Agency Review Reality Show Proposed
Writing on AdJab, Chris Thilk suggests agency reviews, rather than being closed door events relegating the losing agency's work to the Recycle Bin, should become a television reality show pitting 12 agencies against one another for 12 weeks. His premise calls for the public to vote for their favorite agency-created campaign and eliminate the agency-created campaigns they don't like. While we're sure the entire, incestuous ad industry would salivate over this like paparazzi after Jessica Alba's bikini-clad butt, we're not sure "regular people" would care. That is, unless it was done in a way that caused the public to take pity on our pathetic efforts to get them to buy our products. Reality TV's pretty good at conjuring up those endearing emotional moments and a shot of a pair of hot looking, 20-something creatives crying because their campaign was just shot down or a pompous account director berating an intern for ordering roll ups instead of Thai food for an important client meeting might do the trick. Mark? Mark Burnett? Are you reading this?
Comments
The issue here would be finding "likeable characters," right?
Actually, it might be more fun to see it from the eyes of a couple of agencies. Each working on the pitch. The audience knowing what each agency is doing. Then seeing the culmination of the efforts. Then seeing one crushed and one happy.
Hey, if the Deadliest Catch can work....
And it could all be decided by SMS poll....since everything else these days is decided by focus group. Who knows the "client" might even wind up with a mediocre campaign to run.
I think this is a great idea! My co-workers and I are always talking about how someone needs to create a reality show based on an ad agency. People outside the industry wouldn't believe what kind of crazy antics go on inside these walls! I think the general public would find it interesting and I really do think people are curious about what we do even if they won't admit to be affected by it.