"Any creative person is driven to prove
something."
If Art & Copy does one thing well, it is the portrayal of a Creative personality. There is a part of the film where they go right from lauding failure to the brutal assessment that nothing can be learned from failure. On one side Wieden, on the other side George Lois. Pick one.
The inherent conflict of a person who chooses this profession is clear: the work doesn't motivate you. The work will only let you down, as Goodby points out. The motivation has to come from inside you.
Somewhere between the fear of not knowing where the next idea is coming from and the disbelief that you are actually getting paid to do this is an angry, little connoisseur who believes advertising could be better, and should be better.
"We deserve some cynicism because we don't police ourselves."
Maybe because we know it is hard. Or maybe because we know it should be easy.
