We Take Your Trash

What would happen if creatives from agencies all over the US organized an exhibit of all the communications that clients discarded? How about those works that were withdrawn or otherwise censored? Is there a hall large enough in Vegas for such a show?

Creatives Are Bad accepts your trash from all over Italy. They are putting together a show of all the refused (notice the nice play on words?) communications. Deadline for entry is June 6. In case you are in Italy and are planning to participate.

They do it because they want to draw a line, show that some of the discarded work may in fact have not gone far enough, ending up half done. Which did not satisfy the client, nor the creative.

You are smiling, you've been there. The concept you presented was gutsy, at the edges and still part of the brief. Yet the client looked at it, thought about it, and then decided to tone it down a little. Clean that headline, put in more copy there.

And you rationalize every change, water it down. Or so you think. The manifesto of Creatives are Bad specifies that the purpose of the exhibit is to reflect upon why the work was a no go. The ultimate goal is that of writing itself out of the event - by having less and less refuse.

It's a noble attempt - that of reconnecting creative work with business strategy, making communications sell not just itself, but the product and service it was created to help you buy. Over and over we say that the learning is in the mistakes. Were are they in this unwanted work? The exhibit purports to help creatives find out. [hat tip to Luca Oliverio]

Are you a creative? Agency, consulting firm, freelancer - now is your chance to showcase some of your best work that was not appreciated. C'mon, give us a link and a short brief in the comments here. Get some exposure to your unrealized dream and be part of the conversation.

Comments

[Tim Brunelle]

Valeria,

Thanks for sharing this event. Many of the AdFed competitions I've seen have had a "client rejected" category. Typically, it's treated as a pity zone and not an opportunity. The ad writer Mark Fenske ( http://markfenske.com ) once gave a presentation at the Minneapolis Ad Club where he only showed work of his that had been rejected--including several completed TV spots, and lots of fantastic print. He illuminated the value of Bill Miller's great line, "the business of creativity is learning to survive rejection."

Hope all is well in your world!

Tim

[Valeria Maltoni]

Tim,

Thank you for chiming in. I know dozens on designers who should submit their work and links here. There are many worthy projects that never see the light of day. In some instances, it's about the budget not being there.

I'm glad there is a category for rejected work ad AdFed competitions... some of my best writing has been rejected at some point or another. Sometimes it's about being at the right place, at the right time.