On our own account: What remains

The Swiss filmmaker Fredi M. Murer once said, "If you don't film, you'll be filmed." In the realm of the moving image, this assessment is probably true. But what about the written word? "He who does not write, is written about?" At least in advertising, the statement is hardly true. In my 15 years on the editorial staff of Werbewoche, we constantly strove to report on communications professionals who also had something as interesting as possible to write, copy or design themselves. More than 20'000 pages were created in this way during my time together with the Werbewoche team. What has remained of it?

Today I am cleaning up. The issues of the last two years are piled up under my desk, sorted by date. At home, a little less sorted, there are another 200 or so advertising weeks from the last 10 years. Who will ever read that again? My decision is therefore tough, but fair: I will put all the stacks in the waste paper. Then the magazines will be recycled and can serve a hopeful young copywriter once again as the famous "white sheet". Maybe his text will make it back into Advertising Week or even into the ADC yearbook. This means that the copywriter has not yet written a book himself. But he is at least one page closer to his secret dream.

However, ADC has also recognized the signs of the times and now only lets its book shine on the net. Books - see above - can be thrown away. The Internet is for eternity. Clever tongues say, however, that ADC only decided in favor of eternity because printing costs have become too expensive in recent years. But this is not to say that everything was better in the past. Advertising certainly wasn't. There was no targeting yet, and storytelling was relegated to the realm of storytellers. Nevertheless, I was drawn to the world of Mad Men.

When, in my early days as a trainee copywriter at GGK in Basel, I was unceremoniously put into Martin Suter's office on my first day due to a lack of other free places, he reacted a bit disturbed at first. Instead of being able to continue dreaming of a future as a writer in the peace and quiet of his solitary cell, he now had to explain advertising to me. Suter did it. I let myself be permanently taken in by this industry and have since spent a large part of my life between being and design. Occasionally far away in exotic places, because advertisers know where to communicate best.

While researching for over 150 "Head of the Week" portraits, I got to know countless exciting life plans. I was able to experience valuable attitudes and many sensible, but in each case completely different, motivations for a commitment in the communications industry and then recommend them to a larger readership. For my discussions of new campaigns, I was able to visit many very creative agencies during meetings with the creators.

This not only gave me an insight into the most diverse office worlds. I was also able to get to know very different work cultures and take something away from them.

With this in mind, as I say goodbye to Werbewoche, I would like to thank all my interview partners over the past 15 years. Their input will remain in my head, even if the magazines now go into recycling. And I already know: I will create something new again from all this learning.

I'm looking forward to that, even if the dormant ideas are not yet ready for printing. Either way, I want to buy a package of 500 white sheets from the recycled waste paper just to be on the safe side. Raw material for it, after all, I have supplied enough. Otherwise, it won't be stupid to follow Fredi M. Murer's advice. After all, my cell phone is suitable for video.

Andreas Panzeri