Adventures in Art Direction
"Social Media is just buzz technology that companies are trying to shoe-horn into their websites to remain on the 'cutting edge'. It's the digital equivalent of a 40 year-old mother who dresses in her teenage daughter's clothes."
Oh, the games we play in advertising. This was sent to me by a former Art Director I worked with. Seems one of his new cohorts wrote and created this on a site called xtranormal.com. You type and it makes a movie for you. Don't know how it works, but looks like some fun technology that could catch on.
This series pretty much hits the nail on the head as far as I'm concerned when it comes to the client/account management/creative relationship anymore. These account peps are just "yes" men and women that will do whatever the client wants. And the final creative product takes the hit. Sometimes I think the account managers are the clients the way they treat creatives. I hear these same lines all the time - "Well, it's what the client wants" or "If we don't do it they will find someone else who will." What a cop out. Manager - it's in your job title. You are supposed to manage the client expectations besides your emails. One of my pet peeves is when they say "we" knowing full well you are doing all the heavy lifting and working late again, etc. Still, they'll take the credit for a job well done, but I digress.
Whatever happened to integrity? Do we even play a part in strategic marketing these days, or are we just doing what the client thinks they want? Chances are, they don't even know what they want or need for that matter. That's what we're here to do, but not anymore it seems. We are the ones who are supposed to be experts in our fields. We spent years training and going to school to learn our skills. But anymore, it's all about the bottom line. No one wants to lose a client, so we end up just putting on a smile and doing what they want. Bend over and take it. Does anyone even know what good work is anymore? You might start out with a great concept but by the time the client chips away at it, puts their own stamp on it, or whatever, it doesn't even come close to what the original idea was. Hopefully the campaign even makes sense. Is this really the way to keep clients in the long run?
With the advent of the home computer and technology, these client companies think that all you need is a computer with the latest software to create whatever they want. No strategy or thought goes into the advertising. Or talent. The market is over-saturated so you get the cliches about "someone else will do it" and shit. Someone else probably will. And they'll do it worse, but that doesn't matter cause its what the client wants.
Basically, it's all just dust in the wind. Which is a nice way of saying that what we do is a bunch of bullshit in the end. No one is saving any lives if you know what I'm saying.