It's a good day to work in advertising.
Today is opening day of baseball season.
Yes, the Mets played the Cardinals last night in the "Season Opener".
That was a night game.
Doesn't count.
The season doesn't open till a game is played in daylight.
The first day of baseball season is a good time to remember how lucky we are to work in the business of advertising.
We can take the afternoon off and go to the game.
Is the world going to miss one afternoon's worth of advertising?
Will anyone be able to tell if you withheld an afternoon's worth of effort from a campaign?
However, leaving work to go to a baseball game will make a difference inside you.
Leaving work to go to a baseball game opens something inside your heart that advertising has been doing its best to lock up.
The quest for award-winning work keeps you at work late.
The struggle to do better than those around you makes you work through dinner, get up early, cancel the vacation you planned.
There are times these sacrifices bear fruit.
Mostly they don't.
Because greatness at writing ads comes only partly from how hard you work at reaching inside yourself.
A greater deal of it has to do with being a person worth reaching into.
Leaving work to go to a baseball game is a sign you have taken charge of your life.
It's a sign you accept death is coming and have chosen what to do about it for today.
It will do you no good to learn to write from your heart if you have nothing in your heart.
I was slow to learn this.
Here's hoping you won't be.
This is the team I root for.
My favorite player is Joe Crede, the White Sox 3rd baseman.
The best player in the game, I think, is Albert Pujols.
I used to think Ichiro was the best player in baseball, but when Pujols came up in the last inning of game 6 against the Astros and hit the ball out, almost sending the Cardinals to the World Series in 2005 I changed my mind.
Go give your heart away for the afternoon to a team who can break it.
Yes, the Mets played the Cardinals last night in the "Season Opener".
That was a night game.
Doesn't count.
The season doesn't open till a game is played in daylight.
The first day of baseball season is a good time to remember how lucky we are to work in the business of advertising.
We can take the afternoon off and go to the game.
Is the world going to miss one afternoon's worth of advertising?
Will anyone be able to tell if you withheld an afternoon's worth of effort from a campaign?
However, leaving work to go to a baseball game will make a difference inside you.
Leaving work to go to a baseball game opens something inside your heart that advertising has been doing its best to lock up.
The quest for award-winning work keeps you at work late.
The struggle to do better than those around you makes you work through dinner, get up early, cancel the vacation you planned.
There are times these sacrifices bear fruit.
Mostly they don't.
Because greatness at writing ads comes only partly from how hard you work at reaching inside yourself.
A greater deal of it has to do with being a person worth reaching into.
Leaving work to go to a baseball game is a sign you have taken charge of your life.
It's a sign you accept death is coming and have chosen what to do about it for today.
It will do you no good to learn to write from your heart if you have nothing in your heart.
I was slow to learn this.
Here's hoping you won't be.
This is the team I root for.
My favorite player is Joe Crede, the White Sox 3rd baseman.The best player in the game, I think, is Albert Pujols.
I used to think Ichiro was the best player in baseball, but when Pujols came up in the last inning of game 6 against the Astros and hit the ball out, almost sending the Cardinals to the World Series in 2005 I changed my mind.
Go give your heart away for the afternoon to a team who can break it.
Eat the hot dogs and damn the sodium because we are for lives that are more full than they are long.
23 Comments:
go cubs.
p.s. is that a mutant sox logo on that baseball cap? it's enormous.
It will do you no good to learn to write from your heart if you have nothing in your heart.
wowwww, you expressed something i didn't have words for, one more time.
It will do you no good to learn to write from your heart if you have nothing in your heart.
by the way, roland showed us your golf infomercial, it was so awesome... really interesting hahahaha
While most cower in fear even saying hello to you in the hallways hoping you'll bless them with a grunt or an insult...you're suggesting to take a day off and go to a baseball game?
Yeah. Right.
I can't imagine your reaction as a creative director at WK hearing that two of your creatives decided to say "Screw advertising, the Sox are playing at 1"...and you being okay with that.
