Good afternoon, Tuesday. Some sort of cray ice storm is coming tonight so looking forward to that. Sigh. Winter, you are so very Wintery this year...
So as many of you who read this or care about what I have to say know, I worked at an ad agency in Miami called CP+B from 2004-2011. There's an amazing piece in Ad Age today about how tough it is for agencies to aspire to such greatness today- that perfect storm of great clients, great misfits, and a great moment in time where the stars aligned and pop culture was on a course that made navigating the ad waters a little rough, but fun as hell. I'll never forget getting a job there as a producer- the New York girl in all black- neurotic and cynical and generally suspicious of anything not New York or somehow relatable to my very granular Manhattan existence.
But then I moved to Miami and lived in a place called Coconut Grove and met people from St. Louis and Chicago and all over who were covered in tattoos and acted like Johnny Knoxville and who, most importantly, let me get the work done, however I found it best to do it. If you look at the photo of the cover of Creativity from 2004 (see above), you'll see what I mean. Just who were these sweaty dudes (and there were more than a few sweaty chicks who were right there too) who never said never and never stopped working to make something great?This was a place, who two days into my working there (in the middle of my first hurricane), told me I had to get on a plane and do a photo shoot with Common on top of a halfway house in downtown LA. Um. OK. No problem.
So off we went, and it was a great shoot, and to this day I am still exceedingly close with the art director I went there with, and love seeing updates from the account person with us as well- we all listened to hip hop, drove around LA, blushed at the cuteness of Common, and had an amazing time. And though what Alex Bogusky (whose name is still on the door but who no longer walks the halls) says is truer than true, that it matters not how great your creatives are if you don't have the right clients to make the work, I think what made CP+B really magical were the people who worked there. It really was, for a long time and for lack of a better term, an island (Miami being a fitting place for this whole era) of misfit toys. And though I've enjoyed a lovely freelance career and a recent stint in full time life, I have always missed those misfit toys. It's not that I'm terribly nostalgic for the old days- after all, the work was really hard and the hours were long and my heart often pounded from stress, I do miss that little ragtag band of pirates. The passion, the humor, the need to compete on one's own terms- I can't ever be mad at how good we were, and how much better we all were because of each other. I made gigantic monster heads, talked to a real ninja on the phone, and painted an entire city block of my hometown in paint (I may or may not have tried to quit during that project). I drank a lot, smoked a lot, and ate way too many empanadas. It was an extreme time full of extreme stress and some extremely amazing work. Oh, and I also had a tree fall on my house during a hurricane, remember being on a shoot in the middle of the night in LA, talking to an art director in Miami and one in Boulder with an illustrator based in Sweden. My head was often mistaken for my ass, but somehow it all worked out. I could trade war stories forever, but you get the gist. Don't get the wrong idea- it was not always warm and fuzzy- it was tough, irrational, and extremely intense. But we all knew what we were fighting for, and somehow, we all loved it. And speaking of love, many, many people fell in love there, like, for real. And have like, babies and stuff now. Together. Amazing.
And though many people may not know this, it wasn't just the work that affected me so much- living in Miami was a trippy experience for a girl like me- I didn't know how to drive, I didn't understand why any food I wanted could not be delivered, and I certainly didn't understand what was up with all the fake boobs. Living in Miami made me a better and more well rounded human being- in many ways, I needed to leave New York for a while to grow up, and I feel lucky I got to grow up at CP+B, and also embrace an inner child who always loved the mad ones and anything exceedingly creative and smart. And although growing pains are hard and challenging and test us mere mortals, it truly was the best of times. And maybe in some ways, as I was growing up, so was CP+B. I can't ever be mad at what that place and that city gave me. And it's the gift that keeps giving really because so many of my old amigos are back here in NYC, and they call me for work. I feel incredibly grateful for the connections and supremely talented people I met there. They know I'm just as crazy as they are and up for anything, and enjoy the process just as much as they do- and by "process" I mean very little process and more just raw smarts and energy and aim high kind of thinking . (I also enjoyed the lack of forms back then. That was nice). The place asked so much of me, so much of all of us, but I think we all got so much back. I'm glad I did it and this is not some idealistic ode to the old days- it's just a nod to a place that inspired me and pushed me and changed the way I thought about work. This is just my take and many people may have something different to say, but I loved being a part of the craziness.
I'm not sure that perfect storm will happen again for me in agency life, but I have hope this next generation will come up and make another great agency- there will never be another CP+B, but perhaps somewhere out there, another bunch of lunatics will color outside of the lines and their work will be picked, panned, and parodied on SNL, with their clients cheering them on all along the way. I just hope they'll call me. I'm available and still very much up for a good time.
Cause that's what's up this once in a lifetime kind of Tuesday in the very non-Miami-like 212. Yours, in the good old days. Respect. XO
Link to the piece below:
http://adage.com/article/agency-news/tale-2-crispins-agency-decade/291465/