Ok, so where shall we go?

My first introduction to this Shrigley was in the CD room at Clemenger BBDO, back when we were winning everything there was to win and popping Nebuchadnezzar’s of champagne on what seemed like a monthly basis. 

Truth be told, I wasn’t a star by any means. Think of me more of an extra who managed to get his face on camera long enough to be considered ‘featured’.

Said painting and quote hung behind one James McGrath, enigmatic creative leader during this storied period in Australian advertising history. As a freelancer initially working on bottom of the barrel DM stuff, I naturally found both the quote, James and the room itself rather intimidating. After all, how long until he tells me I’m no longer needed? And given at the time I’d just discovered Bill Hicks, shouldn’t all who work in advertising and marketing just, ‘go’? 

As I matured, I began to embrace the quote and come to terms with the ‘I’. Yes, there will be times when I am not needed by an agency at that point, but it’s not something to take personally. After all, there would always be a need for me somewhere, right?

The reason I write this is because I’m sure that many of my vintage out there no longer feel needed not just by agencies, but by the industry as a whole, which truly feels unusual and unsettling.

I don’t have the answers. I’m trying to figure it all out myself. But I have faith that all this accumulated knowledge and expertise is needed, somewhere. 

Less focus on no longer being needed in some places. More focus on where we shall go.

Maybe it’ll become clear by looking at a childlike scribble of a quote that begins to make more sense the longer you stare at it.