Have you ever been asked to do something you swore you”™d never do ”“ and then done it? James P. Othmer”™s book “Adland” will give you the skinny on those fateful decisions and the consequences thereof as they play out on Madison Avenue.
After starting in journalism and covering his favorite sport ”“ baseball ”“ Othmer realized writing for a print daily meant working nights, weekends and doing a lot of traveling. When the opportunity came up to switch career gears, he went into advertising, joining Young & Rubicam in Manhattan, “where I quickly realized I”™d be working nights, weekends and traveling,” laughed Othmer.
After spending 20 years in advertising and rising to creative director when he left the industry in 2005, Othmer says he saw some amazing changes in technology and delivering product to advertisers and the public, but says the realities of the working world haven”™t changed all that much. “”˜Mad Men”™ (a weekly series on AMC) is about the advertising industry in the 1960”™s, but it”™s pretty much a snapshot of the business today,” said the author. While the tools of the trade have changed, “the choices and consequences about what you want to work on and don”™t want to work on have not.”
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For Othmer, writing a book about how he spent nearly half his life was “cathartic. Since the book is nonfiction, I was not looking for the bad or the good, but for the truth, of what it was like to work in advertising.”
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For people thinking about a career in that field, “There are things you have to consider. There are ethical quandaries in every industry, but in advertising, you have to ask yourself if you really want to write a positive ad about smoking or something wonderful about a food product that is loaded with everything that”™s bad for your health. If you don”™t, you may refuse to do it; and as a result, you may have to suffer the consequences of not doing it. It all depends on how good you are. The better you are, the better your chances of being able to say no ”“ and even then, there can still be consequences. The question is, ”˜How good are you?”™ In the advertising industry, you find out quickly how good you really are by refusing to work on an ad campaign for ethical reasons.”
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Today”™s generation, says Othmer, is so focused about what college they can get into, how much public service they will have to perform to get into a “good” school, that, to Othmer, it”™s become “all about grades and degrees ”“ so many people come out of college and are quickly disillusioned with their chosen field.”
While Othmer”™s chosen field ”“ journalism ”“ did not find him chasing Walter Cronkite”™s coattails, the journalism bug remained in his blood. “I”™d write short stories and was always walking around with a legal pad in my hands. When I had my first book published, my wife supported my goal to devote myself full-time to writing. ”˜The Futurist”™ is about the corporate world, but a bit on the dark side and it is a novel,” said Othmer. “”˜Adland,”™ on the other hand, is nonfiction and has both the pathos and the humor of the advertising industry. There are some things you just have to laugh at because they are so unbelievable, yet true.” He”™s got high hopes for “Adland” and is currently working on his next book, a novel tentatively titled “Holy Water.”
Othmer lived in Yonkers with wife Judy for five years. They then headed north on the Saw Mill Parkway, moving to Putnam County where both grew up and have extended families.
“Adland,” published by Doubleday, hit bookshelves last week. Good night, and good luck!
