"Would you like some more Kool-Aid?" "No thanks, I've had enough."

I recalled this story printed in the New York Times that I actually had the opportunity to hear first hand. I don’t claim to know Alex’s motivation for leaving MDC, CP+B and the ad biz all together but I’d like to believe that it is as sincere as David’s was for writing the Avis ad that called them out for not living up to what they were advertising to the public. It is easy to just “cash the check” and justify doing the wrong thing. It is much harder to call BS and stand for something. Crispin in the early days was at it’s best. The work showed it. As they grew the work just seemed to lose that magic, the crafting, the ideas, became homogenized, predictable. I think the story below illustrates what can sometimes happen when you stop being a kool aid drinking, industry whore and actually do what is right. Wish more thought this way…

Back in the 1960’s, David Herzbrun recalls in his recently published book ”Playing in Traffic on Madison Avenue”, he rented a car from Avis and found its ashtray, as he delicately writes, ”jammed up with butts.”

Mr. Herzbrun was then a copywriter at Doyle Dane Bernbach, the agency then boosting Avis’s fortunes with the famous ”We try harder” campaign. Peeved with his dirty car, Mr. Herzbrun wrote an ad whose copy began, ”I write Avis ads for a living, but that doesn’t make me a paid liar.” If Avis would not live up to its advertising, he added, ”they can get themselves a new boy.” To Mr. Herzbrun’s surprise, Avis ran his ad, which has been credited with raising the company’s standards.

The Avis incident typifies Mr. Herzbrun’s aggressive nature, which contributed to a peripatetic career. His bittersweet book, subtitled ”Tales of Advertising’s Glory Years,” offers a peek into the creative revolution of the 1960’s, and expresses his dismay that the revolution did not go far enough.

Now mostly retired, Mr. Herzbrun works through a consulting firm, Cannon Communications, in Weston, Conn. He deals directly with clients. ”I don’t much like working for ad agencies these days,” he said.

"And then we'll put a kitten in the ads because people like that!" YES! GREAT IDEA TEAM!!!

I can’t really say it better than it is written here

Nothing good ever came from a committee. Seriously. Can you name anything that has? No. Because it doesn’t exist. In advertising it is even more true. Clients, the mail room guy, the clients nephew all may have “ideas” but what is it based in? Usually nothing. Or it is a take on the latest “flavor of the month.” I’ve worked for a couple of agencies where they would actually encourage “collaboration”. Expect what that really meant was the client, clients underlings or some brain dead account exec was now given permission to try and do my job. Hmm… Want to collaborate? Great, then get your sorry ass back to your office and actually do your job by creating an actionable brief with real and relevant information.

Oh, but us creatives we have so much fun, why can’t we share the fun with the totally unqualified who just want t have fun “making ads”.
I’ll tell you why. Look at your business card. What does the title say? If it doesn’t say Art Director, Designer or anything remotely connected to the creative department, you have another job to do, so do that.

The dictionary defines Crafting as: “to make or manufacture (an object, objects, product, etc.) with skill and careful attention to detail.”

Crafting — in any occupation— is one of the most fundamental of differentiators between good Vs. bad, a job well done Vs. a job just done. But crafting also demonstrates a labor of love, a wanting to not just do something but to do it better than anyone else. It is what drives the craftsperson to spend countless hours dwelling on the details, the polishing, the working and reworking. The stuff that the average person doesn’t see an important, or meaningful. The craftsperson knows that while no one else may see the ever so subtle flaw or the tiniest imperfection, they will and so the flaws or imperfection must be resolved before he or she will be able to sleep at night. But the craftsperson is also the one who understands when to stop. When his/her work has reached that “good place” where the work is complete and anything additional would be gratuitous overkill, a loss of focus where the execution convolutes the idea.

The enemy of the craftsperson is those who chose by default to race to mediocrity. When the deadline becomes more important than the actual job, when “getting it done is good enough”, when it is described as “down and dirty.” The perpetrators are the ones who condone this mentality, who make excuses for why it is Okay to “Just do it this one time” or “Why it is not such a big deal” or even when they stoop to use a client or customers lack of understanding to defend “Just getting it done.”

