Della Femina Travisano ＆ Partners, Inc. President
President
<<An interview with Mr.Jerry Della Femina(1)
chuukyuu Also, do you think it makes a great difference to a talented man whether he works in a favorable and pleasant atmosphere or in a bad and uncomfortable atmosphere? How do you define a good and favorable atmosphere and a bad and unfavorable atmosphere for a copywriter?
Mr.Femina It makes all the difference.
The great writers, the great copywriters in this city have been great in one agency and when they went to another agency under horrible conditions, they seemed to have losttheir talent.
They have lost their talent and also they have lost their enjoyment of the work.
It makes all the difference in the world.
If you feel that you can do anything because the people you are working with are great, then you can do anything. stop it, they're going to rule it, they're going to change it, I don't like this place, it's too dull, too slow, the people are old and unprogressive, then you're not going to want to do anything good and you can't.
Atmosphere isn't necessarily the fixtures. You could have a very happy agency though it's poor and everything is isbroken.
The happiness comes from the people's feelings.
They could do anything they want. No one has enough money to pay for copywriters when they become unhappy at an agency, like taking off for certain writers in the city, a million dollars to go to work at like Ted Bates, where I came from.
It's such a bad place so they won't take it.
So it's not a question of money.
chuukyuu Could you depict your company's atmosphere for me, please?
Mr.Femina It's almost like belonging to a fraternity or going to a club.
At five o'clock every night in this agency, we all stop and we open up bottles of liquor from the secretary to the telephone operator, every day this happens now.
They come in and they all have a drink and the reason they have a drink is that they feel that they survived the day and had a lot of fun in the day and then they go back to work.
But they all come in and it's almost like a little party.
The atmosphere here is, there is a party every day and people say, "Gee, it's the weekend. I hate to go home.
" Because it's like being at a party all the time.
Music, fun and lot of enjoyment.
People who like each other is very important.
chuukyuu How do you endeavor to keep your company's atmosphere conducive to your employees?
Mr.Femina By being completely honest with them at all times. They don't want to be deceived, they don't want to be patronized and they don't want to be treated like little children.
They want to be part of it, they want to be informed as to what's going on within the agency and how and what we're doing. We do everything in our power to see they're well payed, that's a part of our atmosphere, they should feel that we're not cheating them because we're not cheating them and we don't want to cheat them.
They should feel they're getting their money from making advertising and they should feel that their work has been produced.
They should feel it's almost like a home. And we work very hard at that.
If the radio isn't on when I go by, I turn it on because I want that festive atmosphere. I will put on the radio, I'll make it more exciting.
chuukyuu Are you afraid of losing some competent copywriter within your agency?
Mr.Femina No. Because if you have the right atmosphere, the next writer who comes will be competent too.
There are good people here and I would hate to lose them.
What we say is everybody here is confident but it's the place that makes the advertising, not anyone individual.
This is true also in Doyle Dane Bernbach which constantly has people coming ana going but the advertising is always good because it's atmosphere is fair.
People who weren't doing good work in some other places go there and turn out good work. This is because they like the atmosphere, because they find it good.
chuukyuuSuppose this company grows in number, how can you preserve the current atmosphere?
Mr.Femina I worry about that all the time, I really do.. I don't know. It's got to come from the top, I mean, it's got to come from the president, vice president and it's got to go right down to the mail-room-boy.
