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The advertising industry is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side.

I'm a Canadian, did three years of Advertising in college and then my post-grad in Toronto for Copywriting. I've worked at two of Toronto's top agencies and now I work in Detroit.

Most of what everyone has already commented on is pretty accurate.
In my years working in the industry I have come to realize these things:
[not sure if you're account side or creative, but here's my creative side experience]

-It's not for everyone. People see movies like What Women Want (seriously, you have no idea how many people say that's the thing that got them interested) and see this glamorous, fun, attractive side of it. That is not what the industry is actually like.

-It's long hours, tight deadlines, and more stress than you can ever imagine. At every job I've had, it's normal to work everyday 9-7pm, and routinely work on the weekends - whether from home or at the office.

-Develop thick skin or you'll never last. This isn't a feel-good industry where you're mom tells you how creative and smart you are. It's competitive, saturated with talented, driven individuals and your work/ideas will constantly be shot down. You will do hrs of work and be told to go back to square 1 and do it again. It is not uncommon for me to write 50-100 headlines/concepts etc, bring them to my Creative Director and have him maybe like one or two of them.

-It's stressful. Very stressful. There's a lot of money on the line, with bigger agencies and bigger clients you're talking millions of dollars based all on your ability to provide an idea/concept that will lead to sales/actions from consumers.

Having said all that, it's an amazing industry and you will meet some of the best people to work with. You'll love coming in every day and having the ability to be creative, do different projects, learn new things constantly, and not have a monotonous 9-5 job.

Getting a job in this industry has always been tough. This is not a new development. As I said, it's competitive, there's a deluge of students coming out of ad schools and universities every year looking for positions in an industry that doesn't have a high turn over rate. Add to that the current economy and you're in for a rough ride. But, I've always believe that what E.M.Forster said is true, “One person with passion is better than forty people merely interested”. Those who are passionate and driven and willing to think and do what others will not to get a job will always succeed. Cold call, find creative ways to present your book [assuming you are going for creative], do whatever it takes to get in front of Creative Directors, go to portfolio nights, etc. Don't just hand out resumes or send a couple emails and hope to get a job. As other have said, sometimes it does come down to who you know. But every job I've ever gotten was because my book was better, I showed drive, and the ability to provide ideas. Lots of ideas.

Most agencies could care less where you got your education, all they want is ideas and a good attitude. Some of the best creative directors I've worked for didn't come from traditional advertising backgrounds. One was a musician and gave it up to become a copywriter. He didn't know anything about the industry but was incredibly creative and put together an amazing book that showed he had the ability to think differently and bring something unique to the table.

Hope this helps some. And good luck out there.

If I could suggest something that might give you a better picture of what you're in for, check out this book. It helped me a great deal when I was in college http://www.amazon.com/Pick-Me-Breaking-Advertising-Staying/dp/0471715573

>The boy's bright, been class prez for three years, and is a natural born artist (but only beginner-level CS skills).

Totally have him start to learn some visual design programs! The Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign etc) are the main things he'll be using in his day to day. If you want to give him a good graduation presenting, paying for a Creative Cloud membership goes a long way towards giving him the right tools for success.

>Or does it make more sense to work more on art/creative skills now in an undergrad BFA program somewhere?

I absolutely support the idea of art school with a design/advertising focused concentration. I'm someone that's only been out of school recently (five years ago) and it's a quicker and more direct route than going to a traditional university and following that up with portfolio school.

The biggest reason why most people go to portfolio school is that in their undergrads, they have all the pieces of being a good creative, but not the full picture.

For people who go to a traditional college, they know marketing/advertising, but don't know visual design enough to create their portfolios. On the flip side, for art school students the big problem was that we knew everything from a graphic design/visual perspective, but not enough advertising/marketing fundamentals to create portfolio pieces which had strategic thinking to them. When you go to a place like Miami Ad School or Portfolio Center, they marry the two and in two years you have a kickass portfolio.

But what happened starting in my year was that art schools started having programs which had a bigger focus on book smarts on top of just the arts. So you now have art schools like SVA, Columbia College and SCAD which offer you a design focused foundation married with advertising fundamentals. When I graduated with my BFA, I had the portfolio of someone that typically would need to spend six years (four years undergrad + two in portfolio school) to accomplish this in four years.

