Just because it's called a brief doesn't mean it has to be brief

So you're sitting around, minding your business, getting your jobs done on time and suddenly you hear the familiar rattle of countless manila envelopes rustling in the hands of your traffic representative... shit.... ok let's see what we get. Radio spot, revision, change the color of the blondes shoes in the print, and..... what's this? Make campaign for client and ... and what? and that's it? Nothing else. No specifications on color, size, creative direction, brand/client tips, references ... nothing... Ok .... After going down a few steps and asking the executive about the wonderfully detailed job, they say that they wanted to give creative the freedom to create the campaign as they best see fit..... right...... I've heard some half assed reasons to half ass something but wow..... what can you say to this... apart from stand in awe and applaud ignorance at its finest. This is not a made up story, I've actually heard this and after psychologically slamming my head against a fictional wall, I return the job, ask for more information and am later graced with the execs bitchfit.

So retracing the steps: I receive a faulty job with no specifications and no direction whatsoever, ask for a revision, get bitched at and you'd expect a job worthy of being done... but no, yet another waste of paper, ink and envelopes.. I get the job back with a whopping 4 additional lines of supposed information that should help us on our way... I should add that apart from all the things that have been wasted, you can add words to the equation since these lines don’t say a thing while they are said to be the guide and backbone to the campaign. Another flight of stairs down, a renewed what the fuck and hooray... I get bitchfit #2.....

In a nutshell, I don't understand why some people just can't seem to do some basic job functions correctly or why they can't seem to receive proper training for this. Lord knows I would expect my exec to be able to do more than do simple arithmetic, have exceptional ass kissing skills, and only limit his or herself to making all creatives' lives miserable.

When you get a brief, there should ideally be information that will serve us well into creating something in line to what has been solicited and offered by the agency. But no, often times we get a shit job that is so poorly written (can you say friggin’ typos GEEZ) that you would think an inbred elementary school drop out wrote it. Then when we finally do ask for information and desist from thinking ourselves almighty know-it-alls, which in many cases is pretty accurate in regards to the attitude some creatives take, we get shit for it. I guess you can never win with this fucking business.