Chapter 5 “Taking it at both ends”

Every account person knows the meaning of this. First of all is the agency: no matter how hard you work, no matter the hours of ‘face time’ you put in, you can never please your boss, the creative guys, the media people. Then you take the work to the client for presentation. Yes, that great, award winning “if only they would let it run without revisions” creative that was conceived late one night in a desperate last-minute boozy haze of smoke that resembles nothing of the brief (instructions to revise the brief ringing in your ear) creative. And after the long setup of reviewing the strategy, the results of the research (pre-test) with its obligatory powerpoint charts that has put the client into an apparent slumber, the saviour-of-the world creative is finally revealed by the creative lead dressed up in his ripped jeans. To resounding…thud! If fortunate enough to actually have the client ‘like’ it, and only want you to ‘tweak’ a few things, you escape to the post-mortem meeting (bar) to commiserate, belly-ache and generally bitch about the stupid client. If the presentation actually goes badly, on to the blame game: creatives bitching at the account people for not getting the brief right. Account people leveling equal blame for not following the brief in the first place.