Rearranging the deckchairs on the S.S. Publicis!
My spies in New York tell me the wheels are rapidly falling off at Publicis NY. Why am I not surprised? ‘Cos they’re also falling off in Publicis San Francisco with the departure of most of the HP account to McCann. And any agency that loses business to McCann deserves everything that happens to them. Seems like the New York office’s creative department is running on fumes with the loss of most of the senior creatives. The Gallic Dwarf ( Maurice Levy – The French version of Sir Martin) has been desperately throwing money at some heavy creatives (apparently Chiat was severely poached) to no avail. They simply used the offers to blackmail their current employers into big salary increases! Still what can you expect when the Publicis Web sight proudly proclaims that they offer clients… “La Holistic Difference” and has the nerve to feature Debbie Yount as “Chief Holistic Officer!” They even have a guy by the name of Chris Matysczyk, who insists you pronounce it “Majestic!” Holy fucking shit… Where do these people come from? Does everyone at Publicis originate from another fucking planet? No wonder everyone thinks people in advertising are scumbags!
Iceberg? I don't see any iceberg!
I worked there, and, well, you have no idea how bad it is. Really. It's ugly.
Posted by: Terrie P. | April 26, 2006 at 12:55 PM
Actually the HP stuff went to Publicis Seattle. McCann has a different piece of HP biz.
Posted by: JYang | April 26, 2006 at 01:24 PM
We here at Publicis Seattle are doing great! Sure we haven't won anything and lost Dish but our T-Mobile work is great. Well, good for the category. (Virgin, Amp and Boost aren't in the category, they're only MNVOs.) We're the best of the real carriers. Well, except for the new sprint stuff. I guess it's on par with Cingular. Come on, we're better than Verizon, they suck!!! It's not our fault, the CMO at T-Mobile came from Capital One! What's in my wallet? I'll tell you what's in my wallet, headhunter's phone numbers!
Posted by: Randy, Browning. | April 26, 2006 at 01:33 PM
Look at the Publicis work for Heineken compared with the Berlin Cameron work Heineken Light. Dontcha wish your ads sucked like these? Nope.
Posted by: Hiney Kin | April 26, 2006 at 01:48 PM
Wow... Really opened a can of worms here!!! Give me time to get a few drinks and think about it. Then have a few more drinks... Then do a post... In the meantime, get to Strumpette, and enjoy yourselves.
Cheers/George
Posted by: georgeeparker | April 26, 2006 at 03:17 PM
George,
Here's the real deal. PublicisNY was a small, boring agency for several years. There were two head creatives, Lance Paul (worked on VW at Arnold) and David Corr (nice and talented guy). Then, in late 2002, Maurice decided to make NY the new head office for the Publicis network. Paul gets cut. He brings in creative genius (one successful campaign for Adidas) Peter Nicholson. Peter acts like a fool at the Christmas party, dances on the bar, and says "we're the best, we're the best." At this moment, most of the staff loses respect for Peter. There are several big pitches over the next few months, and in each one, Publicis NY falls short. It might have something to do with the fact that they were still coming up with the pitch strategy while the creative was being finalized, separately. As this was happening, several presidents were brought in. They all made the same "rah rah" speeches. Very boring, very blah (except one that involved a real baby lion--the Publicis logo, GET IT??). Maurice sees that things are going pretty badly, and decides to bring in international guru, David Droga (with a stipulation in Droga's contract that he receive a large bonus for every creative award he wins). Droga immediately determines that none of the corner offices are big enough to contain his ego and so, a board room is converted into his royal chamber. He proclaims that the place is full of bad ghosts (bad creative) and summons in a Chinese dragon parade. This leads to excessive smoke and a woman getting hit in the eye with a firecracker. Oh, well. Droga brings in his own crew of European creatives/fashion models (who specialize in easy visual solutions-Archive style) and the Americans are pushed to the periphery. Then pushed a little further. Nicholson is rendered redundant and resigns. Corr is relegated to P&G work. PublicisNY continues to fall out of the running in new biz pitches and so, the European creative department is given an important assignment by Droga. Win me some awards (money). They are effectively told to take existing clients and create award-worthy creative, sans creative briefs or client approval. Two such examples are the Stolichnaya "Ice Room" and the Champion sportswear "Demons" campaigns. Over time, Droga realizes this isn't really working out. The Heineken account should be a real winner but nothing great is coming out of his hand-picked creative directors. Perhaps because the copywriter on the team is usually on the office roof getting high. Meanwhile, as things begin to sour, the latest president (an overly exuberant southern man) continues to tell the troops that Publicis is the best, we're #1 and golly, yee ha! Suddenly, reallizing that this experiment is an utter failure as Publicis NY's clients will never let him do any real work that is award worthy, Droga leaves. He announces that he's leaving to start the world's first ego-powered nuclear power station. With Maurice's support (how did he convince him to do this?) he starts Droga5, some bullshit boutique agency that won't adhere to the standard, boring rules that all you conformist agencies adhere to. Riiiiight. Meanwhile, all of the Euro creatives exit en masse, and guess who's left? David Corr and a few of the people who were there four years ago before all this crap started.
