Hey Man...YOU SUCK.

“It takes courage to be creative...” - E. Paul Torrance

These words ring very true.
I’ve been waiting for it - the first anonymous post on my blog (funny how they never sign their names) telling me how much they hate my work. I’m quite surprised, not because I actually received that type of response, but rather because it took so long for one of them to appear.

The poster targeted one ad on my site in particular, and I find this quite funny. The ad they told me they thought was terrible, won bronze in an international show. CDs from known shops around the world liked the ad enough to award it and anonymous thinks it’s “The worst ad he has ever seen”.

Of course, he is entitled to his opinion. Everyone is. No matter how much we like to argue this, our business is a form of art. Some will like your art, some won’t. You can enter a piece in one award show and it will win and in another it won't. This is the norm.
I remember many years ago, while shopping my portfolio around town, a CD told me that my book wouldn’t cut it and I would never find a job in the industry. The very next day, I was hired at a better agency after the CD told me he thought my book was one of the better ones he's seen.

With that, I learned to simply develop thick skin and let the negativity slide.

Personally, there are only two things I care about...what my client thinks and if the ad sells his product.
I never entered this business to win awards. They are simply a bonus. I also never entered it to please others in the industry. I entered it to make money. Period. Both for the client and myself.
Not all award-winning work achieves this goal. And sometimes, ads that aren't deemed award-worthy have achieved excellent results and have made the client millions of dollars.


Now, back to the poster’s comments...Isn’t it sad that we work in an industry where our peers love to belittle us? Can you imagine this in other industries? How about in the medical profession...
“Hey man, you suck. That surgery you performed yesterday was terrible. How did you ever get hired? You should go back to dissecting frogs you hack”
When you look at it this way, it sounds ridiculous. That’s because it is.

I actually want to publicly thank Mr. Anonymous. Thank you for taking the time to comment. I respect your opinion. I don’t agree with it but it is your opinion. And like I said you are entitled to it.
However, if you think it would upset me, you are wrong. I’ve been in this industry a long time (you’ve never seen my agency portfolio because I can’t feature it on my site) and it’s not like I’m quitting anytime soon. Do you really expect me to hang up my hat because you don’t like my work?
If anything, your comments benefit me. Like the quote at the beginning of this post, it will only make me try harder. It may take courage to be creative, but it takes a weakling to trash talk somebody while hiding behind an alias.