In another stunning turn of events, it’s snowing outside. I don’t understand how it can be warm all winter and then snow in April. Color me baffled.

Anyway, the past few days have been eventful. For starters, we finished up and printed our press kits for the Subaru project, which turned out great. Yay for us. I’ll include some pictures later. We’re also working on other aspects of public relations, such as getting media coverage. We’re getting close with one national publication, but I won’t say any more until it’s more certain. However, we’ll definitely be getting a shout-out on Star94, a popular Atlanta radio station (the one I listen to, actually), thanks almost entirely to Jaclyn, so that’s exciting.

Secondly, I attended a speech at the Miller Ward Alumni House from Congressman John Lewis, who was one of many leaders in the civil rights movement. He talked a lot about his experiences with Martin Luther King, segregation, and non-violent protests. It’s weird listening to someone who knows and has seen and been in history. I remember listening to Jimmy Carter speak at the beginning of last year and being utterly unimpressed — this was not the case here. Our generation is much less anti-authority than our predecessors. Instead of rebelling against authority, we learn to work with it. Listening to his account of going to jail thirty or forty times and being beaten by sheriffs for wanting to vote — I found it a moving speech that made me want to demand more from our government instead of accepting a lower standard.

Finally, today we had the Advertising Office Tours, which was so much fun. We visited some great agencies: JWT Atlanta, Fletcher-Martin and Grey Worldwide Atlanta. It was very interesting to see what a different atmosphere each office had. At the same time, all their advice seemed to be completely contradictory from office to office. JWT by far was the friendliest office with people who were clearly happy to be there. Their bathrooms had Bart and Lisa instead of male and female figures, and the whole place was bright and upbeat.

Fletcher Martin was…interesting. As opposed to the other two which are both internationally known agencies, Fletcher Martin is a pretty new agency based primarily in Atlanta. The people were very subdued and while they were very nice, it kind of lacked the energy that one expects to find in an ad agency.

Grey took me by surprise. For starters, the president of Grey Atlanta came to speak with us. I think some people were taken aback by his manner, but I rather liked it. He was very straightforward and honest. Maybe a little intimidating, but they spent the whole time answering questions and then took us for a tour around their offices. The president, Mark Goldman, was clearly old-guard advertising. The best part was when he got on a bit of a tangent and started talking about how things used to be without word processors when they needed to do presentations and make decks, etc. He talked about how they had to make slideshows without PowerPoint. One of his people says, “So, how did you make your slideshow, then?” Goldman says, “With slides.” I found this very funny. Anyway, he spoke a lot about Ogilvy because he’d worked there for 10 years (he mentioned knowing “Shelley,” as in Shelley Lazarus the head honcho of Ogilvy), and Emily mentioned to him that Vanessa and I were both going to be there over the summer, which he found entertaining.

Anyway, here’s my list of advice that I compiled over the course of the day, with the place I got it from in parenthesis:

• Advertising requires solving problems. (JWT)
• Advertising requires general knowledge about many things. — liberal arts = good (JWT)
• Advertising requires experiencing life and folding in those ideas. (JWT)
• Good account people are ones who know their client’s business and know it well — I have heard and read this everywhere about account management (Grey)
• MBAs are required to get good jobs on the client side. Don’t bother on the agency side, if you really need one your company will pay. — I think this was by far the most consistent and useful thing I learned (All, Grey)

• If you have over a 3.2 they don’t care about your GPA. — This, I find to be pathetic. Nevertheless. (Grey)
• If you can do stuff like write, design or code HTML, it is worth putting together a book even if you are going into account services because they want to know that you will be able to work with the creatives and understand what it is you are recommending to your clients. (Fletcher)
• To get a good foothold in advertising, start in account management to gain a broader knowledge. (Fletcher)
• To get a good foothold in advertising, start in traffic to gain an understanding of all areas. (JWT)
• Get an internship. Find a big name. Work on a big client. (Grey)
• Get an internship. Find a mentor during your time there. (JWT)
• I asked what they thought applicants consistently lacked, they said good writing skills. (Grey)
• Never, never, never go into an interview with a big ad agency without being familiar with their company in general and especially their clients. (Grey)
• Don’t get too caught up on specific accounts you’d like to work with. Focus more on finding a corporate culture that is a right fit as each agency is very different. (JWT)

• You can write off job search expenses on your taxes. (JWT)

Overall, I’m very glad I went. It was a lot of fun and a little tiring, but a great learning experience. I’m glad that almost everything they said made me feel like this was an industry I’d fit in well with. I liked how they all seemed to do their jobs without much pretentions (Newspaper people are pretentious as all hell), but with rather the attitude that it was fun and creative and that’s how they liked it. Most of all, I am ridiculously excited about this summer, I just don’t know what to wear on my first day.