Since at WAS we take great pride and care in exorcising every demon and on venting mostly because of AE’s, here’s a treat for our friends in the Account Department, enjoy.
Screw cowabunga, forget Daniel San’s crane kick, and disregard anything having to do with the Double Dragon movie. To the creatives that know they’re being alluded to with this post, congratulations, you read Archive.
If anything has become abundantly clear to me it’s that some people are beautifully creative. They can get great ideas thinking within strategy and come up with incredible work on a weekly basis at the very least. They don’t care if they shit Cannes Lion’s, Grand Prix, NY Film Festival Awards or countless other bullshit prizes that really honestly don’t mean much when you retire or die, whichever comes first. However, there is also a long throng of creatives who specialize in the deadly art form of Leech-Kung-Fu.
The grueling training includes swarming over hundreds of Archives and countless other publications to “get inspiration” for their work. They also have to master the art of looking the part of a creative, assimilating the necessary jargon to sell the bit and their sacred notebook of ideas looks more like a stack of clippings than doodles and notes.
Truth be told, if you can make an effective ad by bumming off someone else’s idea because you were short on time, then awesome. But if you actually win huge praise, an award or think you’re the shit because you leeched something off someone else who appeared in an Archive five years earlier, then might I suggest dropping the ego because if it were a literary competition, you could even get sued for what you are taking credit for.
I’m not saying it’s a huge crime to take an idea, re-work it and get a campaign done. I’m particularly against that but if it works for you and you can look yourself in the mirror without wanting to slice your cheeks with an old rusty razor and later douse yourself in Old Spice or any particular brand of potent after shave, then fine. But if you take credit, brush your fingers on your shirt and strut like a freshly laid stud (regardless of your gender), then you truly suck ballsacks. I have literally seen artworks recreated and there’s only a couple of minor changes… mainly the logo they tag onto the ad. Same concept, same lighting, same angle, different brand. Shit, it’s almost as if the person scanned the ad. The sad thing is the amount of times I’ve seen people win prizes utilizing other people’s ideas literally ripped from the pages of said publications and they get applauded for their efforts even when most people know they hacked the concept.
One thing is coming up with the same idea, which happens and a lot. We’re thousands of minds thinking of the same products with similar guidelines so it’s natural you’ll get repeats, not even taking into account what some theorists say about how information being discussed and transmitted through conversation can be shared subconsciously worldwide (pretty much a globalized twist on Jungian theories of the collective unconscious). Another thing is looking at an ad and mostly analyzing how you can tweak the copy and artwork to best fit your particular job needs, mainly sticking your logo of preference in it. Think about this, has there ever been any type of copywright for an advertising campaign? How many agencies would actually stop winning awards and making money if said laws were established?
In case you need a description, these are the same people that ask for nine dollar triple latte max chocachinos, only buy designer thrift shop clothing which is most likely grossly over priced and who besmirch those pitiful whelps who are starting out in advertising and bash veterans for being oh so passé. These are the same people that procrastinate with their jobs, drop all the shit work on a newbie that’s already getting bumfucked so the kids can pay their dues and so they, the mighty-mighty power creatives can get the beauty sleep their brilliance demands. In essence, these are the exact brand of creatives that are hated by the entire Account Department and with great reason. They dick around with jobs, they always have a but, they are more worried by the decorations on their desk and their new hipster parka-fedora-clog outfit and are never able to bust out a “new idea” without “reference material”.
I could come up with laundry list of other examples of what these people do on a daily basis, but why bother. Instead, I’ll ask for one simple favor:
Kindly go Kung-fuck yourselves.
Cheers
Joker
