Ex-Vice President & Copy Supervisor of W.R.G
<<An interview with Mrs. Carole Anne Fine(1)
chuukyuu How do you observe the future trend or fate of copywriter?
Mrs.Fine That's a hard one to answer. I'm not very good in verbalizing things. Maybe because I am a writer. I think the older structure which.
we were talking about before is a kind of people like management supervisors or account executives and those people who had the last words.
They would say, "Oh no, we can't do this" but I think that kind of thing is slowly going out. I mean everybody wants to do his own thing, something new. So I think it's going to become a lot more swinging and may be the way this is going to happen is awful lot of new places open up with copywriter and art director get together, may be not terribly young because when you are 21, you don't really know anything. Then they'll open up their own little place and may be they will hire one young copywriter and try to do advertising in their own way. And I think most of them will fail, they will not stand business on, they will lose money because making money that way is not easy.
chuukyuu Do you have the desire to have your own agency?
Mrs.Fine Yes, I would like to have my own agency. I have been for a while in having an agency in Europe and I know all the difficulties of it but obviously if I were strong enough to have it now, I would have it. I would like to like most people. As far as money is concerned, you have to reach your certain level in advertising. This is not a pompous statement but it's just a statement of fact.
I'm probably one of the highest payed writers in New York. After that it becomes not easy to go to a place where you could work at and really make a lot more money and even if you do make a lot of money, you have to give so much back in taxes. When they give me a raise now, even if it's a good praise, I'll get very little left for myself. So the next step is to make real for money, a lot of money. And that is of course by having your own place or being creative director of a very good agency like the creative director here. I would like to have my own agency but I'm conflicted also because they are treating me very well here. The only way to really make a lot of money is to have your own place.
chuukyuu Do you think you will have some difficulties when you will open up your own agency because clients can't be able to find you out?
Mrs.Fine What I think you do is you have to have an account, I mean I really think this simple although I've never really had the discussion with anybody who did it but I think if you have just one account, maybe I think a lot of people working at agencies who have an account there and the client is restless with the agency like the writer and the art director and maybe you go to them and you talk to them. You get one dient interested in you and then you can start an agency with one client.
If you're going to bill 2.5 or 3 million dollars a year, that's enough to begin an agency. For it's a kind 'of doctor, it's by reputation. You know they call you and you don't call them. But you do something good and that's how it starts.
chuukyuu But in any event, I would say, ability counts. If you hav a great ability, client come to you, to ask you ...
Mrs.Fine Absolutely. I also think agency is going in on a fashion. It happens so many times in New York like Jack Tinker & Partners and here. I want those people to do advertising who's got sales figure and everything. And you'll never And you might know. Because it be a total failure on the next account isn't something measured by numbers.
