Adland_ Searching for the Meaning of Life on a Branded Planet - James P. Othmer [125]
It seemed almost idyllic for a college or agency environment, but the laid-back vibe was deceptive. The semester had only just begun, and soon the projects would be coming fast and furious. At the Brandcenter, as at many contemporary ad agencies, all-nighters and weekend work come with the territory. Hence the full shower and changing room. Hence the lockers, dining areas, and doors that are open 24/7 for students.
It occurred to me that this was not a place a student went to find herself or to experiment. Unless she had $17,000 a year to throw away. In fact, an administrator told me that morning that any student receiving one grade of D or less, or two Cs, was expelled from the program.
“Kids come here,” Boyko said, “with a distinct sense of what they want to do with their lives.”
Come to Work Stupid Every Day
I’ve visited quite a few universities in the past several years, and while every experience has been enjoyable for a different reason, the students here had by far been the most amiable and inquisitive. They went out of their way to introduce themselves to me in the lounges, at the cafeteria tables, before and after classes. They wanted to know who I was and, more important, the only two questions that ever seem to matter in advertising: what have I done, and what was I working on now.
While waiting for Boyko’s class Building Brands in International Cultures, a second-year student in the art-direction track scooted over a few seats, introduced herself, and said, “This is much, much harder than Yale [undergrad] ever was. It is intense, and the workload is relentless.” But she believed that the long hours and not insignificant financial commitment were worth it. “It’s a different kind of intense. It’s painful, but there’s also an adrenaline rush that comes with it. You learn about the industry, then you go about trying to change it by doing something that’s never been done.”
One of the first presentation slides in Boyko’s first class of the new semester was a tenet from Dan Wieden, co founder of the legendary Portland (and now global) agency Wieden+Kennedy: “Come to work stupid every day.”
As I stared at Wieden’s words, I thought how that line could have applied to my career, only my version of it would have a comma and another period.
“Come to work, stupid. Every day.”
Boyko’s class was in an auditorium on the first floor of the rebuilt carriage house. As a provocation, he used a remote to showcase on a large pull-down screen a variety of some of the better promotional efforts being done worldwide. There was a video for the NIKEiD build-your-own-sneaker program and one for a video game featuring Burger King’s creepy (yet apparently appealing to its young male demographic) animated king character. Next came a three-minute video downloaded from YouTube that dropped a series of sociological bombshells about the changing demographic of the marketplace, mostly insights about emerging India and China.
Not once during Boyko’s presentation did I see anything that remotely resembled a print ad, out-of-home ad, or traditional TV commercial. And unlike every agency multimedia presentation I’ve ever seen, his came off seamlessly, without the slightest technological glitch.
Also of note: before playing a video, Boyko would ask the class if anyone had seen it before, and no matter how obscure the source, medium, or country of origin, no fewer than five and sometimes as many as twenty hands went up in response every time.
Before you attempt what’s never been done, it helps to be familiar with everything that has.
“Now more than ever,” Boyko told his students after playing an empowering, Web-based piece for Dove soap that was a big hit at the previous year’s Cannes