Droga and his crew had their way with that agency and left it in the back alley, beaten and alone. Why did they ever come in the first place?
Posted by: Kris Calhoun | April 26, 2006 at 08:25 PM
George,
Two cheers! I just left Publicis Dialog and I can safely say that it was the worst place I've ever worked in my life. I realized that Publicis Dialog is a place where advertising account people and shitty creative “die” when they couldn't make it at other agencies and where newbies go to get agency experience under their belt. IF there was every a stereotypical butting of egos, agency B.S. shit creative and horrible management, it’s Publicis Dialog San Francisco. Maurice and the whole “Holistic” crew should just close that office and start over. Same thing rings true for NYC.
Posted by: John | April 27, 2006 at 10:15 AM
I worked at Dialog NYC and I too can say that it was the worst place I've ever worked in my life. It's like being trapped in limbo. Not a real agency and not out of advertising. Just....nothing. The best part was when Publicis NY, the general agency, would treat everyone at Dialog like direct marketing garbage, even though we all had to pretend that it was one big happy family. At the very least we weren't in the L'Oreal group. The general agency referred to them as "The Ghetto." Nasty place.
Posted by: Eddie | April 27, 2006 at 12:10 PM
Keep in mind that there are two Publicis offices in San Francisco, Publicis Hal Riney and Publicis Dialog. And while Riney has been (polite cough) struggling/hemorrhaging, Dialog has been winning new business left and right, still holding onto all of its HP business and picking up more, winning AOR for Bermuda Board of Tourism, winning AOR for WebEx global branding and marketing, retaining and building its Sprint business, so yeah, things may suck elsewhere in the network but they aren't too bad at SF Dialog. Just ask all the people who thought the grass would be greener at MRM and promptly came back to Dialog.
Posted by: Pat Christopher | April 27, 2006 at 01:56 PM
Ok so here's what really happened at Publicis Dialog NY. His majesty came in, hired a whole bunch of people he could not afford based solely on their personality. Having a portfolio was purely optional. The old people saw this, the smart ones left, the others kept looking, and the ones trapped in a visa situation were screwed. Soon after the newbies took over, they became puppets and worked on every pitch. If anything billable came their way they whined and whined until the boss let them work on more important things, the pitches of course. That were not getting any new business. Soon Dialog was turning into a little party. The newbies convinced themselves that this was a happening agency and were staying till the wee hours of the night, and morning working working working. The old group saw this and let them work as hard as they wanted as they worked even harder on their portfolios. The lack of real work was drastically disapearing and if you wanted to hold onto your job, you had to look like you really cared about bad ideas and staying late because you believed they would get new business.
Posted by: Golaid | April 27, 2006 at 02:30 PM
Uh, yeah, I'm sure that Dialog SF is miles better than MRM (whatever that is). And that's great that you've won Bermuda and WebEx and more work on Sprint, and maybe in the future you guys will win Nike. But ultimately, who cares? Dialog SF (like all other Dialog offices) has never produced an award winning ad in any competition that matters. Ever. No One Show. No CA. No D&AD. Nada and Zippo! The culture doesn't allow for it. The Publicis network prizes client satisfaction over creativity every day of the week, despite what your office president or creative director du jour will tell you. Now, you're probably saying, "Creative? Who cares? I'm an account guy. I'm interested in the bottom line." And you're probably right. The only thing is, most of the creatives who you work beside on a daily basis got into this business to do incredible work. Not the sludge that gets processed through a network that puts zero value on smart creative. But hey, that's why are parents told us not to get into this business. We, somewhat naively, thought we could get away with doing award calibre work that would sell even more product than the old, boring junk that Dialog clients demand. So, please, don't get on your high horse and say that Dialog SF is any better than the rest of them. That's akin to saying that one McDonald's serves healthier food than the rest. Sorry, but it's all the same crap.
