Credit where credit’s due
June 26th, 2008 by Daniele
A really interesting article in AdAge about the credit that is given to digital production agencies. This issue is not new and first came up when Crispin Porter won all the plaudits (and the resulting fame) for ‘Subservient Chicken’ when we all know that the magic was created by ‘The Barbarian Group’. I personally think that Micheal has some really good points and in an increasing collobarative environment, everyone should get credit (in the same way the whole team who works on a project should get credit, not just the creative team and planner). However the risk for vying for recognition when dealing in a non collaborative world (which is unfortunately true of much of the traditional world) is that you might just find your work drying up.
The reality though I’m sure is that in this case Big Spaceship did not act as a production company but rather the digital advertising agency as part of the mix – in this case surely it should have had the sole rights to winning the Cyber Lions with BBDO credited.
Anyway full article can be read here. I am sure that some Socials would have their own view?
UPDATE: Another article in relation to this whole topic can be found here including some good comments from Ben
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bobsomebody, on June 27th, 2008, at 2:07 am
BBDO’s Lubars:
“Ideas are timeless. Ideas are what inspire people. Ideas are the root of all execution. On ‘Voyeur,’ BBDO thought of the idea, shot the idea, then brought in Big Spaceship to do what they do. They did a great job (and we’ve made every effort to acknowledge them). What’s the issue?”
Same with Sub Chicken. I don’t see how you can say The Barbarian Group “created all the magic,” when Crispin conceived the idea.
I agree that interactive firms need solid recognition alongside agencies, but the magic that’s awarded at shows like Cannes is always the idea.
Daniele, on June 27th, 2008, at 8:06 am
From our experience it is really dangerous to seperate the idea and the execution in the digital world. Some of our best work has been a real collaboration of planners, creative, designers and developers. Sometimes the execution is actually the most powerful aspect of the campaign and what really gets people interacting with it. Yes there was an initial strong idea but there were then many small ideas that came off it.
In relation to Subservient chicken:
Crispin came up with the idea of putting a man in a Chicken suit
Barbarian Group came up with the idea of putting that man in a Chicken suit online and allowing people to give it commands of what to do
I certainly know where I think the magic came from.