As a goof, a new business strategy and a statement that isn’t far from the truth, Maryland-based ad agency MGH placed an ad this week in the Wall Street Journal with the headline, “Sweatshop conditions at America’s advertising/PR agencies must end.” The ad claims agency personnel are overworked due to decades old practices of cutting overhead and under staffing, that it’s an unseen practice and that it negatively effects clients. All true. However, the ad neglects to mention clients no longer value most agencies as the true business partner they once were and refuse to pay them what they’re worth, sloughing them off and just another vendor which can be financially bled dry while the client reaps the rewards and profits the agency created for them. Of course, an ad that spoke that truth wouldn’t gain much new business.
To be fair, most agencies are not adapting to clients’ needs and have refused to step outside the mold that’s been in place for a hundred years. So it’s no surprise clients have devalued agencies because, in the eyes of the client, they aren’t getting what they want from the agency so they aren’t going to pay thereby causing the problem this ad so succinctly points out.
