I knew I loved Ad Age...

I was reading through a weekly ad age last night and came across an article that completely spoke to me - the title: Mucus to Maxi Pads: Marketing's Dirtiest Jobs with a visual of a man and women holding a baby with a changing table and Huggies diapers lining the shelves. Why? Because if anyone knows me, they know that it is a dream of mine to work in Consumer Packaged Goods, one and more specifically, "Mommy Marketing".

That's why I have such an interest in working at DraftFCB. I have been in contact with Jessica Thomas the HR recruiter there and have talked a few times about setting something up so that I can talk to the AAE on Gerber. She started out as an intern there last summer and Jessie says that come August she will most likely be rotating and if not, moving up on the account. Draft also has Fisher-Price, which again I would love to work on. Whether it be in account management overseeing the day-to-day and maintaining contact with the client or uncovering and understanding consumer behavior related to these product categories, I know that I would be content working on whatever I was doing because I am so passionate about the brand and its users.

I'd never want to limit myself, but getting the chance to work at Saatchi on Pampers or JWT on Huggies, at Draft on Gerber or Fisher-Price, what have you - would really make me think twice about taking a job elsewhere. It's almost like Joe with cars. He loves them. He lives and breathes them and says he would be willing to take a significant drop in pay to work on an automotive account. He may be slightly more obsessed, but I do understand where he is coming from.

But back to the article, the whole thing ended up being very interesting...
I know it sounds crazy to some people, but ever since I was a little girl I had an infatuation with babies, baby products, parenting - I mean, I would look through and read the pages of Parents Magazine when I was 10. I was honestly disappointed when the section on Huggies diapers/Pull-Ups training pants was literally a few paragraphs though. I was hoping the whole thing went a little more in depth to uncovering insights and for such products.

The article talked a lot about consumer insights which had been derived from focus groups for the industry's most sensitive topics relating to some of the personal care products: condoms, diapers, sanitary napkins, etc. and also how once moderators can get consumers past the initial awkwardness of divulging their most personal thoughts, they really do open up - ultimately contributing to key insights that companies can take away in order to better market their products. It really got me thinking about how intrigued I was to read the story - and that when reading it, the feeling I got from imagining working for Kimberly Clark along side Anne Jones, Marketing Director for Poise, who once had a hand in marketing the Huggies brand. I realized how much I would enjoy conducting similar focus groups and trying to get people to open up - which in reality isn't so hard. I am a very open, blunt type of personality. I'm not shy, rarely get uncomfortable and love to talk/hear what people have to say. Griffin at 22squared said he could totally see me doing ethnographies and focus groups, and while I agreed thinking it wasn't the only thing I would want to do, if it was with a company like Kimberly Clark or for a P&G brand, I would most likely love my life.