Chicago, 1972. I was at the Leo Burnett Advertising Agency for an interview for a copywriter’s job. I had been working in Detroit in that capacity, was let go along with a score of others one day. Cutbacks, was, I believe, the term they used. I’d sent my portfolio of ads to Burnett, and they told me to come to Chicago, and they’d see. Leo Burnett was huge, and famous, and one of the few ad agencies outside of New York that retained big clients. So, to Chicago I went.
Great story! Early in my career I aspired to make the switch from client side to agency. One day I found myself sitting in the interview hot seat across an ostentatiously huge desk facing the president and founder of one of the largest ad agencies in Houston. Over his shoulder was an enormous oil portrait — of himself. I was offered the job, but turned it down. That day I learned the truth in the adage about learning to love the sound of my feet running away from something that was not meant for me. I followed that up by interviewing to be the media spokeswoman for Enron — exactly 1 year before the company imploded. That job, I would have taken in an instant had it been offered. Enron was THE place to be in those heady days of Oil and Gas and energy deregulation. But I was not offered the role. I went on to take a job with a great company where I stayed for 22 years. Lesson learned that day was divine intervention!
You’ve written another good one,Richard. Your story reminded me of my copywriting days in a PR agency. Some days were exhausting, but others were exciting, because I was creating with words. Peace. Ken
LOVE this! Reminds me of my own long-ago encounter with an ad-man. I was just out of college and he was only a few years ahead of me. My inner Marxist coming to the fore at a New York cocktail party, I said something scornful and luckily unmemorable about the whole concept of advertising. "Do you realize," he said with what I learned to call withering scorn, "that Americans wouldn't even BRUSH THEIR TEETH if it wasn't for advertising?"
Great story! Early in my career I aspired to make the switch from client side to agency. One day I found myself sitting in the interview hot seat across an ostentatiously huge desk facing the president and founder of one of the largest ad agencies in Houston. Over his shoulder was an enormous oil portrait — of himself. I was offered the job, but turned it down. That day I learned the truth in the adage about learning to love the sound of my feet running away from something that was not meant for me. I followed that up by interviewing to be the media spokeswoman for Enron — exactly 1 year before the company imploded. That job, I would have taken in an instant had it been offered. Enron was THE place to be in those heady days of Oil and Gas and energy deregulation. But I was not offered the role. I went on to take a job with a great company where I stayed for 22 years. Lesson learned that day was divine intervention!
Thanks for sharing these wonderful stories.
You’ve written another good one,Richard. Your story reminded me of my copywriting days in a PR agency. Some days were exhausting, but others were exciting, because I was creating with words. Peace. Ken
LOVE this! Reminds me of my own long-ago encounter with an ad-man. I was just out of college and he was only a few years ahead of me. My inner Marxist coming to the fore at a New York cocktail party, I said something scornful and luckily unmemorable about the whole concept of advertising. "Do you realize," he said with what I learned to call withering scorn, "that Americans wouldn't even BRUSH THEIR TEETH if it wasn't for advertising?"