The October MCAI presentation at Young & Rubicon boasted a large turnout and an interesting look at the advertising world. Patricia Shanks opened the meeting and thanked Young & Rubicon for hosting the  event. MCAI-OC president, Tina Wilson plugged the upcoming MCAI national meeting in Milwaukee and the the Find-A-Pro feature on the MCAI national website (mcai.org).  Shanks reminded all that the Orange County chapter was at mcai-oc.org. She noted that the Red Camera was being showcased the following day at Visual Arts and that the night’s doorprize was from Sunbounce (sunbounce.com).  John Coleman announced next month’s presentation at JVC in Cypress would be an Adobe software package worth over $1000.00.  

Anthony Diabasi began the presentation with an amusing video called “Truth in Advertising”. He proceeded to talk about the evolution of agencies away from mid-sized ones to large corporations. He felt that this has brought about cost cutting and a lack of creativity. With purchasing agents more in control there are fewer productions, less money, fewer clients and more in-house production. Diabasi insisted it was still about ideas and suggested several books that he found helpful including: Who Moved My Cheese, A Technique For Producing Ideas, Made To Stick and How To Deal With People You Can’t Stand. Diabasi felt that future growth in the industry would be in smaller agencies.

Next, Fernando del Rosario spoke about the world of the “creative”. He talked about working for his biggest client (Mattel) and creating about 30 commercials a year. He testified to the fact that a “creative” is a 24/7 job that you have to love. He noted that they do post-production in Santa Monica and budget are anywhere between 175 thousand and 1.75 million. Del Rosario compared his work to a train. Part of the time your sitting pretty without much stress, then you have to “haul ass” and put in a lot of hours and sometimes you find yourself stuck. Because of the nature of the business, he usually sticks with production people who know what he wants. He also noted that Art Directors and Graphic Designers have become one person. In conclusion, he reminded everyone that he was here to sell.  

Shanks concluded the evening by thanking the presenters and noting that new faces at the event including students and various production people.