As I’m sure you’ve worked out, what you’ve just read is an interview with Harrison Ford that appeared in the UK edition of film magazine, EMPIRE.
Even though he talks about the film industries attitude towards its people … something that sounds awfully similar to adland … I love the way he articulates the value of value.
It’s something adland – and the people within it – should pay close attention to, because even though history is littered with thousands of examples where they should be hanging their head in shame, there’s still many examples where work – both for an agency and for the client of an agency – has resulted in a huge and positive impact, not just on the balance sheet, but in the lives and minds of literally millions of people around the globe.
Whilst there’s always going to be fluctuations in costs and budgets, I hate that there’s this attitude adland has a ‘constantly negotiable’ price … and while I know we have to shoulder a lot of the blame for that perception … I just love the rationale Harrison Ford has for getting paid for every job.
Mind you, if there’s one person to blame for the downfall of adlands commercial value, it wouldn’t be the guy who entered a clients boardroom and talked about ads rather than their business problems … it would be the fucking idiot who pronounced to the World we were in the service industry.
Listen, even though some agencies may not know it – let alone demonstrate it – the ad industry has never been in the service industry, if anything we’re in the business liberation business and the sooner we remember that, act like that and start developing ideas like that … the better it will be for everyone.