Here it is! The long-awaited expansion pack for World of Advertising. New Character Classes! A new Realm! And yes, a long list of weaknesses for the Client!
I would like to thank everyone who sent in their suggestions. If you feel you didn’t get proper credit for your idea, what can I say? Welcome to the world of advertising.
Some of you mentioned that I didn’t include any weaknesses for the Client. So in an effort to be fair, I contacted a former client and asked him to give me some suggestions.
Here is the response:
From: mdunlap Subject: Re: List of client weaknesses To: sadcw462@cosmodemoads.com Date: Sunday, June 8, 2008 11:31PM
I got your request for a list of client weaknesses. I was going to get right back to you, but the whole thing slipped my mind until Friday evening. In a panic, I called my ad agency and asked them to come up with a list of 30 or 40 items by Monday morning.
You will not believe how unreasonable they were. They kept going on about “weekends’ and “family.” In the end, I gave in and changed the due date to 11am Monday.
On Saturday, I was playing golf with a friend when he mentioned that client weaknesses usually have something to due with their staff. I immediately called the agency and told them to focus on staff related items. In fact, most of the items on their list should have the word, “staff” in them. There was a silence on the other end of the phone that I assume was their shock at my insight.
Everything was fine until Sunday morning. I was having breakfast (my deck has a fantastic view of the Pacific) when I suddenly remembered that our District Manager was arriving on Tuesday. I immediately called the agency and told them prepare a creative presentation. They started whining again. I said that since they were already working the weekend, adding a second project was no big deal. More whining. Finally, I told them that they could forget about the “weakness” project.
So thanks to my lazy agency, I will be unable to provide you with the info you requested.
I am a bit overwhelmed by the response my little mmorpg received. I have read all your comments and will be releasing version 2.0 next week. (If you have any suggestions, leave a comment or contact me at adhack42 at gmail.com)
In the meantime, Jane and Girl Riot have been inspired by my post to begin a take-no-prisoners battle. It’s the classic conflict between Account Executive and Creative. Will business triumph over art? Or will the copywriter win the day?
You can see the latest results of their agency fisticuffs at dearjanesample.com