In the Bowl

I find myself surfing around on FishBowl quite a bit lately.

For those of you who unfamiliar, FishBowl is the mobile online app designed specifically for people in the advertising community. It's where they can go to bitch, moan, gripe and snipe at each other behind the ever-protective one way glass of anonymity.

I'm 44, have been in the business forever as well as a devil-may-care attitude, and frankly don't need the shield of invisibility.

Fishbowl was preceded by the once wildly popular AgencySpy.com, but since they eliminated the often ribald and hilarious comment section, they get fewer check-ins than the scooter riding staff at FourSquare.

To be sure, the anonymous comment section at AgencySpy was their raison d'être. It would be as if Red Lobster stopped selling lobster.

"Hey boss, what do we do with all these nutcrackers?"

The discussion threads on FishBowl are quite interesting and wildly diverse. Judging from the unseasoned tone of the questions, I'm guessing most of the people posting are new to the business and in their twenties.

"My copywriting partner has the worst spelling. Plus, he makes grammatical errors all the time. I often have to fix his work. Should I say something to him or just buck up?"

"My art director has a weird odor. I don't know if it's because she's from another country but it's hard to sit next to her at the table. It's like a cross between garlic and Round Up Weed Killer. Does anybody else have a smelly partner?"

"I just got offered a job as a Creative Director in NYC. The job offers unlimited vacation days and pays $65K. Does that seem right?"

If that doesn't tell you about the sorry state of our business, perhaps this will.

There's an entire section of FishBowl cordoned off for people experiencing Mental Health Issues. I'm not making light of anyone's problems, but in my day, people eschewed established fields like accounting, healthcare and management and opted to get into advertising because they had, and celebrated, their mental issues. I know I did.

One last note.

There is a preponderance of questions from current agency staffers asking if they should go freelance.

And never the other way around.

I wonder why that is.