The thoughts from the other side

What better way to start this post by saying ‘I’m in!’ I’ve finally done the impossible, I've stayed out of jail, got an education and finally got a job. I’ve reached for the stars and I’m slowly but surely morphing into one. I’m on the other side Y'all!

Through vigorous training and self-discipline I’ve worked hard and I’ve become a junior copywriter (not that glorious). These are my humble beginnings into advertising, and hopefully in the future I'll be someone big and awesome.

The other day one of the senior writers started talking about the new Bells ads. She mentioned how inspiring and tear jerking it was. We agreed and we thought King James did a great job.

When she asked the other creative director, he said he felt dirty after seeing the ad, he said it’s a beautifully crafted ad but the message was not spot on. ‘If kids saw this ad they would think learning to read is good, as long as I get a whiskey after I’ve done my work’.

Of course this is one man’s opinion, but what got me thinking was that we help form societies norms (not that I didn’t know of this before), we help shape society and we dictate what is right and what is cool. We as the advertising industry form thoughts, beliefs and some of us, base our values in accordance to what we see on TV.

I think what my creative director was saying is that, we can’t put anything and everything on TV just for the sake of making money. We have to be careful with our advertising, even when we aim to inspire we must be careful as to what we say on TV, radio or general print ads.

Which is why I wanted to get into advertising. I want to change the way society sees itself, my advertising goals is not based on getting awards but encouraging people to value themselves, to help rehabilitate our country from what we went through.

I particularly want to inspire motivate the youth to be proactive, and just like how we were once brain washed by the government into thinking black people are just slaves, I want to use propaganda to change the way black people see themselves.

All i'm asking is that you give me this opportunity to try. let me see how far I can go and what I can do.

This is how some people think from the other side of the TV screen, but of course some of us think differently. I’m still learning though.