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Out of context: Reply #74257

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  • Continuity4

    Just spent the morning reading through old campaign ideas I've had over the years that never made it in front of clients, and then remembering the circumstances around many of them:

    • account managers who wouldn't know a good idea if it fucked them in the ass whilst screaming, 'I'M A GREAT IDEA, BITCH!' in their ear;
    • work done directly from labyrinthine client briefs that had never seen the inbox of a strategic planner, let alone been massaged, refined, or reverse-briefed by one;
    • work intercepted and shot down by egomaniac CDs/ECDs with fragile self-esteems, who wanted to put their own weak ideas in front of the client instead;
    • work no-one else believed in because of their own agendas.

    And I think back on all of that, and I get angry all over again, because I know that some of these ideas are actually killer, and would have done the business. If any creative I've managed since becoming a CD had come to me with some of these, I'd have been over the moon.

    I may re-package them into a big PDF sans various agency brandings, and post them on LinkedIn, telling people to nick them, use them verbatim, adapt them to their needs, take a nugget of one for their own ideas, anything. No need to even credit me.

    I'd be happy if even just one saw the light of a gaffer's set-up one day.

    Continuity 4Permalink
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    • I'm with you on this, it's hard to let go of ideas we're still excited about, especially considering the mediocrity of the content being produced these days.spl33nidoru
    • Got ideas I've been trying to shoot for more than 10y, often considering shooting them on my own, but can't help to think they would shine the most as campaignsspl33nidoru
    • It's so shitty, though, that our work — and whether it lives or dies — is subject to either the incompetence or egos of others.
      Ugh, this fucking business.      Continuity
    • Yeah. It's especially hard for non-creative people to be open to a great idea, as it usually doesn't resemble what they know and feel comforted by.spl33nidoru
    • Even when I manage to push a (imho) strong concept, most of my work then consists in preventing others to normalise it. Their instinct is always to "fix it".spl33nidoru
    • ^ And that's often the result of you working from either an un-clear or non-existent brief. And when you manage to get a handle on the assignment, that'sContinuity
    • ... exactly the moment when the other decide to try and 'fix it' with new info not previously available to you.Continuity
    • Anyway I'm sure there are other avenues for you to make some of these happen. Don't just give them away, at least make them presentable as dev work for yourselfspl33nidoru
    • bleeding heck, get over yourselves. this is an industry, not an art form. if it pisses you off then become an artist.hans_glib
    • I disagree hans, it's an industry relying heavily on artists, many of which need for the work to be commissioned to express themselves (or allow themselves to).spl33nidoru
    • ^Continuity
    • Me work in crypto agency - no CD/Art directors, complete trust in me, my ideas welcomed, clients all love it. The one good thing about crypto...shapesalad
    • designs which were rejected -- are you not allowed to use them somewhere else?drgs
    • LOL ofc not, the ideas generated in an agency belong to the agency
      People barely can create a folio if the work was under NDAs      grafician
    • recycle that shit over and over until it's used :)monospaced
    • You can “recycle” them as mono suggested and put them in your folio. Out of interest how many of your killer ideas won?Chimp
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