Jeremy Southern: No agencies over 40
By Jeremy Southern (above), ex-executive creative director and current freelance creative/copywriter.
I don’t want to work with any agency that’s over 40 years old.
Sorry Saatchis, DDB, McCann, Ogilvy, BBDO, LB, Y&R and all the rest of you old geezers.
See once you’re over 40 you’re no good at advertising anymore. That’s what I’m learning. Doesn’t matter that you have a list of awards as long as your arm, vast amounts of wisdom/experience and an enormous passion for your craft.
That stuff just doesn’t cut the mustard anymore.
No, what I’m looking for in my next agency is youth. Well, youth and inexperience.
Because that’s what’s going to give me the best chance of doing incredible work that stays in the hearts and minds of consumers for years.
So why don’t you old agencies hang up your boots and try and find a different career? You’ve had a good run, but surely now it’s time you moved aside and made way for someone younger and more “woke”.
Because, let’s face it, you couldn’t possibly have anything left to contribute to our industry.
Could you?
Jeremy is an over-the-hill, Sydney-based writer who wears incontinence pads and spends his days dribbling vacuously in front of the t.v . Needless to say, he hasn’t had a good idea since he turned 40.
If you’d like to work with Jeremy then you’re clearly an idiot. But on the off chance that you do, his email address is Jeremys2211@gmail.com
19 Comments
Very clever, very smart.
Like this on Campaign Brief. It’s a good break from press releases about snaring people and “synergistic programmation”.
Well said and sums up the Australian ad industry.
very clever and funny
I hear you brother Jeremy. Fancy a game of shuffleboard sometime? There’s some great deals going on senior’s cruises atm.
Read until the end and smiled, thank you
You have a great point Jeremy. This needs to be talked about more. Stay strong!
The problem with this opinion regarding “youth” in an agency environment, unfortunately they tend to regularly have days off (work life balance)…They believe the word manager should be on their job title (just graduated)…They are a social media expert (self taught with a certificate of YouTube)…Exits the agency at 5pm to go home (no good ideas comes out of working 9 to 5)…so to me, over 40s are looking pretty good!
Here’s something older creatives can do about it.
You’ve been practising the art of persuasion your entire careers. Channel this ability to your advantage and appeal to the lucrative market opportunity that is Baby Boomers and Gen X. Start a collective, an agency, a blog, a something. Do some cleverer industry PR, spend a few bucks on a tv ad of your own and leverage the idea that is sticking out like dogs balls – millennials don’t get the older generations. Their way of life is hilariously different in so many many ways you could play with. Play up these concepts with a clever point of difference. Appeal to the brands that don’t give a shit about working with 20 somethings. Go direct. Or do some research on every creative/marketing/production/experiential/design agency in Australia with a focus on older customer segments and reach out to them. No, don’t use your gmail account to get work, put together a website that cleverly leverages this idea of your special powers of being older and wiser and stands out. Treat it like that pitch you slaved over for nothing 10 years ago. Do it for yourself.
I’m in my mid 40’s by the way so I’m not an Award school graduate with 2 social media posts and a Snapchat filter under my belt. Brilliant, experienced people are gifted with the ability to think laterally. Pivot, reimagine, scribble, dream, collaborate and work it out. Or do something different!
Best of luck.
“Brilliant, experienced people are gifted with the ability to think laterally. Pivot, reimagine, scribble, dream, collaborate and work it out”
this is so true Matt- well put.
Well said Jeremy. Best of luck.
Great read..
One wonders what Mr Southern’s own hiring approach was like when he was himself in a position to do something about this. Or is it an issue only now that he is personally affected?
Me as a bright-eyed junior talking to a well-known agency owner in the 90s.
“Advertising is like stripping. It’s great when you’re young and you can earn decent money. But by the time you’re 30, you need to own your own brothel or you’ll be one of those fat birds working at Porkies.”
I guess if there is any good news, 40 is the new 30.
Brilliantly written and so true. Love the stripper analogy, but creativity will undoubtedly improve and expand with time.
There’s an obvious truth to what you’re saying Jeremy . Rightly or wrongly, there are fewer jobs for older creatives. But there are still plenty of over 40s in creative departments, especially at the good shops. You’re competing with them for roles, not the juniors. So take a look at what those over 40s have done in the past decade. You’ll notice they stayed in the country, making relevant work, winning big awards and building relationships here. That’s why they’re at work now earning pretty good money.
I remember Jeremy when he was one of the up-and-coming young punks snapping at the heels of the establishment. It’s just the relentless cycle. When I first started at age 24 I used to ask “Who are these old farts, and why are they still here?” My guess is they were in their 40’s. When my turn came, I kicked & screamed, felt far too young to be thrown on the scrap heap at 48, then 51 and finally at 53. It all seems so unfair, especially when you feel like you’ve still got it. So you try all sorts of cute stunts to get a bit of freelance here or there, or even the holy grail – a job.
The trouble with being older is you have opinions and are inclined to express them. Those opinions, about your own work and the work of others is not often welcome, especially by CD’s younger than yourself. It’s ironic that in what is essentially a business of opinions ( there’s no one right answer to a brief) there seems to be such resistance to opinions. As I recall, the young Jeremy was quite free with his opinions. I don’t imagine he’s any less opinionated now.
OOCDG.
The younger folk are cheaper Jeremy, that is all. Show me the money.