In an ad agency everybody wants to tell creatives what to do.

Planners want what they want.

The creative director wants what he wants plus a spin;  an indescribable spin–“I’ll know it when you do it”.

The brand manager wants sales to go up and a leather chair.

There’s a VP from the NY office who just came from a brand meeting in London where they want something with a squirrel in it.

And the 3 different folks from the client have 3 different ways of saying what they think their boss thinks he may want.

Don’t do it.

Don’t give anyone what they ask for.

Because not only is it a pain in the rear it doesn’t work.

Don’t try to do it, don’t fake doing it, don’t secretly do it while doing something else.

Do what’s right.

Steer not by anything anyone says but go by your lights directly at what you know is right.

Here’s why:

The client is going to judge you by the work.

Not by whether you did what he said or not.

He may hoot and holler about the conversation right then but the next week it won’t matter.

However.

If the work sucks.

He won’t care that it was his fault for telling you what to do and how to do it.

He won’t even acknowledge that he did.

He’ll just lean back in the leather chair the brand manager covets and say about your agency “their work sucks” and fire you.