Bogusky Leaves
I read about this (when was it? A week or two ago?) and kept meaning to post on it.
Anyway, someone commented on it again, reminding me that it’s worth a mention.
I think it’s interesting for Alex to stand by his principles and disrupt what must be a fairly cushy life (no client contact for the last two years) to shoot his employment position in the foot.
On one side, he’s now easily rich enough to screw up his job, but on the other, he is kissing a salary of 2m a year goodbye.
So he slagged off, directly and indirectly, the shitty principles of some of his biggest clients (he doesn’t like selling to kids or promoting things that cause obesity, something BK and Kraft happily and regularly do) until MDC, CP&B’s holding company, thought it might be a good idea for him to fuck off and stop jeopardising their client relationships.
Well, good for him. And fuck those clients for the shitty things they do. Instead of changing their immoral behaviour they grumbled that Alex should shut up and leave. Twats.
I’m with Barney from Singapore, who comments in the above link:
Anyone in advertising that has a modicum of moral fibre lays awake at night wrestling with the consequences of selling a slow, painful death to the masses. Consciousness used to be that annoying time between sleeps. Then I woke up.
Whether Alex found it easier to voice his true concerns when he became fucking loaded, or his conscience finally got the better of him, or he got fed up with the job that he had conquered so completely, I think it’s great that he’s got his out (the article mentions other top creatives who are doing the same).
Yet another Bogusky lesson for us all: if the business is working for you and your principles, fine. If not, get the fuck out and don’t look back.
UPDATE: according to info in the comments this principled stand occurred just after he got $38m from his earnout. Kind of takes the shine off things somewhat. Great ads though. Maybe the Bogusky lesson is that a principle isn’t a principle until it costs you money. Although that does sound kind of familiar…
his exit from MDC(and moral crisis) coincides with his earnout period ending and getting 38 million bux. i sincerely look forward to having that luxury someday.
good luck to him though. CPB made advertising a lot more interesting here in the USA.
agreed vinnie.
as they'd say back in ireland, his new moral conscience is bollocks.
but still, he earned those bucks.
But he could have just gone quietly.
Nice to get out of bed, then piss in the bed you were just in.
Or something.
or spitting in your mother's eye after fucking her up the arse?
At least David Abbot had the balls to refuse to work on stuff aimed at kids and tobacco brands. Bogusky sounds like the kid shouting "Fuck off" to the cops from a safe distance. Which is a pity after all his agency has contributed to this business
Life is sweet.
The one thing that I hated doing most of all was online gambling because that is a sad tragic pitful pastime and a truly evil way of sucking money out of the pockets of the stupid, poor and lonely.
Luckily we lost the pitch.
I think Bill Hicks nailed us all nearly 20 years ago…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDW_Hj2K0wo
Yup, it's a nice position to be in to follow your principles when the consequences don't matter.
Who was it that said a principle isn't a principle until it costs you something? Maybe he found his principles a little late on.
i think that over used bill hicks piece demonstrates how idiotic most advertising critics are. especially when they themselves are advertising cigarettes…