>Honestly, I feel bad that I've spent most of this kid's life telling him "art's not really a job" (that might sound familiar to some of you - sorry)... and I think that stupid dad-message stuck with him a little too much.

Don't feel bad about this; you're a good parent for wanting to look out for his future, and admittedly aiming for the art and design route is a hard sell for most people. My dad was an engineer and my mom was a nurse. These were both very safe fields which had traditional career paths and college routes and they were pretty shocked when I said I wasn't to do neither and go to art school for design. Good for you for being understanding about this and doing more research into it!

>It's clear to me now that he's only gonna be happy if he's creating so I'm suggesting he consider a BFA somewhere, but he wonders if maybe his long-term options in the industry might be limited without a more classical education.

Real talk: this is only really an issue if he decides ultimately that going into design/advertising is 100% not for him. Be warned that if he tries to go for another major in a traditional college, almost none of his credits will transfer over.

But, in terms of the real world, most advertising-focused companies and agencies are perfectly fine with a BFA; in face some prefer it over a normal degree.

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Besides this, if you want to learn more about what we do you should read/listen/watch these things:

• Mad Men - Low hanging fruit, but it's a good way to settle into what our day to days are in a very loose sense. While it's a bit exaggerated, this scene also does a great job of explaining the type of narrative we need to weave to sell through work in client presentations
  
• Art & Copy - Great documentary focused around creative advertising and featuring some wonderful creatives
  
• Abstract: The Art of Design - A great deep dive into design in it's multiple avenues, but specifically Ep. 6 with Paula Scher. She's a partner over at Pentagram, which is one of the best design studios out there.
  
• Hey Whipple, Squeeze This - While focusing on another aspect of creative advertising (copywriting), this book is super easy to read and gives a wonderful high level overview of creative advertising and what your son would be doing at his job.
  
• Ogilvy on Advertising - Our industry is actually a pretty young one; David Ogilvy is one of the greats and his book is a wonderful introduction into the business
  
• Life lessons from an ad man - An older talk by the wonderful Rory Sutherland. Listening to this does a good perspective into the unique way of thinking that advertising creatives have and how we train our brains to look at life from a difference perspective
  
  
  

I love reading these because it's so off base. No it is nothing like Mad Men. Chances are unless you are upper management you won't be making the industry average in salaries. If you want to take something away from it, watch how defeated they get when a client bitches about something not being right... then amplify that 10 fold, throw in a few "can we make the logos bigger", and put in a little working overtime to meet deadlines and going crazy. Another thing, if you aren't in college yet, you aren't "very good" with psychology or design... you may have gotten a good grade in AP classes and messed around in photoshop in your lab class, but there is much more to learn.

I'm not trying to be belittling, you just need to change your mindset completely on this as it seems pretty obvious you only have a media view of the field. Check out some ad work down by big companies. Check out the CLIO winners for the last few years. Read books on the subject like Ogilvy on Advertising or Hey Whipple, Squeeze This. Also, you aren't going to be doing all of these things, firms are done mostly in groups. You have your Accounts team (Pete Campbell, schmoozing and coordinating with the client), Design Team (Salvatore and Peggy, less copywriting now though) and sometimes Media and Project teams... depending on the agency. Each has their skills and contributions, so in all likelyhood if you want to work in an actual agency setting you will likely have to specialize. Like writing and planning? Take marketing. Like design and web-structure? Take Graphic Design and/or Computer Science. Psychology is not a particularly useful field in itself, as many of the psychological aspects are covered in their usefulness in the aforementioned majors.

Lastly, you won't know for sure what you want to do until a few years in, and that's fine. If you really like the idea of agency work though, DO INTERNSHIPS. There is no other way to get into the field and learn about the ins and outs. There are a lot of great things about the industry, but it's not all rainbows and panache.

It's not really about how good everything looks, as long as you have good ideas behind the ads. I worked on it for 7 months after I graduated while trying to land my first gig.

I taught myself how to use photoshop and just did it all myself, but if you could find an AD student to help you it would make everything easier.

I really recommend Breaking In.
http://www.amazon.com/Breaking-Advertising-Insiders-Reveal-Portfolio/dp/061541219X

It's well worth the money, and it tells you exactly what creative directors are looking for in student books.

