Tell me what for you is creative and I'll tell you who you are (The Copy Chronicles 4)

Jonathan Sanchez blogged about Creative Conflict at Media Asia website and cited the contents of Harvard Business Review December 2009 issue. He wrote:

Contentment breeds complacency, harmony delivers humdrum. What drives change and growth and smashes old lazy habits is having the confidence to challenge some authority, fight for what you believe and energize your people.(Sanchez, 2010)

Fight for what you believe. We all know it's easier said than done. Yesterday, I did just that. I tried to convince two Account Executives in the company to use a tagline I suggested (I did three, they liked two of them and they hated the other one). They don't like one of the taglines because, for them, (a) it's not impactful enough, (b) it's not corporate enough, (c) it does not reflect the story, (d) it somehow conjures not-so-business-like images. So, I suggested a compromise: I would do a new tagline, but they have to keep that one and present it to the client as well. Both of them disagreed. I am left disheartened.

I know, you might think I'm this stubborn copywriter who does not listen to Account Executives. Truth be told, seldom do I argue with AEs regarding taglines and concepts, and when I do, I do it for a good reason. I do not fight for something I do not believe in, I will convince you to try a concept because I think it has potential. I do not want to give our clients the same old cliched taglines that have permeated the industry for soooooo long. I know this is so idealistic of me, but what will happen to the creative industry if we keep doing the same thing over and over and over again?

***

Here's what happened next: I went out of the office for lunch break, let out my bitterness over cheeseburger and fries and I thought I would come up with a new tagline. I wasn't able to. My bitterness consumed me that time, and when I tried to come up with a new copy, what went inside my mind was how to defend my tagline even more.

So I went back to the office wracking my brains for a new copy. It just didn't come.

You know the sad part after all these? The tagline one of the AEs came up with was:
(a) not impactful enough
(b) not corporate enough
(c) reflect the story just a bit
(d) somehow conjures not-so-business-like images

And what did I do? Nothing. It's crunch time, the designer needed to finish the mock-up so the AEs could attend the meeting on time. We used his tagline. Mine faded into the realm of 'taglines that tried to defy convention but was not even given the chance to do so'.


***

I am not disappointed with myself, I did my best to defend my tagline. They did not listen to me. I have no control over what people think is creative or appropriate or not.

After that incident, I found solace in Sanchez's ending words in his entry:

Clearly you have to be prepared to lose, god knows I have a few times - but the big things, the things that matter to shaping the future of a business shouldn’t be hidden in the ‘one-day’ or ‘too-much-hassle’ or ‘we don’t do it that way’ closet, they should be out in the open air and vigorously, yet fairly, debated. (Sanchez, 2010)