With Coronavirus, can creatives actually work from home now thanks?

It takes a deadly virus to knock Trump off the news cycle but there we have it.

Coronavirus, thanks to someone kissing a bat is now the daily reality we all face. It’s created a run on common commodities, created panic in the aging population (the vulnerable – first time I’ve ever heard baby boomers called that), and has cut Carnival cruise stocks in half in under a month.

And we’re just getting started.

But one positive thing it may just do is reboot something that I’ve never understood in the advertising.

That is allowing creatives to work from home when needed.

It may be news to many a client I’ve worked with over the years, but out of all the professions on God’s green earth – an advertising creative is actually something you can do from home. And it is entirely my opinion but I believe you do better work when you do.

No distractions, no hourly check ins. No strategists promenading with pics of their newborns. It’s you, your ad partner, Philip Glass in the background – and a laptop. Get to work. Do something great.

However.

And it is a very big however, there is something rotten in the ad industry.

And it is this:

Creatives can never work from home.

But wait… you’re thinking up ideas…

You totally can do this from home. We don’t need a Bloomberg terminal. There’s no architect table required. We’re not a crane operator – we don’t need a crane.

No, but you didn’t hear me.

Creatives. Can. Never. Work. From. Home.

It is insanity. But it is insanity built into the industry.

I don’t know if it was some team at McCann in the 70s – who did it once and decided to buy 14 grams and a Bichon Frise and didn’t return for 4 months…. but something happened.

And what that’s meant is that creatives, rather than working from home or even an art gallery or Central Park, are expected to always be in the office at any point in time.

Now considering the product we’re making in all agencies is translating strat speak into a more palatable expression so consumers can be hoodwinked – surely creatives should be nurtured because they are indeed the rainmakers.

And how well can you really make rain, when you’re chained to a 2 by 5 foot cubicle in midtown?

So, Coronavirus. hear me loud and clear. You may be on the path to kill more people than World War 1… but if you change work from home policies for thousands of companies including ad agencies, then in all your complete misery, there is a little ray of light you have brought to this creative.

And creatives everywhere. Thank you.