Television Show Review: The Pitch

The Pitch directed by Philip Lott (Studio Lambert. Premiers Monday, April 30 on AMC.)

Mad Men as Reality TV

Even though I savor the subtle intricacies of character development in AMC’s Mad Men, I can understand how one could be drawn to the business of advertising depicted in the show. With storyboards and persuasive language, the employees of Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce seek to persuade by creativity.

With this aspect acting as the foundation of AMC’s most famous show, there is no wonder AMC developed The Pitch, a documentary-style reality television series highlighting two rival ad agencies competing for a client.

Competition: The Core of Capitalism 

In the sneak peak episode, ad agencies McKinney and WDCW fight over the next big SUBWAY® ad campaign. The episode commences with both agencies meeting at SUBWAY® headquarters learning the preliminary guidelines and target audiences of the advertising campaign.

Upon receiving the assignment, both agencies have one week to create an ad campaign before returning to  SUBWAY® headquarters with a pitch. One agency wins; the other returns empty-handed.

On one side, I believe The Pitch carries promise, perhaps becoming the next big reality show highlighting corporate America. On the other side, the series format might become its biggest downfall.

The Pros 

Much like the depiction of the day-to-day at Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce in Mad Men, The Pitch flourishes during the scenes in the proverbial kitchen—the work spaces where ideas come to life. With tense brainstorming sessions and gorgeous cinematography of respective workplaces, The Pitch imports the viewer into the agencies.

As a fly on the wall, the viewer gains understanding of the process as the agencies develop a pitch for the client.

The Cons 

However, The Pitch flounders in the character-development department. For starters, those giving the pitch are not those developing the pitch—the high level employees meeting with SUBWAY® entrust pitch development to copywriters.

For this reason, the people we meet at the beginning of the episode step aside during the middle portions while the ideas mature. In fact, the times when the pitch people interact with the copywriters, the senior executives hover over the ideas with insensate opinions.

This schism, coupled with covering two separate agencies, creates surface level characters. The viewer never understands how these ad agencies function. We get a glimpse of the process, mostly from the copywriters as they explain the fear behind proposing an idea, exposing their creativity to criticism.

Lastly, The Pitch covers new ad agencies every week. As such, any traction in character development one week disappears with a new cast of characters the next. Such a position leaves The Pitch prone to inconsistent television with each episode surviving or dying on the strength of that week’s cast of characters.

The Verdict 

Will The Pitch make compelling television? I’m not sure. Certainly, there is a blueprint for success—most viewers find glimpses into alternative careers to be fascinating. Yet, new ad agencies every week create difficulty for overarching stories. Weekly meeting a new ensemble of characters means no connections.

Does a series need connections? Not necessarily. Look at Undercover Boss, a highly successful series where presidents and CEOs go undercover to learn more about their companies. But each episode of Undercover Boss features one person in one company, while The Pitch highlights two ad agencies competing for the business of a third party.

The Pitch has promise, on the whole. If you are curious about marketing, design, and the advertising industry, you might enjoy this show.

Verdict: 3 out of 5

Are you interested in watching the series premier? Does the creative side of capitalism interest you? Is it possible to create art for a client? How about those in the design world. Does this series intrigue you? Share your thoughts below.

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Posted by: Donovan Richards

Looking for a Job? Consider Writing a Personal Biography

We all want to grab the attention of someone we hope to impress, and we’re tempted to do just about anything to be noticed. Remember Elle Wood’s pink and scented resume in Legally Blonde? She is not alone; officious employees have tried a myriad of attention grabbing techniques over the decades.

Photo by Jason Tavares

With a new crop of fresh graduates submitting resumes on the open market, Michael Margolis at the 99% suggests in a recent article entitled, “The Resume Is Dead, The Bio is King” that job applicants should reconsider submitting a weighty resume in an effort to impress. Instead, a well-crafted narrative will do a better job of piquing the interest of potential business associates.

On the surface, the reason for the shift in viewpoint seems simple: thumbing through a large stack of resumes can be a daunting and mind-numbing task for potential employers. A captivating bio can break the monotony of an endless sea of self-reported accomplishments, former employers, and schools attended.

Richard Nelson Bolles in What Color is Your Parachute writes, “an employer is going through a whole stack of resumes, and on average he or she is giving each resume about eight seconds of their time… Then that resume goes either into a pile we might call ‘Forgeddit,’ or a pile we might call ‘Bears further investigation’” (73).

The bio, as Margolis suggests, has a greater chance of ending up in the second pile because it helps the employer distinguish who one really is beyond a tedious list of deeds done.

But the bio, apart from offering a release from the monotony of reviewing resumes, has a deeper influence: the human psyche seems predisposed to story. From an early age, we are drawn to the hero or heroine, enraptured by the ensuing conflict or struggle that inevitably comes, and renewed by a character’s victory or hope of redemption. As children, stories ignite our imagination when protagonists battle dragons and slyly outwit venomous villains. In The Uses of Enchantment, Bruno Bettelheim writes, “Like all great art, fairy tales both delight and instruct; their special genius is that they do so in terms which speak directly to children” (53). And we might add, adults, too. We never lose our appetite for a good story.

