Nov 13, 2007

And I will STRIKE down upon thee with great vengeance...


Ok. Sorry. I love Pulp Fiction. In fact, apart from The Godfather Series, Pulp Fiction has the answers for anything you need to know out of life. But this isn't a homage to one of the greatest films of all time. This is a post about: Strikes.

Everybody is on strike. Hollywood writers. Now, the guys at Broadway. Shit man, even in my country they go on strike if you sneeze the wrong way. But all this has left me thinking... Are we pussies? We should consider going on strike too.

RestrictionsApply sure has a passion for this idea. I once wrote about forming an union of ad people. Mostly creatives, because... come on, we work our butts off. In all my years of doing this blasphemy of work, I seldom have seen AE's work 48 hours straight on a campaign. Oh but I've seen them pack their shit and tell creatives "I'll be at home if you need me". So yeah, a creative union seems kind of nice. If only we would have the balls to actually do it...

Don't think we need to go on strike once in a blue moon? I'll give you a short list of reminders, just so that you actually give this idea some thought:

1) We sometimes work long hours - and by sometimes I mean almost all the time - and our check comes exactly the same. I have seen people actually leave work on a Tuesday and come home on Thursday. And our bosses think that we need to be at our desks the next day, because sleeping and resting is overrated.

2) Pretend you did an awesome campaign, which sold a gizillion dollars of "Name that Product". Your ad agency will increase their revenue because the client will have more money to spend in "Name that Campaign". Your check is the same, still.

3) Your mother had a birthday. Your dad won a Golf Challenge somewhere. You can't go celebrate with them, or at least you come in late, because you had an ad that had to get to the newspaper on time, and of course, the client made revisions until the last possible moment. Your check, same.

4) Weekends. You know. Two days where you are supposed to rest, do the laundry, see your kids, your family, scratch your balls and watch tv until you puke. Nah, those days will be necessary once in a while to get the campaign done. Your check... you get the picture.

See? The thing is that they once had the balls to do it. They weren't scared. They thought the right thing: if we are not here to make it, then it will not be made at all. Ah, but you think: some stupid twat will step up to the plate and do our job, for less. Maybe. But that doesn't mean that they will do it as it's supposed to.

The thing about good creatives? They are hard to find. They do the job in spectacular time, perfectly and with good results. So thinking that some out there might be a rat and betray the rest of us for a quick buck should not scare us one bit.

Think about it!!!! We could make our own rules. Working late because the client is a douchebag who likes to hand changes hour by hour? Cool. I'll be here waiting for any damn change, but my overtime should be clocked in. And paid. Period. Working on a weekend because the AE's don't know how to change a lightbulb and do a decent brief? Sure. I'll not see my family or a rerun of South Park. But I want extra pay because it's not my fault that you lack a backbone to make a decent decision on where the campaign should go. Made extra bucks on a campaign because of our creativity? Bonuses, people. Bonuses.

Do you know the pleasure of hearing one AE tell a client that he has to hurry because the creatives are gone at 7pm and it costs extra money to have them on call?

Jesus. Just thinking about that possibility makes my left ovary tingle in a good way.

What do we want? Strike! When do we want it?

Um... Um... Um...

2 comments:

Joker said...

how I fantasize about this scenario. Advertising might be a white collar job, but we're subjected to ridiculous hours without pay. I have lawyer friends who don't have a life and work til 2, but guess what? They charge extra hours. I know friends in Accounting... same story. We get offered sour pay for hard work and are required to have more patience and less drive than a gaffer for a porn flick. The great part is you see stupid decisions, people getting sick, people working sick from home, and still, we are such pussies that we put up with it because "that's the way this industry is". Well you know what, I have a supremely generous nutsack you can gently suck on, you know why??? Because that's the way it is. Fuck the way it is and it's always been and get me the bacon bitches, because while I'm getting thing and weak, you're getting plump and cholesterolized. Kindly fuck you in the higher echelons. I give half a fuck if you think I'm a worker bee. I'm also a human and you can suck on my stinger any day.

Lucila said...

where do I sign!!!!???????

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