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That really feels like it comes from a disingenuous place. Agency producers bend over backwards to make ideas work and happen. We’re expected to do that. Most of us are deeply committed to the creativity without being respected as such. We award jobs to the team who best meets the board and the budget, not our “buddies”. It’s rarely our choice but we do know a lot of the players involved. You don’t get to a senior position in the industry without a network. Yes, we make friends with production companies, directors, crew, so we can negotiate those “one more take” requests that push us into overtime when the clients won’t pay. Yes, we might look too friendly with the production company because we’re getting blamed by our own teams and need some relief. Yes, there are some strings we can pull (a good place for dinner, or maybe a hotel upgrade) but for the most part, we’re just trying to hang on.
The production companies that are best at making you think they are your friend are the most successful when behind your back they’re talk mad ish.
Not anymore. Production graft was a common practice until the 90’s. Up until then it was a free for all with fancy meals, drugs, and cash.
Now it’ll get people fired or arrested. It’s just not worth it for vendors or producers.
Nope. If anything we get pushback from Creative on directors we don’t recommend working with.
No kickbacks anymore but dinners, gifts and sometimes even invites to “conferences” abroad even though less common these days
Pro
In my experience it was (90s) print production guys who were more likely to be taking kickbacks, particularly from printing houses on big brochure-type jobs. Graft could take the form of anything from cash to patio furniture.
Not hidden
Some producers try to steer creatives to certain prod cos that they have had a good experience with or an easy working relationship. Rarely is it quid pro quo other than making that producer’s life easier by delivering.
We did used to get nice gifts all the time. Not so much anymore. The fat is long gone out of most gigs.
TEAMWORK!
The producers at Dentsu are some of the best people I know. I wish they got more than nice dinners and swag. They’ve certainly earned it with the bureaucracy and BS in that agency, with the clients, and in trying to get the thing done on time and within the withering budgets.
Y’all are amazing. Much love!
👏💖👏💖👏
Yeah I remember a really nice producer giving me one of her new apple iPods because she got too many of them one year.
It’s not the agency producers who hold the most sway over the outcome of a triple bid. To determine who’d be most susceptible to receiving kickbacks, you’d have to look at whose deciding factor inside an agency carries the most weight, and who argues the case most fervently with the client.
Still happens with much lower frequency. You find that in Asia it’s still a thing but you can see that scaling back here too. Had a crazy shoot in Saigon a few years ago that had all of the hedonistic vices preceding it.
Not really in US big agencies (can’t speak to smaller markets) but when I worked in the Middle East man It’d p*ss me off because yes they would and yes they’d force production companies on you
I miss the Celtics tickets that used to just magically appear during the playoffs.