You need to make good fake work. No one should care at the jr/intern level that your book is all spec work.

The Creative Ham has a good build a book resource for you. http://www.thecreativeham.com/resources/portfoliolaunch/

Try to find a creative you like to judge the student work you're making. Even better if they work somewhere you'd like to end up.

Some other great resources to check out:

[Hey Whipple] (http://www.amazon.com/Hey-Whipple-Squeeze-This-Advertising/dp/0470190736/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1420589603&sr=8-2&keywords=hey+whipple+squeeze+this)

[Advertising Concept Book] (http://www.amazon.com/Advertising-Concept-Book-Second-Barry/dp/0500290318/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1420589650&sr=8-1&keywords=advertising+concept+book)

Hey, Whipple, Squeeze This by Luke Sullivan

The Advertising Concept Book by Pete Barry

Those are two English books I have been exposed too when I was learning advertising as a sidetrack on design school. I'd say next to these search something good about storytelling commercially and how to think lateral.

Good luck and my best tip would be, fall in love with the to market product/service/person and have fun!

Advertising is a great way to look at a bunch of jobs in the creative field. I think no matter what, you should consider yourself a freelancer, even if you do get a fulltime. In the creative world, you are your brand, and your work is just part of it. Your personality, work ethic, personal style, people who you know, is all part of it. Still interested? Firms big and small are always looking for interns, even now while you're in high school. Do you know anyone in the field who might be interested in having you hang around?
Also I'd recommend this book to perk your interest in advertising: http://www.amazon.com/Hey-Whipple-Squeeze-This-Creating/dp/1118101332/ref=asap_B000APJCEA?ie=UTF8

One of the best things I heard when going to college for advertising was to think "What is the one thing that will get the audience you want to buy your product? Make that the focus." You're not going to come to that conclusion without researching. Find out the purpose of the product, the objective of the ad, the benefits the product has, the point of difference it has against competitors, the tone of the brand, the target audience, the target concern of that audience and then use all of that to solve a barrier that the audience or brand has. And if you really want to get creative read some of the many amazing advertising books out there when you are out of ideas. Good luck!

Don't ever let someone tell you that you can't do something. I'm a dyslexic copywriter but I still generate great work. Do yourself a favor and pick up a copy of Hey Whipple, Squeeze This. I PROMISE you that it will help you in your quest to make the switch.

I have a few questions for you. Do you want to be a creative or an account exec? Are you based in the UK or US? Remember all my advice is based on being in the UK.

You only need to make a portfolio if you want to be a creative, account people don't need to do this. Creatives work in pairs, so you'll need to get a partner too, either an art director or copywriter. Although these days it's common for both creatives to do a bit of each job.

But in answer to you question, yes, you do random stuff. Think of a brand and write some ads for them. Do about 6 to 8 campaigns, put them in a portfolio and then ask some creatives in agencies to have a look and crit your work.

Money, it's not great, especially if you've gone to Oxbridge and all your mates are starting on 50k. Generally account execs and creatives will start on about £22k-£24k.

How long does it take to work your way? That depends largely on your performance. If you're a creative who makes an ad like Sony Balls then you can expect to be on 6 figures fairly quickly. However, most creatives have a fairly steady climb. In "Hey Whipple, Squeeze This", Luke Sullivan says that creatives get under-paid for the first half of their career and over-paid for the second half.

Promotions. Creatives don't really get promoted officially until they become creative directors, getting a pay rise is roughly the equivalent of getting a promotion. There's a more rigid structure for account people and they seem to get promoted fairly regularly, once every few years but they are performance based, if your clients like you the agency will like you.

Let me know if you have any more questions.

Being an art director is not "making the ads look pretty." That's being a graphic designer. "Type, sizing logos, fonts, etc" are all designer's skills. For learning design in the shortest amount of time, get these two books: The Mac Is Not a Typewriter and The Non-Designer's Design Book. The Typewriter book in particular is, page-for-page, the most efficient primer on typography I've ever read.

If you're going to work in advertising, it's important you that know what your art director partner actually does. Yes, an AD has to know all the designer stuff as well, but an AD's job goes far beyond fonts and layouts.

On a conceptual level, an art director is the same as a copywriter, the difference is that he tends to communicate ideas without words.

