An advertising life.

As long-time readers of Ad Aged may know, I am a third generation ad guy.

My father, born in 1928--back when dinosaurs roamed the earth--had a 30 year career in advertising, and went on to teach advertising at a major American university.

My uncle, my father's brother, was born in 1913 and had an even longer career in the business.

He owned, for decades, Philadelphia's largest ad agency.

In short, advertising has been in my family lineage for 100 years.

Only a century or two short of the amount of time my ancestors were raped by Cossacks.

Despite of, or maybe because of all that, growing up I never pictured myself in advertising.

I pursued, almost to the time I was 30, an academic career, hoping to teach English literature at a quiet, decent college or university.

That didn't work out for me.

And having no money for rent sobers up a lot of aspiring academics. Or at least it sobered me up.

I got a job, where else, in advertising.

It's been 29 years now.

I guess I'm looking to outlast my uncle and my father.