Who is your rival or archenemy in this biz, or who considers you theirs? (Not looking for names!!! Looking for a description of who they are -title/job- and why they, or you, caused a rival situation. Ex: the art director I went to ad school with who still resents me a decade later for having had the better portfolio upon graduation, so she talks smack about me still.

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I don’t have one, but I learned a long time ago that when I start to feel insecure because another person is better than me, rather than try to make them your enemy or be mean, try be friends with them so that they can teach you their skills and you can teach them your skills. Cause that’s when you both succeed.

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**Animated GIF of long haired dude pointing up saying “THIS”.

I went to school with a guy and we were in the same class for advertising. We both applied for a killer agency and somehow he got a creative role and they could offer me an account executive role, which wasn’t ideal for me but it was such a dope agency I that I just wanted to get in.

He never missed the chance to gloat over me or “show me my place” in the creative pecking order, saying things like “you’re department won’t get it.. it’s a creative concept ...etc”.

Cut to 10 years later he massively screwed himself over along the way and is doing social posts for no name clients in a backwater market and I’m in a top London agency making global work for ace clients.

Never shared this with anyone but good to get it off my chest.

likeuplifting
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It would be more fun to name names.

likefunny

I also know a Fabio, share the deets!

There’s a smug creative at my agency that I very much dislike. They think they always know better, and they think they’re super interesting. That person is my rival. Because I’m pretty sure they think the exact same thing about me.

One day, we’ll greet each other in the hallway with compliments and smiles, like a normal day, “hey how are you? I love your outfit. So good to see you...”

And then, the smiles will drop, the music will stop, and we’ll just fight. Full on violence. With no regard for our surroundings.

And then when the fight is over, we’ll probably end in a draw. We’ll pick up our laptops, panting heavily, with hair wrecked, makeup smudged, outfits disheveled... and bury the hatchet. “I think we needed that. Wow, you’re really strong. You’re so in shape. You wanna grab a coffee?”

And then we’ll become the kind, close-knit coworkers we pretend to be to each other’s faces.

likefunny

Checking this thread to see if someone writes about me. 💅

likefunny

One time I was at a “name” global agency, based in NY...

Not to pat myself on the back but to that point I’d done award-winning work over the years, have a very good reputation, had busted my ass for this shop, helped win pitches and run difficult accounts, mentoring younger creatives bla bla...

One day I am told they are letting me go, and while they don’t say it is a “one for one swap” I absolutely know it’s because they need to hire/afford a completely disingenuous, phony, lifelong suckup lackey of one of the agency principals—-a guy who’s my “exact level” (finger quotes), CD, prob roughly same salary, etc so it’s seamless for them....I mean, we’re all just interchangeable bike parts right?

BUT he’s also someone who I and others also know from previous agency experience is not only a wormy #MeToo offender, he also likes him some drugs, and not “just” weed. Oh, and by universal (not just my own biased) opinion he’s also never done a good piece of work in his life, portfolio is laughable. A bunch of spec shit and forgettable nonsense, another red flag for someone so “senior.”

I never warned them not to hire him. I wanted to rant and rave but I swallowed my pride and moved on. But others DID blatantly warn them—women mostly—and they were told that this was a decision from higher up and fighting it would only hurt them/they need to keep quiet about his past to not “poison the well” or “be bad for agency culture” bla bla. HR gonna HR!👏🏼

Cut to not even a year later: He’s fired for—yup—drugs and creepy groping/HR offenses that even his powerful sugar daddy agency bigwig can’t overlook.

I honestly don’t wish him any ill will, and if his drug problem exacerbates his other shortcomings then I truly hope he gets some help. 

But still, what he REPRESENTS is my career-long nemesis: people who are completely undeserving, hacky, phony and yet get handed jobs at the expense of others who work hard, support their families, are nice, and try to do things the right way.

His existence and reckless, laughable enablement directly threatened my ability to care for my wife and daughter, and THAT I will never tolerate.

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My very first ad agency internship was at a big agency in nyc. I sat at a table with five other interns from different schools and disciplines. There was this guy who wasn’t from a well know school and whose work was “meh” in my opinion but was fast and technically proficient. He was more outgoing than I was and walked the halls of the agency like his name was on the building. We worked on an intern project together and we just didn’t get a long. Even though it was a group project, he would try and show me up and disregard my ideas and contributions. At the beginning of the internship he told us he was a few credits shy of graduating college and that he was going to take classes in Fall. At the end of the internship, he told our CD he graduated college and that he wanted to continue his internship. When I asked him in private about his classes in the fall, he told I misunderstood what he said so I asked the other interns at the table and they heard the same thing. Fast forward to today where we are “friends” on social media but don’t like on another’s post. I’ve gotten notifications on LinkedIn saying he’s looking at my profile. If we saw one another on the streets I wouldn’t say “hi” for sure.

