There May Be an Asterisk Involved

t was an interesting office; most ad agencies are. When youre building a place for people to sit and think up creative ways to sell toothpaste for twelve hours a day, you try to make it fun. So apart from the regulation display case for all the advertising awards the agency had won over the years, the J. McCarthy office also had a pool table in the lobby, beanbags to sprawl on and a small glass cabin where you could go and scream quietly when you started getting scary daydreams about dancing sanitary napkins. Ira Bhat, copywriter by day, sleep-deprived copywriter by night, has only one goal: to not go utterly bonkers as she negotiates the perils and pitfalls of a career in advertising. These include, but are not limited to: comma-obsessed clients, award-obsessed bosses, obnoxious marketing executives, high-strung creative types, impossible deadlines, obscure briefs, fiercely competitive colleagues, the death of many a big idea...and the ever-present danger of falling in love with the new account planner. Sounds doable. But is it?Because, when it comes to advertising, somewhere, hidden in the fine print, there may be an asterisk involved