Chapter 3: Why Advertising?
The story I would tell people, was I had a cousin in advertising and that one christmas, she came home to celebrate the holidays. She let me use the bathroom that was in her room and after washing my hands, I stumbled on a book laid out on her bed. I randomly opened it up to find some drawings of a snowman helping a man propose to his then girlfriend. I thought nothing of it, then, one day I was watching something on TV that wasn’t cartoons and the same drawings I saw were fleshed out and full of life. I realized then that advertisements were a thing, and not just a thing, but art that was made by someone I knew.
In highschool I wrote and wrote. I expanded my vocabulary just so I would stop repeating words in essays. I read more than I could and fast too, I absorbed more literature than TV at one point. I would listen more to the writing of a movie rather than what the actors were trying to convey. I did all this and said that I wanted to study Computer Science at Texas Tech. It took me two semesters to figure out that Computer Science wasn’t my specialty. Still, I had the audacity to ask myself what do I really want to do? “Write idiot!” The universe yelled at me. Well yes I want to write, but what makes the most money so I can be comfortable and do really fun things when I’m older. “How about that thing your cousin does and is a joke from the TV series FRIENDS you always watch with your mom?” The universe asked. Advertising? Hmm never really thought of that.
So began my love for advertising. I had once dreamed about writing a script for an Oscar winning movie, and lo and behold I find out I can win an Emmy for advertising! I went back to Texas Tech with the desire to excel and succeed in this field and become a Copywriter in advertising! Well, first I had to fix my 0.5 GPA and after my second year at Tech, that 0.5 GPA was a 0.3 GPA. I severely struggled in my first two years in college, part of it was because I was homesick, part of it was because I needed a medication to help me focus, and another part of it was simply being young and wanting to do everything and not prioritizing the important stuff. So, by the start of my third year I had an opportunity to do something that would motivate me to turn it around. My cousin pitched an idea to her client about a family who gathers and makes tamales together every year. It would connect with the client’s target audience and help promote the great ingredients at this iconic Texas grocery chain! As for the family to be cast? Well that would be her own family of course! It was nepotism at its finest, but I didn’t mind! I was allowed to see what it takes to make a commercial. I sat behind the scenes and fell even deeper in love. I knew right then and there this is the life I wanted for myself. This is what I wanted to do.
The commercial that my family and I were cast in. Filmed around 2017 and ran until the middle of 2018.
Since that day, I knew that this was the field I wanted to be in. I knew that I could do everything I was seeing in front of me and do it well. I buckled down, hit the books hard, and graduated in the worst possible timeline I could’ve: 2020. The height of the pandemic staggered my growth and experience in the advertising field. It’s been a hard road, but since writing this I have gained real world experience and have been able to adapt and grow. I may only be doing social media work for local clients, but I truly feel that I made a difference in those businesses.