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Not sure why “wasn’t from a well know[n] school” is relevant here...Sounds like some elitism that disregards access to opportunity 🤷‍♂️

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I talk a lot of shit about holdcos.

Of course, for good reason. They're antiquated parasites that run on legacy tactics and wage theft.

So holdcos I guess.

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There was an office manager who banned the usage of honey in the office kitchen in anything but tea. It just happens that I like having honey on my bagels. Guess time was tough, but we had a thing because of it.

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Did she have an actual cuckoo bird popping out of her face 2x/day?

Can an entire agency be an arch nemesis? Between consistently scheduling me for 80 hour weeks, the blatant gender discrimination, and the overall culture of douchbaggery and elitism, a certain 3 lettered agency will always be on my shit list.

likefunny

You know who you are

funnylike

I know you said no names - but Scott Farkus. He has yellow eyes! SO HELP ME GOD, YELLOW EYES!!

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A boss that took credit for my ideas and work which I later found out he put in his book and submarined my career by pretending to want to mentor me and shoulder jockey my creative. I was a 24yo naive female with noticeable talent, swimming with the big boys assisting in on a huge Nike project. I was in the room where everything was happening. He was 30 and mediocre; his hearing disability was his gravy train, and jealousy was his gravy. When the economy took a dump, he lined me up for the firing squad and put some of my best work in his portfolio, work for clients he didn’t even supervise. Personal design explorations from my laptop, that wasn’t on the server, and never presented to a client.

For 10 years I’m made sure every professional contact we share knows my side of the story. But he failed upward, and works at a big 5 tech company now. And I stopped giving a fuck years ago. Good creatives work at agencies. But great creatives freelance.

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When I was just out of ad school I was given a Senior Creative as my supervisor that was absolutely awful. She yelled at me in front of colleagues, blamed me for any bad meetings we had, laughed at me for not knowing industry terms...made me cry almost daily. The CD and manager thought it was my problem, that I was weak and untalented. 10 years later, I work for an agency she wouldn’t have a shot at getting an interview at, and that agency doesn’t exist anymore.
🖕🖕🖕Kristen.

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Okay, you’re halfway there....Kristen....

.....Kristen.....

KRISTEN WHAT!?!?😁😁👏🏻👏🏻

likefunny

HR.

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My old partner. Conniving and will step on anyone to get where they want to be. Not very creative but very good at account and client pleasing/presenting. They go very far based on other people’s creativity. I do everything I can to make better work than them.

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Uh I have one. We both were junior ADs on a very high level agency. One of those that everyone would love to get in, specially as a jr.

I got it in a little bit by accident while he got in because he won students awards, had a little experience in another cool shop.

So he felt that he was better than me, and should not be having the same kind of assignment I was getting. So he was an annoyance to CDs and sr creative demanding better briefs, while I was putting my head down and doing the work.

Naturally, by doing the work I got the attention of sr teams, they would always call me to help with their stuff and I learned a ton. Eventually he got fired and blamed me. And he started to talk a lot of shit about me on the agencies he worked on after that.

It sucks because I actually admired the guy when he first came in and I wanted to do work with him but he tried to make me look bad and it backfired on him.

Of course he got into a very important role and he is doing great work. And to be honest I wouldn’t spect the least of him. Any person that is willing to sacrifice friendship and stab people on their backs in the name of their career has a better chance to get to the top. I have no doubt of that.

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I’ve worked with several douche bags who made my working life a living hell, but they’re not worth mentioning here. I will tell you about my first partner. He was more junior than me, and much younger. I started fairly late in the ad game ‘cause I fumbled around in other industries before landing in advertising. We got along great and became great friends. I remember those early days very fondly. We both were in love with advertising and worked very hard. And whenever we were working late, at 2 AM on some pitch, we would fantasize about the future. It was always about how we would eventually become arch-nemeses, CCO’s at competing agencies. We would fantasize about telling out respective stories over three martini lunches, about how “once, these two legendary CCO’s were friends who went on to become great enemies at rival agencies slitting each other’s throats to win a global account. “

My friend eventually left advertising and went client side into marketing totally disillusioned by the agency world.

upliftingsmart

I had a rival in an adjacent dept. she thought she could sort of just absorb my department and made moves in that direction. She also talked shut about me but was sooooo nice to my face. I just ignored her and did my thing. But I also never sang her praises if asked. I just would shrug her off as irrelevant.
In the end, I left for much greener pastures and, even though we rarely spoke, she came in all buddy/buddy to congratulate me. I could tell she thought her moment had arrived.
She was laid off about a year later.

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My one boss had no role in hiring me and made sure my time at this major agency was hell. When she left I was promoted and never looked back.

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