Old Man Rant #739

Let me start this post by stating I have no desire to start. Work, that is. 

I'm done. 

Between delivering newspapers, mowing lawns, flipping burgers, tending bar, scrubbing hospital pots, cleaning up god-awful college dining rooms, driving forklifts, flipping steaks, omelettes and flounder, clerking in the mailroom, and writing (pimping out my brain cells) thousands and thousand of ads, most of which never even got made, I am so done.

Nevertheless, I am still fond of scrolling through LinkedIn. Mostly as a distribution channel for this old blog, but also to stay abreast of what's going on, in what was my industry. 

I don't need to tell you, it ain't particularly good. 

And that's being generous.

There's the upswing in successful indie agencies, but those toiling at the 5 major holding companies, I'm sorry, 3 major holding companies, soon to be 1 major holding company, have been left holding the bag. Sadly, this includes many friends and former colleagues.

When a job listing does come up, I watch, incredulously, at the dozens, sometimes dozens of dozens, of applicants all fighting for the same tasteless, meaningless morsel of underemployment. 

More often than not the opportunity is a demotion. Involving the promotion of some new drug, Flexicol or Ubivix. Or, if it's for a legitimate carmaker, beer or even a casual dining chain, the salary as well as the qualifications are insulting at best.

And usually begin with: "Social First."

In other less polite words, and I know this from my experience at PayPal (started by Peter Thiel, the Right Wing's own George Soros) they are less interested in people who can develop big ideas and most interested in dispirited people who are familiar with social media templates -- banner ads, email blast, carousels, ad infinitum. 

It's all so fucking backwards.

If I were to apply -- and again I have no interest in doing so -- I wouldn't make the first cut. Mostly because all the "Social First" work I have done in the past never made it into my portfolio. It's out in the ether somewhere. Probably in the vicinity of Uranus. 

Moreover, it's all CRAP.

But here's the irony of it all. The people I know who have mastered social media, and made it work for them, often going viral in a small but vital arena, are folks my age or older. 

Take Bob Hoffman for example, whose posts and columns gave way to lucrative speaking engagements, around the world. Or my friend and fellow blogger, George Tannenbaum, whose blog is read industry-wide and who posts new ads for his rapidly growing small indie agency, GeorgeCo. I know of no other two individuals who have mastered "social" more than these self admitted geezers.

Not to toot my own social media horn, but even some of my prolific Trump-trolling has amassed some significant eyeball coverage.

All this is to say, if I were looking to staff a creative department, I wouldn't begin with the phrase Social First. 

I'd start with Talent First.