Sunday, September 28, 2014

12107: Old Ad-Guys™ = Old White Guys.

Tucked in the AgencySpy comments insisting Millennials are the root cause of unhappiness in the advertising industry is a link for Old Ad-Guys™—an apparent startup labeling itself as “a network of senior industry guys and gals who still love the business.” The site unintentionally verifies the label in a number of ways:

1. The design and user experience is crude—and that’s being polite—indicating the elder creators are digitally ignorant.

2. There is an overall lack of transparency, as no one is identified and the pay scheme is fuzzy—a sure-fire characteristic of old school, political dinosaurs.

3. The enterprise fosters exclusivity, only interested in hiring people with at least 20 years of experience—which will probably perpetuate the dearth of diversity poisoning our industry (as well as present high overhead costs).

4. Sorry, but the work sucks. It’s a bunch of contrived bullshit. Unfortunately, this flies in the face of the company’s premise that “experience is everything.” Younger, cheaper and less experienced creatives could produce results not significantly worse than the predictable dreck Old Ad-Guys™ offer.

The site states: “Our goal is to create a permanent agency, with permanent salaries and ultimately a network of Ad Guy agencies across the country and North America.” Um, it sounds like Old Ad-Guys™ wants to erect yet another mcgarrybowen, JWT, Zimmerman or any other traditional shop run by Old White Guys.

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