Advertising, Donuts, & Chuck Klosterman.

This past summer, I had the pleasure of working as a summer intern for Winnipeg marketing and communications agency McKim Cringan George.

My farewell email to my friends and coworkers was published today on the company's website. I feel fortunate in that they seemed to like my particular brand of humour, but more importantly I got the distinct sense they really appreciated the work I did.

McKim has a nice statement on their site which summarizes something I've been hearing a lot about lately:

There is no magic bullet — no repeatable, scalable process — for creating effective advertising and resonant brands. Only one thing is going to get the job done: great people.

On a recent visit to CHUM Radio's Pembina highway offices (home to 94.3 Curve FM and 99.9 BOB FM), sales director Bob Toogood talked about what they look for in their staff.
He said that, "People are hired on skill and fired on character." That it's far more important to be a team player than a technical whiz. I think that's very true.

I've come to see more and more how education and aptitude in the end will always take a back seat to just being a good egg.

I read an article not too long ago that said when you say something bad about a person, people partially equate the negative traits you've prescribed to that individual - with you. In other words, if you tell Susan that you think Jack is lazy, somewhere in the back of her mind Susan will think you're a bit lazy too.

The moral of the story; Accentuate the positive. Be funny. And bring donuts.

- Mr.Friday

"When I read criticism, I never learn anything about the record or the movie or the book. I mostly learn about the writer." - Chuck Klosterman