This week brought about our first proper ads which was very good. Unfortunately, my week is ending on a bit of a low.
A year ago I was a student struggling towards the finish line of the degree under quite a lot of pressure and stress. Around this time I found myself on Facebook rather a lot (nothing new there!) and happened to post a couple of derogatory comments about a brand on a group that I joined, purely to let off some steam. Fast forward to today, and those actions have come back to bite me in the ass. The agency dealing with the brand's advertising has suddenly found this group and my comments, and politely informed me that I can rule out any chance of placement or long-term employment with them for the forseeable future as a result of this.
Let this be a word of warning to any current or ex-student who has ever thought that any negative comments they've made online would never be discovered, be it on Facebook or any other public forum - even blogs. During any placements I have had, I've always remained professional and abided by the terms of contract as well as asking permission before blogging about any aspect of work to avoid repercussions such as this. I understand and respect that the agency in question are simply protecting themselves and their client in such precarious times, but I am disappointed that something I wrote on one day a year ago as a disgruntled student under no contractual obligations, has now backfired so spectacularly.
If you're a member of any anti-brand/product groups, remove any comments and your membership now! I had removed my membership from the group some time ago, thinking the comments would disappear too - unfortunately not! As a mark of respect towards the brand and agency, I have now removed these. In future, unless you choose to be part of a pro-brand/product group, I'd advise anyone interested in this industry to learn from my naive example and stay away from these groups entirely.
As with everything I publish on this blog, this is just another stumbling block on the path to advertising superstardom, but the one I've learned the most from so far. I only wonder where it all ends - what of my criticism of the new Orange Wednesdays ad below? Does that assure me no chance of ever working for Fallon because I think their ad could've been better? If that's the case, then I think all of us bloggers are screwed! In an industry that tries to alter public opinion of brands and products, I find it a tad saddening that the creatives producing the work may only speak positively of brands and products, regardless of whether they are linked to them or not. But I guess you take the rough with the smooth and hope to hell you don't make the same mistake again!
Thus endeth the lesson!
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15 comments:
What did you say and who was it for? Your chances have gone with said agency now so there's no harm in sharing
Tell tell
Sorry, but I beg to differ. Telling would be shooting myself in the foot even more, and would most certainly ensure I never worked at said agency. As it stands, that option is not off the table completely, and I'd like it to stay that way. Telling would also damage my reputation with other agencies as it would show I couldn't be trusted, and I most certainly can be.
Sorry Dean (I guess it is vous and not Martyn lol!) - maybe you'll find out someday through the grapevine, but my lips are sealed now!
*ZIIIIIIIIPPPPPP*
OK lets play yes and know.
Was it a London shop?
If so, was it a 'top 10'? By that I mean the BBH's the Fallon's and W+K's
Was it a confectionary brand?
How about a game of "I'm Blonde, Not Stupid" : )
If you're not going to say anything about what you said, who the client was and what brand it was then why even blog about your mistake?
Surely burying the matter in your mind, moving on and not spoiling your reputation would have been better. If you've pissed off a client or agency they may well be reading this and worrying you will soon tarnish their name.
I'm London based, I read few student blogs, sometimes yours, and if you have built up connections with local Manchester agencies then keeping these intact should be number one aim, not writing to the world to tell them you've f**ked up a little. (I say this in the nicest way, if i was you I would delete this post). Good luck.
I fully understand where you're coming from, but I chose to blog about it as a warning to anyone else who may have acted as naively as I did, and also because it's part of my story.
The trouble with adverblogs is that most don't speak of the mistakes and the downfalls, only of the achievements and good times, when both are as crucial as each other in obtaining that elusive first job.
Nobody reaches their goals without pitfalls along the way, and I chose to publish mine because I'm not ashamed of them. The point is that I "f**ked up", apologised, made amends, and have learned from it. Isn't that just as important as any accomplishments I make along the way?
Haley, imagine this.
There are say 200+ students wanting to get a job in advertising up in Manchester. By natural curiosity those who you wish to have a job with may come across your blog and see that you've fucked up, oh I'm sorry f@*$%* up.
So regardless of your maturity to say 'I hold my hands up I'm sorry' it still tarnishes your reputation ,and remember, there are 199 other students that haven't fucked up.
Never post about mistakes. Only good things. If you learn a lesson that's yours not the rest of the worlds.
It's easy to dismiss placement teams because there are plenty more out there. It's the horrible truth but it's a fact.
My advice is bite your tongue until somebody can say 'she knows what she's talking about'. And that will only happen when you've seen the brief and heard how the client raped the idea not to mention the account team playing executioner in the edit suite.
Firstly, wasn't it you who tried to coax me into spilling the beans? Pardon me if I'm wrong, but you didn't care for my reputation then, so why should you now?