Posted by: BigTurk32 | April 27, 2006 at 08:56 PM
Matyszczyk was given his job at Dialog simply because he was old friends with David Droga and the head of human relations at Publicis NY.
No, really.
Don't believe me? Then check out the book and see if he was hired based on merit:
http://chrismatyszczyk.com/print.html
Posted by: ZaliaRuutu | April 27, 2006 at 10:28 PM
Long live hole-in-the-head-istic!!!
Posted by: Raman Holiday | April 27, 2006 at 10:42 PM
That's a lie, David Droga isn't friends with Chris Matyszczyk. He never met the guy until Publicis New York. Seriously if they were friends wouldn't David had taken him with him, instead of leaving him behind on that sinking ship?
Posted by: Mable Mcgee | April 28, 2006 at 08:35 AM
Yes, it's a lie. You caught me. I truly profit from saying that Droga and Chris were friends. In reality, they were total strangers and Chris just walked in and got the job, with no previous connection to anyone.
As far as the reason why Droga didn't take him into Droga5, well, clearly you didn't look at the book link.
Filling the Dialog GCD position with a pal with limited skills meant little to Droga, because it was Dialog. Trust me, he wasn't exactly asking Chris to head up anything at Publicis NY.
Posted by: Zalia Ruutu | April 28, 2006 at 09:13 AM
zalia: mat is the ECD and I have a feeling you haven't looked at the stuff yourself.
Posted by: re:zalia | April 28, 2006 at 09:44 AM
i have. it's great stuff. i think it won a whole bunch of Mobius awards (Mobiai?).
is there a particular ad you love in there?
something you care to defend?
please, go ahead. start with anyone.
nahh, didn't think so.
Posted by: Zalia Ruutu | April 28, 2006 at 09:55 AM
Big Turk 32, before you pop off about Dialog SF not winning any "real" creative awards perhaps you should check the last New York Festivals Annual and the prior year's One Show Annual. Or check the One Show online creative showcase. We're certainly not Wieden Kennedy, and we're not Crispin Porter, but we are proud of what we do.
Posted by: Jonathan Butts | April 28, 2006 at 10:12 AM
Who gives a fuck about awards?
Posted by: GIJoe | April 28, 2006 at 01:49 PM
Holy fucking shit...
Guys, calm down. Obviously the majority of posters have had a less than satisfying experience at Publicis... But keep posting I love it... And by the way, it's not Mobius or Mobiai... It's Mumbai, the place where they answer the phone when you call for Tech Support at two in the morning... Or is that when you order your Big Mac at a drive in?
Who fucking knows... Anyway, I'm with GIJoe, who gives a fuck... But I love you all, keep posting and wait for the publication of "MadScam' on Dec 1st!!!
George
Posted by: georgeeparker | April 28, 2006 at 03:49 PM
Sure, Droga was a jolly little troll who didn't do much for the Publicis network. Of course, all he did was fly around the world and work on pitches. (What a fucked up job!)
I got laid off from Riney recently and let me tell you, that was the real cess pool from hell. I don't know what kind of blackmail pictures Jae Goodman has of The Powers That Be at Publicis, but they must be pretty spicy. That ego-freak destroyed an agency that used to do some decent shit. Now everyone else gets laid off while he keeps his fat paycheck.
I mean, can you believe this moron totally blew off Sprint, handing them tired old shit, then pitched "Do. Wah diddy." to 'save' the account? What is this guy smoking 'cuz I want some!
Posted by: Shamby | April 28, 2006 at 07:58 PM
how entertaining. So much hating in one place.
dumb ass creatives beating up on other dumb ass creatives.
All missing the big picture.
