GIVING IT AWAY FOR FREE
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Subject: Spec Work
O.K., so who was the card-carrying moron who first decided to do work for free in this business? How can we claim to be worth a crapola when we’re willing to give our work away for nuthin’? Makes absolutely no sense. Next time I visit Krispy Kreme, I’ll ask the counter dude to let me sample a dozen to see if I like today’s batch. And if today’s batch is worthy, I’ll pony up next time I’m in. No, I got a better idea. I’ll go around to all the donut shops in Ann Arbor and make all of ‘em give me a dozen. Then, along with the eighteen members of my donut-tasting committee, I’ll decide which donuts are best, then I’ll tell every shop but one that their donuts just weren’t cutting-edge enough, or that I just had a better chemistry with one donut dude than all the others, or that there was one shop that just had a better grasp of my idea of how to fill a creamstick than everybody else did. Dumb. Dumber. Dumbest. Great advertising comes about because of hard work, deep thought and good ol’ fashioned sweat. We just don’t crap out these ideas. No one does it this way but advertising ding dongs. Architects don’t do it. Accountants don’t do it. Hotels don’t do it. All it does is piss everybody off who participates. One out of a thousand spec ads are worth a dung beetle. This ain’t a fourth grade drawing contest. This is business. Great work takes time, insight, client input (beyond just what’s in an R.F.P), and lots and lots of energy. It’s what we do for a living. It’s what puts donuts on the table. Why give it away?
