Erik Proulx of Please Feed the Animals is a man of the people and after the Barbarian Group laid off a number of staffers, he headed to the one place Boston’s adverati go after shit hits the fan: Bukowski’s Tavern. Yelpers gave it a price ranking of $ (out of a possible $$$$$), so you know it’s good. We hear they were out of Pabst Blur Ribbon, but the comaraderie was almost certainly flowing. Here’s a bit of Proulx’s lamentations after spending some time with his fallen friends.
“I should have known better.
AdvertisementI should have known better than to think the worst was over. That the anecdotal hires and increased headhunter activity signaled a respite from the putrid pall of pink slips littering our lives these last two years.
But no. Not yet. Not even close.
I should have remembered the June 30th closing bell. You can set your alarm to the quarterly bloodshed.
I’ve been able to distance myself emotionally from this absolute, indisputable fact. That is, until yesterday, when I stumbled on yet another post-dismissal Bukowski’s drink fest and saw, I dunno, a dozen amazing talents drowning themselves in their bottomless mugs of layoff lager. Some of them my friends. All of them too talented to be there.
I’m like the victim — not the criminal — who returns again and again to the scene of the crime. Or, as fellow animal Michelle tweeted to me yesterday, “You remind me of an Italian grandma who goes to funerals for social activity.”
Bukowski’s is where Boston’s ad scene goes to die. The otherwise amazing pub has been popularized by this brutal fucking business. This thankless, sure-we’ll-take-your-life-then-crap-on-it-when-we’re-done-with-you career we’ve chosen.
I’ve tried to stay positive. I’ve tried to give our collective creativity the benefit of the doubt. That somehow our industry would find a better way. But no. We are still nothing more than the fecal byproduct of advertising’s ineptitude.
And, you know what, I’m fine with that. We are line items. Gears in a cog. Makers of widgets. Stricken from the budget as easily as new copy machines and Aeron desk chairs.”
Click here to read the rest.