Dongkwan’s Advertising World

It has been said that the advertising industry does not embody a diverse employment.

True, statistics show that the ad industry’s minority professionals stayed relatively low, perhaps not much different from about 20 years ago. And that is why the ad industry has been at risk, and recent efforts to have a more inclusive industry have been doing pretty well. Well, the truth is, it’s doing pretty well from a statistical point of view.

You see, even when it comes to advertising - where creatives and number crunchers perform together to please its clients - when it becomes a matter of saving a whole industry, it simply loses all creativity and solely relies on numbers. That’s what the current ad industry seeks - to create higher percentages of minorities in the industry.

Some may say, that’s all that the ad industry needs. Well, I don’t think so. The fundamental value and image of the ad industry is that it understands what the people need, whereby they use creativity based on factual statistics to achieve results. What’s funny is that the ad industry tries to incorporate more minorities based on the fact that minorities will be able to understand the different cultures that are amongst the American population. Yes, most customers in the U.S. aren’t American-American. In fact, what is American-American?

Here’s the big problem. The U.S. ad industry only seeks minorities who are raised in America. Yes, it helps, but how does it help achieve the solution to more diverse perspectives in advertising? I mean, any one of any race who was raised in America probably drank Coke and have shopped at Wal-Mart and have watched Oprah and watched the Super Bowl. If everybody loves the same thing, does the same thing, and eats the same thing, how different can one approach when it comes to looking for creative solutions?

Here’s my solution. Don’t look for minorities because they just raise the diversity numbers. Look down to the personal level - “what truly makes them diverse?” Look at me, I’ve lived across so many cultures - South Africa, Tunisia, Argentina, Korea, Romania, and the United States. But as a student, there’s hardly any internships or awards that I can enter - even those that are meant to “increase diversity.” Why? Because I have to be a U.S. Citizen or a Resident Alient to be eligible (of course, I’m an alient from outta space just happening to spend tens of thousands of dollars a year to be called a non-eligible alien).

Yes! The ad industry needs diversity! And yes! Having more minorities is important! But is the ad industry trying to do it simply to look good or to create more good? If the ad industry truly wants to create a diverse environment for better perspectives, I think it is time to consider digging deeper into the meaning of the word - diversity. After all, it’s the ad industry’s role to understand the people. Why not understand the people who will create the ads for all this?

This tool is my baby. What is it? An All-in-One electronic dictionary. See, in Korea, highschool students memorize tens of thousands of English vocabs simply to take a University entrance exam. So this electronic dictionary market has grown enormously. This on in particular, which is the one I bought, features dictionaries of all sorts. Here’s what’s included:

OK. This is just a few of it. Once you’re in the machine, there’s just so much to do. Of course, you can see pictures, listen to mp3, listen to the radio, watch videos, and even watch live TV - given that you have access to DMB (Digital Multimedia Broadcast) services (available anywhere in Korea).

See, if you’re a copywriter, or an aspiring one, life without a dictionary is life without your hands. Learn more vocabs, more idioms, more expressions… as I’m no native English speaker, I continue to increase my vocab bank… And trust me, I was called a walking-dictionary back when studying for the SAT’s, but there’s way too many vocabs that you’ve never even heard of. There are English versions of these dictionaries made by Casio and Sharp, so you really should try get yourself one… You’ll need it I swear.

I’ve never worked in a full-service ad agency. So I watched this over and over again. It’s just remarkably funny. I wonder who the copywriter was for this… Will I be able to come up with such great things? 

I was 7, and the only non-Korean phrase I knew was “How do you do.” And I landed up in Africa, where I thought I had to hunt deer for dinner. But, luckily not. As soon as I arrived, I could see that the country didn’t look so African. I mean, there was the Sahara Desert, but no jungles. The cool thing was, at the time, I had no clue that the world was so much different.

So to my amazement, I found that there were people who believed in other religions than I, and that people didn’t eat rice every day. The biggest shock was the fact that there were women wearing white robes which covered most of their faces. I remember watching mom wear a similar outfit for a play she performed on Christmas Eve at church. But, they weren’t my mom.

