The advertising aspirants and the Wizard of Oz

Many millennials to which we will refer in this article do not know this film recorded in 1939, or his book, published in 1900. It is not necessary, because a brief description to understand the characters, as well as my concern for the new generation of advertisers that today are prepared from the classrooms.

In the story we have Dorothy, protagonist of the story, motivated by his desire to go home and take care of his dog "Totó", a scarecrow that has no brain, a tin woodman who has no heart and a cowardly lion. What is said, it is easy to understand the problem faced by each of the characters.

However, during 4 non-consecutive years of experience in university teaching, the similarity of these characters and the outcome of the story, which we find in the way of being and working of students and teachers, is worrying. Let me explain my opinion.

Image score for wizard of oz movie

The characters of the story perfectly frame the profile of the students that we find today in the advertising schools. There are heartless tin woodcutters, who are behind the title, enough for the note, the minimum score to spend the semester. They learn something, but they lack heart, that is, they lack the passion necessary to arouse their curiosity, to investigate on their own and to emphasize the rest.

We also have the cowardly lions; outstanding but insecure students. Guys who may have the talent but lack a little more spirit, push, attitude necessary to believe in themselves. They are boys without courage and courage to realize that they are lions and go in search of one of Gold. I must admit that in my student time, I would become one of them.

We have some "Dorothys", boys and girls with the desire to return home soon to take care of their dog, with little interest to be in class, lost in that tornado of the irrelevant, immersed in a world of fantasy and faithful believers of that the solution to their problems is in the hands of a magician or a witch; that is, in the hands of another person. They will have their inheritance and economic prosperity assured but at some point they will have to wake up.

And finally, let's cite the lamentable group of scarecrows. It's the group of guys that make you question how they got to third-level education. Do not be offended dear reader, I am not including pejorative terms in this opinion, I am being frontal and I argue with my experience that common sense is not so common, and that logical reasoning is not so general. This segment includes students who do not know how to respect teachers, who copy in exams, those who go only to look for future spouses in a campus and who have the nerve to not comply with a minimum of assistance or responsibility, paying for courses a career that many other kids can not afford. Obviously, they are not the most outstanding.

On the other hand, we are the teachers, who play the role of good witch, bad witch or the same Wizard of Oz (who at a certain point in history, turns out to be a fraud). And everything, so that as in the story, in the end, the characters discover that what they were looking for, they always took it with themselves. The tin man found his heart by sensitizing himself to his friends, the lion learned by himself to be brave and the scarecrow was forced to think to help others. Dorothy, on the other hand, awoke from her fantasy world and began to value the primordial. Everyone realized that what they were looking for, they carried inside. And the same goes for the advertising students.

What the characters needed and the boys need is that guide to believe, to accept, to trust in what they feel and live. Realize the importance of trying, daring, gamble and not look for others that have been and will be in each. What is required to be a great advertising, does not come as magic from any teacher. It arrives with daring, awakening of the fairy tale that the parents have set for our future and get us to build our own story.

As teachers, I think we have the challenge of not being the same Wizard of Oz. Because for this to teach not only have to look, you have to be. Do not abandon the practical field of the race, always update us, not give more importance to the academic than to the professional. To be or continue to seek to belong to the opinion leaders of the advertising industry and that our achievements be recognized by council boards, festivals, clients and specialized media that speak about our performance, and not only be admired by our students.

If you are a student and you feel identified with one of these characters mentioned, worry. If you are a teacher and you are offended by my opinion, I will not apologize. That we are responsible for the next generations of this industry, and I would have wanted to have a single teacher in my undergraduate time talking about the possibilities of being a "brave lion".

We have to wake up everyone, and wake up what the advertising students have inside. That the future of the advertising industry, its need for relevance, its administration, evolution and billing, does not look at all like a fairy tale.

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here I leave the sources of my article:

http://www.roastbrief.com.mx/2017/09/publicitarios-mago-oz/

http://dicasdefilmespelascheila.blogspot.com/2014/05/filme-o-magico-de-oz-1939.html

http://es.doblaje.wikia.com/wiki/El_Mago_de_Oz

http://unlibroentremismanos.blogspot.com/2015/06/el-mago-de-oz-l-frank-baum.html

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@Fannyamor

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