DIARY: RANT

I’ve nothing against Michelle Steggles from Starcom. And as she’s

got pounds 30 million of lovely clients’ wonga to throw around, why

would I have?

But you know what really gets my goat? It’s when she starts spouting

rubbish like ’any fool can place an ad in a magazine. I want to take it

further’. Oh yeah? Who does she think she is, some namby-pamby creative

or what? If she’s so hot on new ideas, how come I’ve never seen anything

interesting from any of her clients, like a cover-mounted choccie

digestive or a giant Linda McCartney veggie burger on a TDI

bus-side?

I’ll tell you why. Because like most media buyers these days, she’s all

mouth and no trousers. Oh sure, they talk a good game. There’s lots of

guff about ’thinking outside the box’ (yawn) and ’innovative thinking’,

like she’s swallowed a management consultant’s dictionary. She’s

probably got half a dozen rejections from New PHD or Michaelides &

Bednash in her bottom drawer.

Trouble is, give her and her kind an ’outside-the-box’ idea and watch

them run a mile. It’s ’too expensive’, ’too risky’ or ’too unproven for

a client with the stature of ours’.

Stature? Bollocks. They’re just far too scared to take risks. When they

talk about ’outside-the-box’ thinking, they’re only talking about one

thing - discount.

Got something to rant about?

Call 0208-267 4702 or e-mail mark.tungate@haynet.com.

This article was first published on Campaign