The life in Tunisia was… umm… not the best. I don’t remember any place but being in school. School was my only place to walk around without having other kids jump onto us making faces. Even in my own backyard, I’d see other children walk by throwing rocks at us. I don’t know why… Oh, I do know why. Because I was Asian. And they’d use their fingers to lengthen the size of their eyes horizontally. And they’d say the only English word they knew: “China China” Well, Mr. Smelly, I’m Korean dammit! I ignored them, but really deep inside, it was the first time that I faced the reality of discrimination of races. But hey… it was OK after a while. I mean, no one, no one on earth is equal. Nothing is fair. I learned this age 7. Great lesson. And I stll know this continues…

I was born in Buenos Aires, the capital city of Argentina. I lived there until I was 4 before going to Korea. In all seriousness, I have not one single memory of living in Argentina. And since leaving, I’ve never returned to my birth home. All I know are stories that my mother told me, that I could only speak Spanish at the time - until I went to Korea, where my change in tongue totally wiped out my memory of Argentina. But who remembers their first 4 years anyway?

I don’t remember anything, but I do have this… this… what do you call it… love? No love is too powerful, but it’s something real close to that… some sort of heavenly love. I love everything Argentinian. I love Diego Maradonna. I love Buenos Aires. I hated it when Argentina was having financial hardships. It’s just part of me, and as I was born there, if one wishes to touch on my naive, purest side, then simply mention Argentina.

Argentina. Si amigos, it’s my baby-side of life.

(I know it’s long, but you should read this till the end to know me…)

I’m sure you’re all wondering, who is this Dongkwan?

I would too. Every time I pick up a book to read, I always look for the brief bio about the author. For example, if I pick up a book on copywriting, I would want to read an author who’s worked in the ad industry for over 20 years at large well-known agencies. Unfortunately, most of the time, they’re written by some freelancer who’s had a lot of clients in a consulting business… whatever that means.

But this is me. And after reading my bio, if you’re a student or rookie like me, you may think that I’m not worth reading. I’d do the same, too. But if you’re a professional copywriter or a creative director or recruiter seeking new talent, then, you might think different. I don’t know who you are and where you come from, but I’d sure be interested. So let me know, if I interest you at all. You know, so we can get to know each other. (winks)

My name: Dongkwan Kim

I was born in Buenos Aires, the capital city of Argentina. That was some 25 years ago. I was baptized under the name Carlos Andres, and hence, my real name should be Carlos Andres Kim. But of course, as having Korean parents, I was given a Korean name, Dongkwan. But wait, in the west, they all have middle names. So I should really be named, Dongkwan Carlos Andres Kim. But Andres was actually named after a Korean Saint Dae-Gun Andrew Kim. To make things more clear, I should really be named Dongkwan Carlos Dae-Gun Andres Kim. Ah, but just call me Dongkwan. Or DK if you’d like.

So, after speaking only Spanish until the age of 4 (which my mother told me… I don’t remember speaking at all), I moved to Seoul, Korea - that’s South Korea. OK. So at age 4 of just learning to speak Spanish, I had to learn Korean. Ctrl-Alt-Del. Rebooted my system. So now I’m learning Korean, attending Taekwondo pre-school, and by age 7 I’ve just learned to speak Korean and learned how to kick some mellow butt with my black belt. But, I had to leave. I was too old for Seoul I guess.

My family and I ended up in the northern part of Africa, in a city named Tunis in Tunisia. What a name. Like the U.S. should change their name to Washingtonia. Or Korea to Seoulia. Or Brazil to Brasilia. (Oh wait a minute… Brasilia is the capital!) Any how, I ended up attending my first grade in Tunis. Decided not to attend an arab school, or french. I mean, imagine an asian boy speaking arab. That just doesn’t fit somehow! So I ended up attending The American Co-Operative School of Tunis/Tunisia. Everyone who memorized the school name was allowed to attend. In short, it was called A.C.S.T. Well, so I had to Ctrl-Alt-Del again. This time, to American English. So after 3 years of using a whole lot of body language and some basic words in English (”I eat apple”), I ended up having to leave Tunisia again.

Whereto now? Back to Korea. Even back in Korea, I moved around in two cities - Seoul, and a new suburb called Bundang. Whew. I was a fourth grader, and I was up til 4AM simply doing simple homework (”I eat more apple”). Just two years pass, and I’m packing my bag again. Actually, my mother. Now we’re headed to Africa once more. This time, to the most southern. Guess where? South Africa! I thought I’d be lionback-riding while dad’s hunting for waterbuffaloes in mom’s homemade jaguar leather skirts for my sister’s marriage on her 15th birthday. I was wrong. It was heaven established in heaven by heavenly people. I ended up attending a South African old-english-style ‘primary’ school in Pretoria, the capital city. It was called Waterkloof House Preparatory School, in short, W.H.P.S - pronounce, whipps. Ironically, the teachers didn’t have whips in their safari-uniform back pockets, but did have the strictest mouths. We had to call everyone “mam” or “sir” (We couldn’t say “yesiree” at any time). Well, after being at school at somewhat a resemblance to Roald Dahl’s novels, I graudated from Whipps, and went to Saint Alban’s College. Yeah baby, I was in college at age 15! But really, it’s just highschool. Oh, did I mention that since 5th grade at Whipps, I’ve been in an all-boys school? Yeah, and when I decided to go alone to the U.S. alone in my 9th grade, I ended up at a boys-school once again.

