Jan 17, 2012

Deadline? Sure thing, more if you want your ad to be dead.


According to Google Search, a deadline is:


The latest time or date by which something should be completed: "the deadline for submissions is February 5th".


Let's examine this. A deadline is a date in which X thing has to be delivered to X place. It can be an ad, it can be a shitload of ads, it can be a huge ass campaign, it can be a revision, it can be anything in this godforsaken business that we call advertising.


The thing about a deadline is that it has two very interesting characteristics. Ah! No worries my friends, Me is here to explain:


• The Perfect Deadline:
A thing of fairy tales, storybooks and full moons. Ancient story has it that ages ago, people awarded others what they called a "decent" time in which they were able to work on their craft with patience and dedication - so that when they delivered their requirement, it was done perfectly, creative and amazing. Under this type of deadline, great pieces of art and creativity has been done. Ad agencies at one point, tell the elders, were able to enjoy this great thing - and their clients were impressed with the outcome.

I would also like to point out that, with a little bit of research, I also found that it is documented that the creative department ended up feeling satisfied with this anomaly of life, they felt that they had decent time to think and really develop an idea, so they were damn proud when the date came to show their masterpieces. Everybody was happy to work and produce, it was the greatest of times.



• The Bullshit Deadline:
This is what we have today. Technological advancements and, well, people losing some basic social and human skills have turned time into a luxury that all clients cannot afford. You can really go fuck yourself if you can't create a decent and amazing ad in less than 24 hours. You are the Monkey and you need to jump now. No, no later, jump now, bitch. Go to your corner filled with toys, message tshirts and Rolling Stone magazines and you come up with greatness in a couple of hours? No? You can't? Well how about that? I can hire ANYONE and pay less for them to do what you can't do. Oh better yet, I can take away the account faster than you can say "I need at least a day".


Oh and let me catch you delivering a crappy ad, you hear? I'm a client that wants results! What do you mean, crap is a result? Oooooh you're being creative now, huh? Didn't take you THAT long to come up with that witty line, huh? Now can you go and squeeze out a decent ad? I still need it for tomorrow. But I haven't told you the cool thing, you wacko creative. I'm going to call you every 60 minutes to see how you are doing. Because there is no greatest tool to make you more creative than pressure. Good old stress will get those endorphins running, the anxiety will kick in and bingo, you'll be cornered into delivering something. Oh and you know what? I won't like the first round of creativity, but keep working, monkey, 'cause the deadline will not change and who cares that you might have a life... I tell YOU when to get home, not the other way around.


Yeah. Whoa. I feel dizzy. Releasing anger is very cool.


...


Where was I?


Oh yeah. Deadline. My point is, if you want to kill creativity and demean the people that are working on your campaign or products, there is no greatest error than to give them a real tight or bullshit deadline.


WE ARE NOT ROBOTS. There is no command-print ad, no command-ALT-campaign, no command-shift-creativity. It all comes from our heads, our experiences, our knowledge, our feelings, our day to day and our inspiration. If you come and shit all over that, you basically are KILLING your ad. It will be dead. Like your deadline.


The sad thing? This is a wasted post. Nothing good will come out of it - well, I am getting my anger release on, but that's about it. Not one client will read this and think - maybe this chick has a point. Not one Creative Director or Account Director will read this and think about all those times that he has said YES to a client - because YES is the winning word - instead of ASKING THE CREATIVE DEPARTMENT how much time do they need to make that great ad that the client needs.


So please, I'm so sorry that you wasted your time reading this as well, because if I am correct, the only people that actually read our tiny space in the web are people like me. Creatives. Angry creatives.


Comrades, I salute you. Today, let's say it with pride. Advertising sucks.

0 comments:

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...