Atlanta Is Apathy City

This won't make me many fans but I could give a rat's ass. I'm calling it the way I see it: the Atlanta ad community sucks.

I'm not saying there isn't talent here-- there is, lots of it. The problem is the attitudes and lack of passion and interest in our profession. This town takes apathy to new depths. Most Atlanta as people only see each other once a year at the ADDY Show, then they crawl back into their shells to hibernate for another year.

Meanwhile, the Atlanta Ad Club brings in terrific speakers like Ted Royer of Droga 5, Mike Geiger from Goodby, Keith Grossman with Wired and on and on. These people are luminaries, visionaries who willingly share their wisdom and knowledge. Yet, too few Atlanta ad people make it out to see them, learn, socialize and network.

Why? I could blame the leadership of Atlanta's ad community, and I do. They don't support the Ad Club very well. Precious few are corporate members, and even fewer encourage or pay for their people to attend.

But I also blame Atlanta ad professionals. These events are public, pimped hard, and easy to find out by going to the Atlanta Ad Club website http://www.atlantaadclub.com

This is your chosen profession, shouldn't you care about what's going on in the industry, who's working in the Atlanta ad community and who you may some day work with? I would think so.

So, why do I even care? Well, for three years I was El Presidente of the Atlanta Ad Club and tried my damnedest to goose this ad community. I had some success, but not nearly enough for a city this size. We can do better, and we should do better. It's the only way we will ever get better.

As an agency owner, I want Atlanta to be known as a great ad city. It will attract more talent, more business, more pride in what we do here.

I'll keep working at it, but will you, Kings & Queens of Atlanta Ad Apathy?

Patrick Scullin
Ames Scullin O'Haire
http://www.asoy.com
blog: http://www.thelintscreen.com