My copywriter interview for Mojo Ad was over Skype at 1am my time from my bedroom in Spain. Wearing a nice top with a blazer and hidden Cookie Monster pajama pants, I joked around with Mark Swanson and I guess tricked him into hiring me. Over a year later, here I sit...alive, surprisingly, and still a functioning human being. There were (a scary amount of) times over the past two semesters that I thought this would never be possible...so I just want to give a big shout-out to caffeine, beer and the Chipotle on 9th Street for salvaging my sanity.
Wait, what is Mojo exactly? It's the country's leading student-staffed ad agency through the J School at Mizzou, where three teams of 10 spend the semester in competition, creating and eventually presenting fully-integrated campaigns to national clients. Oh got it, thanks. Anytime. Despite my sporadic negativity (brutal honesty), I am indeed very happy I was a part of Mojo for two semesters, with two teams of crazy talented people and two challenging clients (Blue Diamond Almond Breeze and Nestle Purina). Although I am alive and somewhat sane, I know my fellow Mojo'ers would agree that we're just not the same people we were before we willingly donated our souls to advertising. So I put together a little list. What One Year of Mojo Ad Will Do to You 1) You'll fast forward the TV...to get to the commercials. While the rest of the room is talking over the ads and lowering the volume, you'll be silent and enthralled - analyzing strategy and critiquing execution. "What's the big idea here?" you'll wonder with a twinkle in your eye. You may even happily wait through YouTube pre-roll ads or almost crash your car from reading every billboard. This is reason #1 why your non-Mojo friends will shun you. 2) You will dream Mojo dreams. They range from the realistic, like your food disappearing from the Mojo Office....to the extreme, like the client turning into a three-headed dinosaur, eating a member of your team, and telling you that you're just not cut out for this industry and to get out while you can. It was a stressful week. 3) You will cry Mojo tears. After at least a month on Mojo, you will notice a heightened emotional sense you never had before. Mojo tears can occur at any given moment, and they are almost always followed by Mojo hugs and Mojo nods of agreement. 4) You will put the campaign above literally everything else. You have a final exam and a project due in two other classes? It's your dog's birthday? All your friends are going out? You were offered a free trip to Cancun? Forget it - you have a six hour team meeting and a few lines of copy to write, and they are so much more important. Your GPA will slip and you kind of won't care. "The campaign is life," you'll mutter in your sleep. But you love it, and that's reason #2 why your non-Mojo friends will shun you. 5) You won't settle for the lowest apple on the tree. Or the highest. You'll take a mental spaceship to an imaginary tree on the moon if you have to. Because of Mojo, you're used to Plan A or B through Q not working out, so you never stop coming up with ideas. You'll push yourself in everything you do because you now know what you're capable of. 5) You'll expect board meetings in your future to be themed. And Mojo has prepared you to come up with original ideas on the fly, like printed bikini bod t-shirts or all ten of you dressing as Steve Jobs. 6) Your Mojo team will become your family. And no one else will understand. When you spend over 200 hours outside of class with the same ten people, not only do you know (far too many) details of their lives...you understand their flaws and appreciate their strengths. Teamwork takes a whole new meaning. After client presentation, you're left with this tingly sensation that's either from lack of sleep or pure pride that your team came together as strangers and left with this beautiful baby.....that you could have never created alone. I'm talking about the campaign....That got weird. So if you're considering applying for Mojo Ad, I hope this post was educational. Just close your eyes and ask yourself, "Am I willing to lose my mind...and find it at the same time?" Throw in a curse word or two in the question if you prefer, and allow yourself time for an internal debate. Once your brain figures out you're talking about a capstone and not a drug, it might just say yes. If so, apply away. You're in for an unforgettable experience.
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