Yount, Gianinno, Frances.
(The axis of shit.)
Have a nice day.
Posted by: johnnybbad | April 29, 2006 at 07:53 AM
Don't be mad you got lazy and then got laid off. Maybe next time you'll be more efficient with your time.
Posted by: PRICK | April 29, 2006 at 09:33 AM
It's not that we were lazy and inefficient. We were forced into the wrong directions by Jae and his lil buddy. So the work sucked ass. Jesuzz, by the end even those fudgepackers at SF Dialog were doing better work than we were. It's no wonder the clients started walking away. I would've done the same thing.
Posted by: Shamby | April 29, 2006 at 04:07 PM
shamby - i still work at riney and what you said about jae, zing. so true. what the fuck? do wah ditty? we still have a good laugh about that one. dont forget the others... coke pitch: "sweet!" or mitsubishi: "turn it up and let it out!" right, uh huh. oh well.
Posted by: that_guy | May 01, 2006 at 12:34 PM
wow, "That Guy" . I guess your post says more about you being a hack than your CD.While you are laughing behind his back, he is probably laughing at your face. And not just because he earns triple your salary.
You on the other hand,( like many of the other cowardly shadow commentators) stay in jobs you hate and bitch. Which means one of two things.
You don't have the talent to get another job or you don't have the balls.
Posted by: judgejury | May 01, 2006 at 01:26 PM
ummmmm, nice try but no. i like my job very much thank you. more importantly i dont even work in creative so none of the shitty new business pitches that come out of here are really even in my small sphere of influence, but that doesnt mean i cant call bullshit on some of that crap. what does that tell you if an AE is clowning that shit?
Posted by: that_guy | May 01, 2006 at 02:37 PM
wow, judgejury, you just got SERVED!
by the way, what the hell is Publicis Dialog?
must be pretty crappy if most people have never even heard of them.
Posted by: rickpeterson | May 01, 2006 at 10:14 PM
i used to intern at publicis dialog in seattle. i spent two days packing 25 pounds of hazelnuts into little one ounce baggies. no fun. very lame.
Posted by: huhwhat | May 01, 2006 at 11:42 PM
"Wisdom comes from the mouths of babes."
Posted by: PattieE | May 04, 2006 at 12:31 PM
Hey remember how they used to tell us all the time at Publicis NY that we were the fastest growing agency in New York. Acting as if we had somehow won a piece of business when in reality we only ever bought other agencies and tractor beamed their clients. Ahh, good times indeed.
Posted by: Phil | May 04, 2006 at 12:34 PM
Wow! So much hate on this BLOG.
Utlimately, at the end of the day, you're working in advertising. Be glad you don't have to get up at some ungodly hour and work a lame arse 9-5 job -- remember Office Space? "Uhm, yeah..."
All of you, take a step back, see how good you really have it and share the love, mange!
I miss the M&Ms, Fun Fridays and the Passion Points.
Posted by: Chris G | May 04, 2006 at 05:31 PM
u got m&m's?
all i got were some publicis bags.
and i had to work on all of my "not so fun" fridays.
and we all so office space, so there's really no need to be reduntantly obvious with the "Uhm yeah..." part.
remember Austin Powers? "Yeah, baby, yeah!!"
and i don't have to be thankful i don't have a 9-5 job, because instead i have a 9:30-8 job, plus weekends, where the powers that be repay my hard work with a hundred dollar bill as my holiday bonus. gee, thanks. then they take that work and push the cleint as far as they can with it (nowhere).
keep it up dummy.
you write like an olive garden ad.
Posted by: LeonT | May 04, 2006 at 09:48 PM
OH SNAP!!!! You got me…
Posted by: Chris G | May 05, 2006 at 10:17 AM
What glee! I haven't read such fun bashing since the days of AdWeak. Just don't forget the old adage that sooner or later, people end up where they belong. In the case of a lot of these posters, that would be out on the street without a job. But really, keep posting! This shit rules.
Posted by: oppossum | May 05, 2006 at 11:59 AM
I'm with "oppossum" Keep posting, this shit is great. Further proof that everyone in advertising hates everyone in advertising!
