A friend of mine and his friend were in LA a few weeks ago as a part of their great American road trip. He called me the night of his arrival to see if I could spare some time to hang out the next day. "What a coincidence," I exclaimed, "I'm unemployed tomorrow!" I offered to show them around the city with the luxury of my newfound abundance of time.
I took them to Royal T, BLD, the La Brea Tar Pits, the LA County Museum of Art, the Hollyhock House, the Griffith Observatory, Silverlake for window shopping and gelato, and then Father's Office 2.0 for burgers and beer. Please note that I did not take them to the beach. Why? Because I really don't like the beach. It's just a bunch of sand, water, pollutants, and sunbathers and I happen to think that the rest of the city is much more interesting and visitors rarely get to see it because everyone takes them to the beach. I'm contrarian that way.
You can read Rob's review along with his other adventures here.
As we were driving from place to place, I asked Rob and Wayne what their plans were for the rest of the journey. They mentioned SF, Portland, Seattle, a whole lot of nothing until they reach Yellowstone, and then more nothing until the reach Mount Rushmore, and then more nothing on the way to Chicago etc.. This was where I imparted my wisdom -
Me: "Well, you have to visit Wall Drug."
Rob: "What's Wall Drug?"
Me: "A crappy tourist trap that sells drug store stuff hidden amongst endless aisles of junk souvenirs, but you have to go. You just have to. And don't forget to take a picture with the giant jackalope."
For me, the magic of Wall Drug is that even though nature abhors a vacuum, Wall Drug operates in an advertising vacuum. There are no other competing business in the area for hundreds of miles. Heck, there are hardly any other businesses for hundreds of miles. The only thing you can hope to stop at between Mount Rushmore and civilization besides a gas station is Wall Drug, and even though it may have a relative monopoly in the area, Wall Drug is a true believer in advertising. Wall Drug believes in advertising the old school way - beat your potential customers in the head repeatedly until they submit.
It starts about two hundred miles out. You see a green sign with white lettering - 500 Miles to Wall Drug.
A few minutes later you see another green sign with white lettering - 490 Miles to Wall Drug.
It goes on and on like this and at first you react with cynicism - "There's no way I'm stopping at Wall Drug. Those signs are annoying and we don't need to stop at such an obvious tourist trap." But, after about the 75th sign you suddenly realize that you MUST stop at Wall Drug and you feel strangely excited by your artificial epiphany.
Wall Drug is a testament to the power of advertising and at the same time, an example of its current futility. This sort of repetitive and unrelenting messaging can only take place somewhere like the Bad Lands of South Dakota, where there are no other competitors for our time and attention. There are simply too many other competitors and natural distractions for it to work anywhere else.
When Rob finally made it to South Dakota, he did indeed stop at Wall Drug and he even has a picture with the giant jackalope to prove it.
It feels like I haven't blogged in ages. I think three and a half months adds up to something like ten years in blog time, but I lacked the motivation to blog lately and once I stopped, it was hard to get started again.
To start off the missing story of my life, I made a valiant effort to find a job in London. I cashed in my miles, met with as many planning directors as I could (thank you Russell), and earned tendonitis in one of my ankles from walking around London in high heels for five days. On the surface, it seemed like the perfect compromise for both Dave and I. I could probably find a planning job there fairly easily and he could get a working holiday visa as a citizen of the commonwealth. Unfortunately, the finding a job part got in the way. People seemed perfectly willing to speak with me considering my qualifications and what not, but they were unwilling to make the extra effort a visa would have required.
I did manage to snag one job offer, but they low balled me to the point that I couldn't accept it. Maybe one day I'll be able to transfer through another company, it just would have been nice for Dave and I to live abroad at this time in our lives.
Once London didn't seem like it was going to work out, Dave and I started to look at the plan of last resort - me finding a really great job in the US and making our relationship more permanent. I applied for an opening at Crispin Porter + Bogusky in Boulder, Colorado. I never thought they would consider me, but I figured that I should at least try. When I got the call saying that they wanted to meet me in person, I was on Cloud 9. I skipped merrily down the halls at work. I could not have been more excited and everyone who knew was excited for me.
The experience of interviewing there was amazing. They had a driver on staff to take me to and from the airport. During the tour they showed me the desks for the Quality of Life department (aka HR), the gym, and the office of the concierge (that isn't a myth, he's real). The concierge's job is to get CPB employees into the Colorado lifestyle. If you want to go dirt biking with Alex, he will set you up with a dirt bike. If you want to take up mountain biking or road biking, no problem. Are you interested in snowboarding? You can borrow one of the snowboards from their collection and the concierge will tell you the best mountains to go to depending on what you want and your skill level. The overall consensus from the people who worked there was yes you worked really hard at CPB, but they took excellent care of you.
Everyone I met with was very nice and very smart. None of the attitude that people seem to expect from the top agency in the country. I was really thrilled to be there and I desperately wanted the job. Alas, it was not to be. Maybe another time. At least I didn't have to worry about how Dave would adjust to Boulder if I had gotten the job.
Then I lost my job. It still stings, but severance and unemployment insurance heals all wounds. My take on what happened is not fit to be discussed in a public forum. If you really want to know then email me and we'll talk, otherwise leave it be. Besides that, I am grateful to all my old coworkers and clients who left wonderful recommendations on my LinkedIn profile. It is yet another reason why the internet is wonderful and that you will hardly ever find a place that is 100% bad.
Since then, I have interviewed at two other agencies and am looking eagerly for more. I'm hoping that I can hold out for the perfect position. A lot of the feedback I'm getting is that I seem great, but they really wish I had broader full-service agency experience. A friend of mine wants to submit me for a job at a digital shop, but I don't think that it would set me up well for the kind of larger planning jobs that I eventually want. He's asking the hiring manager if they're willing to take me on as a freelancer instead. I hope they do.
If anyone asks, Tara Frabotta at Ad+One and Lee Weil have been amazing recruiters. They are both personable and work devilishly hard. I have little doubt that I will be able to find my next job through them and recommend them highly.
