Advice on Advice: Take It or Leave It
There’s a tonne of advice out there for juniors wanting to break into the industry — books, blogs, and people wanting to give you their two cents. But advice comes from experience, and experiences are personal. Which means there’s a lot of conflicting advice out there. In a regular column Lauren Ami MacDonald tries to make sense of it all.
A friend once described this to me as the difference between Kevin Bacon and Brad. Kevin will always be Kevin, kevinating any role he takes on. Whereas, Brad squishes his bradiness deep down, and becomes the character he needs to become. As a Creative Person, I have my own approach, filter, sensibilities and taste. Which means there’s something about everything I’ve worked on that feels me-ish. But that doesn’t mean that I want all my work to sound or look the same. So each week, as an exercise, I try to write something (non-advertising related) that can’t be traced back to me. I do this because I want to be Brad. But maybe you don’t. I’m told there are jobs for people who are fucking great at doing their one thing. I guess the danger comes in thinking that could be you.
Lauren Ami MacDonald is a Copywriter at The Secret Little Agency, Singapore. She’s got a lot to say about the advice she’s collected.