Where Would I Be Without Watford?

This week the excellent Watford Advertising Course are in WCRS. It's something WCRS and course tutor, Tony Cullingham, do annually; giving the students a taste of working in an agency on quick-turn-around briefs.

We're not actually setting them a brief this year, but if we were I can guarantee they'd produce lots of fresh and exciting ideas. It's just what Watford students do.

Tony's consistent ability of sending highly-motivated, talented students into the industry is why his course remains one of the surest ways of becoming an advertising creative.

Without it I would undoubtedly be doing something much more boring for a living.

You see, I very much stumbled into advertising. Don't get me wrong, I loved the ads on TV but never really dwelt on how they were made. The idea that someone wrote a script for Smash, or Monster Munch, or any of the other ads that made me laugh, had never even crossed my mind. I simply had no idea such a job existed.

What I wanted to be when I grew up changed throughout my life, with copywriter only making an appearance after finishing a Fine Arts degree. Until then I had wanted to be...

1. A whale (don't ask) - aged 3.
2. Everton's number 9 - from age 3 to current day.
3. Graphic designer - aged 8 to 16.
4. Indie guitarist - aged 15 to 19.
5. Artist - aged 16 to 22.

Whale, footballer, guitarist: the things every child dreams of being.

Then, with a matter of weeks away from graduating, the sudden, devastating realisation that being an artist was going to be difficult and financially unrewarding got me off my arse and down to the University career advisor. Or a BBC Computer as it was also known.

I typed in my qualification, pressed RETURN and waited with baited breath for my future to present itself to me.

In the end, I was offered the grand total of three possible careers;

1. Police Pathologist Photographer
2. Court Artist
3. Advertising Art Director

After immediately dismissing the idea of spending my working life around the clinically dead and criminally-minded (I could crack a joke about clients and account men here, but that would be too easy), I looked closer at a job in advertising.

It seemed fun. It seemed sexy. To be honest, it seemed nothing much like a real job at all. There was money, drink, glamour, drink, Soho, drink and the chance to get paid for seemingly dicking around with a pen and paper all day. To a Fine Arts student who'd spent most of his 4-year degree course watching Countdown and colouring in, it was an ideal fit.

So I wrote to a few agencies, visited others, and was eventually pointed towards the Watford Course. Although, one senior copywriter did suggest taking £2,000 to the Dog And Duck on Frith Street, and drinking until a creative director was hammered enough to hire me. I'd loved to have had the confidence (and £2,000) to do this, but opted for the slightly safer route of applying for a place at Watford.

Although the year was one of extremely hard work and even harder budgeting (I ate liver pate sandwiches for 6 months) it did lead to me eventually writing adverts for a living.

Sure, it's seldom as glamorous as it promised to be, and can often feel like a never-ending series of meetings discussing the thing you thought you couldn't possibly discuss any more in the last meeting, but it is still a million miles away from a proper job. 

Last month, for example, we spent 15 minutes debating the right sound for an air horn on a TV commercial, while eating sushi cones. 

A few years before that, we asked the late Emlyn Hughes to pretend to be a mouse. 

How many people get to do that every day?

And to think; I owe it all to Watford College. Thanks Tony; thanks a bunch.