So my old agency has once again produced a campaign idea of mine that the CD rejected while I was there, leaving me off the credits ofcourse.

What do you even do in a situation like this?

Just add it to your book. Doesn’t hurt to be ask to be added the credits, but you will most likely get a no, but no one checks agency credits so if you are worried some recruiter is going to say, why isn’t your name on the credits, they won’t.

Ask to be added. Then, nothing.

If you came up with it while the agency was paying you to come up with it, it’s not yours.

I wrote a bunch of spots for Nissan that were all liked by the client. I made two of them with my partner. Then we were laid off. The team behind us made three of our other concepts over the next two years. We just saw them come out, one after the next.

Sucks. But it would be way too much hassle to try and get any of the assets to put on my site

Honestly depending on how unique the idea was… let it go. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve tried to pitch an idea and had a cd / gcd say someone tried that 2 years ago and they didn’t go for it.

It happens all the time. Put it in your book. It should be clear to the viewer that you’re capable of creating it judging by the rest of your work. Which you can elaborate as well as anybody. Unless it’s a piece that is an odd one out in your book then it might be suspicious.

OP, Senior CW — what do you want to do?

People have interpreted both a desire for credit or a desire for recourse.

I can only tell you what I’d do based on what I’d want.

There is no recourse. Folks who’ve said that the same idea comes around all the time from others are right. So is the person who said that if you came up with it while on payroll, it’s fair game to dig off a server.

Even if I thought someone was doing it on purpose, it’s too hard to prove for me to heartache over.

Credit is a bit different. If the work is verbatim something you wrote or boarded, and you have the original concept work, you CAN reach out to see if you should be added to a list of the working team on award submissions, portfolio sites, workshares, etc.

Personally? I only have work in my book that I produced, or was in production when I left.

But I know others who’ve put things in theirs where they worked on the initial larger team in a game of jumpball or if they did the digital rollout they’ll put the TV spot in their reel.

That kind of thing comes out in the interview questions about campaigns and roles.

Without knowing the backstory of how my idea got produced (someone else had the same, they’re digging in a server, or nefariousness), I wouldn’t feel comfy talking about the details of that work in my book.

So I’d probs move on. The next ideas await.

I used to work for this ECD who built her CCO career off work she desperately tried to kill but the client bought anyway. Claim it

Those loser weasels. That's infuriating.

Step 1: Write a ransom style note saying I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER

Step 2: Form an advertising union, then retain union counsel to try them at the Hague, then hang the bozos!!

Step 3: Double spaced linkedin reminiscences

I would 100% add it to any discussions you in interviews. Do you create a bespoke deck of work beyond whats on your site? thats where you pull that shit in and talk about this was my idea and they made it. Thats true you arent lying. I would prepare decks of "other work" frequently for interviews that featured stuff I worked on but didnt "lead" which is what most of my book publicly has. thats totally in bounds I think.

Unless it has won an award, I wouldn’t bother fighting over it.

I once got terminated after I helped come up with the core of the idea - we knew it was going to do well at Cannes etc so I made part of my termination papers include the agency keeping my name on the award submissions. It helped my career to be attached to that project through the award cycle.

Similar situation happened to me recently.

In the past, I shared an idea with an ACD to get their thoughts - they said it was a good idea. Got caught in mass layoffs, and a couple of years later, saw it actually get made.

They might have kept it in their back pocket, who knows... part of me would like some acknowledgement, and another part knows it isn't even close to my best idea.

Going to an industry event soon and plan to avoid bumping into the guy, just moving forward, coming up with new ideas