Have you always wanted to be like Gordon Gekko?
Michael Douglas as a douc...I mean, Gordon Gekko
Inspired by the current shenanigans on Wall St.? What you can achieve as an investment banker these days is impressive:
-Suck at your job
-Contribute to the economic collapse of an entire nation
-Be hated by everyone you know while doing “business” on your gold-rimmed throne (a la former Merrill Lynch CEO Jon Thain)
-Make stupid amounts of money. Recessions are tough on everyone. Except you! Keep them bonuses a’comin’!
Pure gold.
The only drawback? You may be left for dead atop the Charging Bull on Wall St.:
Intern left for dead on Charging Bull.
You gotta start somewhere. Read about the drunk/dead/gored/soon-to-be-filthy-rich-anyway-so-don’t-feel-bad-for-him Intern over at Dealbreaker or submit your entry for “Caption Contest Friday: Anyone missing an Intern?”
Our personal fav: “Getting gored is the new killing it.” Nice.
Advertising Creatives make other cool things when the recession keeps them from making ads: Lemonade
The advertising world totally bit it during the recession. For a while, just like in any profession, thousands of people were getting fired and slapped around by the giant state football championship ring bearing hand of “the man”. When people were getting laid off in the ad world though, that meant that some of the more (debatably) creative and interesting people in the world were out of work.
If interesting people are sitting around with nothing to do but watch reruns of the Mary Tyler Moore Show and draw, their brains are going to expand with ideas until eventually they burst. In which case, the brain debris becomes documentaries, creative charities, and fine art. If you ask me, industry creatives should be replaced with scabs every 2-3 years to keep the DIY market fresh.
From one of these excessively creative brains came a new documentary/movement called Lemonade. It’s about exactly what I just described – creative people getting laid off because Goldman Sachs is irresponsible, THEN finding a way to do something cooler than they did before. Thus – taking lemons, and turning them into Lemonade. Good wordplay, director of the film. Maybe if copywriters would be fired more often, we’d have a steady flow of well-named documentaries. Think about it.
Learn more about the movie by going to http://www.lemonademovie.com/.
This post can also be found at http://curated.culturejam.com