This time, in Washington, D.C. most prestigious school - Saint Albans School for boys. Somehow, it had the same name as in South Africa, except I went down from college to highschool. Anyhow, I was in the dorms, but learned a really good lesson - the U.S. isn’t called the land of freedom for no reason. After graduation in 2000, I came to Pittsburgh, PA, at Carnegie Mellon University. Major: Information Systems. Oh yes, having to do with computers, but no one can really define that major. I still can’t (It’s a system involving information of some sort). During that time, my parents landed up in Bucharest, Romania. So every break, I had to fly there. Amazingly, it’s the only airline I could still find smoking-allowed airplanes. And an international airport that’s full of smokes despite no-smoking signs everywhere. Yes, it was still in smokes from the aftermath of a totalitarian regime.

After a year or so, I left Carnegie Mellon and return to Korea. Why? To serve my nation. So that in case the North does come marching down, I can be on the frontier and guard my nation till death. I served the Army in the southern part of South Korea as a linguist - typing and translating field manuals. Never got to see anything really army-like, but still, it’s the freakin’ army. Once more I felt that the U.S. isn’t just a land of freedom, it’s a land of humanity.

Well, so I make my way back to Pittsburgh in the summer of ‘05, and suffer from some kind of… what do you call it… Don’t-Want-To-Meet-Other-People-For-The-Purpose-Of-Doing-Well-In-School-Syndrome. And soon that led to What-On-Earth-Am-I-Doing-Studying-Computers-Syndrome. I can type… real fast. I can build a computer. But I can’t code. I can’t do math. I can’t think in logical terms with numbers.

So the time came, when I needed to find myself a better life. “Better late than never”, was as new a term to me than ever. So I acted fast, before ‘later’ became ‘never’. I soon began to analyze myself (It’s really scary, so you should try it). Number 1, what am I good at? Typing fast, thinking outside-the-box, having weird ideas in my head, not going to bed due to visualizing random things in my head… So after a lot of reseach, I found this job - called a copywriter? Someone who copies other writers? Or someone in a law firm? Well, it was totally something else. Totally me!

So here I am now, taking 7 classes per quarter at The Art Institute of Pittsburgh, majoring in Advertising. People around me would think, what a downgrade, as most haven’t heard of this school. My parents had a hard time adjusting to me too. But whatever. I had to change. And I fell in love instaneously. And knowing that I love advertising, nothing came in my way.

So this is me now, trying to land a job in a global ad agency, and trying everything to compete against… let’s see… compete against: english-natives, American citizens and greencard holders, portfolio school graduates, majors in literature and english and journalism, experienced workers, design and photography skilled students, and all A students. Well, that’s just for a Jr. Copywriter position in an ad agency. But I know I can do this. I can find a needle in a haystack, as long as I stay focused and motivated. And when love motivates you, oh man, you enjoy every little moment. And I know so, that given my weird life of travels (never mentioned all the other places I’ve visited have I?) and experiences, and my weird visualizing brain, I’m fit to create some super-duper-campaigns that you’ve never even thought of thinking about.

Me. I am Dongkwan.
You. You are the advertising world.
I love you. And you’ll love me.

Whew. At last I open up my blogworld.

Let me see… the last time I wrote a diary was… when my 3rd grade teacher made me. And she graded me on its content.

Oh wait. I wrote again when I was I was a junior in highschool. Oh yeah. Only to find out later that my mother kept a gradebook for it.

So this isn’t that new to me. I mean, I’m used to people reading up what I think are personal or heavily opinionated. But surprisingly, the world is loving it! And the world loves iPods, youtubes, myspace, and 2nd life. So my conclusion: so should I!

But here’s the thing. I’m alone. No one’s heard of my name. No one can even say my name properly. But perhaps, one will find me. One will feel alone as I, or will tell me that I’m not alone. And just maybe, one will tell me that I shouldn’t be alone - that I belong with the others. Who are those ‘others’ you ask? That would be among the other copywriters - in one of those coooooool ad agencies. Oh yes, turn me into a professional copywriter. Please.

On the bright side, I’m not alone, at least - I have a last name that 30 million other Koreans have.

Welcome, people. And bots.