wise counsel

until recently i had the hands down greatest boss of all time. On the face of it, it seemed improbable - large republican from texas, of course avid golfer. but also a serious gold wearer - big chunks of it. a clue that all is not as it seems. turns out he's also a serious autodidact, and likes to have very 19th century debates like "is there such a thing as real happiness," and "what makes something criminal," etc. and more to the point, extremely open to having his opinion changed by a compelling argument (wildly rare trait in anyone), never a micromanager, often apt to ask extremely insightful questions that reveal fundamental flaws in strategy, extremely good at knowing what he can and can't change, and interested in new ideas. and also prone to swearing. so i'm in heaven. but things change, he's no longer my direct boss, although still on my leadership team. new bosses seem nice enough, but one loses all credibility with a really dumb homophobic practical joke that involves him and his neighbor secretly hoisting gay pride flags on each others' flag poles (these are the kind of people that have flag poles). jury's still out on the other - he seems to get at least some of it, but also likes to hear the sound of his own voice a lot, and doesn't seem very action oriented.
so strange incident last week, in which pp that i didn't write, but did send, to homophobe boss ends up confusing the bejesus out of him. his response is to call gold boss for decoding session. instead of calling me, the supposed (but not actual) author. why doesn't he call me? according to gold boss, it's because new boss 1 - and maybe yappy boss 2 as well - don't really understand anything I write. Apparently i'm too, how do you say, smart. and here's the punchline. gold boss' counsel is good - write down much less. write up extremely high level bullet points only, which will intrigue them, and get them to call me - apparently they understand me better when i talk. and then he says, not once, but twice; "darlin, you either have to dumb yourself down, or start workin with smarter people." christ.

ad rant number 1000

Assume that someone had to invent a new line of dog snacks. That has its own logic of product development. But then something else happens, when brand kicks in...Someone had to come up with the name Snausages. Then someone else had to come up with campaign based on Snocrates, the spokesdog. Then someone had to write this copy, the biography of Snocrates. And someone had to approve the idea that Snocrates was 25, from Chicago, etc. (25 dog years?) Maybe the writer thought he should have been 22. Lead copywriter says no, scratch that. 25. And definitely NOT from Denver. He's a midwestern, yet urban, dog dude. Chicago.

And someone else had to make sure that every time they wrote the name Snocrates, that it was SnocratesTM. Then someone had to animate the flash files of Snocrates adding his head to Mount Rushmore. That crazy mutt. And someone had to create the Snocrates TM wallpaper and screensavers. And maintain the entire Snocrates TM funhouse website.

And that's why advertising really is a creative act.

dingue fever

Bec sends me a link to a blog by a girl who is cool and smart and funny and not hateful even though she lives in paris, is thin and pretty, etc., etc., etc., (check out her 31 things about me me me to confirm) and here i am reading it while eating a corporate-produced burrito at my desk, drinking a vat of diet pepsi, getting ready for a conference call where we will confirm the change management approach for the launch of improved digital search capabilities for our industry content. what happened? 20 years ago (argh) i was cool and smart and funny and living in paris. and even like her i had a husband named benoit....so maybe we know what's in store for her, poor girl.

power down

i have gone from total automony for a million dollar budget to getting second guessed on 15K. That's what you get for having 3 bosses, only one of whom actually reads the powerpoint that describes what the fuck you plan on doing and delivering all year to justify your paycheck. also paying the price for dear yet deceitful colleague who racked up 250K in consulting costs without telling the partners.......they thought it was 25K. And so it was going to be - back when originally forecasted. Then it wasn't. But she didn't tell them. Now I pay the price; "why do we need a white paper on why fee for services for KM doesn't work?" Because you asked for it so I went out and got bids and got a good one and told the guy go and had the courtesy to let you know so that when the invoice came through you would know why but you forgot and now don't know what the fuck I'm talking about....