What were we thinking? Or better yet, what were we drinking?

 

“Let's hope you never leave, old friend

Like all good things on you we depend

So, stick around 'cause we might miss you

When we grow tired of all this visual.”

Many decades ago, I was a student at the University of Missouri; my major was journalism. Knowing I was never going to be a true journalist, I went to the darker side—-advertising. (My parents were accepting of it, but the question did come up from many, “What happens if you don’t sell a page in a magazine?”  I would respond, "How many blank pages do you see when you open it up?”) This was not my bit of wisdom, I heard it from several other business associates and used it.

Looking back on the days when I first got into “the business,” I cannot believe how much has changed. The biggest culprit, “technology.” If you watched Mad Men, you saw it happen right before your eyes week after week. Don Draper didn’t discuss the internet or MTV back in the 60’s, the focus was on magazines, newspapers, and radio. Even TV was in its infancy back then.

However, some things didn’t change as quickly from those days—-there was still “massive” entertaining and drinking. Typically the drinking began at lunch time for most…probably earlier if you were part of the 60s crew. I remember we would go to a local restaurant, my boss would have a couple of “pops,” before lunch, and we would then sit and gorge. Being a lightweight when it comes to drinking, I was good for maybe a Bloody Mary. Sometimes, I would lie and say, I have a meeting or need to go somewhere and just have a diet soda. I couldn’t ask for a Diet Coke back then, it had yet to come to market. 

Recently I was talking with a friend who was part of the business back then, and we reminisced  about “those days.” There was so much happening, it’s amazing we got anything done. We must have for a while, because the media business flourished. Our discussion moved to sales meetings and the stories got better and better. I won’t get into specifics, but let’s just say, there were business relationships, marriages, and jobs lost after most of the meetings.  What were we thinking? Or, what were we not thinking?

Move forward all these years to today, media is nothing like it was back then; some would say “it’s probably a good thing,” others would say, “it’s too bad.”  My liver and other organs are grateful for where it is today, and thankfully my mind still has memories to recall those days.

Sadly, most of the people I worked with, and knew from the earlier days, are either no longer in the business or are no longer with us. It’s the true reality of the post-Mad Men days.

The photo above was taken in a men’s room at a Chicago restaurant; to me it signifies the amount of advertising we are now bombarded with in our lives. Long gone are the 4 primary forms of media we had back in the day, since I am in new media, I am thankful I didn’t drink too much and miss it.

Thanks for stopping by.