In a letter to Jeremy Bullmore, published in Campaign Magazine of September 12th 2008 , a 16 year-old boy asked Mr. Bullmore for his advice on getting into an advertising agency. This is Mr. Bullmore’s answer, as published.
Dear Francis, thank you for your letter.
What I suggest is this. First you should write to me at Campaign stressing your enthusiasm for advertising as a career and your determination to gain more experience at some well-known creative agencies. I will then publish your letter, which, with any luck, will be read by people of influence at a few such agencies. Unless the entire agency business has talked itself into terminal torpor because of the non-recession, there’ll be one or two agencies intelligent enough still to be on the look-out for bright and enterprising young people. If I’m right, they’ll want to get in touch with you directly; so I thought it might help them if I included your e-mail address:fmac23@googlemail.com. I hope that’s OK by you.
Please let me know what response, if any, you attract: it will be a useful measure of the health and survival chances of the agency sector as a whole. I look forward, with your agreement, to publishing the results.
From the thanks for his letter, through to encouraging everyone in his readership to define themselves as the few who are smart enough, forward-thinking enough and good enough to see this opportunity, to the final reward of publication, this is a work of kindness, grace, charm and – above all – a brilliant piece of advertising creativity.
What a man.
