Back in the monsoon of 2011, as I was headed to my work, little did I know that it was going to change my life forever. Before I get into the details, let me tell you all that I used to work in a different city, which would make me travel back to home (Baroda) during weekends, and head back to this city where I worked (Ahmedabad) on early Monday mornings. Unlike others, I would never crib about my work. In fact I would always look forward to Monday mornings as much as I would look forward to Friday evenings, when I would go back to home.
So coming back to the story, it was a wet Monday morning, and I took a 'Rickshaw' and headed to work straight from the bus station. The first thing I would do as soon as I would reach my job, would be to go to the reading area, where that particular day's newspapers would all be laid out for us to read them and find our ads, if any. As I flipped through the pages of the newspaper, I saw one of our ads, with the wrong copy and wrong layout!
Of course this was a mistake on the part of the Client Servicing Executive, who was handling this client, I thought. I was the Copy Writer, who wrote a dozen copies, one of which the client approved, but client servicing personnel sends out the wrong one to the newspaper for printing. So, since it not being me or my team mates' mistake, the least I was expecting was to get a call from my boss. Instead he calls this huge meeting, with all the staff members to the conference room, located right in the center of the office, with glass walls. Everybody, well aware of what was about to follow, looked pretty tense with damn serious facial expressions.
He takes his seat, pours some water in his glass, takes a sip, gives himself a moment before he gets started on addressing the staff. The next thing that we hear is unimaginable. "Did you all find our ad in today's newspaper?", "How did you like it?" And, before anybody could gather the courage to look up and answer him, he says, "The client created that ad..!!!!!!!"
A wave of shock spreads across the room. I stomped off my seat and in a raised voice said, "No, its mine. I made it few months back when we pitched our ideas to them the first time. This ad wasn't created for this newspaper for this week! It was just an idea, to gain them as our client." I repeated to him. My first question being, how did they get hold of this ad and most importantly how could they release it without consulting us?
My boss raises his eyebrows, looks at me in utter confusion and finally questions, "What do you mean?". "I mean what I just said". I reiterate. He calls off the meeting and asks me to see in his cabin. Apparently, he thought the client had to himself create an ad because, we, the creative team couldn't come up with an ad that fulfilled the client's need in an ad. I do not really know if he had a word with the client before he called me.
But, I realized there was some real suspicious activity going on. Having only heard stories of people doing such a thing, here I was in the situation to experience it. To cut the long story short, I soon figured that one of the team members had sold my ad, with my copy and my colleague's layout and made some good money out of it. Everything became crystal clear in my mind, as I walked into my boss's cabin. I told him what would have probably happened and to my surprise, he said he too thought the same. A long discussion, yet another staff meeting (this one being more serious because it included some bombarding and warnings!) and some serious actions followed. I do not wish to get into details of the actions since they were too serious and personal for that other person and the client too.
However, this was a lesson for me and even for the person who indulged in the unethical activity of selling our creative to the client and making some quick money out of it. Trust me, it happens all the time in advertising industry and unless you do not undergo such situations, you wouldn't know how it feels.
So coming back to the story, it was a wet Monday morning, and I took a 'Rickshaw' and headed to work straight from the bus station. The first thing I would do as soon as I would reach my job, would be to go to the reading area, where that particular day's newspapers would all be laid out for us to read them and find our ads, if any. As I flipped through the pages of the newspaper, I saw one of our ads, with the wrong copy and wrong layout!
Of course this was a mistake on the part of the Client Servicing Executive, who was handling this client, I thought. I was the Copy Writer, who wrote a dozen copies, one of which the client approved, but client servicing personnel sends out the wrong one to the newspaper for printing. So, since it not being me or my team mates' mistake, the least I was expecting was to get a call from my boss. Instead he calls this huge meeting, with all the staff members to the conference room, located right in the center of the office, with glass walls. Everybody, well aware of what was about to follow, looked pretty tense with damn serious facial expressions.
He takes his seat, pours some water in his glass, takes a sip, gives himself a moment before he gets started on addressing the staff. The next thing that we hear is unimaginable. "Did you all find our ad in today's newspaper?", "How did you like it?" And, before anybody could gather the courage to look up and answer him, he says, "The client created that ad..!!!!!!!"
A wave of shock spreads across the room. I stomped off my seat and in a raised voice said, "No, its mine. I made it few months back when we pitched our ideas to them the first time. This ad wasn't created for this newspaper for this week! It was just an idea, to gain them as our client." I repeated to him. My first question being, how did they get hold of this ad and most importantly how could they release it without consulting us?
My boss raises his eyebrows, looks at me in utter confusion and finally questions, "What do you mean?". "I mean what I just said". I reiterate. He calls off the meeting and asks me to see in his cabin. Apparently, he thought the client had to himself create an ad because, we, the creative team couldn't come up with an ad that fulfilled the client's need in an ad. I do not really know if he had a word with the client before he called me.
But, I realized there was some real suspicious activity going on. Having only heard stories of people doing such a thing, here I was in the situation to experience it. To cut the long story short, I soon figured that one of the team members had sold my ad, with my copy and my colleague's layout and made some good money out of it. Everything became crystal clear in my mind, as I walked into my boss's cabin. I told him what would have probably happened and to my surprise, he said he too thought the same. A long discussion, yet another staff meeting (this one being more serious because it included some bombarding and warnings!) and some serious actions followed. I do not wish to get into details of the actions since they were too serious and personal for that other person and the client too.
However, this was a lesson for me and even for the person who indulged in the unethical activity of selling our creative to the client and making some quick money out of it. Trust me, it happens all the time in advertising industry and unless you do not undergo such situations, you wouldn't know how it feels.
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