not offended by that label. I was young once and a peon. What you get for your youth is opportunity. My advice to peons is to soak up the opportunity but don’t respond in kind with loyalty. You don’t owe the agency anything. Get your experience and seek greener pastures.

The lesson for gunslingers is harder to impart and accept. You’ve been at the ad game for a long time. It’s hard not to feel that you’ve paid your dues and are due some respect. Sorry. This is business. If they can get someone who costs half as much as you and produces 75% of your capacity, you’re toast. And they don’t have your baggage—high salary, vacation, kids, insurance risk, unwillingness to move, etc.

My fellow gunslingers, start thinking like a gunslinger. You’re riding in to save the day or shoot it out with other agencies in a pitch. Those are the opportunities I’m getting these days. Regular paycheck from an ad agency? Good luck with that.

More than anything, I’d dying to hear about an agency out there that puts its people first, clients second. Does it even exist? Please contact me if you know of such an agency. I want to interview them. Call me nuts but I think an agency that treated its employees as well as clients would do exceptionally well.

Maybe when the smoke clears and the ashes of so many agencies are swept away, we’ll see a new brand of agency sprout up that values its people. Until then, we’re all peons and gunslingers.

Comments

Add Your Comments

wounded gunslinger (Cleveland)	on 24 Nov 2009 at 12:43 pm

I really couldn't believe what I was reading when I saw this article. This is EXACTLY my experience and it thrilled me to see it put into blunt, no nonsense form. Then came all these great responses. Mike, you really dared to do what most wouldn't...tell the truth. Well done, go get yourself a cookie.

Mike Ogden (KC)	on 20 Nov 2009 at 4:24 pm

Yikes! My column has generated many good comments. Some want to unionize. Some sadly have left the agency world for good. Some are on their own. To the gunslinger who wonders where the work is, get a listing of your local ad agencies and start hitting them up--email, call and drop off packets--nobody does that anymore. Email me for more tips. I want less suffering and more fun! Reach out and help one person. Things will get better but not right away. Find your one thing and monetize it. Stay grounded. Stay hungry. Stay humble. Play nice.

Natalie (Chicago)	on 20 Nov 2009 at 2:17 pm

Great article, Mike. My questions to you, however, are: How the hell are we supposed to know the pastures are, indeed, greener and not the same plowed over sod we've just departed? With the same mowed over issues we've ran past? Without the hurdles of cow pies to leap in some effort to "prove" we can even leap in the first place? It's hard in this 20-something-peon stage but I have to wonder... Didn't we all learn the same lesson in kindergarden? ...Treat others as you wish to be treated...

Jerry Crump (Dallas)	on 19 Nov 2009 at 11:08 am

You said there was freelance work for us gunslingers? Where?

@FTC (Gotti)	on 19 Nov 2009 at 8:54 am

In response to FTC's well-spoken comment--- I understand the appeal of a union for ad agency creatives, but I don't think that's the solution. I used to work with a creative who worked for years in unionized Scandinavia and he was not complimentary about the system. Secondly, there are english-speaking creatives all over the world now. If forced to by a union, agencies could simply outsource and relocate all but their highest positions to India, Europe, Dubai, and Singapore. They might do this anyway, union or no. Personally, working in a creative factory in Mumbai or Bucharest sounds pretty interesting to me but I'm considering expatriating anyway.

Alicia (Atlanta)	on 18 Nov 2009 at 2:04 pm

Kudos! Exceptionally well-written and painfully honest look at the ad/marketing/pr agency way of life. It's unfortunate that many who have started their own agencies (as a result of their own disgruntled experience) eventually become their own worst enemy.

Also Former Peon (Chicago)	on 17 Nov 2009 at 8:10 pm

100% agree with Former Peon

KB (San Francisco)	on 17 Nov 2009 at 2:01 pm

Let's hear from the over-50 crowd who are still getting up every day to stoke the fire. I've worked for a bunch of agencies over the years and there's no loyalty at agencies. If you're the last guy in, you're also the first guy out. 20 years of being an independent has taught me the only loyalty I'll ever see is what I give my private clients. No matter what, I still love the work and that's what really matters.

Jaded (Kansas City)	on 17 Nov 2009 at 1:58 pm

You preach the truth. The sad truth. There is some good advice in here.

