Why Most Creatives are Dull

Most people who work in media really want to be creatives. Actually most marketing & account people also want to be creatives. The creatives appear to have the best job in the business. They write the ads & get the rewards & recognition.

But it's actually the worst place to work. Firstly because it's very political. If you get the Pirelli brief of course you can produce Cannes winning work. But if you get the Colgate brief you have to produce teeth grindingly bad adaptations. In media we don't care. Colgate can be a fun account with the right Marketing people & Pirelli can be an Italian nightmare.

The continual rejection is the worst part of the creative job. Clients are going to say No to 90% of your ideas. Maybe 99% will never make it to the small screen the way you envisioned. That is heartbreaking for a true creative person.

There are long queues in Moscow at the moment (in sub zero temperatures) for a Picasso exhibition. He didn't have to get his crazy ideas past brand managers, marketing directors & purchasing departments. If he did we wouldn't have his masterpiece Guernica but a postcard of Generalissimo Franco instead. He would have to consider the majority of consumers you understand.

So the creatives that survive years of their ideas being reduced & rejected are inevitably the ones with the thickest skin...or they are a bit thick. Or both.