Cheers/George
Posted by: georgeeparker | May 05, 2006 at 12:40 PM
If you didn't know Publicis was a shitty agency when you signed up, then maybe you belong there. You play the cards that were dealt to you and work on your book while you wait out your relocation contract.
Seattle office trivia:
CEO Randy Browning's oddly-colored penis has earned him the name "Randy Brown Thing".
Randy parks his vintage porsche and are-you-fucking-kidding-me-turquoise bmw m3 at a 45 degree angle like a teenager's rice rocket.
Two creatives at publicis seattle have to work retail food service jobs in addition the the night and weekend hours at Publicis to make ends meet.
Randy wasted $20k on a crane to put a car on the patio for the Mitsubishi chemisty check. Then he blamed the loss on agency politics.
Randy had a temporary conference room built in the lobby for the Wamu pitch. Apparently the well-designed permanent one didn't adequately demonstrate the lack of conference rooms or his willingness to waste money.
Randy has his assistant make him peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
Publicis Seattle employees are leaving in droves.
Randy lost the wamu pitch. He made the client uncomfortable by repeating "we really want your business" in the elevator. The wamu client said that they liked the work but "your ceo is laughable." Before making a decision, the client went to Maurice and asked if they could take an idea from one Publicis Groupe agency and take it to another. Maurice said yes and they took a Publicis Seattle idea to Leo Burnett Chicago. He claimed that Publicis lost because Wamu would rather fly to a client in Chicago then go down the street. You know, because it's more convienient.
For the SanDisk pitch, Randy took some first round image boards from an abandoned tv campaign and had the studio put his own tagline on them a couple days before the pitch.
What else will it take for Susan to can Randy, or will Maurice have to can Susan?
Posted by: PierreTheLion | May 05, 2006 at 03:06 PM
What a bunch of snarkie loosers. I've been at Dialog NY for a number of years and a few agencies before that.
This sounds like the rants of a bunch of spoiled brats that come in and find that unless they do good work they become cannon fodder then want to tell the rest of us how the game should be played.
Wake up baby, it's rough tumble out there, and whining ain't gonna get your ass out of the trenches.
Do good work, keep your opinions to yourself and when you see a problem fix it, calmly and quietly.
Oh yeah, count your blessings - there are some real shit jobs/lives out there you really are one of the lucky ones.
Posted by: Mamased | May 05, 2006 at 05:22 PM
OH DAMN! Preach it Mamased! That's what I'm sayin'!
Posted by: Chris G | May 05, 2006 at 05:31 PM
What a bunch of spoiled little twats you all sound like. Clearly, mommy and daddy didn't prepare you for the real world. It was YOUR decision to work at whatever level of PD "hell" you work/worked at. You don't like your bosses, you don't like the politics, you don't like the fucking building. How pretentious. Grow up. Perhaps if you'd spent some time learning how to stand up for yourself and own your ideas, you wouldn't feel so guilty and entitled, and you might even get the opportunity to change the things you so despise. I suspect, though, that it's too late for that.
Posted by: knucklehead | May 08, 2006 at 06:09 PM
I always get a chuckle out of reading the "angry" condescending comments that tell "petulant" creatives to grow up. You just know it's some, lame-o, account exec, who was always secretly jealous of the creatives. I mean, c'mon. Why on God's earth would you get into this business if you didn't think you had a chance to be creative--oh, wait because you prefer bouncing back and forth between clients and creatives--in other words--it is your life goal to be nothing more than a ping pong ball.
And the really scary part? These are the same people who voted for Bush.
Posted by: stuffedshirt | May 09, 2006 at 06:15 PM
yeah, seriously ya bunch of whiny bitches ... knucklehead is dead on with the straight scoop here. stuffedshirt is a shitneck.
I too once worked for PD ... there were good days and bad days.
Being an ex employee of the Publicis Information Technology (dare I even use the following word) "organization" I can tell you without hesitation that the upper management is 100% completely out of touch with their own staff.
On one occasion I inadvertently made an IT director look bad in a meeting by simply pointing out some factual evidence contrary to the lie he wanted me to roll with.
That meeting was followed up by him getting right in my face and saying,
"It's like we're singing from the same choir book, but singing different hymns!"