And herein lies our point: story transforms who we are as human beings. We’re shaped by it, and we shape it. When we tell our story (or attend to the story of another), we wake up and experience more of life. Story, like few other experiences, stirs passions and remembrances of days foregone, and reminds us that pain from failure and disillusionment from broken promises can bring growth. Through story we become more human.

Photo by Stephen Poff

In A Million Miles in a Thousand Years, Donald Miller asserts, “I’ve wondered, though, if one of the reasons we fail to acknowledge the brilliance of life is because we don’t want the responsibility inherent in the acknowledgement. We don’t want to be characters in a story because characters have to move and breathe and face conflict with courage. And if life isn’t remarkable, then we don’t have to do any of that; we can be unwilling victims rather than grateful participants” (59).

Yes, in today’s limping economy a bio might increase your prospects of landing a job, which is good news for the job seekers out there. But maybe you should write your bio with a desire to become more integrated, as well as connected to the world around you. Drafting a resume is safe; penning your story and sharing it with others requires risk and fortitude. In a slowly recovering economy, let’s take time to look inward, outward, and upward. It is these postures of learning and our capacity to intuit self and the larger world that makes one truly desirable in organizational life.

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John Terrill is the director of the Center for Integrity in Business.

Donovan Richards is the research assistant for the Center for Integrity in Business.

Album Review: Gold in the Shadow

Gold in the Shadow by William Fitzsimmons (Nettwerk Records, 2011. 37 minutes)

Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to blind parents, William Fitzsimmons was raised with music functioning as a communicative necessity. Fitzsimmons began his music career after graduating from Geneva College with a master’s degree in counseling and working as a mental health therapist. While working as a therapist, Fitzsimmons began writing songs that functioned both as a preparative exercise for his profession and as way in which to encounter his personal demons. William’s first two records, Until We Are Ghosts and Goodnight, were self-produced and recorded at home. After some initial success with these records, Fitzsimmons wrote The Sparrow and the Crow as a personal apology to his wife of ten years after a bitter divorce. His new record, Gold in the Shadow, focuses on life after his marriage and experiences of personal renewal.

The Joy of Creativity

One of the pleasures of creativity is trying something new. Joy materializes when an action commences a new journey. In the new pursuit, one finds learning opportunities. Whether an innovative brush stroke, genre of music, or word combination, creativity offers a breath of fresh air.

Sadly, when creativity becomes a profession, the joys of design are substituted with the toil of a deadline. Moreover, when a professional finds creative success, he or she finds it difficult to enact creative changes when the work becomes a brand.

Gold in the Shadow, the new full-length record from William Fitzsimmons exhibits the flawed creativity of music as a brand. Finding notoriety in lullaby folk songs and the occasional electronic beat, William Fitzsimmons has settled into a songwriting mold.

The Virtue of Throwing a Changeup

I have always maintained that it is crucial for an artist to craft songs that fit the sonic texture of a single album. A fan must be able to associate the sound of a song with the record from which it originates.

Without this tenet, an artist’s discography becomes a muddled mess. Without exception, every song on Gold in the Shadow could appear on Fitzsimmons’ previous records.

However, this indictment is not to say that this latest release is a poor record. In fact, I find it to be a consistent and enjoyable album.  Of course, if Fitzsimmons took more chances, the record might fail miserably or launch his career into the stratosphere. Instead, the album feels safe.

Hopeful But Still Depressing

Lyrically, Fitzsimmons attempts to add a glimmer of hope into his music after years of songs referencing his life in turmoil.

In the opening track, “The Tide Pulls From the Moon,” Fitzsimmons sings,

“I want to be changed from / The shadow and the tomb / Like water rushing over us / The tide pulls from the moon”

Although most songs sound similar to previous works, Gold in the Shadow carries a few standout tracks. More specifically, “The Winter from Her Leaving,” “Fade and then Return,” and “Psychasthenia” illustrate Fitzsimmons in fine form.

First, “The Winter from Her Leaving” shows off a tendency in this record to add an instrumental counter melody to William’s main hook. In this song specifically, the guitar hook that begins the songs keeps an energy flowing through the entire song.

“Fade and then Return” takes a page out of The Postal Service as a delayed guitar ambiently strolls throughout the song while Fitzsimmons notes,

“Like baby’s breath / I’m holding on to air / My lungs a thief / Should I know you / A stranger though you seem / You feel like home”

Start with The Sparrow and the Crow

Despite the well-crafted tunes, Gold in the Shadow suffers from formulaic songwriting and production. Hopefully, William Fitzsimmons will soon seek to try new things creatively. While the record is by no means awful, it is not the place to start the William Fitzsimmons discography. If you are interested in lullaby folk music, I recommend starting with Fitzsimmons’ record, The Sparrow and the Crow.