Last week I got an email from a client I used to work on.
It was a very nice email from a very nice client and I was genuinely pleased to hear from them.
I was just about to click ‘delete’ when I noticed their email footer … more specifically, the positioning that was emblazoned within their email footer.
It was new.
It was different.
It was bloody crap.
Now normally I’d not notice things like this, but the positioning they’d been using previously was something I’d come up with.
I don’t mean I was part of the team that helped develop it, I literally came up with the words and given I always get way too emotionally involved in any campaign I’ve had something to do with, I’m sure you can imagine how over-the-top my enthusiasm for this work was.
OK, so it was just a positioning line and it only came about because the creative team decided the use the idea I’d written on the brief verbatim [probably because they were feeling lazy / generous / drunk] but I still felt pretty chuffed with myself for unintentionally coming up with something that the brand had stuck with it for years and become synonymous with them and what they stood for.
AND NOW THEY’VE CHANGED IT!
OK, to be fair, it was probably about time.
When it was originally created it was based around a whole different set of circumstances and objectives … but the fact they’ve changed it to something bland, corporate and meaningless has completely and utterly depressed me.
Of course bland, corporate and meaningless is in the eye of the beholder … but I don’t care, it’s shit and for some reason, I feel like I’ve been dumped except instead of being replaced by a younger, hotter model, it’s a beige skirt dressing, twin-set wearing, dumpy bird with crap hair, horrible shoes and a complexion that looks older than she really is.
On one level this should make me feel good – or at least less bitter – except it don’t, I feel like I was dumped by someone I never really knew, even though we spent years together in what I thought was a wonderful relationship.
God I sound pathetic don’t I.
The only reason I’m not mentioning the client is that I still love them and don’t want to publically humiliate them – though I did ring them up and ask what the hell they were thinking – but even though it’s only advertising, I feel quite glad that I got so upset about this sort of thing, because it shows – at least to me – that even at this point in my life and career, I still care.
While it’s important to not fall into the trap of thinking adland is the saviour of the universe, its also important to not be so flippant about what it is and what it can do.
Advertising has the potential to make a massive difference to more than just brands, but to society as a whole.
I know some may snort in derision over that comment, but I believe it and have seen it – and while it is happening less and less as more and more companies – and agencies – seem to be going for bland awareness rather than pragmatic and meaningful, I still have an inherent need to go with the direction that will increase the odds of countless debate, frustration and disappointment because more often than not, they’re the directions the masses feel more drawn to because they’re actually saying something and committing the brand to doing something which ultimately leads to preference and profit.
In all honesty, this approach doesn’t always work.
In all probability, it has resulted in more failures than successes.
The sad fact is too many brands look at their agencies as a place that does work they don’t really want to get their hands dirty doing … but when you do get that win, even if they change it years later to some of the blandest bollocks you’ve ever read, you feel fantastic, especially when they see their faith in you was justified.
This is not about ego – well, not purely – it’s about doing what you think is genuinely going to make the biggest difference to their audience, the wider community and their business as a whole, which is why at the junction of easy and bland or tough but rewarding, I choose the path of sleepless nights and arguments.
What an idiot.