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To the blacks browns reds and yellows periwinkles teals and fuchsias, if you want to be in advertising, there is one thing to remember.
Don’t be afraid.
of hard work, rejection, racism, responsibility, sexism.
don’t be afraid of being the only one in the room.
don’t be afraid to ask question, find answers. listen. hear. trust.
don’t be afraid to follow. dont be afraid to lead.
don’t be afraid to learn. to grow. to mature. to change.
don’t be afraid to try. to fail. to try again. fail again. tray again and fail again. dont be afraid to ask for help.
don’t be afraid to be smart. clever. witty. funky. hard. street. elegant. beautiful. you.
don’t be afraid to be fired.
don’t be afraid when you hear the word nigger.
don’t be afraid to remind them that right after the black jokes come the jewish jokes the polish jokes and the fat jokes.
don’t be afraid to master the craft. to master the game.
don’t be afraid when they don’t understand your accent, dialect, or slang. your heroes, your sex symbols. your style. your music. your people. your culture. your you.
don’t be afraid to take criticism.
don’t be afraid to be wrong. to be right.
don’t be afraid to speak your mind. stand up for what you believe and pay the consequences.
don’t be afraid to be a team player. don’t be afraid to be the peon. the rookie. the junior. the helper. the pair of hands. the intern. the student.
don’t be afraid to not be the victim. don’t be afraid to not take it personally.don’t be afraid to call a spade a spade.
don’t be afraid to have a personality. an opinion. a point of view. a perspective. an objective. a positive attitude.
don’t be afraid of those who are threatened by your presence. or feel you don’t belong. or those who need you to fail for them to succeed.
don’t be afraid to understand the difference between racism and insecurity. between racism and power. between racism and chauvinism.
don’t be afraid to forgive. to apologize. to be humble.
don’t be afraid to surrender. to win. to lose. to fight.
don’t be afraid of titles, awards. salaries. egos. offices. windows. ponytails. clothes. jewelry. degrees. backgrounds. lifestyles. cars. bench houses.
don’t be afraid to compete.
don’t be afraid of not being popular.
don’t be afraid to work weekends. holidays. birthdays. sick days. personal days.
don’t be afraid to work twice as hard. twice as long. twice as good.
don’t be afraid to get more out of this business than this business ever intended on giving.
Charles Hall
African american copywriter & film director

p.s. and under no circumstances whatsoever are you to be intimidated. because some will try.

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wsinspiration:

“I would rather deal with a tyrant any day than a committee. Committees, as a general rule, aren’t willing to take chances, which is why you have a committee in the first place — so you can share the blame.”

-Hal Riney

"A good photograph is one that communicates a fact, touches the heart and leaves the viewer a changed person for having seen it. It is, in a word, effective.”
— Irving Penn"

People are taking the piss out of you everyday. They butt into your life, take a cheap shot at you and then disappear. They leer at you from tall buildings and make you feel small. They make flippant comments from buses that imply you’re not sexy enough and that all the fun is happening somewhere else. They are on TV making your girlfriend feel inadequate. They have access to the most sophisticated technology the world has ever seen and they bully you with it. They are The Advertisers and they are laughing at you.

You, however, are forbidden to touch them. Trademarks, intellectual property rights and copyright law mean advertisers can say what they like wherever they like with total impunity.

Fuck that. Any advert in a public space that gives you no choice whether you see it or not is yours. It’s yours to take, re-arrange and re-use. You can do whatever you like with it. Asking for permission is like asking to keep a rock someone just threw at your head.

You owe the companies nothing. Less than nothing, you especially don’t owe them any courtesy. They owe you. They have re-arranged the world to put themselves in front of you. They never asked for your permission, don’t even start asking for theirs.

Banksy