Oh hi, readers struggling through the trials and tribulations of working in that industry we call advertising. You having a nice week so far? Cool. We’ve got some good ones for you today.
- First, a tale that has become something like an urban legend around these parts. According to many, many sources who have repeatedly asked us to post on this, a certain agency that may or may not be located on the West Coast of these here United States (allegedly) paid its debts to a departing employee in the most inconvenient way possible: with pennies. Hundreds of thousands of pennies. As we understand it, an art director left this shop for another job a few years ago, but at the time he made the announcement he had yet to be paid for his last few weeks of work. As multiple people tell it to us, the agency’s founder and CEO went to the trouble of turning the $5,000 they owed him into pennies, which they proceeded to place in a series of boxes. They then watched him as he removed these boxes one by one and took them out of the office to his car. We have no word on where this art director went, but one has to assume that his next job was a better fit. We certainly hope so.
- Our next two blind items concern bad behavior on the client side. First, we hear that a certain company best known for making the sorts of things one might put atop an ice cream cone is a little indecisive. Said company recently launched a digital agency review, and we hear that the client agreed to award its business to a certain New York-based digital shop owned by a certain massive holding company. But — like a kid who suddenly decides that he didn’t want sprinkles on his cone in the first place and proceeds to beg his mom to pick them off — the client pulled out and reneged on its offer in the middle of negotiations. Now, who wants to work on that account?!
- Finally, we have a very interesting item today regarding some IRL agency spies. We hear that a certain company that may or may not produce automobiles is losing confidence in the agency that works on its business. This company is so concerned about sustaining a healthy agency-client relationship that it has begun sending staffers to monitor and photograph the agency’s parking lot so as to record employees arriving to the job after 9 AM. In fact, a source tells us that the client has gone so far as to present agency leaders with photos of unnamed team members showing up late to work as a formal complaint about morale. In response, we hear that the agency cancelled its Summer Friday program, because strong relationships are built on a shared sense of trust.
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