The Young Bloods is a legendary creative internship program at TBWA that launched the careers of some of the top talent in our industry. In 2020, Amy Ferguson and I rebooted the program at TBWA\Chiat\Day New York with DE&I at its core.
We worked with our recruiters – Lionel Carreon, Lucy Truglio and Zoe Knudsen – to find diverse talent from undergrad programs at state schools, and we paired them with agency mentors and gave them real briefs. I designed a whole curriculum with classes like “How Do Ad Agencies Make Money?” and “Manifesto Writing” taught by folks at the agency. We pushed for fair wages and got pre-approved to hire every recruit at the end of the six-month program, as long as they showed passion and potential.
When it came to a close, all six of our recruits were hired, and the agency committed to making our program an annual thing. The workshops were recorded and turned into an online series called PirateTalks (cuz our logo is a pirate flag) so that everyone could benefit from them (because let’s face it, creatives have no idea how ad agencies make money.)