ABSTRACT
On the whole, students who choose to study advertising and media communications
in all the guises I have looked at so far, tend to dream of life in an agency envi-
ronment. The ‘work hard, play hard’ culture inherent in all those I have encountered
in my career is attractive to young people. The jeans and T-shirt dress code of creative
studios, where music plays all day long, is a world away from the offices perhaps
your parents work in. There is a streak of rebellion that flows through agency culture
and the inhabitants are fiercely proud of the creative environment they spend
their days in. Clients visiting agencies often feel slightly jealous of the liberating
atmosphere and somewhat anarchic working practices. Working in an agency is fun
– it has to be to sustain and nurture the creativity the work demands. However,
particularly when exploring the roles of PR and media people, we have seen that a
career in advertising does not necessarily have to be agency based. If your career
road leads towards brand management or marketing management, then you will
not work in an agency environment. Not as an employee anyway.
