If the industry wants creativity to be valued, it needs to start valuing its junior creatives

Ummm, the elephant in the room here is that this argument isn’t just about juniors. This industry is all about exploitation and that’s why the smartest people do well to get out of it.
Agencies are exploited by the pitch process.
Agencies then get exploited and squeezed on margins.
In turn, they exploit their their employees by not resourcing adequately and expecting them to work lots and lots of overtime for free, and also by hiring people below their capability, experience and skill level.

Nobody tends to yell and scream too much about it, because if they do, they’ll simply be labelled as a trouble-maker or not a team player, and will be quickly replaced.

Let’s not pretend this happens. It does, and it’s one of the main reasons why the industry is dying.

I’m senior in the industry and have worked across a number of agencies and have never experienced what Dee is talking about.

1 month stints as work experience are even paid.

I simply don’t believe people are working for a year plus without being paid.

As Hitchens often said, we all run two sets of books…

Yep @Andrew.

Salaries are generally so shite – they will advertise for a senior, experienced person and then they only pay, say $60k or $70k – so that knocks out anyone with a mortgage or family.

So we now have a situation (particularly in the digital agency environment) whereby a lot of work is now being tackled by young and fairly inexperienced people –
and this is starting to really annoy everyone client side, who are seeing overworked, inexperienced juniors, with only a year or two of experience, handling their day to day work – they are wondering where their funds are going.

Incredibly common. Perhaps some of the AWARD School students will attest to how widespread this culture is. I certainly know from both my own experience and as a AWARD school lecturer, this is too often the case. The lure of ‘get something made for your book / valuable experience’ is used in lieu of payment…. Forgetting the fact the high profile CD/ECD is itching for new and inexpensive talent to find himself some proactive award work and reap the rewards himself (bonus etc)

Any agency who does this should be named and shamed.

Dee maybe a lone voice, but at least it is one of integrity about a topic that won’t conveniently go away.

There is a horrible justification occurring about this incredibly widespread work practice. Many agencies and media companies even proudly state they believe in ‘Fair Trade’ and ‘giving back’ etc, while taking free creativity from their own back yard.

@ Suss. It is absolutely across the board – just look onto the job boards such as The Loop – ad after ad with the fatal words ‘Internship – unpaid’.

The juniors actually have much to offer as paid staff. They are usually well-trained, involved in the mainstream youth culture, Social Media and markets and are ready to add value to your Agency. Many have done extra work such as Award School.

But pay in fresh-air peanuts and you get airhead monkey work.

Were you paid for this guest column Dee?

Not only is it exploiting young creatives, but it also buggers up the industry as it means only a select middle class type of person backed by their parents can afford to work for free for any length of time. Then you find the industry churning out the the same dull ideas from the same privileged viewpoint and wonder why.

Whilst I believe Dee makes a very good point for those getting experience in the big agencies, let’s not forget the little agencies out there that can’t afford to take on a junior, but open their doors to students desperate to get experience and give them the insights that TAFE, Uni, and Colleges don’t.

As a graphic design student about to graduate, I have been fortunate enough to gain 3-6 months experience in two small creative agencies. Albeit unpaid, I have taken some incredibly valuable insights from these experiences; something I would never have learned whilst studying, which I believe will give me an edge in my pursuit of landing a graduate position.

Why is it just the “poor creatives” that we are moaning about? I see plenty of amazing media strategies that some creative agencies appear think are a “give away”, win lose or draw. Be fair.

Yes James, it will give you an edge, over someone that might be more talented than you but less well off. That’s the problem
Good post Dee.

And then the agencies screw their suppliers and expect them to hire people to work for nothing…its the workplace in a ‘free market’ and the ‘global wage’ at play.

It’s crept in to the system and unfortunately is now the ‘norm’. It benefits those from wealthy families who can live at home off their parents until they get experience to get paid. Bad luck if you have to pay rent & pay for food like most of us.

Who does the advertising for 7/11….someone take a stance. I always refused point blank to let anyone work for me for free other than year 10 work experience kid for a week. My business is struggling, but I sleep at night.

You want a business model that delivers value for ideas?
Start paying creatives (junior or senior) for the idea and only for the idea.
I promise you, the mediocre ideas and those who serve them up will soon be sifted from the field.

If the idea is good enough, if the idea gets presented to client, then the idea should be paid for by the agency to the creative team. If the idea isn’t good enough then it doesn’t get paid. Live by the sword, die by the sword.

Exploitation of free creative labour is the business model of big networks where ECDs jet about award shows, throw money to create and enter scams and those at the top of the pyramid set records for corporate remuneration.
Nothing will change.

When we hired for a junior in our in-house marketing team, it was no surprise (arguably by intent) the two final candidates both had rent and bills to pay and were living away from home. The motivation of both people was clear from the outset. We’ve been rewarded in our choice with loyalty, graft and rapid personal/professional growth on their part. The candidate who didn’t get job landed a very good gig not long after (unsurprisingly). The people we interviewed without the bills to account for just didn’t inspire us much – they had less at risk (though several had masters’ qualifications, whatever that’s worth in young twenties with no experience).

Investing in junior people is beneficial for the business, the person and arguably the industry over time. No one should be asked to work for free.

Good article Dee. The unpaid internship model is rampant across all media. There should be a maximum period of eight weeks before employers are obliged to employ the person and a maximum number of such people each year. You know what their capability and potential is at this point. Thereafter it is exploitation.

The exploitation of unpaid interns in this industry is a disgrace.

I am so glad this issue is being addressed.

The example of slavery is obviously not applicable, and “fresh ideas” are not exclusively the gifts of the young.

the voices of those who claim to know nothing of the practice after years in the industry seem to be matched by the voices of experience, and most seem to either disapprove and call for change, or disapprove and accept it as inevitable. I had not heard of it, but now that I have, I think it stinks.

For all this, there is an illogical vein to the argument; it is claimed that the alleged practice is driving lack luster performance. If this is so, then some agencies must be tolerating bad performance in the interests of lower costs, which would seem illogical and counter productive,

Totally agree Dee.

Imagine if a tradesman advertised for an apprentice to work for nothing.

It has been improved through schemes like Miami ad School whereby placements are part of the learning and not just a free-for-all. But it could still do with much improvement.

Worse still though, is the state of affairs for junior planners, where there are far fewer placement opportunities, and even fewer jobs.

The Gruen Transfer has not helped in gaining clients trust or respect.

In fact, it’s made the entire market, including clients, far more cynical.

I started as a Studio Junior at 35k, with super deducted from that. I stayed with the company for seven years and every replacement in that position came from a well off family who subsidised their employment with an allowance, including my self.

I’ve still got my original employment agreement that says I can only have a half hour lunch break and my hours are from 8:30 to 5:30, making my work week contractually longer than the maximum allowed by the National Employment Standard. Of course, the unpaid overtime I was required to do blitzed right through that maximum every week, every month, every year.

The exploitation in this industry affects paid staff too, Dee’s article and Andrew’s first post nailed it, this industry eats its young.