Advertising in a time of quarantine

As someone who has spent close to two decades working in advertising, this may have been one of the weirdest years I've ever experienced.

I went to portfolio school the month after 9/11. I moved to Canada in 2008 and waited out the housing crisis and economic slowdown. Never in a million years did I think I'd experience a time where so many jobs disappeared literally overnight. I had three freelance gigs lined up. They all disappeared without a word. And while that can be par for the course when it comes to freelancing, this was a whole other set of circumstances, because the decision was made by fear. Helpless doesn't even begin to describe the feeling.

For every person who has reached out to me, wanting to know what they should do, or asking if I've heard of jobs, there are at least four Linkedin Influencers imploring us not to give up hope because there are jobs out there.

As with everything us going on during this time, it's hard to know what to believe.

This week, a former boss texted me to let me know that before the entire world was postponed or moved online, that apparently the work I produced at his agency cleaned up at a local advertising award show. My work won best in show, and something like 18 gold and silver awards combined. If you win gold and silver in the local and regional versions of this award show then you are automatically entered in the national version.

Any other year I might be excited about this for a few minutes. This year it seems a bit too surreal. I also suspect the awards won't carry the same weight this year as in other years. How many award-show judges are even still employed?

Whether it's death or getting sick or losing your job, a lot of people in the world have woken up to the fact that happiness is fleeting and ephemeral. And it's now only month two.

I have to say the advertising I've seen during this time of pandemic hasn't been all that inspiring, despite the PR that's being generated for it. We don't really need another handwashing or stay at home or avoid everyone ad.  Social distancing logos is a cheap idea that's already become a cliché.

And the messaging that says "we're all in this together," is incredibly false. One need only go to the edge of Venice beach to see multiple people standinsg closer than six feet, defying the mayor's orders and going to the beach like they are on holiday. Or go to a Target and look for toilet paper.

I have a quiet nagging sense of dread that this won't be the last month of staying indoors. The only bright spot is that with all the free time and nowhere to go,  I can hunker down and continue sending out query letters to agents,  make some other short stories free (or next-to-free as Amazon's rules are really complicated when it comes to pricing and giveaways) and when the motivation is there, go back to the next novel in the queue that so desperately needs an outline before I can return to it. Since i'm technically still employed ountil Monday,  I'll wait until next week to start on it.