The BrandForward Blog

Being a Creative Director is one of those jobs that drives everyone around you crazy. Let’s face it, you’re always on high receive, you’re addicted to TV, hypnotized by all forms of media, a gadget freak, have no attention span, constantly rushing to and from meetings, and permanently connected to your iPhone. You always have some weird indie band playing on your PowerBook, some trendy drink on your desk, and your clothes rarely match.

Oh. And you’re always always always busy. Damn busy.

Those who enter the office of a Creative Director never know what they’re in for. On a good day they could encounter the frothing mad scientist with the idea of the century. Or on a bad day have something thrown at them.

So you really have to hand it to someone who actually chooses to spend time with a Creative Director. Especially if that brave someone is a 20 year-old who’s intentionally choosing to intern for the Genghis Kahn of the ad world. That really takes some stones. (Typically to be thrown in self-defense.)

But despite the reputation of Creative Directors at large, I’ve had a handful of wide-eyed college students insist they wanted a place in that not-quite-so-comfy chair next to my desk.

We all end up having someone who wants to intern with us at some point. Whether we’re a crazy creative or a harried account person. Someone will be interested in learning from us, or someone managing the intern pool will decide it’s our turn.

So what do you do? With a hectic schedule and more responsibilities than you can count, do you embrace your intern or blow them off?

Me, I’m not of the ilk that prefers my interns fetching coffee, making copies, and playing Farmville. I want them learning and experiencing and walking away from the internship with time under their belts engaged in critical-thinking and creativity.

The very nature of an internship is temporary and doesn’t last very long so it’s important to instill everything you can in a short period of time. Every moment matters.

Sure, go ahead and blow off your interns if you feel like you’re too important or too busy. But all I can tell you is taking your interns for granted is a big mistake.

Don’t relegate them to the boring stuff or blow them off. Don’t shoo them away to surf the net or chit chat in the break room. Keep them right at your desk (or their own nearby) so they can listen, watch, and ask questions. Create projects that give them the opportunity to exercise new skills and aim for excellence.

Somehow it ended up that the times when I’ve had interns it was during extremely stressful, busy periods at the agency. Little did my interns know that the time I was spending with them meant extra hours spent at my desk long after everyone else had gone home for the day. But I wouldn’t trade a minute. I only wish I’d had more to give.

I do stand behind my philosophy of not handing interns the reigns to a brand or letting them run the client’s Twitter or Facebook account, my gripe being that social media for brands should be handled by someone with plenty of brand experience, and management should know better.

But do give interns the opportunity to share and engage in ways that will teach them how to research, analyze, and make judgement calls. If you don’t have projects that encourage them to think, learn, and create… come up with something.

And I’ll tell you why.

Because interns are valuable. They’re valuable because they’re people. People who have taken the initiative to spend their time with you, and who look to you as a mentor and someone they trust for information and guidance.

Be worth it.

And in case that’s not enough, do it because they grow up to be pretty great. You never know when someone who was looking over your shoulder for six months will be sitting across the boardroom from Donald Trump.

Yeah. This happened to me.

My former intern is on NBC’s The Apprentice this season. What are the odds?

Think back to all the “apprentices” you’ve had over the years. If they suddenly became famous or got a prestigious job at a company you want to work for, did you treat them well enough to deserve their gratitude and inclusion? Or will they be rolling their eyes and sharing with their new colleagues what a jerk you were?

Treat every intern like they’re somebody important. Not because of what they can “give you” someday, but because of what they need from you today. As I’m finding out, the time you spend investing in them can come back to you in ways you never imagined.

I got lucky. It’s years later and my former intern is giving me the unbelievable opportunity to personally manage her PR and social media… after the show (and her agreement with NBC) is over. I’ll have a “celebrity” personal branding client as I help her pursue her dream of being a global advocate of educational technology.

And there’s nothing quite as surreal as chit-chatting on the phone with someone you’re going to see on national television later that night.

Still want to blow off your intern?

What are some unique ways to include interns in challenging and interesting projects?

Do you think it’s okay to have interns doing errands and office work?

Do you have a former intern who’s a success story?

When the heart of good advertising can be captured succinctly and brilliantly in a three-minute YouTube video, it kinda makes you wonder about the actual value of spending four years sleeping through advertising classes.

And kinda makes me glad I didn’t bother.

One of my favorite bloggers, Edward Boches (http://edwardboches.com) posted a link to one of the greatest moments in television history. Nope, not James Harrison’s 100-yard interception return. Although that definitely could qualify. But of all the moments in TV history that I could watch over and over and still need a Kleenex the 50th time I see it, an episode of AMC’s Mad Men takes the honors.