Craftspeople are a unique bunch, a minority, a fellowship in an exclusive club that is not easy to get into. Craftspeople are the ones who risk being deemed “difficult” because they don’t settle. They will not allow the lowest common denominator to dictate what the standards for excellence are. They are the ones who hold the bar higher and make everyone come to them.

There are not very many craftspeople out there today and I think we need more. So next time you’re asked to “Bang this out”, “Just do what the client/customer wants”, or be asked to lower your bar will you say “No, because this is important, what I do matters” Will you be a craftsperson or will you be just another set of hands assembling meaningless widgets? At the end of the day will you decide that what you do is important or will you simply check off another box on your “To-Do-List”?

Good god. George Parker had this posted on his site Ad Scam. When I saw it I felt completely embarrassed for this group of people who appear to be the creative department(?) The opening line is “You were probably wondering just now how Leo Burnett would feel if they won your new business…” Then as expected, the Pointer Sisters “I’m So Excited” comes up and then the totally trite and pedestrian dance routine. I wanted to issue them all the coup de grâce.

So what can we learn from this, hmm. Well, for one, simply doing a video is no longer impressive. It is even less impressive when it is done utilizing a terrible idea. Less impressive than all of it is that a 6th grader and a Mac could have done an epically better job than these “Creative experts.” It is a good thing Leo is long passed because this would have surely killed him.

Very cool innovation and presentation. The shoe box doesn’t have to be a box at all.

Some really sobering ads. Simple, yet effective, without the blood and guts approach. Eyes on the road people.

From Ad Age:

Interviews With Small Agency Leaders: Part 1
Ad Execs on the Future and the Challenges They Face

Posted by Bart Cleveland on 03.19.10 @ 01:21 PM

I began my career in Houston, Texas. While there, a category four hurricane hit the city. I remember when the eye of the storm passed directly over the city: a perfect circle of blue surrounded by a twisting torrent of destruction. Then the other side of the storm hit, reversing the direction of destruction and making everyone run for cover again. Hopefully, this isn’t an analogy of the current economy.
However, with every disaster there are those who find a way to rise above the mayhem and not only survive, but thrive. We call them heroes. I have many small-agency heroes and I’ve asked some of them to help me discern what small agencies can do about today to climb to the top of the proverbial heap.

This is the first in a series of posts to highlight thoughts from small-agency leaders from North America. Their answers should help highlight something of which we should be keenly aware: We small agencies are the key to this industry’s success.

Our first group includes Ron Huey of Huey & Partners located in Atlanta; Chris Staples of ReThink, located in Vancouver, British Columbia; Alec Beckett from Nail, located in Providence, R.I.; Francis George of The Republik, Durham, N.C.; and Paul Crawford of Scout Branding Company, located in Birmingham, Ala.

My first question: There has been enough talk about the current economy. Let’s talk about the future. What do you believe is the greatest opportunity for small firms?

Paul Crawford, Scout Branding Co.: “Small agencies should spend less time trying to impress their friends and competitors with their press releases and blogs and pick out a big company that they have a passion for and pursue them with well-thought out ideas. Not headlines and killer ad layouts, but rather help them solve the business problems that wake them up at 2 a.m.”

Chris Staples, ReThink: “The bottom line is this: Clients don’t need a digital agency. They need strategy, ideas and content for the digital age. [They] don’t need a social-media agency, they need a communications strategy that is inherently social.”

Alec Beckett, Nail: “Our scale allows a kind of intimacy and immediacy in the relationship with many of our clients that morphs our role from being a vendor to becoming their de-facto marketing [department]. That feels like a model that will have more and more relevance as brands need to become more nimble and creative in the new world of ‘dialogue based’ marketing that we’re entering.”

Question 2: Does your firm provide the broad range of services clients need today? If not, do you help facilitate finding them?

Ron Huey, Huey & Partners: “We specialize in creative, which can take many forms: advertising, design, digital, product naming, postioning/taglines, promotional concepts, etc. When our clients need research, strategic help, media planning/buying or other services, we partner with likeminded groups — small, nimble firms who are experts in their disciplines.”

