The trouble with creatives: negotiating creative identity in advertising agencies
Chris HackleyRoyal Holloway, University of London
Arthur J. KoverFordham Graduate Business School
INTRODUCTION
Creative professionals in advertising agencies ('creatives') are commonly characterised by outsiders as quirky and insecure, brash and brilliant, and even mendacious. Few such accounts have focused on the subjective experience of being a creative professional. Because of this surface treatment, it has never been clear how these people arrive at an identity that satisfies themselves and others in their workplaces. This research opens up this area for investigation.
We first review the ways in which...