Leadership & Talent

PwC's Jon Finkelstein on How His Existential Crisis Helped Him Overcome Agency Monotony

The executive creative director was 'really bored of the same brief over and over again'

jon1 — Having read some articles on the rise of consultancies as a formidable force in the advertising world, Finkelstein was tempted by the notion of working on bigger, more multidimensional business challenges.Chi Deng

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A little over two years ago, Jon Finkelstein had a moment of existential crisis he thinks is common among longtime creatives in the agency world. A quarter-century of working in creative shops big and small had left him disenchanted with the ephemerality of his work.

“Even though I love it, I kind of describe it as farts in the wind,” he said. “You’ll spend three months working on a TV campaign that’ll be on air for maybe six, eight weeks if you’re lucky.