How great is MadMen! It’s a brilliant TV series. If you haven’t watched it and you’re a junior creative in any industry, start now. There’s so much to be learned about creativity, office politics, the work-life balance, and dealing with the reality of your career. Watch it, and just like Stan (http://branddna NULL.blogspot NULL.com/), you’ll find pearls of wisdom much like this one.

The current season of Mad Men draws to a close in the US tonight. I watched this week’s episode yesterday and it was amazing. It was set on the day that John F Kennedy was assassinated.

Why am I telling you this?

Because in the show copywriter Peggy Olson had a TV storyboard lying on her desk, for a script she was putting the finishing touches to.

Her ad was set around a glamorous couple sitting in the back seat of an open top convertible. The similarities to the JFK shooting were uncanny. So she set about rewriting the script.

That’s what professionals do.

If there is a problem, they fix it. If an idea has been done before, the ditch it. If a real life event impacts on a concept, they come up with another one.

And that my young friends is what the life of a creative person is all about. Constantly coming up with ideas. Not because you want to, but because you have to.