What made this clip such a great moment was how it took a critical (and oftentimes forgotten) advertising philosophy and executed it in a way that reminds me why I got into advertising in the first place. It’s about getting to the truth and communicating what’s real. It’s about connecting with the consumer at the deepest level. It’s about not just getting into the consumer’s head, but also into their heart. And when the stars align, into their soul.

I’ve seen both creative and account people get lost in a sea of analytics, deadlines, billable targets, and executional mandatories and forget what really matters. What makes advertising matter. When we do our job right, we can turn a simple product or service into an emotional experience.

As advertisers we add a magical ingredient that no tangible product could ever have on its own. We tell a story that makes a connection. We help the consumer see value beyond the price tag. It’s no longer something they can own, it’s something they can live. We take a product that exists in the outer world and make it a part of their inner world. As humans we’re driven to define ourselves through association, and we begin to LOVE the products we choose, because they fulfill our need for identity.

As advertisers we help inanimate objects and everyday services gain entrance to a special place in the consumer’s heart and mind where the identity lives. We help build a consumer’s “brand family,” the group of products and services a consumer is connected to, has an emotional bond with, and will have a hard time abandoning.

I love how Mad Men demonstrated so eloquently the difference between agencies that create advertising and agencies that build that amazing connection. The difference between agencies that build powerpoints and agencies that build evangelists.

We all want to make a difference in our world and sometimes it’s easy to lose sight of the value of what we do. Thanks to Edward for digging up a reminder that as advertising “inventors” we bring something powerful and beautiful to the table. What we do doesn’t just create revenue and profits. We don’t just create ads and reports and powerpoints.

We create MEANING.

Photos and videos from Mad Men are no longer available for embedding, but you can check it out by following the link below to YouTube. Watch the short clip of Don Draper’s presentation to Kodak. It’s three minutes well-spent.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2bLNkCqpuY

Hey kids, here’s your lesson for the day: The first rule of the schoolyard:

“TRYING TO BE COOL IS UNCOOL.”

That’s why I’m perplexed that Crispin Porter + Bogusky seemed to forget this simple principle when they developed the new “I’m a PC” commercials for Microsoft.

The French have a word for the natural way some people can look cool without trying, and ultimately draw others to respect and admire them. It’s called “sprezzatura.” The sad, painful fact for Microsoft is that Mac has this in spades. And the new “I’m a PC” commercials make it clear that Microsoft wants it. Really, really wants it. Which means they really, really don’t have it. If Microsoft wanted to emerge from the quagmire of doltness, they should have developed a campaign that takes what’s great about themselves and pwned it. Not try to own what’s great about Mac and throw a 60-second masquerade ball hoping no one will ask to see what’s under the costumes.

In grand fashion, the Microsoft “I’m a PC” commercials try to establish the company as “a cool kid, too,” but unwittingly erect a flashing neon arrow that screams “I’m a wannabe! Don’t you wannabe a wannabe just like me?” Right. Um. Yeah. And then let’s go hang out behind the band hall during lunch. With Ballmer.

Sorry, folks in the CP+B research department, but the whole “I’m a PC” concept comes off looking like a Cincinnati defensive tackle. Shame on the creative team for coming up with this testament to desperate miscellany. Shame on Account Planning for letting it slide. And shame on whoever approved the crowbar shunting of celebrity cameos. To say they were “awkward” is being nice. When Eva Longoria and Tony Parker popped on screen – the ick factor was oozing beyond the bandage. It felt like the dorky kid’s big sister marched out onto the playground to scold everyone into being nice to him. Yes, and the minute she walks away someone will be rolling him around in the mud and dying his hair pink in the boys’ bathroom.

Oddly enough, the celebrity presence didn’t raise my respect for PCs. It only lowered it for the celebrities. I was embarrassed for them. I was embarrassed for Microsoft. Was there no one in this whole creative process who stepped back and pointed out the obvious? It was like Michael Jackson was about to have another plastic surgery and everyone in the room was either nodding and saying “sounds like a great idea!” or just looking the other way with a smirk.

The best part of the “I’m a PC” commercials is the irony. The spots reinforce in rainbow colors Microsoft’s position of being on the outside of the cool crowd looking in. And Apple didn’t even have to pay for it. Microsoft is trying so hard to connect with culture and humanity, but just like Data’s quest for humanity in First Contact, Microsoft’s “I’m a PC” is little more than clumsy attempts to graft bits of human skin onto robotic limbs. Is it a coincidence that sci-fi’s iconic android has more personality than the PC world’s own humanoid icon? There’s really only one thing worse than trying to look cool when you’re not. It’s trying to look human when you’re not.

At the end of Microsoft’s “I’m a PC” masquerade ball, the costumes will come off, the poser will be exposed, and the kids on the playground will show no mercy.