John C (Loveland, CO)	on 17 Nov 2009 at 12:43 pm

"If they can get someone who costs half as much as you and produces 75% of your capacity, you’re toast. " I'm a living example of that. I worked in the MarComm dept of a major medical company for 8 years. It was a fantastic place to work, did great creative work, thought I paid my dues, etc., and was totally blind to the possibility they would get rid of me simply because I had worked my way up to the position I was in. New management hired an axe-woman (ironically who we BEGGED to hire as as she was supposed to be the liaison between our dept and the director of marketing) and 1 month after she hired on I was called in and told that she didn't think I could do the job. Even my present supervisor who was there gave her a confused sidelong glance. We were both set up to fail and within a few months were shown the door.

FTC (New York City)	on 17 Nov 2009 at 12:21 pm

The only way agency creatives are going to be able to work in an environment with some semblance of safety and equity is to band together and demand it. I\'m an ex-agency creative who made the leap to directing commercials, and when I did, I had to join the Director\'s Guild. The Guild enforces minimum pay requirements, a maximum on hours worked and a bill of \"creative rights\" that lays out a set of guidelines with which a director\'s contribution to the creative process should be considered. Since any director worth his salt is a Guild member, producers, and by proxy agencies, have no choice but to remain signatory to the DGA, and adhere to their guidelines for fair practice. Why don\'t agency creatives demand the same protection? If the entire industry were suddenly to unionize, agencies would have no choice but to employ fair practices. The alternative would be to hire inferior non-union employees. (Imagine Martin Sorrell trying to explain to Coca Cola why he\'s put the dregs of the business on their account.) Also, with a creative workforce protected by a union, agencies could no longer accept untenable cost cutting measures foisted upon them by client cost controllers. So what would be the ultimate outcome of this scenario be? Mass confusion? A collapse of the industry as we know it today? More like it would be a couple of cents more on the price of a can of Coke. I\'d be willing to live with that, how about you?

Dingus McCracken (Denver)	on 17 Nov 2009 at 11:42 am

Excellent article. The attitudes and treatment of employees you describe are precisely the reasons I left the agency world for good. That, and the fact that pay is terrible in advertising. Now that I moved on, I make double the income and work about half as much, and no one is constantly stabbing me in the back or trying to get me fired. If you have the skills, you can have a decent life, it just won't be at an ad agency.

Patchchord (Kansas City)	on 16 Nov 2009 at 10:08 pm

Brutally honest and brutally on target, Mr. Ogden.

Former Peon (Toiletville)	on 16 Nov 2009 at 12:27 pm

I'm one of those who worked their butt off with no recognition for years, based on promises it would be rewarded. I'll bet you all know how that turned out. I'm still at the same agency, but I have not been working any more than 35-40 hours a week for the past year, because I know my best ideas will never get produced and my efforts will never be rewarded. And guess what? They treat me better now than they ever did when i was working 75 hours a week. I'm looking for a new job, too, even though i'm well-aware everyone else is just as shallow and myopic and hypocritical as my current agency.

Ryan Koziel (Long Beach)	on 16 Nov 2009 at 11:24 am

Great points its all so very true. The productivity number is just fun math, the kind of fun math politicians and executives learn so they can justify questionably unethical behavior. Productivity goes up, when you have two people doing a task, and you layoff one. The remaining employee now picks up the others work but only does his old work and current work at 75% capacity, well now the he's doing 50% more work. Guess he's more productive. Productivity could be looked at that they are down 25%% but thats not the number they want.

CB (Dallas)	on 16 Nov 2009 at 10:47 am

I actually had the luck of working for an ad agency that expected it's people to have a life and leave on time. It really did instill loyalty. There was very little turnover and most of us were willing to make a little less money in exchange for a work/life balance. It's too bad the company was sold to a place with the exact opposite attitude and the highest turnover I have ever seen. All of us left in the end.

Jennifer Nugent (Kansas City)	on 14 Nov 2009 at 10:28 am

I've been thinking about the environments in agencies right now - everyone I talk to is nervous, on edge, filled with dread, afraid, you name it - if it's "not feeling great", it's on their list. Interestingly, those very agencies could see these times as an opportunity to instill loyalty, by treating their people well and not abusing the current 'employer advantage' by interviewing your potential replacements, piling on the workload and always looking for someone cheaper. Because I do believe that the tides will turn - and when that time comes, the ship-jumping will be huge.

About the Author
Mike Ogden

Mike Ogden is a marketing communications consultant and creative content specialist based in Overland Park, Kansas. Ad agency stops have enabled him to create for major brands like American Century, Capital One, Sprint and USAA. Seasoned and sharp with a touch of gray, Ogden, aka Og, is known for creating and championing ideas. Connect with him on Linkedin.