(those of you familiar with this phrase know EXACTLY who talking about, and probably a pretty good guess who I am now too)
The notion of the people in charge making horrible decisions for the rest of the company spills across all departments in this business. In fact that holds true for ANY business, folks. It's called life. We may not like it, but was, is, and always will be the case. The upper management pretentious, ego-driven, personal agenda-driven fucks of the world will continue to step all over us until they reach the top of their self-important soapbox while the rest of us trudge through the work day to make rent, and perhaps have a few bucks left over for a beer or two.
If you don't like it then you should get out instead of whining. Go blue collar and build a house, paint some walls. I hear that if you do it really well, you just might get that "golden hammer" award to put next to your Clio on the mantle.
Posted by: single finger salute | May 10, 2006 at 09:24 AM
Your powers of observation are not quite as well-honed as you might think, stuffedshirt. I'm a Senior Art Director. But I wouldn't expect you to recognize that. Judging by your almost witty little schpiel there, your idea of a creative would overuse quotation marks, fall back on simple metaphors, and drag politics kicking and screaming into the conversation where it has no place. It's cool. I understand. You're just trying to justify yourself in a world that keeps trying to bring you down with heady concepts like integrity and self-reliance. Don't worry, pookie. Someone will be along to hold your hand eventually and everything will be alright.
Posted by: knucklehead | May 10, 2006 at 10:53 AM
Senior art director. Wow! Did they give you that title in lieu of a raise? I love when they do that! Hey, well at least you can pay the rent with it, right? When they give you the obligatory VP title, then you'll know you've really made it.
Oh, and you're still a Republican.
Posted by: stuffedshirt | May 10, 2006 at 12:01 PM
He's right Knucklehead. You're a douchebag.
Posted by: elliotginter | May 10, 2006 at 12:04 PM
Awww, you're sweet. And so original! Republican! Douchebag! Wow. I bet your clients just keep comin back for more of that cutting-edge thinking.
Posted by: knucklehead | May 10, 2006 at 12:43 PM
yeah, because if there's anyone who loves cutting-edge thinking, it's clients.
Posted by: elliotginter | May 10, 2006 at 02:19 PM
I have to side with stuffedshirt on this one. Why is everyone so complacent? What's with this just-put-your-head-down-and-follow orders attitude? If people want to complain, god bless 'em! It's better than walking around all happy that you have a job while your head's buried in the sand. If things are bad at your company, yeah you can leave, or you can complain and try to change things. I think the Bush analogy is bang on. The people who support him, do so with blinders on. Isn't that the same as what you're telling people to do if they don't like their jobs? Just deal with it. Don't complain.
For my money, I'll stay on the side of the people who have the guts to not be mindless followers.
Posted by: vaness | May 10, 2006 at 10:13 PM
You know, it occurs to me that if anyone had actually read my original post, you'd all see that I'm pushing for people to stand up for themselves and to stop complaining to a bunch of other self-important white folks. I never said to bury your head in the sand or to shut up and follow orders. I said to own your ideas and to get used to life. EVERY JOB HAS POLITICS THAT SUCK. The only job I've ever had that didn't have politics (and flaming egos) was driving a cab, and guess what? that job sucked, too. All I was sayin before stuffedshirt hopped up on his fucking pulpit was that life's tough and you can complain about it or you can DO something about it. Like doing good work and standing up for YOURSELF, instead of boo-hoo'ing to a bunch of other bitter fools, with no one actually DOING anything. You wanna feel better about your job? SAY 'NO' ONCE IN A WHILE. Don't just bend over and take it from these people and then run off to the AdScam blog to get a bunch of pats on the back from similarly disenfranchised crackers. What are you afraid of? Getting fired? Awww. I'd rather be fired than sacrifice my sense of self. No job is worth that. And that's what you're missing. That this is just a job. When the planet cracks in half or your dear, sweet Bush regime microwaves us all under the heat of a billion megatons, do you really think that you're going to give a fuck about what wild lengths your bosses ego reached? You're right. You're not mindless followers. You're mindlessly going nowhere.
Posted by: knucklehead | May 11, 2006 at 09:22 AM
[TAPS PLAYING]
Thanks guys, for killing this thread. Take it outside next time, won't you?
Posted by: oppossum | May 11, 2006 at 11:24 AM