Tell Me What You Really Think

I wanted to start this with a short story by one of my favourite vanity-published authors James Havoc. It's called 'Ginger Knows' and it goes something like this:
"I know", said Ginger". The End.

Now that that's out of the way, we can discuss advertising I suppose.

Coming from an English background, I felt like advertising would be a simple transition. Maybe even easier. In advertising, copywriters are expected to convey their ideas in a single sentence - ideally, no more than seven words. Over the course of an English degree, you are expected to write hundreds of essays, all of which are thousands of words each. This is a positive start.

In advertising, you get to have fun with pictures and visual storytelling, negating the need to over-explain or overexert yourself with language. In English, a grown-up subject, pictures in essays are largely frowned upon, as is the act of writing a dissertation on Biff and Chip. It gets better.

In advertising, research is important, sure. But citing sources, authors, and page numbers? I couldn't believe my luck.

But truthfully, advertising (good advertising, that is) is an extremely taxing and at times unbelievably frustrating pasttime - in all the best ways possible. When I joined SCA, I don't think I fully appreciated what I was signing up for: performing a stand-up comedy routine in front of an audience of nearly a hundred people, being one of the biggest surprises. What I hadn't fully considered was that I was joining a school for communication, which is a subtle and delicate art.

Communicating an idea, getting to the meat of the problem, in a way that cuts out all the bullshit and self-indulgent verbal masturbation is extremely difficult. Advertising calls for the simplest solutions to complicated problems, which are a lot harder to reach than complicated solutions. Believe me.

Despite being very early on in the course, I am already seeing how beneficial and transformative it can be, and I look forward to developing these skills for the remainder and beyond.

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