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Dear not the favs, did it ever occur to you that it’s not favoritism but survival? When teams don’t deliver on good projects, the agency has no good work to PR, and therefore no new biz or recruiting momentum. I assign my best teams to the best projects because we cannot survive otherwise. I do try to give less established teams a crack at great projects too, but if they’re not a sure thing, I can’t give it to them solo. Maybe your work is really great and your situation is actual favoritism, obviously I have no idea. But I mostly don’t buy into this line of complaint. I need as much great work as humanly possible. We are all overworked and understaffed, and desperate for ideas that get us attention. I think imagining that your CDs are ignoring those realities because of high school bullshit seems willfully ignorant.
Meh. At my agency, a GCD always puts his bros on the choice projects, they never present or sell anything good, THEN we get brought in to try to salvage the situation. It happens. It’s real.
Yeah, the “favorites” are the teams who can deliver. Or who, at the least, have great attitudes. CDs don’t have time to play favorites for any other reason. Of course they’ll be the first to leave, they’re the talent. The “less faves” are usually the teams who think it’s a CD/ECD’s job to “stack” their books or make everything fair, and see everything as a plot against them instead of being a little introspective and seeing their role in it all. This is a job, not school. The sooner you stop blaming and look inward, the sooner you can become a favorite.
In my experience the favs have been the people who are most like the cds. Which most of the time means a bunch of white dudes who are all into the same sports teams. That being said as a woman who is a minority I’ve managed to claw myself into the faves circle by sheer hard work and talent. But no one ever handed me anything. It’s sweeter that way.
@ECD1 first of all, thank you for sharing your side of things. Nice to get a reply. Second of all, doubt your agency would find a shortage in recruitment if you didn't always put Jordan and Pippen in first. Third: please be more open minded. You're obviously well respected and people trust you. How about trusting yourself to recognize new talent when it lands in your inbox. Just because you don't know us, or we don't have a shit ton of awards doesn't mean we can't deliver/work our asses off to do great stuff (and make you look good). You know those creatives who email you alllllll the time and you're like so over it? Maybe our enthusiasm will translate into unexpected creative solutions. And maybe your colleagues will think you're a bad ass for curating and leading a team that doesn't have the same old players/utilizes a diverse work force (which automatically means unique ideas). So, put us in coach.
Spent my first year at my old agency being envious of the A-Team. So I busted my ass. I listened and I learned what my ECD (and the agency) was looking for. And I took every opportunity to prove my worth, shit briefs and all. The second year I started getting better assignments. And with each, I took it to the A-team until I was the new A-team. The third year I crushed Cannes. Nothing is ever given to you. Show up. Work hard. Good things happen. Don’t do that, and well, you end up posting shit like this. Now get back to work.
No one here apparently lives in a world where the surface of the earth is an unbalanced oblate spheroid. It's not smooth for everyone.
All the people I know in advertising work hard, are passionate, smart and creative. You rarely see a barnacle clinging to the bottom of the boat.
And yet, most people don't have lions, or the "cool" clients. Winning a lion is a formula involving a bit of talent, some mischief, and a lot of luck. It's not nose to the grindstone stuff. It's the fun stuff, with no rules and no lawyers. And preferably takes place in Brazil.
In regards to everything, it was Lefty Gomez who said it best, "I'd rather be lucky than good." Advertising is dumb luck and stealing. You just need a crowbar and a wish to make it to A team. Give it time.
☝️
Maybe you need to step up to become a fave.
@CD4 some day you will be on the B team for no other reason than you are no longer anybody's favorite. Let me know how it feels and don't forget to "look inward". 🙄 Agreed that this is a job, not school, nor is it the Olympics (where skill is measured so exactly.) It's all subjective (as is one creative's value over another...) unless you're talking about hard worker vs whiny, entitled putz.
I see both scenarios happening all the time. You can tell when it’s just favoritism vs them being the best, bes cause they’ll always fuck it up and then other teams have to come in and save them by being put on as “a support team”. I’ve seen this happen with a few CDs who were chosen as our agency PR tokens. They were put on high profile assignments because the office president, account people didn’t know the real story. They’d get to the point of showing ECD work. It was terrible. So ECD assigns CD teams under them to fix it before the meeting but they still get to lead the ship and present the work. Everyone thinks they hit it out of the park while the “support” CDs disappear in the background. Happens. All. The. Time.
Maybe their favs would've been the first to leave regardless.
Eh, then I’d talk to the CD, or get proactive and do more, or be honest with myself about whether this is the right brand for me. You’re right, I probably wouldn’t be the favorite on any team. But the way OP talks about all of this seems more like someone who expects things to be given to them. That’s not how this biz works. It just isn’t. I’m not saying it’s fair, and I’m not saying all failure is your own fault or arguing for some kind of “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” social Darwinism, but to be frank, saying CDs “stack” books and should distribute everything equally sounds kinda whiny, entitled and putzish.
Most agencies have their A squads and B squads. If you want to be taken more serious, do something remarkable and proactive. Most ECD’s and GCD’s pick certain people for a reason. Put up or shut up.
What ECD1 said. Grow up, OP.
☝🏼 yes ECD 1.
What CD4 said
@ecd1 @ecd2 @cd4 while I'm sure it's different at every agency, I can say with 100% certainty that I would never put these favs work in my portfolio and that you can't possibly expect others to prove themselves if you never give them a chance to compete. Staffing projects with mostly fl's to hand the finished concept to favs to produce is a constant as well while 80% of other staff gets scraps. Why keep these people on payroll if you don't think they can deliver? To me, that speaks more to you as an ecd/cd than it does your staff.
Here’s a thought. Talk to the strategist and get your hands on the brief you want and crunch. If it’s good the ECD will see that. Be proactive. I did it early in my career and it paid dividends
There’s never enough people and a CDs job is to use as much of their talent as they can and assign the roles that will best fit the work. I don’t doubt there’s Creative Directors who aren’t good at doing the job. However, I’ve seen more mediocre staff complaining about not being picked or respected without internalizing that it’s for a lack of effort and talent than I’ve seen CD’s place their talentless buddies on choice projects. I’m sure both situations happen. But personally, I see more complainers than great workers. I’ve had creative staff that come in regularly at 11am, take 2 hour lunches, constantly complain about our clients / advertising as a whole, deliver broken copy with typos, do the bare minimum, etc - and then turn around in complete outrage that they weren’t picked for the big, sexy client’s team.