Comments on: In Defense Of Arnold

By: MattM

MattM — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 20:37:36 +0000

Erik is completely right. When you’re independent, you can choose to ride out a bad time without laying people off if you don’t want to. You can choose to offer a lower rate to a potential new client to get the biz. You can choose to do a lot of things that, if you were public, wouldn’t be good for shareholders.

But when you’re a public company, it ALL comes down to numbers. I’ve been at places where, as an ACD, I spent the majority of my time having to project my entire team’s billability for the quarter – by hours per day on individual jobs – just so we could “meet our numbers.” Nevermind we didn’t even know what assignments were coming in that quarter.

By: Cristina

Cristina — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 18:05:13 +0000

Mark,
Money-worshippers go into advertising because, when times are good, it is hard to find another way to make money with much less effort. Picture the houses, cars, boats some of the people at the top live in, drive, etc. It’s just that, when times are bad, it is one of the first industries to get affected and then, well — the fat has to be trimmed.

By: Joe The Plumber

Joe The Plumber — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 16:53:01 +0000

Wha! Wa! Whaaa!

What a bunch of crybabies you advertising people are.

By: Mark Trueblood

Mark Trueblood — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 15:27:24 +0000

I’ve never understood why money-worshippers even go into advertising in the first place.

If money is most important to you, it seems you could do alot better in other industries with equal or less effort.

By: toddindependent

toddindependent — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 15:23:58 +0000

Well said. And yes, and corporations got us into this mess. This may sound odd since we work in this industry, but the less I work for corporate america, the better. I’ve always taken the independent boutique shop or client route. Even in freelance, looking for my own clients. Then at least I am to blame if I screw it up.

By: Chris

Chris — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 14:53:58 +0000

Well said, Erik. This article applies to every agency and holding company out there. Replace Arnold with Ogilvy and Havas with WPP, same thing.

Since when did it become cool to talk shit in Adweek comments?

By: Cristina

Cristina — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 14:32:54 +0000

I absolutely agree that awards-or-lack-therof had absolutely nothing to do with Arnold’s most recent round of layoffs. Whoever implies that has not been keeping up with the news. I also totally agree that it is Havas’ stock price that is driving the slaughter. However, it is hard to feel sorry for Pete or Ed when, after previous mass layoffs, THEY have delivered ‘pep talks’ to the survivors describing the firings as simply a matter of getting rid of unwanted fat, making Arnold leaner and better. THEY forgot that the unwanted fat had families, no benefits, worries — and would probably be hearing about these pep talks as they struggled to figure out how to pay their bills. Pete might have won more awards than anybody around — but, in my book, none for warmth and humanity.