Francis George, The Republik: “In the cult of the media, we are agnostic. Which forces us to be good at the things everyone else is doing. And, to go trailblazing, doing what no one has tried yet. It’s not easy. We study all the new media that’s popping up, and look for ways to use them. It’s pretty gratifying to see experts writing white papers and columns in the pubs on tried-and-true, successful ways to use the media. At times, we’ll look at each other and say, ‘We’ve been doing that for the last two years.’”

Question 3: As an agency leader, what philosophy do you foster?

Chris Staples, ReThink: “Right from the start, we designed Rethink to be an ideas company, not an ad agency. Our primary role for our clients is to create work that gets talked about — with customers, with staff and in the press. In our experience, getting talked about is the first step in getting results.”

Ron Huey, Huey & Partners: “Even though your title may be chief creative officer, that doesn’t mean you can’t be willing to take out the trash and wash your own dishes.”

Question 4: What is the greatest challenge you believe small agencies face?

Paul Crawford, Scout Branding Co.: “The biggest challenge for small agencies is being aware of what’s happening in media and being realists about how to apply it to their clients’ businesses.”

Alec Beckett, Nail: “We’ve learned that the formula for doing great work is simple: Talent x Time. There is no shortcut. So for a small agency dealing with smaller clients and proportionally smaller budgets it will be (and frankly always has been) a challenge to get compensated adequately to cover the talent and time required.”

Question 5: What has been your greatest moment?

Francis George, The Republik: “Eight years ago, one of our clients told us our ideas and executions were so integral to the growth of their company, they wanted us to be a partner. We had always believed our job was to grow our clients’ business, but having a client offer to change our role from vendor to partner really solidified it for us. And it has stuck to this day—we are partners in over 50% of our clients’ companies.”

Paul Crawford, Scoutbrand: “My most gratifying moment was going up against a giant agency that bills hundreds of millions of dollars and winning a creative pitch against them. We had two employees at the time. Ideas win.”

"When you reach for the stars you may not quite get one, but you won't come up with a handful of mud either".

The eternal words of Leo Burnett. Take a listen then take a look around. What do you see now?

Hold on let me turn off my fax machine

Check it out here

Web Advertising to the Lowest Common Denominator… long live the “starburst”

God, I’m kidding already

Superbowl or Superbore?

There was a time not so long ago that I really looked forward to the “Big Game”. Not so much for the game as you may suspect but for the ads. This year, however, I think I am going to be watching more of the game and during the commercials I’ll be taking the opportunity to get up, grab another beer and a plate of those wonderful nachos smothered with cheese and jalapeno that always seem omnipresent at these gatherings.

“Why so down on the Bowl?” you may be asking? Well, I’ll tell ya. The one thing that has always revved me up was the anticipation of not knowing what kind of great creative I’d be seeing. “What have those wacky ad folks come up with this year?” I would say, well, I really wouldn’t say that but you get the point. It was always kind of Christmas-like in that sense. The anticipation of seeing something so unexpected, so enjoyable, so entertaining.

This year is different. It seems the mystery and magic has been erased as quickly as an unwelcome spam email for yet another free sample of Viagra.

We can expect to see a return of the Bud Clydesdales (yawn), a questionably out-of-context pro-life spot (gee, that should be entertaining), a return of Dorito’s latest crowdsourced installment on the kick in the nuts route of humor in lieu of an actual idea (double yawn). GoDaddy.com will once again no doubt be making a overtly sexual appearance (guess, 13 year boys are the target again this year), McD’s is regurgitating the successful Michael Jordan/Larry Bird shootout spot of years past now with LeBron James and Dwight Howard (really? nothing new to show? Says a lot about the current state of creativity hu?), Chrysler will also be present, but something tells me that their spot will be yet another opportunity to take a bathroom break - whether I have to go or not.

When creativity finally (hopefully) someday makes a return and the Superbowl is no longer used as a forum to pitch “Focus On Family’s” or any other groups inappropriate agenda, perhaps I will once again return to the days where I would be calling my ad buddies across the country or shouting across the room during the spots to say things like “Man, that was great…” or “God, I wish I did that!”, or even “I hope I can be that good someday.”

But this year - despite my deepest hopes- I think the only thing I will be shouting is “Another beer, anybody?”