Behind closed doors
Do we have a drug problem in the industry? Not according to those in the business willing to go on the record, but has the use of illicit substances simply moved behind closed doors? In a feature that first appeared in Encore, Robin Hicks finds out.
The idea that young creative types sit around smoking pot all day and snort lines of cocaine from their desks is the stuff of bad novels and media hyperbole, a hangover from the decadent days of the 1980s, industry professionals say. It’s a stereotype perpetuated by outsiders who’ve watched too much Mad Men, and insiders who make out that this business is more rock ‘n’ roll than it really is.
The reputation the creative industries have for being drug-addled is overblown and well out of date, say the industry folk interviewed for this article. Almost everyone has got a yarn to share about drug use at work, but it’s typically a romanticised tale from “back in the day”. A top Melbourne media agency that used to buy an ounce of cocaine for the office Christmas party, openly doing Scarface-esque lines from the bonnet of the boss’s car, sent the agency courier to pick up the coke one year in the ’90s. He was met at the door by notorious drug lord Carl Williams. Or so the story goes. Then there’s the heroin addict who managed to hold down a job at an ad agency. He was skilled at hiding his habit, borrowing money from almost everyone in the agency, but paying just about everyone back. He was a brilliant presenter, but rarely after lunch when he’d often fall asleep, drooling at his desk. He was only caught when he dropped his needle and it rolled into another toilet cubicle. He struggled to find work after losing his job, then lost his home, and lived on the street.
According to a former colleague, this man is now dead.
Two words: Beta blockers.
I know plenty of people that use them in a pitch situation. Plenty.
In 1997 I walked in on two creatives snorting lines in an office in a major Melbourne agency.
i bet it’s much worse in the finance industry in Sydney than anywhere else
HA – how funny. Im sure it still goes on!
@ Liza I hope they shared.
From memory – The survey asked if you had taken drugs in the office but it didn’t say within a certain time frame, and I suggest the figures could be even more inflated for a percentage of the older ones in the community that if you asked if they’d used drugs in the last 10 years the answer would be ‘no’.
I’m happy to be wrong of course – that’s my memory of the survey some time back.
My observation of the industry is that the current days are TOTALLY tame compared to the old days in the 1980’s even 90’s where the TV show MADMEN comes across as totally tame.
Well, whoopee for you Liza!
I was kind of depressed to read “the smallest proportion of those we surveyed said people take drugs because they provide some sort of inspiration.”
Music, literature, art, hell even psychology…are all full of examples of the very greatest work being done well and truly under the influence.
I’m not condoning them necessarily, but I think the evidence of history unarguably proves that drugs can stimulate creativity.
The cost of that stimulation? That’s just as well known.
This has brought to mind a few occasions in the nineties when I faced a classroom of students who had got shit-faced at lunchtime. Work certainly stalled but something got renewed focus-wise for future lessons. Eheu!
Anyone who has worked in Ad agencies in Australia in the last 10 years know that the perception of the ad industry being ‘rock n roll’ is a complete farce. I’d hazard a guess that drug use amongst staff would be about on par with what you’d find in most industries apart from finance, law and hospitality (knowing people who work in all 3 they like to indulge).
Most agency people don’t even party too hard on weekends let alone at work. Certain creatives (not the majority) feel they aren’t authentic unless they’ve opened their minds with this or that though. But doing coke a few times in your life isn’t exactly living on the edge. The realities of client scrutiny, low pay (overpriced poor quality AU drugs) and work loads mean its just not possible.
I personally wish the days of the 80s were here. The CEO throwing a bag of coke at you on a Monday morning would beat the shit out of the tedium we actually deal with. Imagine working in finance though, I’m staying put.
If it isn’t cocaine then what excuse can they have for some of their creative decisions? At least when we all thought they were high there was a reason, now it seems I have to simply accept that many are shithouse at their job.
“A cautionary tale for us all.”
Thanks Nanny.
That the the following can be true responses: “Peer pressure”. “Wanting to look cool”. “Because we’re overpaid and don’t like our jobs much”. “It’s culturally acceptable”. “To get a confidence boost”. “Because they can get away with it”. “Addiction”.
Without the inclusion of “Because dammit, it’s fun as hell and makes me awesome”
Not many Network Agencies in Costa Rica. But its a great chilled out place where creatives can find Columbian rock for $20 a gram in almost always sunny Costa Rica. Tamarindo could be the next big place for a creative agency resurgence. $300 buys you 15 measured grams of 99% pure. And you can work 20 hours a day, as you wont wanna be sleeping. Patron Margaritas are $3US at happy hour too !
need a new dealer, PM please!
BETA BLOCKERS? Sure did.
I was in “mainstream” advertising as copywriter, but specialised in medical communications where I could get the pills that calmed my nerves so I could pitch the ideas.
Same as lots of performers (musicians, particularly) who use em routinely.
It doesn’t sound like anyone has any trouble getting the drugs they want.
The government has totally failed in it’s policing of the drug laws.
So why are drugs still illegal?
Goddammit, must’ve been stoned when this article came out…
Seriously though, when meeting the CD of my first agency I’d presented some ideas, waited for a response, and finally said “is there anything else I can do that I haven’t done (to get me the gig)?” to which “a Gram of Coke” was the answer. That same boss used to chop out lines on the way to present (on the de rigeur Haliburton case). Yes it was all the rage. The GM dealt pot. And the ashtrays were full of tobacco butts.
Editors, would-be Directors, VOs, Producers, Post-production company owners, high-flying creatives (recently inducted in Hall of Fame by that nong of a son of mine), Illustrators, Photogs, you name em and yep they indulged…
As one director said to me “Do you know the correct etiquette for refusing a line of Coke?” “No-one, knows – coz no-one’s ever refused one” came the reply.
(Personally, I found that boss hard to deal with what with his ego-mad drug fucked moods and false sense of self importance. Worse, his creative was still crap… Not even within coo-ee of a real Mad Man…)
Years later, I noticed how many Pommy creatives were hooked – and just how spare they became when faced with the cost and poor quality here. Pathetic art directors especially.
So yeah, let’s face it – drugs are fun, mostly. But when they get in the way of someone’s work, that’s when I’d pull em into my office for a dressing down.
Coke, as Woody Allen once said, was simply “God’s way of saying you earn too much money”