Workin' on the railroad... Without your Enfatico sledge hammer!

Kudos to "Been There" for picking up Casey Jones's response to the delectable Rupal's piece in AdAge a couple of days ago. Read it... It's the biggest piece of self seeking bullshit I've seen in a while. He claims he left of his own volition to work on a couple of books with co-author Dr. Daniel Bonevac, professor and past chairman of the Department of Philosophy at the University of Texas. So, I checked this fucker out. Apparently his work focuses on the intersection of metaphysics, philosophical logic, and ethics. That's right, fucking ethics! That should work if he uses Casey as a case study on what not to do. Seriously, what the fuck is Casey Jones going to bring to this collaboration on TWO books. Particularly, if you check out the professor dude's shit on Amazon, all his books are college level textbooks, selling for hundreds of dollars. C'mon Casey... Cut the crap... Just what the fuck are you going to do now you've been shit-canned. And the entire fucking universe knows it?

Yeah OK... There's always the old job, I suppose!

Comments

[the lower depths]

read his response, same questions as before:

if this is the few companies taking risks and striving for innovation, wheres the risk and innovation?

you claim I believe our industry cannot afford business as usual, so the solution is NO WORK?

Enfatcio is a washout, no traction, no progress, no innovation... nada, niente, zip, zilch, zero...

oh yeah, some talking head ads in India... be still my beating heart. i am choosing to ignore your own path.

and to answer your questions about what am i and my company doing? maintaining healthy agency/client relationships with several global accounts (and thats just my group) while looking for new opportunities and blowing our own horns overly much defending bad decisions.

and youre going to write what with who now? you should know better than to try and bullshit the bullshitters...

[the lower depths]

should have read NOT blowing our own horns....

[the lower depths]

what the hell is with typepad killing all my quotation marks????

[Edw3rd]

what do professors call those fancy research studies? experiments?

[adrefugee]

enfatico is the result of what happens when you, indeed, try and do something--but you are doing it with the wrong people.

vintage martin

[Auntie Christ]

To talk about what a fantastic departure Enfatico is from business as usual and then leave it rather than see it through to fruition is just a joke. Why it even got started is the bigger mystery. Its not like you couldnt smell the winds of change a couple of years ago when this experiment probably had its inception. So if my vendors hire hookers for me I can take the higher road too?

[David's Ghost]

Matt Creamers follow-up Matt has no meat, let alone bones.

People arent criticizing the decision as much as were criticizing the execution (and lack thereof) and the motivations of the irresponsible troika put in charge.

Had these people made an honest decision - and had WPP applied what it has has learned about account consolidations over the years - this could have been an interesting experiment.

But, thats not what happened. WPP executives that could have contributed were ignored because this was a Jarvis/Jones/Berenson coup, and these men arent honorable to begin with - they are students of the Old Grey way and applied the Old Grey rules.

So weve all witnessed a bunch of ridiculous punters fashioning a costly and silly attempt at self-dealing, at the cost of WPP and DELL shareholders, while AdAge and AdWeek cover the talking points.

Shameful.

[PUD]

George, the following is the comment I left on Ad Age, regarding the Casey Jones response and that of an AA commenter:

Mr. Murphy, I couldnt disagree more that Casey Jones and Dell showed insight and courage in attempting to do something different. Where was the insight? Is creating yet another massive agency infrastructure in an industry where big agencies are already struggling with bloated overheads and media are increasingly democratized and fragmented, a sign of insight? Really?? And, what was really courageous about what they did? They played right into Martin Sorrells hands. This was actually a financial deal, pure and simple. Dell and Jones thought they could save a ton of money by consolidating their agencies, and Sir Martin was glad to oblige them because he saw a huge payday. High minded ideas about things like insight, courage and reinvention had nothing to do with the creation of Enfatico. It was mostly a typical combination of greed and ego. And, in my view, the results so far of the Dell/Enfatico relationship show the folly of that grand experiment.

[oy]

I think it might premature to predict their downfall. Dell has all the money in the world.

I think their failure, if there is one yet, is advertising that they would be super innovators when so far they are churning out scads of retail price and item rich media and some fairly predictable ads overseas.

Do something really cool and smart BEFORE you announce how cool and smart you are.

I think their blog is an embarrassment because it shows that this digital agency of the future doesnt really know how the consumer of today is using media.

If you cant create buzz or generate comments on your own site, how are you going to advance your brands online?

[BigJimSlade]

Dell does NOT have all the money in the world.

They execs have as much money as they can pry from their board, provided they are willing to provide some sort of return.

This was an unoriginal strategy in inception, and poorly executed in deployment.

Dell is not Apple, its not even IBM. They were the best buggy-whip maker, trying to pretend theyll be relevant for the next 20 years.

Tell that to the Chinese.

Great advertising will not help without innovation, which doesnt appear on the horizon. You cannot innovate a commodity, which is what cheap, black, plastic calculators are.

Infatico is simply a delusion of grandeur, hoping to make some sort of move to prop up their stock price while the execs pull the rip cords.

[slowmo]

Budget? IBM has the much more budget than HP, 4 times as much. Dell spends less on ads compared to HP...

Btw, theres an another nice article in Adage:

http://adage.com/columns/article?article_id=132308

[dallas_star]

Casey Jones should team up and write a book with Bruce Nelson about failed efforts to create virtual in-house agencies at the expense of both the client and the holding company. They are, sadly, the experts.

[Edw3rd]

Take a look at todays wsj.com with the MAC Customer Satisfaction ad. Brilliant use of interactive space, brand iconography and message.

Or take a look at the HP customer-made ads at
http://expressioncenter.wetpaint.com/page/Create+an+HP+ad

Dell needs to up its game, big time.

[slowmo]

Edw3rd, HP work has been top rate, except for the recent Maestro spot (too execution-driven). Its also one of the first brand to customise YouTube like this:

http://www.youtube.com/user/yetube

However, I like Mothers Dell Spots like this one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhtgw-tOj-o

[slowmo]

http://wefunction.com/2008/10/50-stunning-examples-of-a-great-redesign/

Compare these to the kick thy own ass job for Pepsi