Hasta La Creative!

School’s back.

I’m a teacher. And I’m a partner at an advertising agency. I’ve got one foot in the classroom and the other in the agency (or, in our case, a big, barn-like loft space). I get to practice what I preach. Or simply prove wrong the old maxim: “He who can, does. He who cannot, teaches.”

From my vantage point, it’s pretty clear that advertising is in need of new thinking when it comes to training the next generation of creatives. Ad students need to be taught how to sell themselves as brands, as much as selling brands. Self-promotion needs to be baked into everything they do. They need to mirror conceptual artists like Banksy and Shepard Fairey, whose work is part of my class curriculum. These are true practitioners of being remembered, and key influencers in modern media and pop culture. Like them, I teach my students how to get grab attention for themselves through the things they make.

Continue reading at AdAge.com