Secondly, if anybody is going to tarnish my name, I'd rather it be me. Ever heard of Chinese Whispers? I've seen first-hand through placements and book crits that advertising is an incestuous business - I've yet to meet somebody who didn't have a connection to somebody else I've met. By the same token, news travels fast - if anyone was to be the first to say anything on what happened, it's me. I took my opportunity to set the record straight for the sake of my reputation, not in spite of it.
I'm more than happy that any repercussions that may follow will be my own making, and not of some two-bit gossip who "heard from a friend who knows the CD at a place where that girl once visited".
Hey Hayley,
Under the circumstances you're doing it right-or are you?
As far as I can tell you criticised a brand not a fuckin' agency-that would be stupid.
Maybe it's a missed opportunity?
'Poor student bullied for expressing opinion'
I'd post the letter and the name of the bully who signed it, then send it to Campaign and drum up a story about the heavy handed behaviour of these individuals who are so fragile and insecure they feel obliged to threaten a wannabe creative for expressing an opinion.
Something they could do with being made aware of is how this kind of response damages their own brand.
All the above is of course on the understanding that it was a brand/service you had a go at and not an agency/ creative.
They really should have a thicker skin than that and deserve to be outed tbh.
If you were an employee then yes of course they should deal with you but you are not.
Thanks Anon #2, it's nice to know some people agree there's another side to this.
I can see where both of you anonymous contributors are coming from, as there's a lot of grey area in situations like this. I'm 100% happy with my choice to blog about this experience, and I do think aspects of it were unfair as what I said was taken out of context as though I said it just yesterday, rather than a year ago.
I realise now that I'm not a student I have to be much more careful, regardless of working for an agency or not, so I would never publicly slate a product or brand now. I do think it's an interesting argument though - how much right an agency actually has over aspiring creatives in terms of attempting to strike them off over daft comments they make before any affiliations with them. Would make an interesting debate, as just you two have proved.
As much as I'd love to be in Campaign, my common sense tells me to leave my personal mission where it is - writing to them would be too risky as it could either come off amazingly well, or shoot my entire career down in flames before it's even really started. One day I'll get my ugly mug in that mag for the right reasons though!
If you want your face in campaign then you better pack your bags for london, campaign hasn't woken up and relaised they do creative work on the other side of the m25.
Advice to write to a magazine and blow this out of the water is without doubt the worst advice i have ever heard. You may as well tattoo 'unemployed' on your head.
Student blogs should be about work, placements and experience in my opinion. You say you want to be a copywriter, let's see some creative copy.
You speak sometimes like this 'elusive job' is a fairytale, this is work and if you want it you have to fight and fight hard. Trust me, if you swan from placement to placement, it won't just happen one day with a happy ending.
One last thing, you want a job in advertising and write this blog for people in that industry to read. Don't call us incestuous.
A job in advertising does feel like it's elusive most of the time - the competition to get in is harsh, even up north. Even just this year since finishing uni has made me and my partner realise we can't do this without the finances to back it. Fair play to the teams who can slog it out on placements for weeks, work on the book AND have temp jobs to keep them afloat. But we've chosen, particularly as things are at the moment, that taking time out to save up and make a proper go of it next year is what's best for us. We love what we do and we want to continue enjoying it, so our decision is right for us personally because it'll help us be better prepared for the hard slog next year and maybe even the next.
I appreciate your comments, but we're not little kids. Everybody has to work for their passion - we're not some spoilt rich kids who think that their contacts will click their fingers and get them a job. We know it's a tough industry to crack into, and we're making the best of a bad situation. We haven't "swanned" from placement to placement - we've only had three so far, which is very little experience indeed.
No offence, but I think your comments regarding Campaign looking no further than the M25 are a tad naive. A couple of the northern blogging teams have got their mugs in there in the last few months, and a friend of mine working at TBWA\Manchester recently had her first idents appear in there. For those of us who wish to make our name up here, we do it hoping to dispel the myth that there's no talent outside of London. I like to set myself goals, appearing in Campaign being one of them, and one which I know will take a lot of damned hard work to achieve.
As for the incestuous comment, it can also be meant in the sense of being "interconnected". Must be something that's peculiar to northerners, as I directly quote it from a number of people I've met from agencies up here who agree that this business is indeed incestuous in the way that everyone has connections to everybody else in agencies across the country. Apologies if you personally found it offensive, but you're the first person who seems not to have understood the connotation.
Hayley,
I think you're cool for talking about it... just followed you on twitter as I found you through there and like your angle.
Best wishes
Lewis
Thanks for the comment Lewis, it's always nice to get other people's perspective on things. And thanks for reminding me how long it is since I last tweeted! : S
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