Mark Irving : My time in advertising

Harden up - living by the maxim certainly helped in the advertising business. Photo / Thinkstock

Mark Irving, advertising company director reflecting on his time in the ad industry as an intern, employee, freelancer and business owner.

Often people I meet seem genuinely curious about what it's like to work in the advertising industry. I suppose there's a bit of glamour attached to it, what with the long lunches and one or two egos running rampant.

My experience is, this kind of behaviour is on the decline and it's certainly not the norm. For me as a business owner, no two days are the same. The creative buzz I get from working on a brief and coming up with ideas to help a client's business is extremely satisfying. But like all careers, there have definitely been some testing moments along the way.

One thing about the ad industry is there always seems to be a disproportionate amount of larger than life characters. On one occasion a senior work colleague told me I resembled a skinhead. I didn't feel so bad about this though as I'd heard him mention to a female staff member a few days prior that she sounded like a man.

After a few character assassinations and one or two questionable redundancies, you begin to develop a thick skin. John Kirwan would hate me for it, but living by the maxim - "harden up" certainly helped.

As an employee and freelancer you get to see some really lovely offices and also some that leave a little to be desired. One agency I worked at in Australia had walls so thin that you could hear the bowel movements coming from within the female toilets.

One thing that seems consistent across both countries is that I'd say 90 per cent of the copywriters and art directors are males. So the ads you see, hear and read are almost pretty much being created by males.

I'm not sure if this is such a good thing and why so few females are attracted to these types of jobs. My belief is that the more females in these roles, the better. A bit of balance and some different thinking is a good thing.

The tradition of a creative team, consisting of a copywriter and art director joined at the hip, working together on all briefs is an interesting concept. It's one I don't necessarily think is always the best.

It's based on the assumption that two people can bounce ideas off each other and that one thinks and works visually, while the other thinks in words. From personal experience I believe you can never assume that a copywriter can't think visually or an art director can't write. My belief is to give individuals the brief, let them work on them alone and then come together to expand on those ideas.

Individuals need time alone to mull things over. I'm not comparing copywriters and art directors to authors and artists, but generally creative types need time and space alone, at least to begin with.

One thing in my opinion doesn't change. It doesn't matter if you're an intern on a placement, a full-timer, a freelancer or an agency boss, the goal should always be to do what's best for the client and nothing else.

Because of the elephant in the room, that is creative advertising awards, this is not always the case.

As an industry that at times is viewed as being the equivalent of having a cold sore on your lip, doing what's best for clients not only helps their business, which is obviously the basis of the whole industry. But by not entering awards it also helps portray the industry in a far better light.

Mark Irving is the Director of Range Advertising and Communications.