Steve Henry (HHCL founder and ad legend) starts to embark upon an ideological analysis of advertising, particularly in post-recession (are we out yet?) Britain. I found this interesting because I too sense the anti-consumerist sentiment which is on the up, and often just try to repress it when I start to think about why I'm trying to get into this industry...
Instead of repressing more, I've starting reading some more political philosophy, namely F.A. Hayek - The Constitution of Liberty. It's basically the defining exposition of classical liberalism. Thatcher reportedly brought this book into an early meeting, slammed it on the desk and said "This is what we believe", getting everyone who hadn't already read it to do so. Essentially, I'm trying to fill myself in on where this country has previously been ideologically and where it's headed. I know that Hayek isn't so fashionable anymore; his work was born out of cold-war suspicion and built on a highly self-interested model of human beings, but (like in advertising) you have to know your history in order to understand your present. (If you haven't seen Adam Curtis' documentary series 'The Trap: What happened to our freedom?' I highly recommend it - its on Youtube in 18 parts. It retells the process by which the Western concept of negative freedom developed here and in the US, and discusses on an ideological level, our govenments' attempts to export an ideology - we ourselves have qualms with - to other countries and cultures).
In other news, after my second interview (I don't think I could have bared one more) I got offered a place at Watford. Score!!!
I decided to defer till next year, though, due to financial reasons mainly. Today, for the first time in about 3 years, my bank balance went back into the black. I'm now on double digits! Still got the £18,000 student loan of course, but no one needs think about that yet.
Right, I'm off to play in a Texas Scramble... google it.
