Lessons from a life in advertising. The emotional highs of working in the creative industries blind you to the poor decisions you can so easily make. So in an effort to help anyone starting out make better moves. I’ve summed up a few hard earned life experiences my younger self could have done with knowing about.

1. 1
The emotional highs of working in the creative industries
blind you to the poor decisions you can so easily make. !
So in an effort to help anyone starting out make better
moves. I’ve summed up a few hard earned life experiences
my younger self could have done with knowing about.!
LESSONS
FROM
A LIFE IN
ADVERTISING
Philip Slade / Linkedin / HomeSlade.com / @Piehead

2. LONDON IS A SEPARATE COUNTRY.
Brilliantly culturally internationalist
and an amazing inspiration,
but it’s not Britain.
When I began my career you were faced with a
stark choice, move to London or pretty much
forget about getting any kind of foothold in the UK
creative industries. Much has changed since, but
the influence remains. I’ve spent most of my
working life there. But you need to get out and
travel, to create advertising that influences you
need to experience the world, which includes the
rest of the UK. There will come a time when you
have to leave. After all moving your physical base
is a great creative refresher.
2

3. SEEK FORGIVENESS,
DON’T ASK FOR PERMISSION.
You get paid for bold thinking; accept
that occasional bold direct action is
also necessary
3
I blagged my first job in the industry as a
junior designer on a pop magazine with
some outright subterfuge. I had no
experience in the sector at all. Zero
technical skills but blind faith in myself
meant I aced the interview. !
Didn’t last long before I was found out and
was let go, but I was up and running in
London by then.!

4. 4
I got my first big break at Saatchi & Saatchi in London, and every
morning I would step over the words ‘NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE’
carved into the floor of the entrance. I experienced an agency engulfed
in a total belief it could change the world with its ideas. I spent a lot of
my time working on the British Airways business a client that back
then totally brought into bold ideas. Decades later I returned to
Saatchi’s having retrained, as a Planning Director. The agency was now
part of the Publicis network. It no longer seemed to have the belief in
the creation of the impossible. Companies move on and get new
corporate agendas. !
But as a creative thinker you must never lose the
belief in the power of what you might create next.

5. TEMPTATION
You will be tested. Be strong.
Be yourself and aim to come out the
other side mostly intact.
5
Advertising is home to a disproportionate amount of demigods,
bullies, egotists, fakers and enough free booze and chemicals to
rival the music industry. It’s way to easy to give in, I know, I did to
pretty much all of it. But I came back from the edge. This industry
is not for the weak willed. You need to focus on your own well
being. Take the time to be you. Your work will get better. !

6. YOU WILL LEAVE A LEGACY
Its just not the one you choose.
So everything you do matters,
every tiny thing.
6
I’ve worked on multi-million pound campaigns that took years to see
the light of day. But a brief from my beginnings in 1993 for Laphroaig
whisky, that had no time and no budget is still around today. The brand
has new owners and the account has past through many different
agencies since. But the campaign and its central proposition keeps
going and winning awards. However the counter point is a pretty
shonky campaign I did in 2010, which at the time thankfully sank
without trace. Until last year that is when the brand, clearly short of
cash re-ran the f*cker, plastering it all over the London Underground. !

7. NOT EVERYONE PLAYS NICE
But you should.
You owe it to your soul
7
I was a co-founder of a start-up that went through the roof;
we were the toast of London, great clients, loads of awards
and epic parties. Little did we know our financial director was
stealing from us. Eventually she got caught and did 5 years
but not before she had taken £2.4 million from us. We didn’t
even know we had it at the time, we having too much fun. The
fall out wasn’t just financial the partnership fell apart. This
industry can bestow great riches but true happiness comes
from being part of creating great work.

8. EXPAND YOUR HORIZONS
Never stop learning, feed your
brain with new experiences
8
One night coming home I saw ad in the evening paper. !
The film director Danny Boyle was holding auditions for the
opening ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics. I couldn't
sing or dance and wasn’t sure if PowerPoint skills counted.
But I did want to be in the Olympics and that’s what propelled
me into a year of extraordinariness. !
At the end of it all, after performing in front of the world’s
largest live TV audience I felt renewed. I had new skills, new
friends and a whole new perspective on the world.!

9. 9
Your future is unwritten* !
There is power in the belief that everything and
everyone can be improved. This is not blind
optimism, it’s the creative fuel that gifts you the
power to make better and create change. !
!
I have done good and bad. I have been careless
with those who loved me. It’s easy to be torn
apart by regrets but don’t be. Face up to it, you
will make mistakes. Despite everything I won’t
have missed it for the world. You are your
experiences, make them count. !
!
!
!
* Thanks Joe Strummer
Joe Strummer / Milan 1980 / all rights Jane@eBeckman.com
Philip Slade
@Piehead
HomeSlade.com
Linkedin/in/PhilipSlade