“Your son is an actor! But what does he do for a living?”

My answer – “He acts”

“You know it’s all very well to let him follow his passion and all that – but you know not everyone becomes a Shahrukh Khan.”

My answer – “Your child works for an MNC, will he be the next Bill Gates?”

But pithy retorts aside, my walking companion had made a very relevant point. Artistes in India (except for the Shahrukh Khans) are paid peanuts. So practical parents everywhere nudge their children towards more lucrative careers. And one career where artists and re-directed talent congregates in large numbers is advertising.

All my working life I have rubbed shoulders with Copywriters who wanted to be scriptwriters and poets. Finishing artists who had forgotten how to hold a brush. And Servicing people who wanted to play in a band.

Now that I am no longer part of that bandwagon, I want to tell them all to do what I didn’t always achieve.

The Ad agency of the past is dead. The digital agency of the future is trying to replace copywriters and artists with AI. So while you are in the dying agency do something spectacular.

Next time you have a pitch, or a new campaign, don’t look at it as just another task. Put your heart and soul into the campaign. The art galleries of the future may very well hang your print ads, commercials, social media posts, leaflets and banners on pristine white walls. And good people will pay to walk through those hallowed halls to ooh and aah over your creations.

If brainstorming fails (as it often does) walk through an art gallery. or get inspired by the great:

If Picasso can distort a face, so can an accident…especially if the airbags don’t deploy.

Great thinkers do not have to be adults sitting on rocks. Brain nutrient vitamins give this little genius time to think great thoughts even n the bathroom.

This Van Gogh painting makes its message immediately clear.