Many years ago a good friend told me he could recall the exact
moment he realised he was “old”. It was when his 12 year-old nephew
said, “Hey, Uncle Clarke, did you know that Paul McCartney was in a band
before Wings?”
For me, it was a few weeks after returning to Sydney after many years
as a copywriter and creative director in various agencies around Asia.
When you live the expat life in Asia, you live under the illusion that you are smart, fashionable, desirable, interesting and relevant. In actual fact you are nothing more than a walking ATM machine to the majority of people you meet and a foreigner to all of them.
When you know and understand that, you can deal with it and get on with your life in Asia.
Back in Australia, however, the returning expat comes down to earth with a loud thud. Instead of being seen as well travelled, sophisticated, urbane and worldly wise, you are now irrelevant and well past your use-by date.
In Australia, if you’re over 49 you may as well be dead. Or in a nursing home. Or wandering the bush in a Winnebago.
The only advertising targeted at you informs you that your funeral will be expensive. Your irritable bowel syndrome is, well, irritating. Your current insurance plan is way too expensive, but if you call now they’ll happily sell you another.
The first two headhunters I spoke to here politely told me that after so many years away prospective employers might consider me ‘too experienced’ or ‘too expensive’ for anything in an advertising agency. “Too experienced” is headhunter code for “dinosaur”.
A lot has changed since the tax deductible, long lunch, greed-is-good era when people looked up to rock gods, Peter Brock and supermodels.
Today’s role models are thick-necked rugby thugs with tatts and a drinking problem. Or thick-arsed reality stars. Chefs who left school at 16 are the new rock stars. And there are no real rock stars anymore. The few rockers left over from the 80s and 90s have become their own tribute acts. Raunchy has become paunchy.
Perhaps the biggest change these days is how today’s ad agencies are struggling with their own relevance given the rise of creative media agencies. While ad agencies are grappling with this new “digital” and “social” er…stuff, they’re losing major clients to the very people who used to run their media departments. And what really irks them is that these media houses are doing better work and clearly having more fun at their award shows.
Struggling with being relevant and feeling past your use-by date?
You must be getting old.
Paul Grézoux is currently a freelance anything-he-can-get.
For me, it was a few weeks after returning to Sydney after many years
as a copywriter and creative director in various agencies around Asia.When you live the expat life in Asia, you live under the illusion that you are smart, fashionable, desirable, interesting and relevant. In actual fact you are nothing more than a walking ATM machine to the majority of people you meet and a foreigner to all of them.
When you know and understand that, you can deal with it and get on with your life in Asia.
Back in Australia, however, the returning expat comes down to earth with a loud thud. Instead of being seen as well travelled, sophisticated, urbane and worldly wise, you are now irrelevant and well past your use-by date.
In Australia, if you’re over 49 you may as well be dead. Or in a nursing home. Or wandering the bush in a Winnebago.
The only advertising targeted at you informs you that your funeral will be expensive. Your irritable bowel syndrome is, well, irritating. Your current insurance plan is way too expensive, but if you call now they’ll happily sell you another.
The first two headhunters I spoke to here politely told me that after so many years away prospective employers might consider me ‘too experienced’ or ‘too expensive’ for anything in an advertising agency. “Too experienced” is headhunter code for “dinosaur”.
A lot has changed since the tax deductible, long lunch, greed-is-good era when people looked up to rock gods, Peter Brock and supermodels.
Today’s role models are thick-necked rugby thugs with tatts and a drinking problem. Or thick-arsed reality stars. Chefs who left school at 16 are the new rock stars. And there are no real rock stars anymore. The few rockers left over from the 80s and 90s have become their own tribute acts. Raunchy has become paunchy.
Perhaps the biggest change these days is how today’s ad agencies are struggling with their own relevance given the rise of creative media agencies. While ad agencies are grappling with this new “digital” and “social” er…stuff, they’re losing major clients to the very people who used to run their media departments. And what really irks them is that these media houses are doing better work and clearly having more fun at their award shows.
Struggling with being relevant and feeling past your use-by date?
You must be getting old.
Paul Grézoux is currently a freelance anything-he-can-get.
