Creative ideas lost in the business of it all

Circa 2006 I was involved in putting on an art exhibition. The date coincided with the Grey Lynn Festival, an  annual fair celebrating the suburb where the exhibition would be held. I suggested we promote our event by handing out bottled water with custom labels to the festival goers. They would be grateful on a sunny November day for the free refreshment and would carry our advertisement throughout the day. When 7pm arrived they would have the address of the event still with them, and hopefully attend.

The idea was well received by the business student organising the event. He called up Waiwera Water and they quoted 60c a bottle for custom labeling, but they had just released a new Sarah Ulmer water and they were selling that at a discounted rate of 35c a bottle.

The business student purchased hundreds of Sarah Ulmar water bottles and we handed them out at Grey Lynn Festival with printed fliers about the exhibition. People threw out the fliers without even reading them. When 7pm came the festival goers had water bottles promoting a New Zealand cyclist and we had no one at the event.

This wasted idea is how I feel about the whole of advertising at the moment. Creative Directors aren’t looking for young people to teach, they are looking for someone to do flash or layouts or write pages of bs for client websites while still being paid a “creative” salary.

How do I get a job where ideas actually matter?