Monday, January 11, 2010

Are we too?


The problem with the world today--certainly the problem with our industry, is that we have become too professional. Try to do a simple ad and you have to run a gauntlet of discipline leads on both the client and agency sides.

Today, "More Intelligent Life," the "lifestyle magazine" affiliated with The Economist has an article on this. Read it here:
http://moreintelligentlife.com/content/ed-smith/are-we-too-professional

Now, here's the part I particularly liked: "In the space of a hundred years, the words “professional” and “amateur” have virtually swapped places. At the end of the 19th century, an amateur meant someone who was motivated by the sheer love of doing something; professional was a rare, pejorative term for grubby money-making. Now, amateurism is a byword for sloppiness, disorganisation and ineptitude, while professionalism–as Humphrys suggested–is the default description of excellence. Ours is the age of professionalism; it is a concept in perpetual boom. But all bubbles, as we have painfully learned about finance, must eventually burst. Is it time we let some of the hot air out of professionalism?"

Can you imagine bringing "love," not paralysis by analysis back to what we do? Can you imagine?

Or are we too far gone?

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