Allen Ginsberg Worked for an Ad Agency

Before writing Howl and before Beat Generation fame, poet Allen Ginsberg worked for an advertising agency for five years creating ad campaigns for toothpaste and other consumer products.

During this time he was seeing a psychiatrist for depression. His psychiatrist asked Ginsberg what he thought would make him happy. When Ginsberg told the psychiatrist that writing poetry made him happy, the psychiatrist said, "Go do that, then," and so he did. He quit his job at the ad agency and went to San Francisco. And the rest is history.