This Saturday, as I watched USC thrash the overrated Ohio State football team (sorry Gabe), I couldn’t help but wonder how the ad business might benefit from having referees and umpires watch over the creative process. The following are some of the calls I suspect we might see if such supervision came to pass:

Holding: client or account exec doesn’t forward necessary information to complete assignment.
Penalty: creative team gets an extra 5 days to complete assignment.

False Start: assignment started before creative brief approved by client.
Penalty: current deadline is void. new schedule to start once brief is approved.

Delay of Game: creative team not ready for presentation due to procrastination.
Penalty: no time added to schedule. presentation date stands firm.

Roughing the Agency: client changes creative strategy during the presentation.
Penalty: deadline moved back 15 days.

Offside: agency presents work that’s not on strategy.
Penalty: loss of presentation. new work due in a week.

Encroachment: account exec tells creatives to put his idea in the presentation because he pre-sold it to the client.
Penalty: presentation deadline moved back 10 days.

Intentional Grounding: agency presents work against a flawed strategy just to prove their point.
Penalty: loss of presentation.

Interference (AKA too many men on the field): client insists on using their idea or vendor to solve the assignment.
Penalty: client charged extra. agency given extra 15 days to make things work.

Karl Gromelski is a writer at sgdp who was once penalized for “excess celebration” while attending a local Addy award show.

Article Tags: Advertising | football | officials | Ohio State | USC
Filed under: Agency Life, Miscellaneous