1 Down. 3 To Go.

They say that if you can survive the first semester of the Adcenter then you can survive the Adcenter. If that is true, then mission accomplished.

For now.

I am about 13 lbs lighter than when I arrived in Richmond in August (and I'm subsequently planning on marketing a new book, The Fear Diet). But I am also about 20 lbs heavier in brain matter, knowledge and confidence. Not to mention what I feel right now is great potential, which they say is the heaviest burden of them all.

Some reflections, class-by-class, from Week Fifteen:

Don Just’s Business of Advertising- I’ve gotta hand it to DJ-BOA. The dude can teach. And inspire. And make me want to rip his un-sideburned face off. But by-God, can he teach. Between writing ridiculous one-page responses to unethical case studies and throwing together presentations for exciting brands like Reynolds Wrap, I actually came out of that class with more than I came into it. I’m glad I was forced to take it. And I'm glad I was there to hear him tell us something that I won't ever forget: "Never hire people who are satisfied with their own work." I can't think of a better mantra to live by for one's own work.

Mark Fenske’s Creative Thinking- Ohhh Mark. I think most of the class consisted of us just being in awe of a man who has been claimed by almost every advertising book, blog, magazine and podcast of recent years to be among the modern-day legends. Not exactly sure when all of those hours of dissecting poetry will come to fruition, but I don’t doubt that any of it will. While Fenske's ad-writing process is a polar opposite from Coz, I found that it was extraordinarily valuable to learn from one who looks at the world so completely differently, deeper, and more clearly than anyone I’ve ever met.

Scott Witthaus and Wayne Gibson’s Visual Storytelling- Clearly a class for art directors, just to get everyone comfortable with using Final Cut and the video cams. I wasn’t crazy about the fact that it was based very little on concept and ideas, but rather on execution. I am also terrified over the fact that commercial-making is so damned hard. But I think learning how hard it all is (when it looks so easy on the network TV screen) was a good lesson to learn early on.

Coz Cotzias’s Conceptual Thinking in Copy- Coz is a beast. A tempermental, often mean, unadulterated beast. But he’s a genius beast. And he knows his shit. I pushed my brain harder than I ever thought it could go. And I’m happy I did. Because I got to see something firsthand that I had always heard but never really knew:

We are all capable of much more than we think.

Excited for break. 4 weeks of nothingness except reading, settling my mind, sorting through what I learned. And lots and lots of Doritos.

Excited for a new semester. Excited for the new building. Excited for unstained carpets. Excited for not having to swipe in every time I come back from the bathroom/water fountain.



Excited for the real start of this school.

dubs. out.