Today is Publicist’s Day and this is a very good thing. On my side, I do not even know at what time I have already added more than 35 years of being an advertiser. Advertising is the occupation, activity, profession, art and business that has given me the most in life, as has been the case for thousands of people in the world and in our country.
As happens a lot in our personal journeys, I started in advertising without intending to. As fate would have it, when I was organizing the St. Francis School sports festival in 1974, I had to produce the radio spots that would announce it on Radio Juvenil. Radio Mil kindly offered us the studio and Fernando “Mono” Ugalde, who for some reason could not make it. So, in school uniform and forced by the limited time, I proposed to record it with my voice.
El Macho Torres was the sound engineer, and upon hearing some potential, he invited me to learn voice-over. Eventually I recorded some programs and then did a few commercials. After that I continued as an announcer in Noticias Monumental and for a while in Canara’s program. Shortly thereafter I started recording commercials for advertising agencies, and on a nice afternoon at Audiocentro in 1979, Paul ‘t Hoen offered me a job at McCann-Erickson as an Account Executive. Thus began a decade in that company, when I was only two months away from finishing my bachelor’s degree in Business Administration at the UCR.
Thus, in two paragraphs I summarize for you the story of how I started in advertising, earning a few young colones with the sweat of my throat. In other words, this is another occasion where serendipity had everything to do with turning the course of a life. Some call it a fluke or a stroke of luck, the kind that makes a small change in the moment and then impacts forever.
Today I connected with those beginnings when I received an email from Marcela Monge and Cadena Radial Costarricense that included a link to this beautiful video greeting for advertisers.
On Publicist’s Day, the College of Journalists recognizes commercial communicators with an event that is becoming more important every day. The congratulations cross in all directions, and the Community celebrates with messages of appreciation for the creativity, daring and effectiveness that characterize those of us who proudly call ourselves publicists.
Today is Advertiser’s Day. How nice.