On an executional level, an art director has a solid grasp of what it means to visually be "on brand," which is analogous to a copywriter writing with a brand "voice."

An art director also doubles as a film director. He has to know how to tell a story. Is there a 30-second spot with no copy? Guess who writes that part of the script. That's right, the AD.

The visual storytelling skill carries over into photography. A good shot isn't simply a posed composition. A good shot tells an entire story — a story that propels the conceptual idea. This goes beyond good lighting and knowing how cameras work, this is why the AD works with a photographer to get a shot, as the photographer is executional, akin to a graphic designer.

I just finished reading Look Me in the Eye: My Life with Asperger's and if your experience is similar, you'll probably be great at advertising. John had to learn how to interact with other people by observing as an outsider, which is a super useful skill for advertising. You might also consider exploring the art side of things, and getting good at InDesign and Photoshop.

I know I'm probably in the minority here, but fuck that book.

Hell, I'll provide a synopsis for you: "David Ogilvy is a genius and everyone else is beneath him, he has a nice house and nice cars and knows more than you will ever know. Also, long form copy rules."

Ok, you probably should read it as there are some salient points which stand the test of time. However, you'd be better off keeping up with modern industry periodicals. Shit changes daily in this industry, and yesterday's award winners often turn out to be completely ineffective at actually selling the products they were intended to.

If you insist on reading archaic reference materials, might I suggest The Book of Gossage - or if you like the idea of an old windbag, try George Parker - at least he's entertaining.


/Flame away

Hey you should start by researching student books these are the people you are up against. Look at the products they pick. Try to do print for the most part. It's the easiest way to get your idea across quickly which will be good when a CD has about 3 mins to look at your book. Here are a ton of student books:
http://brandcenter.vcu.edu/people/alumni/
also look on creative circus's alumni page as well.

In terms of "prompts" that's kind of on you when creating a portfolio. Find a product that needs fresh messaging try to beat the work they are currently doing.

Also I can't stress how important reading "Hey Whipple" will be for you. You'll find what you are looking for in there. http://www.amazon.com/Hey-Whipple-Squeeze-This-Creating/dp/1118101332/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1450214586&sr=8-1&keywords=hey+whipple+squeeze+this

Accounts, not accounting, mate.

Very broadly speaking, an agency is divided into two parts: Accounts and Creative. Accounts is the liaison between the agency and the client. They define broad objectives, general strategy and make sure the trains run on time. Creative makes the actual ads.

You don't need experience to make a book. You just need good ideas and maybe a friend who's handy in graphic design. That said, very few creatives find jobs without going to portfolio school first. Read Hey Whipple, Squeeze This and see where it takes you.

Paul Arden, also, was one of the loveliest, nicest creative directors I ever had the pleasure to meet. He was so nice :)

Oh, if you want a slightly longer book in the same vein

http://www.amazon.com/Damn-Good-Advice-People-Talent/dp/0714863483

George Lois. Genius!

I realize you didn't go to advertising school and probably didn't put together a portfolio, nor are you at a big name agency, so I figured I'll throw in a few reading suggestions to fire up your brain and help you build upon your base of knowledge so you can speak with greater authority on the subject.

Hey Whipple (http://www.amazon.com/Hey-Whipple-Squeeze-This-Creating/dp/1118101332/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1369356964&sr=8-1&keywords=hey+whipple)

Advertising: Concept and Copy (http://www.amazon.com/Advertising-Concept-Third-George-Felton/dp/0393733866/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1369357028&sr=1-3&keywords=the+advertising+concept+book)

Advertising Concept Book (http://www.amazon.com/Advertising-Concept-Book-Second-Barry/dp/0500290318/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1369357028&sr=1-1&keywords=the+advertising+concept+book)

The Copy Book - This book is one of my favourites because it just deals with writing and it's big and glossy and wordy. (http://www.amazon.com/D-AD-The-Copy-Book/dp/3836528320/ref=pd_sim_b_11)

Also just look through annuals and always keep good writing and good ideas at the front of your mind. The

Check out [this book] (https://www.amazon.com/Hey-Whipple-Squeeze-This-Creating/dp/1119164001) - great, definitely recommend.

Do yourself a favor. Read this. Very, very easily worth the $13, but i wouldn't be surprised if they have it either at the library or some ad resource center at your school whree you can read it for free.

