Friday, January 23, 2009

Welcome to Advertising, subject to approval by our compliance department.

File this under things no one tells you in portfolio school.

Your worst enemy, the worst enemy of all creatives is not the client, it is not a dunder-headed partner, an aloof CD, or anyone remotely related to the creation of the product/service or the creative to market said product/service.

The worst enemy of creative is the Compliance department.

Lawyers are great. My college roommate is a lawyer, lawyers do a lot of great things.

They are the equivalent of an overprotective mother when it comes to their clients' brands.

It is their job to make sure that no one who might possibly see an ad could use it in a future way to sue their client.

And the problem is, that these men and women are very creative. They can think of a billion different ways that a single line of copy could create a class-action lawsuit against their brand. The can see a billion different subversive messages in a single photo that may draw the ire of some Concerned Billardists Organization.

They  don't do this because they hate you. They do this because it is their job to make sure people don't use a hair-dryer in the bathtub.

But you, you will hate them.

Sorry.

PJL

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