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This is an absolute doozy … though I shouldn’t really be finding it funny at all!
So we are invited to a global pitch … a pitch that is worth more than the entire value of Australia [allegedly] … and various people have been working like idiots for weeks.
Finally, after pulling tons of data together, ideas together and heads together … everything is done, printed out and packed away – leaving the team leader to just get on a plane to the US and pick up the business, acclaim and fame.
HERE COMES THE FUCK-UP FAIRY MOMENT …
Unfortunately because the US Government are a bunch of paranoid red-tape-lovers, any visitor has to have a ’special kind of passport’ – one that has a magnetic strip so it will work with all their super-high-tech machinery.
And unfortunately for our ‘team leader’ [and us] their UK passport was issued back in something like 1874 … a time where passports were made of paper, not magnets … so when they turned up to the airport with their bags and a US$100 million campaign winning idea, they were politely told that not only would they not be able to get into the US [because of the ancient documentation] but they wouldn’t be allowed to even get onto the plane.
Goodbye $100 million … Goodbye USA … Goodbye Respect … Goodbye Career …
I love stuff like this [though why is beyond me] so yes … I’ve set up ANOTHER blog … where people can read / list their own ‘Fuck-Up Fairy’ moments – which shows both the laughter and the stupidity you get in this industry known as Adland.
You can check it out by clicking here.
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Surely, SURELY, the client would understand and allow a reschedule. Where oh where is the Star Trek transporter? Won’t SOMEONE invent the damn thing already?
Comment by Emily December 4, 2006 @ 12:25 pmThat’s funny – that’s EXACTLY what I said too but apprentely [according to dear SONY] it’s still a little hard to do. Damn Star Trek and it’s false promises!
Comment by Rob December 4, 2006 @ 1:49 pmDoh!
W+K London had a similar thing where a vital pitch document had to be sent, so they got clarification from DHL that it would be delivered on time.
They sent it, then the person they sent it with told them it would get there the day after the deadline…
I probably should have put this on the blog.
Comment by Rob Mortimer December 4, 2006 @ 5:55 pmOh I have tons of ‘courier’ stories … including when DHL sent our a massive presentation to Antartica instead of Australia.
The client said it was the best excuse he’d heard since ‘The Dog Ate My Homework’.
Comment by Rob December 4, 2006 @ 6:18 pmWow, thats quite the major fuck up.
Comment by Rob Mortimer December 4, 2006 @ 7:02 pmOh yes … but we sued them and actually made more money from them than we did off the client, ha
Comment by Rob December 4, 2006 @ 7:15 pmNicely done.
Comment by Rob Mortimer December 4, 2006 @ 11:40 pmThat will teach them. Never found a good courier service so far in my life. They are ALL crap in my experience.
My Australian resident Visa in an old, old passport. When I returned to Oz a few years back I travelled via South Africa. When I went to check in at the airport in JoBurg I was refused entry to the plane as I didn’t have a valid visa. Turns out my old passport wasn’t readable by the bar code reader. As such they issued me with a temporary visa. A year later I found myself on the verge of deportation because I had entered the country on a temporary visa which had now expired. Aaaagh! All sorted eventually.
Comment by Stan Lee December 6, 2006 @ 7:50 amHi Stan … that’s almost exactly what happened to me with my Aussie Visa – it’s pathetic but then so is the Australian Immigration policy.
I got told a funny story by a roadie of Queen when we were doing a campaign for Virgin. Basically, in 1985, Queen were touring Australia and one of the Roadies was stopped by Customs and asked if he had a criminal record. He looked the person in the eye and said with a totally straight face …
“I didn’t know you still needed one of those to get into the country”
He was taken into a side room and interviewed for hours. Class!
Comment by Rob December 6, 2006 @ 8:52 am