This https://www.amazon.com/dp/039472903X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_-LmozbRFSJV3K

And this https://www.amazon.com/dp/006124189X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_dMmozbWME8S98

And for fun read, get Matt Beaumont's "e" and "e squared": https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/s/ref=is_s_ss_i_0_9?k=matt+beaumont&sprefix=matt+beau

Also, get this for general knowledge of some of the great work done in particular medium: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1118101332/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_0Qmozb5TPRJCS

Hey Whipple, Squeeze This is pretty much required reading. As is Ogilvy on Advertising, in my opinion. Sort of old school versus new school insight. Both are advertising legends, and Luke Sullivan is/was a copywriter, so I found his stuff to be particularly helpful. There's a ton of stuff out there to read, but these two are a good place to start.

If you decide you want to go into the creative side, there's a book called Pick Me that you should buy. When it comes to building a portfolio, I think it's a little more important than Hey Whipple. However, Hey Whipple is a book you sorta HAVE to read if you go into advertising.

Also, one thing if you're considering applying for internships in NY. I'm really good friends with the HR lady at my agency. She told me after she fills the slots, she doesn't look through the rest of the resumes. She gets well over a thousand applicants for 15 spots.

APPLY EARLY!

For christ sakes do not wait 'till the last day to apply for your internship unless your dad is the Pope. You will not get it. They won't even look at it. Usually internship spots open in january. Apply then. Have your book critiqued, redone, redone again, critiqued, redone, judged by a group of your peers, redone, critiqued, and redone again by January. Start Now for next year and you'll be in good shape.

If you're wanting to be in strategy or in management, then ignore the book stuff, but still apply early.

Read Hey, Whipple, Squeeze This front to back.

Then, from there, it depends what you're going to be doing. I'm a copywriter so I read a lot of books tailored to that.

• Advertising Concept Book
  
• Creative Advertising
  
• Contagious
  
• And spent a lot of time on www.moderncopywriter.com looking at books to base mine off of.
  
• I've heard the Ogilvy books are good. I should read them.
  
  If you're not going in the creative side, there are still plenty of other books - and I think Whipple applies to all.
  
  

I found Confessions of an Advertising Man to be incredibly interesting and inspiring.

A copywriter recommended this to me, I have yet to pick it up, but it looks good

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/061541219X/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER

This book has several sample briefs and it's a great book about all the facets of writing an ad.

Here are some links for the product in the above comment for different countries:

Amazon Smile Link: This book


|Country|Link|
|:-----------|:------------|
|UK|amazon.co.uk|
|Spain|amazon.es|
|France|amazon.fr|
|Germany|amazon.de|
|Japan|amazon.co.jp|
|Canada|amazon.ca|
|Italy|amazon.it|




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Truth Lies and Advertising by Jon Steel

Madison Valley by Leif Abraham

The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell

Otherwise you should set up an RSS feed with an app like Newsify that includes sites like Adweek, Ad Age, copyranter, KISSmetrics, etc. The industry is constantly evolving and it's worth it to keep up on what's going on now.

My favorite Ogilvy story.

I would also recommend the Advertising Concept Book

Read Me

Advertising Concept & Copy

"An inconvenient truth for copywriters. How to write headlines and why your career depends on it", you can find it free to read online in a few different places, but I have a PDF version on my google drive, here's the link

My introduction to ad-land was "The Age of Persuassion". If you need something to listen to while doing the dishes, or driving you should check out the Radio series as well.

Hey, Whipple, Squeeze This

EDIT: Especially for aspiring copywriters.

This book isn't powerpoint-specific, but depending on where you're starting from, a few fundamentals could make a world of difference in visual presentations.

You should also check out Truth, Lies, and Advertising.

http://www.amazon.com/Truth-Lies-Advertising-Planning-Magazine/dp/0471189626

I just bought Hey Whipple Squeeze This as a parting gift for our intern, and The War of Art for myself.

Ogilvy on Advertising

Truth, Lies, and Advertising

Hey, Whipple

Bill Bernbach's Book

The Book of Gossage

Damn Good Advice

I feel that a lot of people will have mixed feelings about it, but George Lois is an advertising legend and his book is full of tons of to the point, no nonsense advice.