Boom or bust?
How flat-chested author Joan Ellis survived Adland in the 80s.
Size mattered in the 80s. Iron Lady, Margaret Thatcher ruled
with the same iron rod as she measured us against. I wish someone had told me
then, bigger was not necessarily better.
Back then, in Adland, women could be hired and fired on the
size of their busts. If you were lucky enough to be well-endowed, your cup
runneth over with job offers. One comely
girl was rumoured to have been paid in Porsches. I was flat-chested; you can do
the math.
At a time when pay rises were calculated in direct ratio to
the length of a woman’s legs, I never stood a chance at just five foot.
Just like Ella, in I
am Ella. Buy me, I was a girl in a man’s world, macho Adland where men were
men and women were, well, just women.
We were employed either as drop-dead gorgeous secretaries
and receptionists or to work on female accounts. Us girlie copywriters really
lucked out. When we weren’t penning adverts for nappies, sanitary towels and
tampons, we were escaping the office leech. Wolves in wolves’ clothing, they stalked
the corridors of power, disempowering girls in their wake.
‘Oh you’re wearing that cushion cover again,’ remarked one,
referring to my skirt and drawing deeply on his cigarette. ‘I like it. Wear it
more often.’
With an approving glance, he flicked his ash on the carpet
and swaggered off leaving me wondering why I’d bothered going to college when
all I really needed to have done was nip into Topshop and pick up a few
flattering tops.
I was high on the radar when it came to attracting all the
wrong attention, yet invisible in meetings.
People never heard what I said but were all ears when a male colleague
spouted the same thing.
Yet, for all that, there were plenty of good guys. I teamed
up with some of the best art-directors in the business, worked with wise,
supportive creative-directors and had clients brave enough to take a punt. The
resulting commercials went on to win awards and shape my career well beyond the
80s.
Those gentlemen deserve my thanks and so do the rest. Without
the chauvinists, there would be no Peter. Or Ella.
About The Book
Title: I am Ella. Buy me.
Author: Joan Ellis
Genre: Humor / Chick lit / Romance
I AM ELLA. BUY ME
‘I am a ginger tom. I am a boy racer. I am a housewife. I am a pain in the arse.’
Ella David is Bridget Jones meets Peggy from Mad Men.
Working in Soho’s mad, bad Adland in the
sexist 80s, Ella is a rare beast – a woman in a man’s world, dodging
her sleazy boss, Peter.
Based on Joan’s experiences in Soho’s
mad, bad Adland, this fast-paced, funny tale is set against a backdrop
of Thatcher’s Britain when money trumps morals
and lust is a must. Thankfully, Ella knows love is more powerful but can two unlikely friendships help her go from a girl in the firing line to a woman calling the shots?
and lust is a must. Thankfully, Ella knows love is more powerful but can two unlikely friendships help her go from a girl in the firing line to a woman calling the shots?
Author Bio
Joan Ellis
Award-winning advertising copywriter, comedy writer, performer, lecturer – Joan Ellis has been them all. With a full-time job in a top London advertising agency and a new baby, she did what any right-minded woman would’ve done and set up a comedy club. She even appeared on the same bill as Jo Brand. Once.
Award-winning advertising copywriter, comedy writer, performer, lecturer – Joan Ellis has been them all. With a full-time job in a top London advertising agency and a new baby, she did what any right-minded woman would’ve done and set up a comedy club. She even appeared on the same bill as Jo Brand. Once.
A career highlight was casting a black
and white moggie as Humphrey Bogart for her award-winning cat food
commercial. Other great performers who brought her words to life include
Penelope Keith and Harry Enfield.
As a lecturer, Joan taught comedian Noel
Fielding all he knows about advertising before encouraging him to
showcase his talents on a wider stage.
Working for The Press Association, she
tutored Wordsworth’s
great-grandson in the art of copywriting: Buy a
host of golden daffodils and get a blue one, free!
She was a lecturer in PR and Advertising at Bournemouth University.
She was a lecturer in PR and Advertising at Bournemouth University.
She penned a regular column about her
daughter for parenting glossy, Junior. Sophie is now eighteen and
refuses to read a word her mother writes.
Suffering from swine flu and sweating
like a pig, she moved from London to her beloved Isle of Wight where she
writes and eats cream teas with her long-suffering husband, daughter
and cat.
She recently launched her books at The Ventnor Fringe and the Isle of Wight Literary Festival.
Links
www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00N7S1MSG
www.amazon.com/dp/B00N7S1MSG
http://www.joan-ellis.com
https://www.goodreads.com/
www.amazon.com/dp/B00N7S1MSG
http://www.joan-ellis.com
https://www.goodreads.com/
0 reacties:
Een reactie posten