Heads would roll. Blood would be shed, sprayed onto cubicles and account planners like faulty pyrotechnics at a White Snake concert. Junior AE's would wet themselves praying to God that they could avoid the flames streaming forth from your mouth and eye sockets. The Fedex Guy delivering reels from the newest hottest directors would be engulfed in a green flame that was emitted from your new glasses. (I knew those frames looked suspicious.) Adweek would cover the incident in an objective but tabloid-ish manner.
And when the blood-mist settled and the last survivor was cowering before you... (you have to leave one survivor Mark, otherwise who'll recount the day of infamy for years to come?) ... you would tell them that because of their actions, the best they could get is a "B" in your class...
Dear Marahaahaa,
You'll be happier if you help shy people to overcome themselves than you will be if you only pity them.
Do this:
Invite someone who doesn't like either of us to go with us to the Richmond Braves game on April 19. Meet at my office at 11 AM.
Your heart will swell.
p.s. The hot dogs are good at The Diamond.
p.p.s. You have coupled an incomplete understanding of what it's like to be a creative director with an overwrought imagination. CD's are as much somebody's dog as everyone else is.
You're right on. I used to skip out and spend the afternnon at Wrigley concepting. After a few Old Styles sometimes they worked out, other times not. Root, root for the home team if they don't win...at least you do.
I love the sentiment, and I've definitely benefitted from taking an afternoon off from time to time, but if your ECD is a douchebag (as our ECD is), you'll catch hell for it. Not that you should remain working for said douche any longer than necessary, but still, we all have bills to pay and I'd rather leave my current job on my own terms and on my own schedule than be fired by his douche-ness (or be put on his "List Of People I'm Behaving Passive-Aggressively Toward From Now On) just because he's feeling extra insecure or extra beleagured or extra misunderstood today. Sad but true. Nice post, though.
I think ad people have an obsession with doing the next "ah-ha!" ad that's going to be great. And ad people can surrender their relationships, good eating habits, fresh air, etc. to feed this obsession. And then you become a slug. And slugs have nothing inside of them (excepting slime). Ben Franklin said Man should work 8 hours, rest/pursue industry for 8 hours, and sleep a full 8 hours. I think this is the best way of doing things.
PS. Mark - Are you an INTP? or an INTJ? Everyone wants to know.
I don't like you, Mark. I'm also scared of you. Can I have the tix?
Dear Anonymous,
This is a principle that you will find true in life outside the walls of this school as well as inside them: Being anonymous gets you nothing. Step up.
In this case, I'd rather forfeit the tickets.
I'll be there. I shouldn't have a problem finding someone who doesn't like me and you. The whole school is full of mark and marahaahaahaters.
Sorry but my A's are going to have to take apart your Sox under the lights tonight. I have to wait until Wednesday for a day game.
Can we all agree to beat the Yankees?
Payo
Baseball blows. I'm better off reading blogs over lunch.
How about picking up my kid from his babysitter early? Maybe go swimming, or just hang around a playground. Then make it home in time to help mom with little sister and get dinner ready.
That sounds like a better use of 4 hours than a baseball game.
check this out. even the sox' advertising is way better than the cubs'.
http://www.thesouthsidechicagoboardoftourism.com/index.html
sorry. that one didn't work. here's the sox site link:
www.thesouthsidechicagoboardoftourism.com/
Canceled vacations?
I digress. Sometimes a day at the ball park is exactly what you need to get your head straight.
Fenske, wrong color. It's the Red Sox that inspire life, beauty, courage and damn good marketing. I pity you and your lily-colored imposters.
someone made mention to your personality. does that mean you are actually using the book i purchased for you?
Come Friday, you'll have to make a pretty big decision at the ball game: Root for the first years, or root for the other guys. I hope you make the right choice, Mark.
dear fenske,
i miss you.
love,
alexis
PS: I'll be down for the recruiting thing... will you be around?
How did that ol' cross-town classic go?
Dear Andre & KK,
I have now taken the test & yes, I came out INTP.
Post a Comment
<< Home