Pickles on Tacos

A creative director that will remain unnamed, recently died on a mountain from pickles. As tragic as this may sound, it happens a lot.

We had a job going through the shop that required some client revisions. One of these revisions was to retouch a photo that had become outdated since that last time it was used due to construction. Rather than reshoot the image to bring it up to date, the client requested that we Photoshop it. (a term that I loathe—but that’s another post.) The CD actually performed the retouch and routed it for approval.

Production intercepted the file and determined that it needed some additional work. (Inflate ego here.) CD says that they are being overcritical and that it was fine, and that nothing else would be done to it. Production says no, when it prints, its going to look like ass. CD says… well, you get the picture.

Ultimately, it winds up in front of the owner of the agency. He agrees with production and the CD holds her ground. CD gets fired. (This wasn’t her first climb on the mountain)

First of all, it never should have gotten to this mountain top. Second, when the owner of the taco stand says to put pickles on the tacos, you should put pickles on the tacos. Be weary of the mountains you choose to die on.

I’m not talking about sacrificing your integrity here. I’m talking about pickles. Things that matter about as much as hair in the shower drain. I’ve seen it happen over and over again. Not just with creative directors. Production managers that think a forced return would look better in that paragraph at press check. AEs that think an extra $500 is too much to spend on a $12,000 ad. Writers that hate extra commas. The list goes on.

The bottom line—If you don’t like pickles, open your own taco stand.

Believe

When I got shoved out of the plane at 40,000 feet without a parachute at a failing agency, no words could describe the feeling. Robin Williams came close, “It’s like riding a psychotic horse toward a burning barn.” But, you know what? A net appeared. The phone started ringing and work started coming in. Now, this ain’t Nike calling looking for a new campaign, but people are calling. Its the kind of work that pays the bills and doesn’t beat you up too bad, and I’m okay with that right now because I get to do it on my terms.

The net was big and wide and long, and had lots of bounce, and it was amazing when I hit because I didn’t feel a thing except relief. And just when I think that the net won’t hold me, the phone rings again. And this is the best part—every time it rings, its because the person on the other end believes in me. They are calling because they want creative that actually does something besides filling an empty space. They want it to work.

I have had two agency owners tell me that the advertising agency is dead. I couldn’t tell if they meant their agency or the business in general. One of them said this as he was getting into his Range Rover.  It reminds me of the Paul Delaroche quote, “painting is dead,” 150 years ago. Rothko, Johns, Warhol, and Lichtenstein, to name a few, did just fine. Hell, even Thomas Kinkade does a good business. The agency isn’t dead, only the bad ones are dead. The good ones are doing just fine. CP+B billed $1 billion dollars last year. Fallon billed $900 million. Wray Ward, a small shop out of Charlotte did $78 million.

Is it getting tougher? Absolutely. The days of biting a bullet to cut off someone’s leg are over in the ad business. No more bad medicine. There are good doctors and bad doctors, good plumbers and bad plumbers, good advertising and bad advertising. No matter the industry, the bad ones don’t last very long. Accountability is changing the landscape. Advertising Voodoo doesn’t work any more. The hacks have made it tough on all of us.

The agencies that are doing it right and holding themselves accountable for everything they do are going to be fine. It’s the agencies that are selling SEO and Google Ad Words like an elixir that don’t have a chance. We always tell our clients to set themselves apart. Why is your beer better than their beer? Yet, these agencies are selling something that the good ones include as a line item on an invoice for building a website. Worse yet, what happens when the PPC numbers don’t equate to increased sales? It is these clients that bought the tonic, that are left with nothing but a bitter taste and a lack of faith.

I saw a girl’s sign-off on her blog that said, “Don’t tell my mom that I’m in advertising, I told her that I play the piano in a whorehouse.” Why would anyone have to be ashamed to be in this business, unless you are selling snake oil?

The B-Team

Okay, I confess. Those DVDs with the bonus disk — I’m a sucker. I love seeing how movie magic can make Spiderman trapeze from building to building, the trials of bringing a film to the big screen, or to have the chance of sneaking into the head of a Hollywood director.

Most of these bonus disks are useless fodder, but one stands out for me. The Lion King. Not because it was groundbreaking animation or Disney this or Disney that, but because of a 20-minute clip that is tucked deep inside the disk that everyone in the advertising business should watch. It talks about the B-Team.

At Disney’s animation studios, they often have multiple projects going on at one time. During this particular time, they were setting teams for the production of Pocahontas and The Lion King. Of course, everyone was jockeying for position, but a little known fact is that The Lion King was considered the B-movie, and there was talk of it going straight to video. No one wanted to work on a low-budget film about a lion cub that unintentionally kills his father and goes into exile. Pocahontas, about a heroine and American icon, was set to smash the box office and win Oscars.

Teams were chosen, egos were crushed and the lion crew sulked. This is where the creative spirit began to prevail. Those involved decided that if this were their fate, they would make the best B-movie that they possibly could. Though the cards were stacked against them and the chances for success were small, the B-Team started producing
A-Team work.

The opening sequence of The Lion King is one of the most beautiful pieces of animation and artistry I have ever seen. It was also the first clip from the movie that was produced and shown to the Disney executives. With this four-minute clip, budgets were increased and the mere thought of straight-to-video was tossed out the window. The intro was also used as a trailer in theaters to promote the film.

During The Lion King’s run in theaters, it became Disney’s top-grossing animated film of all time and won two Oscars and three Golden Globes. Not bad for a cartoon that was “doomed” before the first cell was even drawn.

Every day, things pass across our desks that we perceive as B-work. Get it done, and get it out the door. I just wonder how many opportunities are lost in this thinking. In creative departments throughout the advertising business, art directors and copywriters complain of not getting the juicy assignments. They fret that the budgets can’t support great ideas, the client doesn’t get it, or that a one-color ad will never win awards. Some agencies even consider themselves as B-level shops, taking what they can get as opposed to getting the accounts they want. This amounts to giving up before the first marker comp is drawn or any headlines are written.

The Disney honchos had considered The Lion King as a second-rate film and set budgets accordingly. I wonder how many clients have done this? If shown greatness, I wonder how many would change the parameters of the job for a shot at truly brilliant marketing? I have seen it happen. The budget on an airport duratran for an international manufacturing company went from $500 to $5,000 when I showed them some ideas that went beyond what they had thought would be a routine corporate message.

When Crispin Porter + Bogusky won the Mini account, what it got was a car account with a $53 million budget. Meager by industry standards. How could an agency launch a car brand and meet sales goals on a budget that wouldn’t support a television rotation necessary for an automobile no one had heard about? Many in our industry would say that it couldn’t be done. Not CP+B. The creative team came up with innovative ideas and media placements that exceeded sales expectations. But, the client also understood the obstacles the company was facing and was very open minded when it came to some of these ideas that had never been seen in this segment, or any other for that matter.

Next time a job comes across the desk, let’s think like the B-team. Let’s be problem solvers. Let’s change the landscape of our industry instead of doing what has already been done. Let’s be brilliant. Anything above the expected is inching towards brilliance and brilliance is colorblind, it costs very little, and I assure you people will get it — and, best of all, the A-team will wish they’d thought of it.