Dear Ad Club Members,
One of my closest friends died yesterday. She was a woman of uncommon strength who’d knocked out cancer twice before it struck its final, fatal sucker punch. She was a person of astonishing selflessness who’d lovingly fostered and then adopted her three sons. The fates allowed me 25 years of her friendship and one last goodbye during which she asked me to make sure that people knew, beyond all things, that she was kind.
It is easy to become bogged down in the world’s cruelty when we look upon the devastation wrought over the last two months. It is tempting to believe that we are nothing more than the country’s second most rage-filled province, as Pollara/the Canadian Research Insights Council reported on Ontario last week. It is a truth universally acknowledged, at least in AdAge’s most recent Industry Satisfaction Survey, that marketers ranked the meaningfulness of their work and the happiness that work brought them a paltry 2.7 out of 5 stars.
And yet, there are great and abiding flashes of kindness in that dark mire. I read with joy that Pattison’s teams had spent hours working to bring some holiday peace and love to their communities last week, watched with admiration as industry leaders like Cossette’s Sabaa Quao, The Trade Desk’s Alison Rintoul, and Kijiji’s Jed Schneiderman acted as guides and unfiltered mentors to 400 students making their first tentative strides towards our world at Ad Club Student Day, and cheered wildly as my friends and colleagues on the Ad Club Board, Nissa Poetranto and Alan Sifuentes, conquered Mount Kilimanjaro for NABS (surely the most demonstrable display of kindness EVER!)
The world may be at its most hideous and rage-fuelled at present. In response and most especially at this time of year, is it naive to ask whether we can ward off that cancerous cruelty with kindness? My friend, Phillis Kelly of Kingston and Fredericton, was kind. It may not have changed headlines but it changed the lifelines of her sons. It may not have cured her illness but it gave those around her such health and happiness. It may not be enough to stop wars but it will restart humanity.
Please. Be kind.
Amanda
President, Advertising Club of Toronto
