The Motz of Butz: Ready funny

Anyone involved in marketing, advertising and creation should know that there shouldn't be this difference. "If you choose the work you like to do, you never have to work a day in your life." This saying is of course very theoretical and "wishful thinking", but not at all unrealistic. I'm currently in Italy in our country house, which we deliberately don't call a vacation home, but Office South. Taking a vacation can be incredibly boring. Doing nothing all day is exhausting. That's why I'm happy to be writing this column, keeping order in the vineyard, collecting the tax bill at the municipality, designing a poster for the opponents of the reactivation of a quarry, developing a launch concept for a new client in Zurich, designing a birthday ad for an acquaintance, harvesting and preparing lettuce, uncorking Theo- phil red wine, creating an olive oil CI for good friends, making phone calls and having discussions with craftsmen, and getting a combination of yoga/ tai chi/ body balance taught by Tinger together with our neighbor Ruth Kimche at 11 a.m. on the dot, and much more. Work that is fun and not the seriousness of life.

My theory: There are certainly professions and tasks that are interesting in different ways. But when I look at the jobs in our industry, they're all vacation jobs: the media planner, the copywriter, the editor, the polygraph, the photographer, the typographer, the illustrator, the lighting technician, the director and all the exciting creative tasks.

Unfortunately, I'm not the only one who gets the feeling that the advertising and communications industry is no longer any fun, and important people in the industry agree with me. If you look at all the bad advertising, you certainly don't get a vacation feeling, but the seriousness of everyday life.

The ulterior motive of my grumbling is also to motivate. I therefore ask everyone who is involved in making services and products interesting and desirable: Stop this uptight advertising. Be relaxed and enjoy good ideas. Consumers also take it easy and want to have fun. I would like to give the clients the message that they should not let out scaremongering briefings, but demand a vacation mood. One of the success stories of advertising is not to bore anyone, but to reflect to them the fun of life. Finito, punto, basta.

The put-upon of the week is that working is like being on vacation.

Theophil Butz, graphic designer, advertising agency owner, inspirer and, for more than three years now, also mothballs for Werbewoche readers. Please send any relevant information to [email protected].